Fallon, Michael. Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977-78 Dodgers. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. 472 pp. Notes and index. $34.95 (clothback). Reviewed by Tolga Ozyurtcu “I’m recording the game. Please, no spoilers.” More than getting students to do the reading, even more than whatever it is the Lakers are purportedly doing, this is…
Shattuck, Debra A. Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2017. Pp. xiii +307. Appendices, notes, bibliography and index. Clothback $25.95. Reviewed by Leslie Heaphy Debra Shattuck knocks it out of the park with her first book. Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers fills a huge void in sports literature regarding women…
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…
Tenney, John Darrin. Baseball in Territorial Arizona: A History, 1863-1912. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers, 2016. Pp. 196. Bibliography, Notes, and 23 Photos. $29.95 paperback. Reviewed by Jorge Iber At the very start of his work, John Darrin Tenney describes for readers the extensive research conducted in order to produce this brief tome,…
Corzine, Nathan Michael. Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2016. Notes, Selected Bibliography, Index. Pp. 248. $95.00 cloth, $19.99 paperback. Reviewed by Mercedes Townsend Earlier this month, we witnessed the Cubs win its first World Series since 1908, breaking the infamous “Billy Goat Curse.” The…
By Michael Paul Martoccio, Guest Contributor It finally happened. And as a life-long White Sox fan I’m pressed to say it: Congratulations Cubs! The goat has been slaughtered, the curse broken. Yet as the city cleans up its 108-year-old strategic ticker-tape reserves, I am left to reflect on one overlooked part of this year’s World Series:…
Last week the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. Their victory inspired what’s been reported as the seventh largest gathering in human history in downtown Chicago. Millions of fans flocked to the streets to celebrate what has for generations been a mere fantasy. Millions more watched the World Series as its intense seven games served as a…
By Emalee Nelson This fall, a pioneering television show emerged on FOX’s primetime lineup. Pitch tells the fictitious, yet inspirational, story of Ginny Baker, the first woman to play Major League Baseball for the San Diego Padres. The series tackles a variety of issues one can imagine a woman would face competing in a league…
By Kevin Rossi, Guest Contributor Colin Kaepernick’s ongoing protest against racial injustice and police violence has created a unique lens with which to view the role sport can serve in the dialogue about race relations in the United States. His message echoes that of the Black Lives Matter movement: police officers in the United States are…
Young, William A. John Tortes “Chief” Meyers: A Baseball Biography. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. Pp. 257. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $29.95 paperback. Reviewed by Andrew McGregor The stories of American Indians in baseball are often overlooked. During the first two decades of the twentieth century they were among the game’s biggest stars, annually playing in…
Sport in American History 