The Conference on Baseball in Literature and American Culture has consistently produced a strong body of scholarship since its inception in 1995. Essays presented at the 2006 and 2007 conferences are published in this work. Topics covered include early baseball journalism; sportswriting as mythology; the Henry Wiggen baseball novels; fictionalized baseball broadcasts; racism, religious fundamentalism, patriotism and Marxism; Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel; Zane Grey; masculinity in Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out; Willie Mays; Northern Exposure; Salvadore Dalí and surrealism; baseball’s economic trendsetters; Pete Rose; baseball literature in the classroom; and Jim Bunning’s perfect game, among others.

Ronald E. Kates is an associate professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University.

Warren Tormey is an assistant professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University. They are co-chairs (along with Crosby Hunt) of the Conference on Baseball in Literature and American Culture.

Edited by Ronald E. Kates and Warren Tormey

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 210
Bibliographic Info: tables, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3680-4
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Baseball in Literature and American Culture Conference Series

Preface: A Pitch for Scholarly Diversity      1
RONALD E. KATES and WARREN TORMEY

Of Ourselves We Sing: Finding an American Voice through Early Baseball Journalism      11
SCOTT D. PETERSON

Lasting Value to Passing Things: Sportswriters and Sports Fictionists as Scribes and Mythographers      22
NICHOLAS X. BUSH

Author Wiggen: More Than Just a Name      32
WARREN TORMEY

Only the Game Was Real: The Aesthetics and Significance of Re-created Baseball Broadcasting      40
ROBERT G. BARRIER

Clearing the Field of Play: Judges, Umpires, and the Settlement of Law in Cooperstown      47
STEVE ANDREWS

As American as Mom’s Apple Pie: Racism, Religious Fundamentalism, and Patriotism–A Marxist Critique of The Dixie Association      60
TOM WELLS

You Are Either with Us or the Patriot League: Philip Roth and The Great American Novel in the Age of Terror      67
RON BRILEY

American Myth: Zane Grey’s Baseball and Manhood      79
AARON W. MILLER

Language and the Construction of Masculinity in Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out      84
PETER CARINO

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Willie Mays: The Production of Presence in Paul Metcalf ’s “Willie’s Throw”      93
TREY STRECKER

Deconstruction at Bat: Baseball vs. Critical Theory in Northern Exposure’s “The Graduate”      98
DAVID LAVERY

Salvador Dalí and the Surrealism of Baseball      105
ANDREW HAZUCHA

From Spalding through Beane: A Study of Economic Trendsetters in Baseball      114
MONIQUE MOYAL

Collecting, Investing and Searching for Perfection      122
RON B. REMBERT

Doctor Smoke: Joe Wood, Yale University, and the 1926 Baseball Controversy      130
GERALD C. WOOD

Jacques Derrida Was a Cubs Fan: Critical Theorists and Their Baseball Teams      139
SHAWN O’HARE

A Rose by Any Other Name: One Fan’s Big-Picture Argument for Electing Pete Rose to the Hall of Fame      145
SARAH D. BUNTING

Before the Boss: Mike Burke and the CBS Yankees      150
THOMAS D. VEVE

Student Responses to Baseball Literature: Reflections on Course Evaluations and Teaching Experience      160
GARY LAND and GARY GRAY

Old Blue: A Memoir      171
JAMES GROVE

Jim Bunning’s Perfect Game: At the Intersection of Baseball, History and Self      183
CARL SCHINASI

About the Contributors      189
Index      193