Gems, Gerald and Pfister, Gertrude, eds. Touchdown: An American Obsession. Great Barrington, Ma: Berkshire Publishing Group LLC, 2019. Pp. 364. Appendices, notes, glossary, index. $49.95 paperback. $125 hardcover. Reviewed by Russ Crawford Gridiron football is the most popular team sport in the United States, and the history of the sport has been explored by a…
Fischer, David. The New York Yankees of the 1950s: Mantle, Stengel, Berra, and a Decade of Dominance. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2019. Pp. 271. Bibliography, epilogue, index, preface, and source notes. $26.95 hardback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. The New York Yankees were the dominant baseball team of the 1950s. On paper, teams like the Brooklyn…
Hernández, Lou. Bobby Maduro and the Cuban Sugar Kings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing Company, 2018. Pp. 218. Bibliography and notes. $39.95 paperback. Reviewed by Leslie Heaphy Lou Hernández provides a comprehensive biography of one of baseball’s most successful and overlooked executives, Bobby Maduro. Maduro had a long career in Cuban baseball before starting over again…
Allison, Rachel. Kicking Center: Gender and the Selling of Women’s Professional Soccer. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2018. Pp. 220. Appendices, notes, bibliography, and index. $27.95 paperback and eBook. Reviewed by Cat Ariail Earlier this summer, the US Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT), earned a fourth star on their shirt, winning the Women’s World…
Silverman, Matthew. Shea Stadium Remembered: The Mets, the Jets and Beatlemania. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press. 2019. Pp. 232. Bibliography, appendix, introduction, and index. $29.95 hardback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. At first glimpse, there was nothing really special about Shea Stadium. Certainly, when it opened as the home of the New York Mets in early 1964,…
Gitlin, Martin. Powerful Moments in Sports: The Most Significant Events in American History. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. Pp. 293. $38.00 hardback. $36.00 eBook. Reviewed by Jorge Iber Martin Gitlin’s work presents a series of short essays that cover some of the most significant sporting events in American history. As with all works of…
Smith, Averell “Ace”. The Pitcher and the Dictator: Satchel Paige’s Unlikely Season in the Dominican Republic. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018. Pp. 240. 14 photographs, 6 illustrations, 2 tables, appendix, and index. $26.95 hardcover and eBook. $19.95 paperback. Reviewed by Leslie Heaphy Author Averell Smith paints a vivid picture of a season in the…
Bernard Danchik was a natural candidate to represent the United States at the 1936 People’s Olympics, hosted in Barcelona. As a 22-year-old clerk and gymnast from New York City, he had fallen in with the Communist Party’s “Third Period” of extreme sectarianism during the Great Depression.[1] From their point of view, the Party was the…
Love, Brian J., and Michael L. Burns. Corked: Tales of Advantage in Competitive Sports. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Fifth Avenue Press. 2019. Pp. 253. Endnotes, preface, and index. $14.99 paperback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. Gaining an edge in competitive sports could be as old as the games, although probably not. It was difficult during the first…
Sayama, Kazuo and Bill Staples Jr. Gentle Black Giants: A History of Negro Leaguers in Japan. Fresno, CA: Nisei Baseball Research Project Press, 2019. Pp. 387. Appendices. $27.95 paperback. Reviewed by Leslie Heaphy With Gentle Black Giants, Kazuo Sayama and Bill Staples Jr. together fill a huge gap in the literature. While Sayama first wrote…
McLeod, Yanela G. The Miami Times and The Fight for Equality: Race, Sport, and the Black Press, 1948-1958. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019. Pp. 198. $90.00 hardcover. $85.00 eBook. Reviewed by Jorge Iber The 2018 movie Green Book was a surprise hit that generated an impressive financial return on its cost of roughly $23 million,…
Kalman-Lamb, Nathan. Game Misconduct: Injury, Fandom, and the Business of Sport. Halifax, NS: Fernwood, 2018. Pp. 183. Notes & Index. $24.00 paperback. Reviewed by Noah Cohan As Kevin Durant writhed on the floor of Scotiabank Arena partway through the second quarter of Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, his Achilles tendon having recoiled upward…
