Olympic Aspirations: Realised and Unrealised surveys more than a century of the Olympic Movement's promotion of Olympic ideals internationally. The idea for Olympic Aspirations emerged at the world-renowned annual Beijing Academic Forum just months after the city hosted the impressive 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. One section of the Forum was devoted to the impact of the Olympic Movement on China and on China's image in the world. The tone at times was too self-congratulatory for some present. The critical discussion that continued into late 2010 inspired this book. Olympic Aspirations is a companion volume to the well-received Olympic Legacies: Intended and Unintended and draws on expertise from academics in all parts of the world. Both volumes have a similar purpose: to record Olympic ideals achieved but more importantly, to stimulate reflection on those as yet unachieved. Both are constructive in approach, positive in tone and optimistic in attitude. Olympic Aspirations offers original and insightful arguments that address the actions the Olympic Movement has taken to improve the Games. It argues that these actions are as yet incomplete. In concert with Olympic Legacies, it presents two sides of the same coin minted to advance the purity of the Olympic 'coinage'. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

This book contains an international collection of essays by leading philosophers of sport on the ethics and philosophy of the Olympic Games. The essays consider a range of topics including critical reflections on nationalism and internationalism within the Olympic movement, sexism in Olympic marketing and sponsorship, the preservation and corruption of Olympism, the underlying ideology of the Olympic Games, the inequalities of perception in ability and disability as it informs our understanding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and comparisons between ancient and modern interpretations of the meaning and significance of the Olympic Games. This book will be of interest to historians, philosophers, and sociologists of sports, as well as to the sporting public who simply want to know more about the grounding ideas behind the greatest show on earth.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport, Ethics and Philosophy.

The Negro Southern League was a baseball minor league that operated off and on from 1920 to 1951. It served as a valuable feeder system to the Negro National League and the Negro American League. A number of NNL and NAL stars got their start in the NSL, among them five Hall of Famers including Satchel Paige and Willie Mays. During its history, more than 80 teams were members of the league, representing 40 cities in a dozen states. In the end only four teams remained, operating more as semipro than professional teams. This book is a narrative history of the league from its inception with eight teams in major Southern cities until its demise three decades later.

Baseball has had many outstanding Latin American pitchers since the early 20th century. This book profiles the greatest Hispanic hurlers to toe the rubber from the mounds of the major leagues, winter leagues and Negro leagues. The careers of the top major league pitchers to come from Central and South America and the Caribbean are examined in decade-by-decade portrayals, culminating with an all-time ranking by the author. The grand exploits of these athletes backdrop the evolving pitching eras of the game, from the macho, complete-game period that existed for the majority of the last century to the financially-driven, pitch-count sensitive culture that dominates baseball thinking today.

Why do universities place so much emphasis on athletics? Are the salaries of head coaches excessive? Should student-athletes be paid? Why is there so much cheating in college sports? Should athletic departments be subsidized by the university? Does Title IX unfairly discriminate against men's sports? This textbook is designed to help teach students about the business of college sports, particularly the big-money sports of football and basketball, allowing them to answer these and other important questions. The book provides undergraduate students with the information and economic tools to analyze the behavior of the NCAA, athletic conferences, and individual colleges and universities in the market for college sports. Specific topics include the markets for athletes and coaches, the importance of athletics for colleges and universities, the finances of athletic departments, the influence of the media in commercializing college sports, issues of race and gender, and the possibilities for reforming college sports.

Why do universities place so much emphasis on athletics? Are the salaries of head coaches excessive? Should student-athletes be paid? Why is there so much cheating in college sports? Should athletic departments be subsidized by the university? Does Title IX unfairly discriminate against men's sports? This textbook is designed to help teach students about the business of college sports, particularly the big-money sports of football and basketball, allowing them to answer these and other important questions. The book provides undergraduate students with the information and economic tools to analyze the behavior of the NCAA, athletic conferences, and individual colleges and universities in the market for college sports. Specific topics include the markets for athletes and coaches, the importance of athletics for colleges and universities, the finances of athletic departments, the influence of the media in commercializing college sports, issues of race and gender, and the possibilities for reforming college sports.

Sport leaves a significant environmental footprint, from fans travelling to local league games to massive infrastructure projects for international mega-events. With climate change and other environmental issues becoming increasingly prominent, any successful sport organization now has to incorporate environmental concerns into their business strategy, while all sport managers must understand how to implement environmental initiatives into their everyday business. "Sport Management and the Natural Environment" is the first book to introduce environmental theory and best practice in the context of sport management, demonstrating how sport organizations can become more effective and sustainable, and exploring the important advocacy role that sport organizations have in local and global communities.

Drawing on the wider literature from environmental studies and mainstream business and management, the book considers the service-orientated nature of sport, the unique set of stakeholders (including fans, sponsors and local government) that pose particular challenges for the environmentally-responsible sports organization, and the positive benefits that environmental best practice can bring. It considers the unique social, economic and political space that sport occupies in society, and examines the most important practical managerial issues related to sport and the environment, including:

• strategic planning
• operations
• facilities
• finance and accounting
• marketing, communication and digital media
• stakeholder relations
• leadership

Including contributions from leading academics and practitioners, "Sport Management and the Natural Environment" is the perfect foundation text for any course touching on environmental issues or social responsibility in sport, and essential reading for any sport manager looking to improve their professional practice.

The Middle East is one of the fastest growing and significant markets in world sport, as well as a powerful source of investment in sport. Bids for the Olympics in 2020 and the soccer World Cup in 2022, as well as remarkable investments in Formula One motor racing, horse racing and English Premier League soccer clubs, demonstrate the strength of interest, the depth of resource and the technical expertise maintained by sport business interests in the region. Sport Management in the Middle East is the first book to offer a serious and in-depth analysis of the business and management of sport in the region. Written by a team of world leading researchers in Middle Eastern sport, and illustrated in full colour throughout, the book examines the importance of sport in the Middle East and introduces its particular management processes, structures and cultures. As well as providing an overview of the region's sporting strategy and key stakeholders, the book also offers a number of detailed case-studies of sport in individual Middle Eastern countries. A unique guide to sport management in a region of fundamental importance in world sport, this book is essential reading for any serious student or scholar of sport management, sport business, Middle East studies, or sport and society.

The Giants' accomplishments took place against an historical backdrop of a change in the African-American experience. The original players from Jacksonville, Florida, joined the northward black migration during World War I. The team was named after Harry Bacharach - an Atlantic City politician running for mayor - as a way to keep his name before the city's black community. The Giants were immediately successful, and soon played the best semi-professional teams in their region, as well as the top black teams from the East and Midwest. They entered the first Negro league on the East Coast in 1923, and won the league championship twice before the decade ended. This book chronicles the Giants' pivotal role in the development of black baseball in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, and the careers of the men who made it possible.

This narrative history of minor league football teams in Connecticut during the 60s and 70s is based on extensive newspaper and periodical research and interviews with nearly 70 former players, broadcasters and journalists. Only a few players - such as Marv Hubbard, Lou Piccone and Bob Tucker - emerged from the minors and made it to the NFL, but many more played for as little as $25 per game in their quest to make it big, or just to have fun playing the game they loved. Wealthy men like Pete Savin and Frank D'Addario got to live their dreams by owning teams in Hartford and Bridgeport. In the days before cable television saturated the media with live sports, small town fans turned out to support their local heroes, often men who worked on construction crews during the week, and stopped by the diner Sunday morning to talk football. Now in their 60s, 70s and 80s, these men share their stories of a simpler era; the good times, like the Hartford Knights' 1968 ACFL championship season, and the long bus rides and missed paydays that were as much a part of minor league ball as first downs and interceptions.

Horses are perhaps the most common non-human animal to feature in planned events, but although there is considerable research on equestrian sport, there is virtually none on equestrian events. This book begins to address this gap, using the National Championships of the Icelandic Horse as an extended case study to explain in depth the process of managing an event, as well as the larger theoretical implications of events management. Drawing on diverse viewpoints and theoretical perspectives, the book draws wider comparisons to connect events management to larger themes in the social sciences, such as human-animal relations; nationalism; place branding; event impacts; event experience; and inclusion and exclusion. The book is a contribution to two fields. In relation to human-animal studies, it focuses on how the Icelandic horse breed is marketed and celebrated through top-tier competition; whereas from an events management perspective, it considers the role of the event in community building, the practical and theoretical aspects of running a sustainable equestrian event, and the issues that arise in multispecies event contexts. This book: - Uniquely draws together events management and human-animal studies. - Is formed from empirical research conducted by a multinational team of events management and tourism researchers. - Uses a single, extended case study to explore a range of themes and issues, both empirically and theoretically. A valuable resource for researchers of events management, human-animal studies and tourism, this book also provides an in-depth look at end-to-end events management for industry professionals.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games - the biggest, most accessible and best-attended games in the Paralympics' 64-year history - came with an explicit aim to "transform the perception of disabled people in society," and use sport to contribute to "a better world for all people with a disability." This social agenda offered the potential to re-frame disability; to symbolically challenge "ableist" ideology and to offer a reinvention of the (dis)abled body and a redefinition of the possible. This edited collection investigates what has and is happening in relation to these ambitions. The book is structured around three key questions: 1. What were the predominant mediated narratives surrounding the Paralympics, and what are the associated meanings attached to them? 2. How were the Paralympics experienced by media audiences (both disabled and non-disabled)? 3. To what extent did the 2012 Paralympics inspire social change? Each section of this book is interspersed with authentic "voices" from outside academia: broadcasters, athletes and disabled schoolchildren.

The Olympics have developed into the world's premier sporting event. They are simultaneously a competitive exhibition and a grand display of cooperation that bring together global cultures on ski slopes, shooting ranges, swimming pools and track ovals. Given their scale in the modern era, the Games are a useful window for better comprehending larger cultural, social and historical processes, argues Jules Boykoff, an academic social scientist and a former Olympic athlete. In Activism and the Olympics, Boykoff provides a critical overview of the Olympic industry and its political opponents in the modern era. After presenting a brief history of Olympic activism, he turns his attention to on-the-ground activism through the lens of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Here we see how anti-Olympic activists deploy a range of approaches to challenge the Olympic machine, from direct action and the seizure of public space to humour-based and online tactics. Drawing on primary evidence from myriad personal interviews with activists, journalists, civil libertarians and Olympics organisers, Boykoff angles in on the Games from numerous vantages and viewpoints. Although modern Olympic authorities have strived - even through the Cold War era - to appear apolitical, Boykoff notes, the Games have always been the site of hotly contested political actions and competing interests. During the last thirty years, as the Olympics became an economic juggernaut, they also generated numerous reactions from groups that have sought to challenge the event's triumphalism and pageantry. The 21st century has seen an increased level of activism across the world, from the Occupy Movement in the United States to the Arab Spring in the Middle East. What does this spike in dissent mean for Olympic activists as they prepare for Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Games and Rio de Janeiro, where the 2016 Summer Olympics will take place?

The Cup of Coffee Club shares the stories of eleven men who played in just a single major league baseball game and how they responded to the heartache of never making it back. Featuring exclusive interviews with each of the players, their insight provides a unique look into the struggles of being a professional ballplayer. Reaching the major leagues is a pipe dream for most young baseball players in America. Very few ever get to live it out. While many that do make it to the big leagues stay there for a long time, there are just as many that are only there for a brief moment. A select few of those players face the elation and frustration of getting to play in just one major league game. The Cup of Coffee Club: 11 Players and Their Brush with Baseball History tells the stories of eleven of these players and their struggles to reach the major leagues, as well as their struggles to get back. They include a former Major League Baseball manager, the son of a Baseball Hall of Famer, and two different brothers of Hall of Famers. Exclusive interviews with each of the players provide insight into what that single seminal moment meant and how they dealt with the blow of never making another major league appearance again. Spanning half a century of baseball, each player’s journey to Major League Baseball is distinct, as is each of their responses to having played in just a single game. The Cup of Coffee Club shares their unique perspectives, providing a better understanding of just how special each major league game can be.

This book explores the organisation and structure of sport in and beyond Europe. Drawing upon up-to-date data, the collection's main focus lies on the relationship between public sport policy structures and sport (con)federations. The authors present thirteen country-specific contexts wherein sport policy systems are embedded. This evidence provides in-depth descriptions and analyses within a solid academic and theoretical framework. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars of Sociology of Sport, Sport Management and Sport Policy.

This book chronicles the history of the Philadelphia Athletics, the first real dynasty in Major League Baseball. The focus of the book is the 1931 season, where Philadelphia, led by is superstar pitcher, Lefty Grove, had the best season in franchise history, leading to a third consecutive trip to the World Series. With a roster full of future Hall of Fame players like Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Connie Mack, and Lefty Grove, the Athletics were one of the best baseball teams of all time, and the 1931 season served as the apex of their success, as the financial restrictions of the Great Depression caused team ownership to break up the team.

A great little sports car race took place on an island in Lake Erie, offshore of Sandusky, Ohio. The drivers came on ferry boats to compete for silver cups in an age when there were no sponsors and no prize money. The drivers were car salesmen, stock brokers, engineers, printers, etc. Often, the cars they raced were those they drove as daily transportation: MGs, Porsches, Triumphs, Alfas and others. In this well illustrated history, drivers, officials, mechanics and spectators share their stories. The text paints a vivid picture of the sports car racing scene in post-war America.

When "Kiwis Fly: A Sports Tour of Great Britain" is the first book to shine a spotlight on 140 leading sports venues and profile the New Zealanders who have succeeded there. Stadia across the UK are temples for sports fans. Places where crowds gather to worship at the feet of the gods on the pitch, track or course. New Zealand sports fans travel across the globe to visit venues such as Wimbledon and Wembley, Aintree and Anfield, Silverstone and St Andrews. The fans want to know more about the venues, more about the history and more about the stories. It tells the stories of dreams, hopes, disappointment and redemption. It is the story of New Zealand growing up as a nation in the sporting venues of Britain. Sporting stadia are intrinsically linked to the culture, fabric and history of the UK. Golfers have been playing at St Andrews for over 500 years - 300 years before New Zealand made it onto the map! From the whispering to the ear-splitting, the rickety to the state-of-the-art, every venue has its own eccentricities, charms and quirks. The United Kingdom is currently in the middle of a golden decade for sport. The Olympics, The Rugby League World Cup and the Commonwealth Games are just three of the major events happening between 2012 and 2014. The value of sports tourism is significant and now contributes over GBP 2 billion to the British economy every year. Nearly 2 million people watched sport when they visited the UK in 2010. When "Kiwis Fly" covers traditional sporting venues such as Lord's, Old Trafford and Wimbledon and some venues which many readers will not recognise - Pedestrianism at the Royal Agricultural Hall in the 1880s, Stone Skimming in Scotland and the west London concert venue where the Kray brothers boxed.

Basing his claims on more than 130 in-depth interviews with baseball fans from ages 10 to 80, the author arrives at some extraordinary conclusions about the prismatic richness of the fan's experience of baseball and its importance in his or her life. The responses, 40 of which are reproduced in this oral history, suggest three major hypotheses: that how the youthful fan regards the game is a resonant expression of his personality, his family and social situation, and his fundamental needs; that baseball, far more than a pastime or idle entertainment, serves a number of extremely important emotional and developmental functions - moral, social, aesthetic and psychological - in the lives of its younger fans; and that one of baseball's less frequently heralded virtues is its extraordinary richness, its capacity to turn a different face to almost every fan and to satisfy that remarkably wide range of personalities, backgrounds and needs. What these interviews suggest and what the author's introductory sections argue is that to its most ardent young fans, baseball is not only a source of great and lasting pleasure, but an important socialising agent and a vital expression and determinant of character.

Complexity and Control in Team Sports is the first book to apply complex systems theory to 'soccer-like' team games (including basketball, handball and hockey) and to present a framework for understanding and managing the elite sports team as a multi-level complex system. Conventional organizational studies have tended to define team sports as a set of highly heterogeneous physical, mental and cognitive activities within which it is difficult, if not impossible, to find common behavioural playing regularities or universal pedagogies for controlling those activities. Adopting a whole system approach, and exploring the concepts of control, regulation and self-organization, this book argues that it is possible for coaches, managers and psychologists to develop a better understanding of how a complex system works, and therefore, to more successfully manage and influence a team's performance. This book draws on literature from the biological, behavioural and social sciences, including, psychology, sociology and sports performance analysis, to develop a detailed, interdisciplinary and multi-level picture of the elite sports team. It analyzes behaviour across five inter-connected levels: the team as a 'managed institution'; coaching staff controlling players via cybernetic flows; the team as a playing unit; the individual player as a complex dynamic system expressed through behaviour; and a player's complex physiological/biological system. Drawing these together, the book throws fascinating new light on the elite sports team and will be useful reading for all students, researchers or professionals with an interest in sport psychology, sport management, sport coaching, sport performance analysis or complex systems theory.

The Politics of the Olympics: A Survey provides information on and analysis of the relationship between politics and the Olympic Games. It is argued and demonstrated throughout the book that sport and politics have been and are intimately connected and nowhere is this relationship more apparent than in the Olympic Games. The essay chapters, including an editorial introduction, are written by a variety of academic experts. They focus on the politics of the Olympic movement, the politics of hosting the Games, the political implications of performance enhancement, and gender, terrorism and physical impairment within the Olympic context. The remaining chapters are case studies that are specific to certain countries or regions - Germany during the rise to power of National Socialism, Eastern Europe in the Cold War era, South Korea and Taiwan. Each chapter is accompanied by a select bibliography. The A-Z Glossary provides up-to-date and concise information on famous Olympians, presidents of the International Olympic Committee, specific events, boycotts and demonstrations - each of which has been politically significant in the history of the Games. Entries are cross-referenced for ease of use. A map of the venues for the Olympic Games is also included.