The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 1999

This is an anthology of 23 papers that were presented at the Eleventh Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, held June 9–11, 1999, and co-sponsored by the State University of New York at Oneonta and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The papers focus on the antecedents of baseball and the early history of America’s national pastime and are divided into five parts: “Baseball and the American Imagination,” “Baseball and American Culture,” “Baseball and American Society,” “Baseball and American Business” and “Baseball and the Fan.” The preface is by series editor Alvin L. Hall, and an introduction is provided by the editor of the volume, Peter M. Rutkoff.

Editor Peter M. Rutkoff directs the American Studies program and was the National Endowment for the Humanities distinguished teaching professor of history and American studies, 1997–2000, at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.
Alvin L. Hall is director of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. They are also the editors of The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 1997 (Jackie Robinson) (2000).

Edited by Peter M. Rutkoff. Series Editor Alvin L. Hall
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 391
Bibliographic Info: notes, tables, index
Copyright Date: 2000
pISBN: 978-0-7864-0832-0
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Cooperstown Symposium Series

Acknowledgments      x
Preface       1
Introduction      5

PART 1: BASEBALL AND THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION
Solarball: Baseball, America, Time, and the Sun      9
Spirituality and Baseball      23
The Baseball Diamond as American Landscape      31
The 1913 World Series and the Epic Imagination      41

PART 2: BASEBALL AND AMERICAN CULTURE
Baseball Short Stories: From Lardner to Asinof to Kinsella      59
Reflections on Baseball and Poetry      73
Baseball and Vaudeville and the Development of Popular Culture in the United States 83
Baseball and Country Music      101
As American as Cherry Pie: Baseball and Reflections of Violence in the 1960s and 1970s 115
“Three Strikes and You’re Out”: The Role of Sports Metaphors in Political Discourse      133
Baseball Meets the National Pastime: Baseball and Radio      147

PART 3: BASEBALL AND AMERICAN SOCIETY
Slide, Kelly, Slide: The Irish in the Early History of Baseball      177
Baseball and Baseball-Type Games in the Colonial Era, Revolutionary War, and Early American Republic 187
Baseball as a Symbiosis of Interests: A Survey of Men and Women at Minor League Games in the Midwest      215
Joe DiMaggio and the Ideal of American Masculinity      227
From Bloomer Girls’ Baseball to Women’s Softball: A Cultural Journey Resulting in Women’s Exclusion from Baseball      245
Mixed Singles: The Story of Ella Manley and the Negro Leagues (A Play)      261

PART 4: BASEBALL AND AMERICAN BUSINESS
The Modern Way to Spell Baseball: $Business, $People, $Collecting, the $Sport and $More      281
Stamp Out Smokeless Tobacco and Snuff in Baseball      289
Baseball, Culture, Criminal Justice, and the Academy      297
The Curt Flood Act: Legislative History and Labor Relations Implications      313

PART 5: BASEBALL AND THE FAN
The Fans’ Role in Shaping Baseball: A Voice Too Long Silent?      333
Baseball Fans and the Cooperstown Symposium Participants      357

Index      375

• “Reprints of scholarly papers covering baseball’s relation to American society, business and its fan base”—USA Today Sports Weekly
• “Put this on your list of reflective essays worth every minute”—Public Library Quarterly
• “Ambitious…appealing…each selection provides overall provocative and engaging discussions over a variety of topics of both historical and contemporary importance to the game”—Sociology of Sport Journal.