Baseball History & America

In the modern game of baseball the game can no longer claim to be completely won on the field. Instead, the game is now won on computers in dingy clubhouse rooms by number crunchers that would probably do better in industries such as finance or science. When looking at the revolution of sabermetrics (also known as performance scouting), or the statistical analysis of baseball data that drastically differed from the old-school visual-based method of scouting, the first thought to your mind is not a comparison of the conflict that surrounds the issue of abortion.

In the spring semester of 2015, I was given the opportunity to develop a digital history project at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Since my historical interest mainly involves baseball, and at that time I was researching the 1879 Northwestern Baseball League for a book, I was thinking about what options there might be to create a digital history project that included the 1879 NWBL. At that time, I had recently discovered that the league had only played half of its season when it folded in mid-July. One of the obvious historical questions that had been on my mind was that if a complete ‘championship season’ ran its’ course in 1879, who would have won? Was there a way to simulate the season that might provide this information? I had done this on other gaming platforms with contemporary baseball rosters and seasons. Then, I realized that Out of the Park Baseball 16 (OOTPB) provided a perfect opportunity to uniquely answer this question. This is how my idea for a digital history project came about. OOTP Baseball allows the user to recreate historical baseball leagues or even develop fictional leagues at the creators’ discretion. For this project, parameters were set to function in 1879, and the league with all the historical data gathered was included. The 36-game season was the framework for this ‘tryout’ that included a Championship series occurring at the end of the simulated 1879 season. The simulation model was set for 10 seasons to give an impartial representation of what the actual results might have been if a whole season had been played.

The emergent digital game-based learning (DGBL) concept is attracting educational enthusiasts across the world. This article will follow that global trend and demonstrate how Out of the Park Baseball provides a valuable framework for classroom-based, DGBL projects. The aim of this article is to exhibit the benefits, learning outcomes and potential for DGBL baseball projects in college and high school classrooms. This commentary will also reveal that DGBL can provide learning engagement and motivation for students when given the opportunity to participate in similar DGBL ventures. The editorial will offer a brief explanation of DGBL and provide simulation results, comparative analysis and conceptual modeling for a DGBL baseball project utilizing Out of the Park Baseball. Additionally, the work will provide learning outcomes for the classroom project and includes a suggested reading list that potential instructors may access. The hope is that this article will be referenced as a curriculum development resource in future DGBL projects.
Please feel free to contact me at foresmanrr@lopers.unk.edu with any questions or for the opportunity to collaborate further. The full article is free and open to the public.

The current proportion of the total 750 players is as of 2012 is less than 0.04% [less than one player per team]. In this paper selected social  trends and youth league practices are presented to demonstrate how the two factors are related the declining participation rates of African-Americans at all levels of amateur and professional baseball.

In 1907, when most female journalists were relegated to the reporting on cooking and fashion, Ina Eloise Young was writing about baseball; she even rose to sports editor at her Colorado newspaper, covered the 1908 World Series, and was named an honorary member of the newly-formed Baseball Writers Association.  This biographical essay tells her story.

The paper evaluates the role of Goudey Gum Company and its impact on the baseball card industry. Goudey was an important  national manufacturer and revived the hobby to pre-war tobacco card heights. Goudey was the first and most notable of the gum companies to produce baseball cards along with their gum product. Goudey and other gum producers lead to a resurgence in the popularity of baseball cards dubbed the Silver Age.

From its beginnings over 100 years ago the oppressive practice of the reserve clause in professional baseball player’s contracts had exploited and restricted the actions of players. By the mid-1960s the players had had enough and the social and political climate of this era provided a stage for change in the practice.

In this episode, Derek and Nathan speak with Andrew Stoeten, Toronto Blue Jays (Major League Baseball) columnist at The Athletic and co-host of the Birds All Day podcast (and formerly of Drunk Jays Fans (DJF) and Blue Jays Nation).

Andrew explains how he got into baseball writing and then the three delve into the tensions of having personal investments in fandom while working in a profession connected to sport and examine the difficulties of having political inclinations when "Republicans buy sneakers too." In the latter half of the episode, they turn to a discussion of how advanced analytics and fantasy sports can have a dehumanizing impact on the way players are viewed and then consider the future of baseball in the pandemic.

Baseball is a rich mélange of tradition, spectatorship, evaluation, and fandom. Statistical fandom is presented as a cultural infrastructure, which influences how all fans perceive the game including what is valued in the game, how the game itself is played, and Major League Baseball as an industry. In building off of Halverson's conception of a fantasy plane of baseball fandom, this research theorizes an additional statistical plane. Saber-metrics serve as a microcosm for a larger statistical turn in sports and reporting. The labor of saberfans builds a cultural algorithm through statistical analysis that shapes all fan engagement. Sabermetric inputs become an infrastructure of expertise through which the larger sporting public understands and evaluates baseball and culture.

Peter Marquis, "La mise en scène de l'émotion sportive durant l'âge d'or du base-ball américain (1900-1960). Le cas des Brooklyn Dodgers", communication au séminaire « L’émotion sportive Pour une anthropologie historique du sport », SciencesPo Paris, 4 avril 2011.

Before the infamous Black Sox Major League Baseball Scandal was exposed during the latter part of the  1920 season, a major gambling scandal was uncovered in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) during the first part of the 1920 season. Unlike horse racing that was regulated by variuous states because of revenue production, baseball owners at the major and minor leagues chose the ignore game rigging until the problem became like [an ugly wart of a disease] waiting to burst. Both the PCL and Black Sox scandals were similar [players played for gamblers].

The game of baseball has had a close and complicated relationship with the brewing industry and its products for most of its lifetime. This study attempts to chronicle and give an overview of their history together, while discussing some of their issues underway.

From the times of the Beer and Whiskey League and Prohibition, through alcohol-endorsing broadcasters and Ten Cent Beer Night, to the brewery-sponsored baseball franchises of St. Louis, Milwaukee and Denver; this is a closer look at the partnership between two of America’s favorite pastimes.

ENG: This article examines American festivities in light of sports, in particular baseball spectatorship. Baseball occupies a distinct place in the American psyche and sports contests share a lot of characteristics with ritualized festivities; yet, scholars have argued against the mythology of sports gatherings as sites for communitas, because of the complicated nature of social relations during sports events (Bain-Selbo). In order to escape a purely revisionist reading of sports festivities, the article uses the theoretical framework provided by Elias’ and Dunning’s concepts of “quest for excitement” and “controlled decontrolling of restraints on emotions” (1986). Based on historical sources, the article argues that there have been three phases in baseball spectatorship (1840s-1880s; 1880s-1950s; 1950s-present) each presenting a distinct relation with the double notion of engagement in physical excitement and dependence on normative discourses. The last part of the article wonders whether Elias’s theory remains applicable given the current nature of sports as socially repressive hypercommodified events. What does this disempowerment of spectators reveal of American festivities?

FR: Cet article interroge la problématique des festivités aux États-Unis du point de vue du sport et en particulier des modes d' "être spectateur" lors des matches de baseball. Ce sport occupe une place toute particulière dans l'imaginaire américain ; de plus, les compétitions sportives partagent de nombreux traits avec les rituels festifs. Toutefois, l'état des connaissances scientifiques ne permet pas de conclure à une fabrique de communitas par le sport étant donnée la complexité des rapports sociaux dans les stades (Bain-Selbo 2007). Pour renouveler le regard sur cette question sont mobilisés les concepts de « recherche d'exci-tation » et de « libération contrôlée des contraintes sur les émotions » développés par Elias et Dunning (1986). Les sources historiques utilisées suggèrent que trois régimes de spectatorisme sont identifiables (1840-1880; 1880-1950; 1950-présent). Chacun présente un rapport particulier à la double notion d'investissement physique dans la quête du plaisir et de dépendance aux discours normatifs sur les bonnes conduites. La dernière partie porte sur la pertinence de conserver la théorie d'Elias à l'heure où les compétitions sportives dont devenues socialement répressives du fait d'une marchandisation galopante. L'hypothèse avancée est que ce reflux de la « recherche d'excitation » dans le baseball américain n'est qu'une étape dans un long processus où alternent dépossession et réappropriation.

Two events that would alter world history forever occurred during the 19th century within just three years of one another: in 1846 the first official game of baseball was played in Hoboken, New Jersey; and the publication of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto in 1848. While Marx’s ideas were beginning to infiltrate sociological and political theory in the 19th century, it was his posthumously released work, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, specifically its subsection of Estranged Labour, which linked his theories on capitalism to the American sport.

In many ways enshrinements and memorials are a reflection of society’s larger sensibilities and self-image. This is also true for sport halls of fame. Sport halls of fame have not only aspired to tell us who the best players are during their respective eras, they have also endeavored to inform us about who we are as people (Gendreau/Springer, 2015). For the National Baseball Hall of Fame, its great challenge is two-fold. It must showcase the historical story of baseball, while also reflecting how the sport represents the United States as its “national pastime.” To accomplish this challenge, the National Baseball Hall of Fame has created a model for the induction of players to its institution. In this analysis, I will highlight what this model is and explore how moral components aid, or detract, from the institution accomplishing its overarching objective. After this diagnostic research, I will recommend changes to this model where I believe it detracts from its prime directive.

Although baseball is hugely popular in Mexico, little is known about its origins and development, as there are still large gaps in the history of Mexican baseball. Historiographical production contains references to only a few cities, states and regions , as the sources are considered insufficient to develop a history of baseball in some of the country's regions or historical periods. Analysis of numerous heretofore unused sources (primarily press reports) will significantly change the history of Mexican baseball with regard not only to its origins, but also to its causes and consequences. It will become clear that the emergence of Mexican baseball was not a homogeneous, linear, and intentional process; on the contrary, many individuals' efforts to develop and establish the practice of baseball at different times and in a variety of places coalesced in an interdependent, co-produced, and unplanned process.

Today, we take radio (and TV) for granted, but when broadcasting first came along in the early 1920s, it changed the relationship the fans had with their favorite team, and made it possible for any fan-- even those who couldn't afford a ticket-- to find out what was happening, in real time.  In this research article, I explore how fans "heard" the game prior to radio, how newspapers dealt with this new mass medium, what the fans thought about the play-by-play announcers, and how radio broadcasts of sports (in this case, baseball) became an important part of the fan experience.

Composite materials exhibit a unique combination of a variety of mechanical properties. By engineering these properties, composite materials can be utilized in several applications including energy, sports etc. An overview of the utility of composite materials in energy and sports related industry is presented. Case studies of the transition of fundamental research in composite materials to manufacturing of energy and sports related products are described.

While most baseball writers at the turn of the 20th century were men, there was one interesting exception: Ina Eloise Young. She not only covered baseball regularly from 1906-1912, but she was also an official scorer for several teams. Her reporting was widely respected by her male peers: at a time when gender roles were far more restrictive for women, Ina carved out her own path.

It may be that the source of some of President George W. Bush’s greatest political strengths ­ -- the unpretentiousness and mellow good nature that warm up voters and are serving him well in Washington --­ goes back to his childhood and to his unquenched and impassioned love of baseball, a game never so rhapsodized in the nation’s capital as it has been since Bush became the country’s 43rd president.

Fan violence associated with spectator sport is considered a serious social problem around the world. In the United States, however, levels of spectator violence have rarely risen to those experienced by the global soccer community. This puzzle has been examined by several scholars. This paper supposes that part of the answer lies within a famous comedy sketch, “Baseball-Football”, by the late comedian, George Carlin. The description of baseball in the sketch makes the point that baseball remains a nineteenth century pastoral game, even into modern times. Since sport spectating culture developed through baseball in the United States, it is hypothesized that the unique characteristics of baseball viewing have influenced all of U.S. sport.