Rossi, John P. Baseball and American Culture: A History. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018. Pp. xii + 255. Bibliography and index. $65 hardback, $28 paperback. Reviewed by Dain TePoel John Rossi’s Baseball and American Culture: A History beckons earnest readers of baseball scholarship with a title suggesting the book will deliver cultural and historical…
Tonight, the first of two semi-final games in the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) will be held at Dodger Stadium, in Los Angeles, California, when the Netherlands takes on the 2016 runner-up Puerto Rico. Tomorrow, the United States will attempt to reach its first championship final in the tournament when it faces two-time WBC champion…
Bjarkman, Peter C. Cuba’s Baseball Defectors: The Inside Story. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. Pp. xxxviii+348. Notes, Index, Appendices, Photographs. $36 hardback, $35.99 eBook. Reviewed by Dain TePoel Twenty-three Cubans were on MLB club rosters to open the 2016 season, an increase of five players from 2015 and the most since the Commissioner’s Office…
Fondren, Kristi M. Walking on the Wild Side: Long-Distance Hiking on the Appalachian Trail. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2016. Pp. x+150. Map, photographs, appendix, references, and index. $80 cloth, $24.95 paperback, $24.95 ebook. Reviewed by Dain TePoel Turn on the radio, watch TV, stream a podcast, or open up a web browser and…
By Dain TePoel At any given moment, someone is attempting to cross the United States on foot. Likely, that person is not alone. In fact, the website USA Crossers lists 279 individuals who have accomplished the feat of a transcontinental walk or run from the U.S. east coast to west coast, or vice versa, between…
Swanson, Ryan A. When Baseball Went White: Reconstruction, Reconciliation, and Dreams of a National Pastime. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014. Pp. xx+198. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $29.95 hardcover. By Dain TePoel “To say, as many historians have, that baseball’s racial segregation resulted from a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ is roughly the equivalent of asserting that…
By Dain TePoel The Little League World Series (LLWS) came to a close on Sunday in a record-setting slug-fest. The Kitasuna squad from Tokyo out-mustered the Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, Red Land team 18-11, but the 29 combined runs were the most ever for a LLWS championship game. One of the main U.S. media narratives for the…
This is the second of two posts on Baseball’s Unwritten Rules. The “unwritten rules” entail issues of masculinity and decorum. They’re often contradictory and at times fans, players, and former players in sports media disagree on what they really are. In this series we want to take a closer look at them and try to…
Here in the US Midwest (Iowa to be exact) full-fledged summer is now less than one week away. Okay, so most folks would probably say it already is summer. The kids are out of school, pools are open, farmer’s markets and arts festivals are packed with leisurely loungers, and it has already hit 90 degrees.…
American Football has never been more popular among U.S. sports fans. One might argue that the nation’s obsession with the sport borders on addiction. Fans follow the fortunes of their teams year round (and round the clock). NBC’s Sunday Night Football is the most-watched television program in the country. And with the help of carefully…
Sport in American History 