When the Philadelphia Phillies signed Dick Allen in 1960, fans of the franchise envisioned bearing witness to feats never before accomplished by a Phillies player. A half-century later, they're still trying to make sense of what they saw. Carrying to the plate baseball's heaviest and loudest bat as well as the burden of being the club's first African American superstar, Allen found both hits and controversy with ease and regularity as he established himself as the premier individualist in a game that prided itself on conformity. As one of his managers observed, "I believe God Almighty hisself would have trouble handling Richie Allen." A brutal pregame fight with teammate Frank Thomas, a dogged determination to be compensated on par with the game's elite, an insistence on living life on his own terms and not management's: what did it all mean? Journalists and fans alike took sides with ferocity, and they take sides still. Despite talent that earned him Rookie of the Year and MVP honors as well as a reputation as one of his era's most feared power hitters, many remember Allen as one of the game's most destructive and divisive forces, while supporters insist that he is the best player not in the Hall of Fame. God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legacy of Dick Allen explains why. Mitchell Nathanson presents Allen's life against the backdrop of organized baseball's continuing desegregation process. Drawing out the larger generational and business shifts in the game, he shows how Allen's career exposed not only the racial double standard that had become entrenched in the wake of the game's integration a generation earlier but also the forces that were bent on preserving the status quo. In the process, God Almighty Hisself unveils the strange and maddening career of a man who somehow managed to fulfill and frustrate expectations all at once.

The study of baseball history and culture reveals the national game as a contested field where debates about sport, character, work and play, the country and the city, labor, race, and a host of other issues, circulate. Understanding baseball, then, calls for careful consideration of several different perspectives and what each contributes to the conversation. Intended as a readable textbook for undergraduates (and perhaps advanced high school students) and their instructors, Understanding Baseball is designed to offer insights and inroads into baseball history as a rewarding academic subject worthy of careful scholarly attention. Each chapter introduces a specific disciplinary approach to baseball - in this edition, history, economics, media, law, and fiction - and covers representative questions scholars from that academic field might consider.

Named a Best Baseball Book of 2020 by Sports Collectors Digest New York Times 2020 Summer Reading List From the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939-2019) was the sports world's deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick with a signature style. Whether it was his frank talk about player salaries and mistreatment by management, his passionate advocacy of progressive politics, or his efforts to convince the United States to boycott the 1968 Olympics, Bouton confronted the conservative sports world and compelled it to catch up with a rapidly changing American society. In Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original, Mitchell Nathanson gives readers a look at Bouton's remarkable life. He tells the unlikely story of how Bouton's Ball Four, perhaps the greatest baseball book of all time, came into being, how it was received, and how it forever changed the way we view not only sports books but professional sports as a whole. Based on wide-ranging interviews Nathanson conducted with Bouton, family, friends, and others, he provides an intimate, inside account of Bouton's life. Nathanson provides insight as to why Bouton saw the world the way he did, why he was so different from the thousands of players who came before him, and how, in the cliquey, cold, bottom-line world of professional baseball, Bouton managed to be both an insider and an outsider all at once.

​2021 Seymour Medal Finalist  Named a Best Baseball Book of 2020 by Sports Collectors Digest New York Times 2020 Summer Reading List From the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939–2019) was the sports world’s deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick with a signature style. Whether it was his frank talk about player salaries and mistreatment by management, his passionate advocacy of progressive politics, or his efforts to convince the United States to boycott the 1968 Olympics, Bouton confronted the conservative sports world and compelled it to catch up with a rapidly changing American society.                Bouton defied tremendous odds to make the majors, won two games for the Yankees in the 1964 World Series, and staged an improbable comeback with the Braves as a thirty-nine-year-old. But it was his fateful 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and his resulting insider’s account, Ball Four, that did nothing less than reintroduce America to its national pastime in a lasting, profound way. In Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original, Mitchell Nathanson gives readers a look at Bouton’s remarkable life. He tells the unlikely story of how Bouton’s Ball Four, perhaps the greatest baseball book of all time, came into being, how it was received, and how it forever changed the way we view not only sports books but professional sports as a whole. Based on wide-ranging interviews Nathanson conducted with Bouton, family, friends, and others, he provides an intimate, inside account of Bouton’s life. Nathanson provides insight as to why Bouton saw the world the way he did, why he was so different than the thousands of players who came before him, and how, in the cliquey, cold, bottom‑line world of professional baseball, Bouton managed to be both an insider and an outsider all at once.

When the Philadelphia Phillies signed Dick Allen in 1960, fans of the franchise envisioned bearing witness to feats never before accomplished by a Phillies player. A half-century later, they're still trying to make sense of what they saw. Carrying to the plate baseball's heaviest and loudest bat as well as the burden of being the club's first African American superstar, Allen found both hits and controversy with ease and regularity as he established himself as the premier individualist in a game that prided itself on conformity. As one of his managers observed, "I believe God Almighty hisself would have trouble handling Richie Allen." A brutal pregame fight with teammate Frank Thomas, a dogged determination to be compensated on par with the game's elite, an insistence on living life on his own terms and not management's: what did it all mean? Journalists and fans alike took sides with ferocity, and they take sides still. Despite talent that earned him Rookie of the Year and MVP honors as well as a reputation as one of his era's most feared power hitters, many remember Allen as one of the game's most destructive and divisive forces, while supporters insist that he is the best player not in the Hall of Fame. God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legacy of Dick Allen explains why. Mitchell Nathanson presents Allen's life against the backdrop of organized baseball's continuing desegregation process. Drawing out the larger generational and business shifts in the game, he shows how Allen's career exposed not only the racial double standard that had become entrenched in the wake of the game's integration a generation earlier but also the forces that were bent on preserving the status quo. In the process, God Almighty Hisself unveils the strange and maddening career of a man who somehow managed to fulfill and frustrate expectations all at once.

From its first pitch, baseball has reflected national values and promoted the idea of what it means to be American. Beloved narratives tied the national pastime to beliefs as fundamental to our civic life as racial equality, patriotism, heroism, and virtuous capitalism. Mitchell Nathanson calls foul. Rejecting the myths and much-told tales, he examines how power is as much a part of baseball--and America--as pine tar and eye black. Indeed, the struggles for power within the game paralleled those that defined our nation. Nathanson follows the new Americans who sought club ownership to promote their social status in the increasingly closed caste system of nineteenth-century America. He shows how the rise and public rebuke of the Players Association reflects the collective spirit of working and middle-class America in the mid-twentieth century and the countervailing forces that sought to beat back the emerging movement. He lays bare the debilitating effects of a harsh double standard that required African American players to possess an unimpeachable character merely to take the field--a standard no white player had to meet. Told with passion and righteous outrage, A People's History of Baseball offers an incisive alternative history of America's much-loved--if misunderstood--national pastime.

Each year, thousands of men and women make a decision that will ultimately change not only the course but the quality of the rest of their lives: they decide to become lawyers. From the moment that thick congratulatory envelope arrives, accepting and welcoming them to law school, they begin their journey down a road they hope will lead them to a life of worth and personal satisfaction. Unfortunately, for most of them, this road leads only to misery and despair which oftentimes plummets to depths that eventually cause them to leave the practice of law or, more often, remain, resigned to spend their entire professional lives working for people they do not like and on issues for which they have no interest. The Happy Lawyer Handbook is out to change all that, examining the roots of this phenomenon and providing practical advice for law students and young attorneys in how they can avoid this in their legal careers. The Happy Lawyer Handbook provides insight into those practicalities of law practice that are never discussed in the career services office but which will very likely have an overwhelming effect on the entirety of a budding attorney's career. For example, the dangers of being pigeonholed and trapped into practicing in an unsatisfying area of law are discussed as a way of stressing the importance of choosing one's preferred area of practice right out of law school. Once in the workplace, competition among fellow law firm associates and issues relevant to promotion is analyzed in order to provide a better understanding of who gets promoted and why. Intrinsic in this discussion is the importance of job satisfaction right off the bat as a required tool for career advancement. The topic of student loan debt and how to deal with it is likewise a focus of The Happy Lawyer Handbook. Far too many students and young attorneys permit their fears over their student loans to dominate their career decisions, causing them to accept employment positions they otherwise would never even consider, thereby dooming themselves to a lifetime of professional misery. The Happy Lawyer Handbook shows them how to make sense of their student loan obligations, how to put their debt in the proper perspective, and how to avoid falling into a disastrous career spiral. Should young attorneys strive to retire their student loan debt as quickly as possible? Surprisingly, and contrary to popular opinion, The Happy Lawyer Handbook demonstrates how and why this is perhaps the worst thing he or she should do. On a larger economic scale, the book discusses how the combination of new technology and the recent recession has changed the legal employment marketplace forever. It shows readers how to make sense of it all and points out the hidden upsides to seeking legal employment in a down economy. As The Happy Lawyer Handbook shows, it is possible for savvy legal job seekers to use the current fragile economic climate to their advantage to secure the job of their dreams. The key is in understanding the new rules of the job search game. Readers of The Happy Lawyer Handbook will not only learn these rules but, more importantly, learn how to make them work to their advantage.