An astute examination of how baseball emerged as the national
pastime by fostering a pastoral mythology that remained
unchallenged until the early 1950s. White (Law and History/Univ..
of Virginia; Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1993) argues that
"baseball's past history was far more complex, and far less heroic,
than romanticized treatments of the game might suggest." Hardly
news, but as he so meticulously demonstrates, while baseball
promoted its "anachronistic dimensions" as a rural, fresh-air sport
played by apple-checked youths, it was able to do so, in part, by
violating anti-trust laws, by implementing such unfair labor
practices as the reserve clause, and by restricting its talent pool
according to race. The struggle to maintain the myth began to fail
in the postwar era. Owners followed the demographic shift westward,
thus dashing nostalgic hometown ties for fans of teams like the
Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. At about the same time, the
weakening of the reserve clause, the "new labor relations
atmosphere," and the integration of the game forced baseball to
surrender the "special qualities" that had allowed it to appear
untouched by time. The author's delineation of the business aspects
of the game are a bit dry and too involved, but things liven up
when he looks at the gambling and cheating that were a part of the
game early in the century, and when he examines the growth and
economic importance of night baseball and of radio and TV
broadcasts. He also surveys the great baseball writers, such as
Paul Galileo and Damon Runyan, and the famed announcers, including
Bob Prince and Jimmy Dudley. He has some fresh insights into the
game's tentative acceptance of ethnic ballplayers such as Joe
DiMaggio and Hank Grcenbcrg. Baseball cognoscenti will find plenty
to chew on here. (Kirkus Reviews)
At a time when many baseball fans wish for the game to return to
a purer past, G. Edward White shows how seemingly irrational
business decisions, inspired in part by the self-interest of the
owners but also by their nostalgia for the game, transformed
baseball into the national pastime. Not simply a professional
sport, baseball has been treated as a focus of childhood rituals
and an emblem of American individuality and fair play throughout
much of the twentieth century. It started out, however, as a
marginal urban sport associated with drinking and gambling. White
describes its progression to an almost mythic status as an idyllic
game, popular among people of all ages and classes. He then
recounts the owner's efforts, often supported by the legal system,
to preserve this image.
Baseball grew up in the midst of urban industrialization during
the Progressive Era, and the emerging steel and concrete baseball
parks encapsulated feelings of neighborliness and associations with
the rural leisure of bygone times. According to White, these
nostalgic themes, together with personal financial concerns, guided
owners toward practices that in retrospect appear unfair to players
and detrimental to the progress of the game. Reserve clauses,
blacklisting, and limiting franchise territories, for example, were
meant to keep a consistent roster of players on a team, build fan
loyalty, and maintain the game's local flavor. These practices also
violated anti-trust laws and significantly restricted the economic
power of the players. Owners vigorously fought against innovations,
ranging from the night games and radio broadcasts to the inclusion
of African-American players. Nonetheless, the image of baseball as
a spirited civic endeavor persisted, even in the face of outright
corruption, as witnessed in the courts' leniency toward the
participants in the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
White's story of baseball is intertwined with changes in
technology and business in America and with changing attitudes
toward race and ethnicity. The time is fast approaching, he
concludes, when we must consider whether baseball is still regarded
as the national pastime and whether protecting its image is worth
the effort.
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