Burgess, Granville Wyche. The Last At-Bat of Shoeless Joe: A Novel. New York, NY: Chickadee Prince Books, 2019. Pp. 252. $12.99 trade paperback. Reviewed by Gavin J. Woltjer This fall will mark the 100-year anniversary of the notorious Black Sox scandal, arguably the worst scandal in the history of US professional sports. Fallout from the…
Stark, Douglas. Breaking Barriers: A History of Integration in Professional Basketball. Lanham, MD. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. Notes, bibliography, index. Reviewed by Murry Nelson This is a book that sounds better than it really is and that was a disappointment since Stark is a good writer with a background of curation at the Naismith Basketball…
Krell, David. Forward by Branch Rickey III. Our Bums: The Brooklyn Dodgers in History, Memory, and Popular Culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015. Pp. 240. Notes, References, Index. $29.95 softcover. Reviewed by Rich Loosbrock Baseball and nostalgia go hand in hand. Mentions of baseball in popular culture, be it movies, documentaries, biographies, or memoirs, are bathed…
By Sam Schelfhout The collapse of the Soviet Union was predictable. Mikhail Gorbachev’s dual policies of glasnost and perestroika had introduced a sense of economic freedom and personal choice to citizens of the communist nation that inevitably hungered for more. After 1988, the Soviet Union was well along a path toward complete collapse, spurred on…
Verrier, Steven. Gene Kiniski: Canadian Wrestling Legend. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2018. Pp. 246. Bibliography and index. $35 paperback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo Professional wrestling has always been about business. It has evolved from matches in dimly lit carnival tents before a few hundred curious onlookers to WrestleMania 35, which reportedly drew 82,265 fans to…
By Michael T. Barry Jr. One of the most anticipated sporting events of 1965, and the 1960s in general, was the North American Boxing Federation’s heavyweight championship bought between Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali just came off an impressive victory over Sonny Liston, and Floyd Patterson was once a two-time world champion. Like…
Oriard, Michael. The Art of Football: The Early Game in the Golden Age of Illustration. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017. Pp. 243. Notes, References, Index. $39.95 cloth. Reviewed by Rich Loosbrock Michael Oriard continues his exploration of the intersection between American football and the popular imagination with this sumptuously illustrated examination of early football…
Newman, Roberta J. Here’s the Pitch: The Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball and Advertising. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Pp. 319. Bibliography, epilogue, illustrations, index and notes. $34.95 hardback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. “What a combination, all across the nation.” The 1960s jingle, “Baseball and Ballantine,” hawked beer, but it aptly…
Brioso, César. Last Seasons in Havana: The Castro Revolution and the End of Professional Baseball In Cuba. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Pp. 271. Bibliography, epilogue, index, notes and preface. $29.95 hardback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. César Brioso takes the history of baseball in Cuba — and the events that resulted in Fidel…
Johnson, Scott. Association Work: Whitten, Porter, and the Course of Interscholastics. Bloomington, IL: Illinois High School Association/National Federation of State High School Associations, 2018. Pp. 406. Notes, bibliography, and index. $29.95 hardback. Reviewed by Robert Pruter Association Work: Whitten, Porter, and the Course of Interscholastics is an important work of sport history. High school sports…
Beston, Paul. The Boxing Kings: When American Heavyweights Ruled the Ring. Lanham (MD): Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. pp. 357.$36.00 Hardback. Reviewed by Cian Manning. Paul Beston, managing editor of the City Journal and contributor to the boxing website The Sweet Science, in his study The Boxing Kings: When American Heavyweights Ruled the Ring…
Norwood, Stephen H., Ed. New York Sports: Glamour and Grit in the Empire City. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 2018. Pp. viii+425. Notes, Contributors, Index. $27.95 paperback. Reviewed by Ari de Wilde and Melvin L. Adelman New York Sports: Glamour and Grit in the Empire City is another work in the Sport, Culture &…
