Sports marketing has become a cornerstone of successful sports management and business, driving growth in sport organisations and widening fan-bases. Showcasing the latest thinking and research in sports marketing from around the world, the Routledge Handbook of Sports Marketing goes further than any other book in exploring the full range of this exciting discipline. Featuring contributions from world-leading scholars and practitioners from across the globe, the book examines theories, concepts, issues and best practice across six thematic sections-brands, sponsorship, ambush marketing, fans and spectators, media, and ethics and development-and examines key topics such as: consumer behaviour marketing communications strategic marketing international marketing experiential marketing and marketing and digital media Comprehensive and authoritative, the Routledge Handbook of Sports Marketing is an essential reference for any student or researcher working in sport marketing, sport management, sport business, sports administration or sport development, and for all practitioners looking to develop their professional knowledge.

Do small- and medium-sized sporting events affect the overall wellbeing of people living in the host community? If so, how they do they affect local life? This book specifically addresses the strategic choices that host communities make when hosting non-mega sporting events, and looks at the outcomes of those choices. The contributions to this study assess a variety of tangible and intangible effects, including the economic and social impacts, and the effect on tourism and participation in sport. It contains analysis of a variety of events, including spectator and participant events, single-sport and multi-sport events, and one-day and multi-day events, all hosted in different types of cities and communities around the globe. Overall, this book identifies and extends our understanding of the nature, management, and implications of non-mega sporting events. The impacts and strategic outcomes highlighted here have practical value for sport event management and strategy, and advance our understanding of the economic and social consequences of hosting an event. This book was originally published as a special issue of European Sport Management Quarterly.

This book offers new insights into value co-creation in the context of sport management. Based on recent developments in academia (e.g. service-dominant logic) and empirical evidence, it highlights the significance of customers and other firms and organisations (service networks) for the creation of high quality products and services. Five articles shed more light on various aspects of value co-creation including a sport value framework, customer-to-customer value co-creation platforms, fan consumption communities, value co-destruction, and coopetition strategies. They also broaden our understanding of the processes that lead to joint value creation by different parties. In addition, the authors present insights that can be helpful in practice, and describe guidelines and strategies that are in line with the concept of value co-creation. In so doing, this book helps to develop better theories, and to provide guidance for sport managers for the design of value creation as a collaborative relational and dynamic process between multiple actors. This book was published as a special issue of European Sport Management Quarterly.

From a renowned group of international scholars, this new work examines how leading economic countries use sport business, particularly individual sports events (such as the Olympics or FIFA Men's or Women's World Cup) as well as participant sport, in comprehensive plans toward driving and furthering economic development, raising brand awareness (country as a brand), transforming lagging communities, and enhancing travel and tourism in the country. Comparative sport studies are fundamentally designed for cross-country and cross-cultural understanding, learning, and improvement. By recognizing the achievements, administrative procedures, and management practices of peer countries and using them as a mirror or referencing parameter, government agencies and sport organizations of a country may be able to identify areas that need improvements in their own administration and cultivate development and growth in the country's sport industry. Exploring how China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the UK, Germany, the US, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia have all used sport as a catalytic agent, each chapter delves into the country's sports industry by looking at: recent history and stages of the industry; current state including scope, magnitude, structure, governance, policies, facilities, and programs; developmental characteristics, strength, and highlights; contemporary challenges and issues; and trends of development and advancement.

European National football came together in the summer of 2012 for the 14th occasion. This book sets out to examine the enduring social tensions between supporters and authorities, as well as those between local, national and European identities, which formed the backdrop to the 14th staging of the European National football tournament, Euro2012. The context of the tournament was somewhat unique from those staged in previous years, being jointly hosted for the first time by two post-Communist nations still in the process of social and economic transition. In this respect, the decision to stage Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine bore its own material and symbolic legacies shaping the tournament: the unsettling of neo-liberal imaginings and emergent East-West fears about poor infrastructure, inefficiencies and corruption jostled with moral panics about racism and fears surrounding the potentially unfulfilled consumerist expectations of west European supporters.

The book seeks to explore the ideologies and practices invoked by competing national sentiments and examine the social tensions, ambiguities and social capital generating potentials surrounding national, ethnic, European identity, with respect to national football teams, supporters and supporter movements.

This book was published as a special issue of Soccer and Society."

Sport has become an important avenue in how we interpret, remember, and maintain our heritage. Whether it is being applied in tourism marketing and development, employed as a vehicle for social cohesion, or utilized as a way of articulating personal and collective identities, sport heritage is a vital topic in understanding what we value about the sporting past now, and what we wish to pass on to future generations. This edited collection brings together many new and exciting international approaches to sport heritage. Each of the chapters in this collection provides a thought-provoking sport heritage case study that would be of interest to students and researchers in history, geography, anthropology, and marketing, as well as industry practitioners working at sporting events, at sports-based heritage attractions such as museums and halls of fame, and at sports stadia and facilities. In addition, this collection would be of interest to those readers with a more general interest in sport heritage and the sporting past. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Heritage Tourism.

Many Kentuckians and fans of intercollegiate athletics are familiar with the name Jim Host. As founder and CEO of Host Communications, he was the pioneer in college sports marketing. Host's prevailing innovation in collegiate sports was the concept of bundled licensing, which encouraged corporate partners to become official sponsors of athletic programs across media formats. Host and his team developed the NCAA Radio Network and introduced what became known as the NCAA's Corporate Partner Program, which employed companies such as Gillette, Valvoline, Coca-Cola, and Pizza Hut to promote university athletic programs and the NCAA at large. Host was involved with the construction of Rupp Arena, the Kentucky Horse Park, and the KFC Yum! Center. But few know his full story. Changing the Game is the first complete account of the entrepreneur's professional life, detailing his achievements in sports radio, management, and broadcasting; his time in minor league baseball, real estate, and the insurance business; and his foray into Kentucky politics, including his appointments under governors Louie B. Nunn and Ernie Fletcher. This memoir provides a behind-the-scenes look at the growth of big-time athletics and offers solutions for current challenges facing college sports.

This is the first book to address the link between culture and sport management. The aim is to demonstrate that culture profoundly affects how we research, teach and practice sport management. The book engages with the concept of culture both as an abstract analytical category and specific beliefs and practices. It recognizes that a single best way of managing does not exist; that the applicability of management theories may stop at national boundaries; and that fundamental cultural values act as a strong determinant to managerial ideology and practice. Culture makes the study of sport management interesting because it challenges many taken-for-granted assumptions about management, yet it reinforces our belief in the existence of common management problems.

The book offers a comprehensive review of the conceptualisations of culture and its relation with sport management by examining a range of issues: the emergence of multiculturalism as a policy issue; the impact of commonly shared cultural values within the fitness industry on managers and organisations behaviour; building cultural bridges in community sport organisations; cultural meanings attached to the consumption of Olympic merchandise, and culturally-informed interpretation through a reflective analysis of sport management texts.

This book was published as a special issue of European Sport Management Quarterly.

Research can be a challenging but rewarding activity. All degree-level students studying sport, and all effective professionals working in the sport sector need to have a sound understanding of research methods and how to critically interpret research findings. This broad-ranging, in-depth and practical textbook introduces research methods for students on sport-related degree courses, outlining the knowledge and practical skills needed to undertake meaningful research and to become a knowledgeable consumer of the research of others. The book explores every element of the research process, from the fundamental 'what, why and who?' questions, through research plans, literature review, qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and data analysis, to the communication of research results. It offers a critical appraisal of alternative methods, including mixed methods, as well as clear guidance on how to use each particular method. Every chapter contains test questions and practical exercises, detailed case studies, a clear chapter summary and extensive guides to further sport-related study resources, to enable students to check their understanding and develop, extend and apply their practical skills. Step-by-step introductions to the use of the key statistical packages Excel, SPSS and NVivo in sport research are included. On-line support materials include some 400 PowerPoint slides and copies of data-sets used in the book. With deeper and broader coverage than any other sport-related research methods textbook, and a clear focus on 'how to do it', Research Methods for Sport Studies and Sport Management is an essential companion for any sport-related degree course.

The mention of sport mega-events conjures up images and memories of London 2012 or anticipation of FIFA 2014, the 2016 Rio Olympics and beyond. Indeed, the expanding annual calendar of sport mega-events, both in terms of the bidding process and the actual hosting of the event means that there is rarely time for considered reflection. This is particularly true within the context of neo-liberalism and an obsession with creating world class 'sporting' cities that are propelled by state-private promotional discourses that often silence oppositional voices. This edited collection focuses on Rugby World Cup 2011 in order to examine the contested terrain of one particular sport mega-event with respect to its economic, political and cultural impact both locally and globally. As an event, the 2011 Rugby World Cup was unique in many ways but perhaps the most notable are the nation's remote geographic location and at just over four million people - its small population. This anthology addresses how the Rugby World Cup has changed since its inception in 1987 including a major shift in the globalisation of the game, professionalization, player migration and television and sponsorship rights. The core of the anthology explores how the event impacted on various segments of New Zealand society: from the state to regions and individual citizens. Collectively the implications are relevant for all who are interested in sport mega-events whether it is from a political, economic, scholarly or policy perspective. This book was published a sa special issue of Sport and Society.

This book analyzes the place and role of sport within public diplomacy, including theoretical conceptualizations of the category of sports diplomacy as a sub-category of public diplomacy and empirical research of selected examples of the use of sport within public diplomacy. The empirical part of the book refers to three approaches to sports diplomacy and concerns the utilization of sport by states in order to shape relations with other states, the role of sport in building the international image of a state and the diplomatic subjectivity of international sports organizations. In reference to the first two approaches, the book uses comparative case study was in order to make observations and generalizations concerning sports diplomacy. Apart from that, the book includes a detailed study of the diplomatic subjectivity of the International Olympic Committee.

The premise of The Asian Games: Modern Metaphor for 'The Middle Kingdom' Reborn - Political Statement, Cultural Assertion, Social Symbol is emphatic. The Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games was a metaphor for hegemony and renaissance. China crushed the other Asian nations with the massive weight of its Gold Medal 'haul' and demonstrated regional self-confidence regained. The huge accumulation of gold medals emphasized that once again China stood apart, and above, other nations of Asia. China's reaction and the reactions of the other Asian nations are explored in The Asian Games. There is another premise in the publication that the 'Chinese' Asian Games were a harbinger of a wider dominance to come: geopolitically, politically, militarily, economically and culturally. And there is a further issue raised by the Guangzhou Asian Games- the continuing determination of the Asian nations to mount a distinctive Games that is Asian and resistant to the cumbersome gigantism of the Modern Olympic Games. Asia now has the wealth to promote, present and project a global sports mega-event with an Asian identity and in an Asian idiom. This Collection is unique in focus, argument and evidence. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

As the role of sport in society becomes ever more prominent and as sports organisations become increasingly influential members of the global community, so it has become more important than ever for sport to consider its wider social responsibilities. The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Corporate Social Responsibility is the first book to offer a comprehensive survey of theories and concepts of CSR as applied to sport, and the social, ethical and environmental aspects of sport business and management. It offers an overview of perspectives and approaches to CSR in sport, examines the unique features of the sport industry in relation to CSR, explores the tools, models, common pitfalls and examples of best practice on which managers can draw, and discusses how CSR and corporate citizenship can be integrated into the sport management curriculum. The book covers every key issue and functional area, including implementation, strategic benefits, communication and corporate image, stakeholder engagement, and the measurement and evaluation of CSR policies and practices, and includes detailed international case studies, from the NBA and the Olympic Games to Japanese soccer. The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Corporate Social Responsibility is important reading for any student, researcher, manager or policy maker with an interest in sport business, management, ethics or development.

At a time of profound change in the economic, social, political and sporting landscape, sport development faces important challenges. Now in a fully revised and updated third edition, Sport Development: Policy, Process and Practice is still the most detailed, authoritative and comprehensive guide to all aspects of contemporary sport development. This book examines the roles of those working in and around sport development and explores the most effective methods by which professionals and volunteers can promote interest, participation or performance in sport. Combining essential theory with practical analysis, the book covers key topics, themes and issues found on the sport development curriculum, including: Sport policy Developing 'Sport for All' Community sport development Partnerships in sport PE and school sport Sport and health Resources for developing sport Voluntary sports clubs Sport development and coaching Disability and sport development Researching and evaluating sport development The Olympic and Paralympic Games International sport and development Each chapter contains a full range of pedagogical features to aid learning and understanding, including revision questions, and case studies, while a new companion website provides additional teaching and learning resources, including useful weblinks for students and PowerPoint slides and a test bank for lecturers. Sport Development: Policy, Process and Practice is an invaluable resource for all students, researchers and professionals working in sport development.

The Routledge Handbook of Sport Management is the most up-to-date and comprehensive guide to theory and practice in sport management ever published. It provides students and scholars with a broad ranging survey of current thinking in contemporary sport management, exploring best practice in core functional areas and identifying important future directions for new research. Key topics covered in the book include: managing performance marketing human resource management the economics and finance of sport strategy managing change governance of sports organizations customer relations branding and retail. With contributions from leading scholars and professionals from around the world, the book illustrates the global nature of contemporary sport business and highlights the opportunities and challenges for managers operating in an international market place. Representing a definitive survey of contemporary issues in sport management, this is an essential reference for all students, scholars and practitioners working in sport.

Winner of the Football Book of the Year Award, Cross British Sports Book Awards 2015 In a tiny, decaying aluminium smelting town in southern Tajikistan, a short drive from a raging war zone, Afghanistan take on Palestine in the first Asian qualifier for the World Cup. Every player on both teams is risking something by playing: their careers, their families, even their lives. Yet, along with thousands of other footballers backed by millions of supporters, they all dream of snatching one of the precious 32 places at the finals; and so begins a three-year epic struggle - long before the usual suspects start their higher-profile qualifying campaigns under the spotlight. Named after the greatest victory (and defeat) that the World Cup qualifiers have ever seen (Australia's 31-0 victory over American Samoa), Thirty-One Nil is the story of how footballers from all corners of the globe begin their journey chasing a place at the World Cup Finals. It celebrates the part-time priests, princes and hopeless chancers who dream of making it to Brazil, in defiance of the staggering odds stacked against them. It tells the story of teams who have struggled for their very existence through political and social turmoil, from which they will very occasionally emerge into international stardom. From the endlessly humiliated San Marino to lowly Haiti; from war-torn Lebanon to the oppressed and fleet-footed players of Eritrea, in Thirty-One Nil James Montague gets intimately and often dangerously close to some of the world's most extraordinary teams, and tells their exceptional stories.

Where the Cool Kids Hung Out is the story of the UEFA Cup's glory years, when it was a tournament that boasted a stronger field of teams than its senior siblings, the European Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup. Since then it has drifted into its poor current form as the Europa League, the Champions League having siphoned off most of Europe's biggest clubs. Yet the UEFA Cup enjoyed some very stylish years, no more so than during the two-legged final period. It was an era when Ipswich Town swept to glory, Liverpool conditioned themselves to conquer the continent, Tottenham Hotspur twice captured the cup and Dundee United came agonisingly close. It was also a time when Borussia Monchengladbach made their name, Real Madrid regenerated as a force and Serie A came to dominate. Drawing on an encyclopaedic knowledge of the tournament plus interviews with players, journalists and fans who lived and loved the competition, Steven Scragg brings you the definitive account of the UEFA Cup's halcyon days.

October 10, 2017. The U.S. men’s soccer team loses in Trinidad and Tobago, and fails to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Winning soccer’s greatest prize never seemed more distant. Immediate fixes—a new coach, a revamped professional league, a commitment to coaching education—won’t put the USA in the global elite. The nation is too fractious, too litigious, too wrapped up in other sports, and too late to the game. In Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup: A Historical and Cultural Reality Check, Beau Dure shows what American soccer is really up against. Using hundreds of sources to trace more than 100 years of history, Dure delves into the culture that only recently lost its disdain for the global game and still doesn’t have the depth of soccer insight and passion that much of the world has had for generations. The difficulty isn’t any single thing—the mismanagement of failed leagues, the inability to agree on a path forward, the lawsuits that stem from an inability to agree, or the unique American culture that treasures its homegrown sports. It’s everything. And yet, Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup is ultimately optimistic. Dure argues that with the right long-term changes, the U.S. can build a soccer environment that consistently produces quality players, strong results, and a lot more fun on the international stage. Soccer fans and skeptics alike will find this a fascinating examination of America’s past, present, and future in the beautiful game.

An absolutely essential book for every modern football fan, about the development of Premier League tactics, published to coincide with 25 years of the competition. Back in 1992, English football was stuck in the dark ages, emerging from a five-year ban from European competition. The game was physical, bruising and attritional, based on strength over speed, aggression over finesse. It was the era of the midfield general, reducers, big men up front and getting it in the mixer; 4-4-2 was the order of the day. Few teams experimented tactically. And then, almost overnight, it all changed. The creation of the Premier League coincided with one of the most seismic rule changes in football history: the abolition of the back-pass. Suddenly defenders had no-get-out-of-jail-free card, goalkeepers had to be able to field and play the ball and the pace of the game quickened immeasurably. Tactics evolved dramatically, helped by an increased foreign influence. The Mixer is the first book to delve deep into the tactical story of the Premier League, and take a long view of how the game has developed over the last quarter century. From Ferguson's directness to Keegan's relentlessly attacking Newcastle outfit, to Mourinho's cagey, reactive Chelsea, all the way to Ranieri's counter-attacking champions, The Mixer is one of the most entertaining, rich and knowledgeable football books ever written.

Applied Sport Business Analytics With HKPropel Access provides a practical explanation of the use of data analytic metrics in sport, exploring selected techniques and tools as well as addressing fundamental applications of analytics within modern sports organizations. Current and aspiring sport managers will develop their understanding of how analytics can be used strategically to make data-informed decisions by selecting and translating data into evidence and meaningful metrics. The text begins with an introduction to the world of analytics, exploring the social, economic, and business foundations that form the history of data analytics. Different strategies used to make data-driven decisions are discussed to demonstrate the importance of analytics in a modern sport context. The text explains terms and methods that are typical in sport analytics, bridging the gap between sport managers and sport analysts to help them understand the perceptions and needs of one another. The text's focus on quantitative statistical analysis-with its exploration of modeling, predictive analytics, and forecasting-helps students learn how to analyze data and make use of it. Students will then learn to turn data into visual representations such as cluster diagrams to reveal clear results. With practical exercises that utilize five included datasets and are heavily support by related video tutorials delivered through HKPropel, even those without programming experience will learn how to program and transform complex statistical data into easy-to-understand visuals. Case studies exploring real-world scenarios-including player position analysis in women's professional basketball, esport player popularity and market analysis, and prospective player evaluation for the NFL draft-examine managerial implications to help develop understanding of what questions to ask, how to interpret data, and how to use data to make informed decisions. Finally, an in-depth look at how cutting-edge analytics mechanisms were used to analyze over one million tweets associated with the NBA over an entire season will illustrate how to successfully work with large amounts of data to achieve results. Concepts throughout the book are made easy to understand through exercises, datasets, and video lectures on key topics, all accessible through HKPropel. These tools combine to provide valuable experience and practical understanding. Interview With a Professional sidebars offer additional real-world glimpses into the use of analytics by practitioners in sport business. Applied Sport Business Analytics will provide a broader and deeper knowledge of the use of sport analytics for aspiring sport managers, data analysts, and practitioners alike. It will prepare them to translate metrics in a useful way that allows them to make data-informed and data-driven decisions to achieve desired outcomes in their organization. Note: A code for accessing HKPropel is included with all new print books.

Olympic Event Organization is the first text to address a number of important questions in contemporary mega-event management:
* Which organizations are involved in the Olympic Movement and in what capacity?
* What are the interorganizational flows of authority and finance between them?
* How is work grouped, in what unit sizes, how specialized and formalized are work processes?
* How complex, dynamic, diversified, or friendly is their environment?
* What are the power issues and how do the technological processes affect these organizations?
* How do the OCOGs evolve in their life cycle, what pressures shape their structures and management processes and how is work co-ordinated?
The examination of the Olympic Games event organization in the 10-year period, from bidding to post-games closing down, draws material from host cities to explore the types of interorganizational flows that take place at various stages for the Olympic Games to be delivered. Knowledge transfer from one host city to the next and an established organizational field also means that management practises sometimes follow some externally imposed organizing logics. The challenges faced by organizers are discussed and the tensions that a strong management template from the IOC creates are also examined. Finally, the issue of sustainability of the Olympic Games is identified along with an analysis of the ways in which the concepts of impact are appropriated by the various stakeholders involved with the Olympic Games as they attempt to influence public opinion.
Written in an accessible and insightful manner Olympic Event Organization is essential reading for both academics and practitionersalike.
* Accessible, insightful and highly topical this is the first text to focus on the nature of the Olympic Games as the ultimate mega event
* Strong theoretical analysis of processes and challenges in the lifecycle of the Olympics event organisation, from bidding to closing down.
* Rich material drawn from direct sources in case studies of Sydney 2000, Salt Lake City 2002, Athens 2004, Torino 2006, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic Games

Sport events are inextricably linked to the places in which they are hosted. High-profile events require high-quality venues, and the proper management of facilities is crucial to their success. Now in a fully revised and updated new edition, Managing Sport Facilities and Major Events is still the only textbook to introduce the fundamentals of sport facility and event management in an international context. With detailed real-world case studies and insights from professional practice, this book offers a systematic guide to the management issues and practical problems that sports managers must address to ensure financial, sporting, and ethical success. It covers all the key aspects of sport facility and major event management including the bidding process, facility development, risk analysis, budgeting, marketing, branding, and quality assurance, as well as completely new chapters on analytics, impact, and legacy. Now supported by a companion website containing slides, test banks, a glossary, and sample syllabus, this is an invaluable resource for students and practitioners alike and is essential to any course on sport facilities, event management or sport administration.

One of America's most beloved sportscasters turns the spotlight on his own life, chronicling his incredible life covering Southeastern Conference football and some of the most iconic moments in sports history over the last five decades Verne Lundquist's remarkable broadcasting career has placed him at the center of major sporting events in America for more than fifty years, from Jack Nicklaus's final victory at the 1986 Masters to Tonya Harding's attack on Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 Olympics to the Auburn-Alabama shocker of 2013. In his first memoir, he replays highlights from his career, taking sports fans behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic moments in modern sports history. Lundquist goes back to the early days of his broadcasting career, recalling his time as a producer and radio show host in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was shot. He reminisces about Tom Landry and the great Dallas Cowboy teams of the 1970s, recalls the most unbelievable moments in Masters Tournament history, and relives the excitement of Christian Laettner's buzzer beater in the NCAA tournament and a host of other memorable thrills. One of the defining voices of Saturday afternoon football for the SEC, Lundquist offers an in-depth look at the fans, the schools, and the game, recounting never-before-told stories about some of college football's biggest personalities. He also speaks honestly about his friendships with Terry Bradshaw, John Madden, and other greats, and his difficult relationship with legendary colleague Pat Summerall. Bringing these memories vibrantly to life with his beloved catchphrases and warm humor, and sharing fifty photos from his personal collection, Lundquist gives readers a front row seat to history as he witnessed it unfold.

The first book to examine and define the geopolitical economy of sport Addresses one of the biggest issues in contemporary sport: the intersection of power, money and politics Includes contemporary international cases from five continents

This history of women in baseball demonstrates that, far from being strictly a men's sport, baseball has long been enjoyed and played by Americans of all genders, races, and classes since it became popular in the 1830s. The game itself was invented by English girls and boys, and when it immigrated to the United States, numerous prominent women's colleges formed intramural teams and fielded intensely spirited and powerful players. With the professionalization of the sport in the late nineteenth century, however, American boys and men shoved girls off the diamonds and sandlots. Girls have been fighting to get back in the game ever since. Jennifer Ring questions the forces that try to keep girls who want to play baseball away from the game. Focusing on a history that, unfortunately, repeats itself, Ring describes the circumstances that twice stole baseball from American girls: once in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and again in the late twentieth century, after it was no longer legal to exclude girls who wanted to play. In the early twentieth century, Albert Goodwill Spalding--sporting goods magnate, baseball player, and promoter--declared baseball off limits for women and envisioned global baseball on a colonialist scale, using the American sport to teach men from non-white races and non-European cultures to become civilized and rational. And by the late twentieth century, baseball had become serious business for boys and men at all levels, with female players perceived as obstacles or detriments to rising male players' chances of success. Stolen Bases also looks at the backgrounds of American softball, which was originally invented by men who wanted to keep playing baseball indoors during cold winter months but has become the consolation sport for most female players. Throughout her analysis, Ring searches for ways to rescue baseball from its arrogance and sense of exclusionary entitlement.