Review of Fighting Visibility

McClearen, Jennifer. Fighting Visibility: Sports Media and Female Athletes in the UFC. Urbana: The University of Illinois Press. 2021. Pp. 232. Acknowledgements, appendices, notes, references, index, introduction, photographs. $110 cloth, 24.95 paper, $14.95 ebook. Reviewed by Russ Crawford A common challenge that women’s sports faces is a lack of visibility. Numerous academic and popular books and…

Review of The Indy Car Wars

Whitaker, Sigur E. The Indy Car Wars: The 30-year Fight for Control of American Open-Wheel Racing. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015.  Pp. 223. Notes, References, Index. $35.00 softcover. Reviewed by Rich Loosbrock Greed and power play a key role in professional sports, but how often have they destroyed a league? While destroyed may be too strong…

Review of Baseball’s Power Shift

Swanson, Krister. Baseball’s Power Shift: How the Players Union, the Fans, and the Media Changed American Sports Culture. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. Pp. xvii + 287. Notes, Bibliography, and Index. $29.95 Hardback. Reviewed by Nick Sacco As an enthusiastic fan of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, I was saddened and disappointed to…

Review of Come Out Swinging

Trimbur, Lucia. Come Out Swinging: The Changing World of Boxing in Gleason’s Gym. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013. Pp. xxi+200. Notes, bibliography, index, and methodological appendix. $27.95 hardback. Reviewed by Daryl Leeworthy Feel the Bern. An unlikely campaign slogan that has echoed around the world in the last few months, just as Yes We Can…

Judge, Jury, and Executioner: The Commissioner and the “Integrity of the Game”

By Erica Zonder, Guest Contributor It has been a tough year for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.  Most recently, the discipline he imposed on Tom Brady for allegedly deflating footballs, discipline that he himself, as a “neutral” arbitrator, upheld during the subsequent arbitration process, was tossed by a Federal District Court judge.  “Deflategate” was, to borrow…