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.

On October 7, 1977, the Philadelphia Phillies lost a playoff game to the Dodgers, a game that began so hopefully and ended so disastrously that it has become known in Philadelphia simply as "Black Friday." As a season of rare hope and unity crashed to a painful end in a ten-minute sequence of bad plays, so too did the city's urban renaissance falter and an old sense of inferiority return. This ambitious examination of the relationship between the team and city delves deep into Philadelphia's social and baseball history to reveal how the disillusionment of Black Friday affected Philadelphia's self image and fans' relationship to the team they both love and love to hate.

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.

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.