The Green-and-Gold Tapestry on California’s East Bay: Memories of Major League Teams ‘Planted and Uprooted’ in Oakland, competed for attention and respect in shadow of San Francisco (Part II)

Sport in American History presents a two-part series on the beginning and end of Major League sports in Oakland. SAH reviews two books on the forgotten California Golden Seals and unforgettable Oakland A’s. Woven into the reviews––a look at the hockey Seals’ never-ending woes and the 50th anniversary of the Oakland A’s first World Series…

Review of Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman Behind the Chicago Cubs

Cannon, Jason. Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman Behind the Chicago Cubs. University of Nebraska Press, 2022. Pp. 376. Acknowledgments, bibliography, epilogue, index, introduction, notes. $36.95 hardback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo Charlie Murphy would have been in his element in today’s sports world. Controversial, opinionated, and never one to mince words, the man who owned the…

Review of Sports Movies

Friedman, Lester D. Sports Movies (Quick Takes: Movies and Popular Culture). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2020. Pp. 210. $ 17.95 paperback and ebook. Reviewed by Łukasz Muniowski Almost all of us consume professional sports indirectly, as a certain form of mediation is always involved when it comes to watching any type of athletic competition. It is…

Review of The Forgotten 1970 Chicago Cubs

Bike, William S. The Forgotten 1970 Chicago Cubs: Go and Glow. The History Press, 2021. Pp. 144. Acknowledgments, bibliography, epilogue, end notes, index, photographs, preface, prologue, $21.99 paperback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo It still stings 52 years later. The Chicago Cubs won a World Series title in 2016 to snap a 108-year drought, but 1969 will always…

Review of Fidel Castro and Baseball: The Untold Story

Peter C. Bjarkman. Fidel Castro and Baseball: The Untold Story. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2019. 364 pp.  Reviewed by Michael T. Wood Peter C. Bjarkman was a giant in the field of sport history. Over the course of his prodigious career, Bjarkman authored over 40 books and contributed chapters and articles to edited collections. The Society…

Review The Short Life of Hughie McLoon

Abel, Allen. The Short Life of Hughie McLoon: A True Story of Baseball, Magic and Murder. Sutherland House, 2020. Pp. 211. Acknowledgments, dedication, epilogue, end notes, photographs, $22.95 hardback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo Baseball mascots today are cheery, funny and engaging figures, interacting with crowds and providing comic relief. The San Diego Chicken and the Phillie…

Review of The Giants and Their City

Mitchell, Lincoln A. The Giants and Their City: Major League Baseball in San Francisco, 1976-1992. The Kent State University Press. 2021. Pp. 251. Acknowledgments, end notes, index, introduction, photographs, $25.95 paperback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. The Giants are a proud baseball franchise. With 23 pennants and eight World Series championships, the team is second only to their…

Major League Baseball Doesn’t Care

By Andrew McGregor Major League Baseball doesn’t care. If you have been paying attention to the sport over the last several months, it’s difficult to come to any other conclusion. Amidst the uproar and panic of the global COVID-19 pandemic and a summer of intense social unrest and protests against systemic inequality and police brutality,…