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…
50 years ago we didn’t know much about George Foreman. But the story of his first professional boxing match told us everything about the boxer and the businessman. In 1968, George Foreman was a largely unknown amateur boxer with only two years and 20 bouts of experience. His victory in the gold medal match of…
Travers, Steven R. Remembering the Stick: Candlestick Park 1960-2013. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2017. Copyright: Steven R. Travers. Pp. 357. No index. Photos: Black & white (11). $18.95. Reviewed by Richard A. Macales “You can talk all you want about Brooklyn and New York, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Dallas and Fort Worth, but there are…
Stark, Douglas. When Basketball Was Jewish; Voices of those who played the game. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 2017. Index. Pp. 330. $29.95 hardcover. $29.95 eBook. Reviewed by Murry Nelson I looked forward to reading this volume after enjoying Douglas Stark’s book on the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association’s basketball team, The SPHAS, which was…
Sport in American History 