Baseball: A History of America's Game (Sport and Society)

In this fourth edition, Benjamin G. Rader updates the text with a portrait of baseball's new order. He charts an on-the-field game transformed by analytics, an influx of Latino and Asian players, and a generation of players groomed for brute power both on the mound and at the plate. He also analyzes the behind-the-scenes revolution that brought in billions of dollars from a synergy of marketing and branding prowess, visionary media development, and fan-friendly ballparks abuzz with nonstop entertainment. The result is an entertaining and comprehensive tour of a game that, whatever its changes, always reflects American society and culture.| Cover Title page copyright Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Fraternity and Its Game 2. A Commercial Spectacle 3. The First Professional Teams 4. The First Professional Leagues 5. The Players' Revolt 6. The Great Baseball War 7. Baseball's Coming of Age 8. The Big Fix 9. The Age of Ruth 10. The Age of Dynasties Illustrations 11. Baseball's Great Experiment 12. The Last Days of the Old Game 13. Baseball in Trouble 14. The Empowerment of the Players 15. The Demise of Dynasties 16. The Steroid Era 17. Baseball's New Order Bibliographical Essay Index| Praise for earlier editions: "The best single-volume history of the sport. . . . Tackles the business and organizational evolution of the professional game, while not losing sight of how it was played on the field."—Washington Post Book World "Baseball reflects Rader's firm grasp of the best and latest scholarship and his insightful understanding of American sport history."—Sporting News |**Benjamin G. Rader** is James L. Sellers Professor of History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and the author of __American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports.__ American society never had an aristocracy, a state-sponsored church, or a rigid class system. What it does have is baseball. Now, in Baseball: A History of America's Game, Benjamin Rader reexamines the story of the pastime that helped shape American society. From baseball's days as "the only game in town" through today's wave of Hollywood sports nostalgia, America's greatest heroes have been ballplayers - Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron. Rader. Analyzes baseball's mythology - one complete with rites, shrines, and even a creation myth. For decades, Rader suggests, a city's ball club was perhaps the fullest expression of its identity. Today, in the era of suburbia, Soloflex, and slow-motion replays, America has changed, and baseball's role with it. Yet in many ways the game's essence has stayed quietly constant: Three strikes, three outs. The confrontation of pitcher versus batter. The illicit temptation of the. Bookmaker. The drama of the bottom of the ninth. Now as before, baseball remains America's game. This is the first book to show why. Long celebrated as a classic, "Baseball" returns in a new fourth edition that follows the game from its murky origins to the current era of unprecedented prosperity. Benjamin G. Rader updates the text with a portrait of baseball's new order. He charts an on-the-field game transformed by analytics, an influx of Latino and Asian players, and a generation of players groomed for brute power both on the mound and at the plate. He also analyzes the behind-the-scenes revolution that brought in billions of dollars from a synergy of marketing and branding prowess, visionary media development, and fan-friendly ballparks abuzz with nonstop entertainment. The result is an entertaining and comprehensive tour of a game that, whatever its changes, always reflects American society and culture In 1858, three years before the first shots were fired in the nation's terrible civil war, baseball excitement in the New York City area mounted to a fever pitch.