Rooting For Clothes - The Los Angeles Dodgers

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NINE
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A Journal of
Baseball History
and Culture
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Volume 21
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Number 2
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Editor: Trey Strecker
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Ball State University
Published by the University of Nebraska Press
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Editor
Trey Strecker,
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Muncie, IN 47306-0460
Jean Hastings Ardell, Corona Del Mar, California
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Editorial Board
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Robert Bellamy, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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James E. Brunson III, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois
Adrian Burgos Jr., University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois
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Peter Carino, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana
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Richard C. Crepeau, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
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Gerald Early, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
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Larry Gerlach, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
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Steven P. Gietschier, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri
George Gmelch, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California;
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Union College, Schenectady, New York
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Chris Lamb, Indiana UniversityPurdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana
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David Mills, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta
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Roberta Newman, New York University, New York City, New York
James Odenkirk, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

Richard J. Puerzer, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
Joel Nathan Rosen, Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

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Contents
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Diamond Quotes
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NINE Spring 2013, Vol. 21, No. 2
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Earl Mann Beats the Klan: Jackie Robinson and the

First Integrated Games in Atlanta
Kenneth R. Fenster
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Articles
Rooting for the Clothes: The Materialization of

Memory in Baseballs Throwback Uniforms
Stephen Andon
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Rhetorical Constructions of Anger Management, Emotions, and

Public Argument in Baseball Culture: The Case of Carlos Zambrano
Kevin A. Johnson and Joseph W. Anderson
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Baseball Players, Organizational Communication, and

Cultural Diversity: Organizational Citizenship Behavior in
Minor-League Clubhouses
William Harris Ressler
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Patriotic Industry: Baseballs Reluctant Sacrifice in World War I

Paul Hensler
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Triple Play
Personal Reviews, Op-ed Pieces, and Polemics from
Outside the Purview of the Umpires
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Leagues of Their Own Design

David Nemec
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The Fireman
Robert A. Moss
135
Bill Kulik: The Gringo Malo Speaks the Language of the Game
Franklin Otto
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Baseballs Other Expansion Team of 1962: Fifty Years of

Frustration in the National League Ends for Houston
Ron Briley
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Book Reviews
A Peoples History of Baseball
Daniel A. Nathan
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Legal Decisions That Shaped Modern Baseball

Richard C. Crepeau
149
Packaging Baseball: How Marketing Embellishes the Cultural Experience

Roberta Newman
152
Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the

Worlds Most Loved (and Hated) Team
Adi Angel
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Jimmy Collins: A Baseball Biography

Ron Kates
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Arlie Latham: A Baseball Biography of the Freshest Man on Earth

Charlie Bevis
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The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League

Challenge and Its Legacy
Steve Treder
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Deacon Bill McKechnie: A Baseball Biography

Cliff Hight
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Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes

David Surdam
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Two Pioneers: How Hank Greenberg and Jackie Robinson

Transformed Baseballand America
Rob Edelman
The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America:

The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers
Robert A. Moss
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Ebbets Field: Essays and Memories of Brooklyns

Historic Ballpark, 19131960
Steven P. Gietschier
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If You Were Only White: The Life of Leroy Satchel Paige

Jim Overmyer
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The Might Have Been: A Novel

Adi Angel
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Drawing Card: A Baseball Novel

Tim Morris
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The Barnstorming Hawaiian Travelers: A Multiethnic

Baseball Team Tours the Mainland, 19121916
John Harney
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Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life

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Film Review
Moneyball and Trouble with the Curve

Ron Briley
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Contributors
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Journal of
Sports Media
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Individual subscriptions
to the electronic
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are now available and
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Visit the UNP web site
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JSM is a response to the

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JSM features scholarly

articles, essays, book
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To order subscriptions or back issues:
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or 402-472-8536
Diamond Quotes
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The only thing dumber than a pitcher is two pitchers.

Ted Williams
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Our pitching staff is a conspiracy of ifs.

Branch Rickey
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If a man can beat you, walk him.

Satchel Paige
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Nearly everyones son wants to be a baseball player. Why not? What other
profession could he choose where he can slide around in the dirt, never work
when it rains, and spit whenever he wants to?
Erma Bombeck
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When a man proves himself, has shown that hes a Big Leaguer, why I think
those are the fellows should get the dough. Not some youngster who doesnt
know his way into the ballpark yet.
Lefty ODoul
You go through the Sporting News for the last one hundred years, and you will
find two things are always true. You never have enough pitching, and nobody
ever made money.
Donald Fehr
If were gonna win, the players gotta play better, the coaches gotta coach better,
the manager gotta manage better, and the owners gotta own better.
George Scott
Baseball is not the sport of the one percent.
Peter Gammons

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ARTICLES
Earl Mann Beats the Klan
Jackie Robinson and the First Integrated Games in Atlanta
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Kenneth R. Fenster
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At 1:30 p.m. on April 8, 1949, Earl Mann, the president of the Atlanta Crackers
of the Class AA Southern Association, had his regular monthly meeting with
Hughes Spalding, the chairman of the Crackers board of directors. Spalding
did not record in his desk diary what he and Mann discussed, but surely a
major topic of their conversation was the game scheduled for that evening
at venerable Ponce de Leon Park.1 The game pitted the all-white Crackers
against the integrated Brooklyn Dodgers, with their two black players, Jackie
Robinson and Roy Campanella. The Dodgers-Crackers contest would be the
first mixed-race baseball game in Atlanta and the first in a major city of the
Deep South.
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The Setting: Atlanta in 1949
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In 1941 Atlanta was known for a soft drink, Coca-Cola, and a novel about the
Lost Cause made into a movie, Gone With the Wind. World War II changed
that image and transformed Atlanta from an overgrown village into a bustling
major city. The war stimulated explosive economic and population growth
that continued throughout the decade. The federal government made Atlanta
the military supply center for the Southeast and the area headquarters for all
military personnel stationed in the region. The war effort pumped millions of
dollars into the local economy, and thousands of servicemen passed through
the city. Atlanta also became the regional seat for more than fifty government
agencies, so many that the city became known as the Little Washington of
the South. In September 1943 the huge Bell Bomber plant began operations
in nearby Marietta, Georgia. It employed between thirty thousand and forty
thousand workers and had a weekly payroll of $1.5 million. Shortly after the
war, the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation built
large plants on the outskirts of the city. These manufacturers employed tens
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of thousands of workers and had an economic impact in the tens of millions

of dollars. Between 1945 and 1950 the number of factories in Atlanta increased
by 75 percent, and many national corporations established branch offices in
the city. Retail business thrived with net sales exceeding $500 million in 1947.
Atlanta was the banking, communications, and transportation center of the
region. The city was home to the Federal Reserve Bank for the region. Its telephone exchange was the largest in the South and the third largest in the world.
Delta Air Lines, which moved to Atlanta in 1941 and began operating commercial flights connecting the cities of the South, built a $1 million hub in
the city in 1947. In 1948 the Atlanta airport serviced more than five hundred
thousand passengers, and during certain months of the year it was the busiest
in the country. In the fall of 1948 construction began on a $40 million expressway system. At the same time, Atlanta became the site of the first southern
television station, Welcome South Brother (WSB). The population of Atlanta
rose from 302,288 in 1940 to 331,314 in 1950, while the population of the metro
area increased from 518,100 to 664,033. Many soldiers who had trained in or
visited Atlanta during the war settled there after their discharge from the military. By 1949 Atlanta had emerged as the undisputed capital of the South.2
The war also had a tremendous impact on race relations in the city, and
in the years immediately afterward, Atlanta experienced tumultuous racial
upheaval. African American servicemen returning from the fight against
fascism overseas demanded greater equality and democracy at home. They
would not obsequiously return to the inferior status that society had previously assigned to them. Some whites resisted, resorting to violence to maintain the racial status quo of strict segregation and white supremacy. African
Americans constituted slightly more than one-third of Atlantas population.3
They exerted their political power for the first time in decades in a special
election in February 1946 when they provided the margin of victory to Helen
Douglas Mankin, a liberal white woman, in her race for the US Congress.4
The role of the African American electorate in her triumph over the establishment candidate, who had the support of three-term governor Eugene Talmadges powerful political machine and fifteen other influential white men,
received national press attention.5 Contemporary African American leaders
viewed her win as a landmark in the history of Negroes in Atlanta politics.6
It marked the birth of African American political participation. Henceforth,
the African American voter would be a force to reckon with in the city.
Whites keenly felt this change in the citys political dynamics. Many of
them reacted to Mankins victory with disbelief and fear. Talmadge, Georgias
most infamous racist demagogue and the gubernatorial candidate for a fourth
term, spewed forth vitriolic diatribes against her. In his newspaper, the States-
Fenster: Earl Mann Beats the Klan
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Hate Groups
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man, and in campaign speeches, Talmadge generally made Mankin the issue,
ignoring his opponent, James Carmichael, the highly successful manager of
the Bell Bomber plant. Talmadge ranted and railed against her in vulgar, vituperative, and racist descriptions and innuendos. He made ugly references to
the role of African Americans in her election, excoriating Mankin as that
woman from the wicked city of Atlanta, as Ashby Streets contribution to the
Georgia delegation to Congress, and most commonly as the Belle of Ashby
Street. He condemned her win as the Ashby Street incident. Talmadge
mocked Mankin as the lady politician of recent but none too fragrant memory [who] campaigned with colored folks under the cognomen of Madame
Queen and won the Darktown votes in a canter. Talmadge accused her of
being a nigger lover and a lackey of Jews, Communists, and organized labor.
He decried the spectacle of Atlanta negroes sending a Congresswoman to
Washington. In his unabashedly white supremacist platform and campaign,
Talmadge stirred up racial tensions to such hysteria that people throughout
the state feared an outbreak of race riots.7
Mankins victory motivated the citys African American leaders to launch a
voter registration drive. Along with the US Supreme Courts ruling outlawing
the white-only Georgia Democratic primary in April 1946 and the backlash
from Talmadges racist gubernatorial campaign, the voter registration drive
spurred more than 14,000 African Americans to register to vote, tripling the
size of their electorate. As of February 1946, 6,876 African Americans were
eligible to cast ballots; by May that number had swelled to 21,244. African
Americans now constituted more than 25 percent of Atlantas voters.8
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While African Americans used the ballot to exercise their political influence,
some whites resorted to violence. In the immediate postwar years, Atlanta had
more racially-charged hate groups than perhaps any other city in the nation.9
Moribund since its heyday in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan revived under the
leadership of an Atlanta obstetrician named Dr. Samuel Green, a frail, slightly
built, bespectacled middle-aged man with a Hitler-like moustache. Green
had been active in the Klan since the 1920s and became the Grand Dragon of
Georgia in the 1930s. He was a powerful, persuasive speaker and an excellent
organizer; by 1949 Green had established Klan chapters in every county of
Georgia. On October 10, 1945, just two months after the Japanese surrender,
Green presided over a spectacular cross burning atop nearby Stone Mountain,
the first in the country since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Green and his fellow
Klansmen stretched out hundreds of barrels of fuel oil mixed with sand to
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create a three-hundred-foot cross across the mountain. When lit, the flames
could be seen sixty miles away. Approximately seven months later, on May 9,
1946, Green led the Klan in another cross burning at Stone Mountain. This
event was a direct response to Helen Douglas Mankins victory, the end of
the white-only primary, and Eugene Talmadges white supremacist campaign
for governor. It was also a mass initiation, as three hundred people, including
many Atlanta police officers, joined the hooded order; and another one thousand showed up to watch the spectacle. At the end of the ceremony, Green
formally announced the Klans revival. The flames could be seen for miles
and ominously signaled the rebirth of this notorious hate group. The war was
over; the Klan was back.10
Once active, the Klan unleashed a brutal campaign of intimidation against
Atlantas African American population. The Klan terrorized, beat, and murdered an African American cab driver because he accepted white women as
fares, attacked an African American World War II veteran at the airport, and
assaulted an African American bellboy as he returned home from work. The
Klans special whipping squad flogged numerous African Americans for registering to vote, for voting, and for encouraging other African Americans to
vote. An eyewitness to these events describes them as one of the worst reigns
of terror ever to be inflicted upon any land at any time. Klan violence and
intimidation remained rampant for the rest of the decade. Every time the
group reared its ugly head, the nations press pummeled Georgia for its bigotry and intolerance.11
Another band of hatemongers took form in the spring of 1946. Calling
themselves the Columbians, the group attracted between two hundred and
five hundred members, most of whom were young, poorly educated, impoverished, working-class men. To join, a prospective member had to answer
three questions affirmatively: Do you hate Niggers? Do you hate Jews? Have
you got three dollars? The first neo-Nazi group in the country, the Columbians wore Nazi-style uniforms and insignia, organized themselves into paramilitary units, practiced paramilitary drills in public, greeted each other with
the fascist salute, held regular party rallies, and goose-stepped through the
streets of Atlanta. They believed that a violent messianic struggle would culminate in the expulsion or extermination of African Americans and Jews.
The organization decorated its shabby downtown headquarters with a portrait of Robert E. Lee and a copy of Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf. The Columbians, who claimed they were forty times worse than the Klan, had an ambitious plan and an equally ambitious schedule for fulfilling it: they wanted to
take control of the city in six months, the state in two years, the South in four
years, and the nation in ten. The group obtained dynamite, intending to tar-
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get police headquarters, the offices of the newspapers, and city hall with the
goal of assassinating the chief of police, the liberal editor of the Atlanta Constitution, and the mayor. The Columbians also planned to bomb a conference
of several hundred African American ministers. The Columbians patrolled
neighborhoods with increasing African American populations. They terrorized African Americans with racist signs, demonstrations, and verbal threats.
Usurping police power, the Columbians interrogated and assaulted African
Americans on the streets. The Columbians also threw stones, fired guns, and
detonated bombs into African Americans residences.12
The immediate political goals of the Klan and the Columbians were the
defeat of Mankin and the election of Greens close friend Talmadge. In July
1946 Mankin had to defend her congressional seat against Judge James Davis,
a Talmadge appointee to the bench and an avowed white supremacist who
admired Hitler, had belonged to the Klan, and had links to the Columbians. Because this election was the Democratic primary and not a special
election, the Democratic Party restored the county unit system of voting, a
device designed to marginalize the urban and African American electorate.
Although Mankin won the popular vote decisively, she carried only Atlantabased Fulton County, receiving six unit votes. Davis won rural DeKalb and
Rockdale counties, giving him eight unit votes and the election. In the governors race, the Klan used intimidation and violence to prevent blacks from
visiting the polls. Carmichael received sixteen thousand more popular votes
than Talmadge, but Talmadge won the county unit vote in a landslide, 242 to
146. He captured the governorship because of his staunch support for white
supremacy. The national press simultaneously censured and offered condolences to the people of Georgia for electing Talmadge.13
In the days immediately following Talmadges victory, racial violence
reached its peak. In rural Taylor County four whites murdered an African
American World War II veteran because he had had the audacity to vote.14
In Walton County, about fifty miles east of Atlanta, white outrage and fear
converged to cause the Moores Ford Bridge Massacre, the last mass lynching in the country. The lynchers acted in response to the near-fatal stabbing
of a popular white farmer by an African American tenant; the registration of
eight hundred African American voters in Walton County; the inflammatory,
racist rhetoric of the Talmadge campaign; and reports that African American men had been flirting with white women in Monroe, the county seat of
Walton. The mob of approximately twenty unmasked white men terrorized
and murdered two African American men and their African American wives.
According to the county coroner, the mob shot the four victims at least sixty
times at close range with rifles and shotguns, mutilating their faces and bod-
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ies nearly beyond recognition. The crime horrified the nation, and once again
the national press expressed indignation over events in Georgia. For three
days, the nations newspapers made the massacre their headline story. The day
after the murders, NBCs nightly radio news program reported, One hundred
forty million Americans were disgraced late yesterday, humiliated in their
own eyes and in the eyes of the world by one of the most vicious lynchings to
stain our national record in a long time. The outgoing governor, Ellis Arnall,
commented at a press conference, This mass murder is one of the worst incidents ever to take place in our state. Civilization is incensed over this atrocity.
Governor-elect Talmadge simply dismissed the murders as regrettable. Tens
of thousands of people in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington DC protested the lynching. The Kansas City Monarchs interrupted one
of their games with a moment of silence to honor the victims. President Harry
Truman ordered the Justice Department to investigate the crime. The Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation swarmed the
county, gathering evidence and conducting interrogations, but failed to identify the guilty individuals. These murders remained fresh in the national consciousness for years.15
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Although he won the election, Eugene Talmadge did not become Georgias
next governor. He died in late December 1946 before taking the oath of office.
His passing set off a bizarre series of political events that for the third time
in recent months brought Georgia infamy from the national media. For the
next two months, confusion, commotion, and chaos reigned at the state capitol as three men claimed the governorship. These contenders were the newly
elected lieutenant governor, racial moderate Melvin Thompson; Eugene Talmadges white supremacist son, Herman Talmadge; and the anti-Talmadge
outgoing governor, Ellis Arnall. The national press expected a bloodbath
among the rival factions. The three antagonists engaged in verbal confrontations with one another, and fistfights erupted between supporters of the
younger Talmadge and those of Arnall in the rotunda of the state capitol. One
Arnall loyalist suffered a broken jaw in the fracas. Meanwhile, two of Talmadges men battered down the exterior doors to the executive offices. Armed
with a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson, Talmadge barricaded himself in the governors office and changed the locks on the doors to prevent his opponents
from entering. He and his family also occupied the governors mansion for
more than two months. The national press accused him of staging a palace
coup. This deplorable fiasco ended in March 1947 when the Supreme Court
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of Georgia made Thompson acting governor until a special election could be

held in September 1948. The courts ruling restored order at the state capitol
but not before Georgias already tarnished image had been sullied further in
the eyes of the nation.16
Talmadge accepted the courts decision and immediately began campaigning for the September 1948 gubernatorial election. With the ardent support of
his close friend Samuel Green, he easily defeated Thompson. Under Greens
leadership, the Klan intimidated African Americans throughout Georgia to
prevent them from voting. The Klan held motorcades, cross burnings, and
parades. Greens men dropped leaflets from an airplane and placed miniature
coffins on the porches of African American citizens. Talmadge acknowledged
Greens contribution to his victory by making the Grand Dragon a lieutenant
colonel and an aide-de-camp on his staff. In rural Tooms County the Klan
celebrated Talmadges triumph by lynching an African American man in front
of his wife and cousins. Once again, the nations media expressed its outrage.17
Green, his fellow Klansmen, the vast majority of Atlantas police officers,
and many of the citys white residents vehemently opposed the hiring of African American policemen, something the African American community had
wanted since the 1930s. African American police officers constituted a direct
assault on white supremacy; the idea of African Americans licensed to carry
guns and invested with the authority to arrest people of all races was truly terrifying to many whites. But after two hundred African Americans, many of
them World War II veterans, marched on city hall demanding African American police, and as the strength of the African American electorate increased,
Atlanta officials could no longer ignore the issue. With the support of the city
council, Mayor William Hartsfield, Police Chief Herbert Jenkins, the Atlanta
Constitution (but not the Atlanta Journal), the Atlanta Bar Association, and
various other civic groups, the city hired eight African American police officers in April 1948. For the sake of propriety, the African American policemen
changed into their uniforms in the basement of the Butler Street YMCA, not
at police headquarters, and they were not allowed to arrest whites. But Chief
Jenkins gave them confidential authority to prevent any crime in progress
regardless of the race of the perpetrators. Moreover, the African American
police officers wore the same uniform, swore the same oath, underwent the
same training, carried the same equipment, including guns, and most importantly, received the same salary as their white counterparts.18 On their first day
on the job, Mayor Hartsfield exhorted them, Do the kind of job that Jackie
Robinson did in Brooklyn.19 African Americans in Atlanta responded to the
instatement of the new police with exuberance and pride. Hundreds of African Americans lined the streets to greet the new officers, cheering and follow-
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ing behind them as they began their patrols. The hiring of African American
policemen accomplished a long-sought goal of the African American community and was the first real breach in the wall of segregation in Atlanta.20
Earl Manns hosting integrated baseball games at Ponce de Leon Park was the
second.
Integrated Games in Atlanta
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In the midst of this racially volatile environment, Earl Mann boldly initiated
negotiations with Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, to
bring his integrated team to Atlanta for a series of exhibition games against
Manns Crackers. The two baseball executives discussed this idea for about a
year. Before agreeing to the Dodgers visit, Mann consulted with local leaders about African Americans playing alongside whites at Ponce de Leon Park.
Mayor William Hartsfield, who disliked baseball and never attended a game,
advised against it, fearing a race riot. Fulton County Commissioner Charlie
Brown, who was an avid, lifelong baseball fan, encouraged Mann. Brown predicted that a Dodgers-Crackers exhibition featuring Brooklyns African American star, Jackie Robinson, would set an all-time attendance record in Atlanta.
On January 14, 1949, in his first press conference of the year, Rickey officially
announced that the Dodgers had scheduled three games against the Crackers
for April 8, 9, and 10. Rickey added that Mann had specifically insisted on the
appearance of Robinson and the Dodgers other African American star, Roy
Campanella, in the Brooklyn lineup. The story broke in Atlanta on the same
day that Mann confirmed that the Dodgers, with Robinson and Campanella,
were expected to perform at Ponce de Leon Park. These games would be the
first interracial sporting event in Atlanta.21
Manns announcement of the games received no opposition from local or
state officials, not even Governor Herman Talmadge, but it provoked immediate outrage from Samuel Green, who vehemently challenged the legality of
mixed-race athletic competition. The Grand Dragon snorted, You can bet
your life Ill look up the segregation law and investigate thoroughly. In my
opinion it is illegal. Green added in a telephone interview with Jimmy Cannon of the New York Post, Colored players will bring ill will or ill good in
the South. African Americans and whites playing baseball together, he told
Cannon, was breaking down the traditions of Georgia. Paul Webb, the Fulton County solicitor, quickly thwarted Greens hopes of preventing the games
on legal grounds when he declared, I dont know of any law covering such a
situation. Three days later, Jack Savage, the city attorney of Atlanta, emphatically asserted that no city statute prohibited integrated sports. Georgia Attor-
ney General Eugene Cook acknowledged that the state had laws mandating
segregation in the school system, public transportation, and marriage, but no
laws forbidding African Americans from playing baseball against whites.22 To
maintain the racial purity of Ponce de Leon Park, Green needed to unearth
some obscure statute that had fallen into disuse or have the state legislature
pass a new one banning the games.
Defiance and Ridicule
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The Klansmans outburst brought forthright defiance from Branch Rickey,

Jackie Robinson, and Earl Mann. Rickey did not intend to break any laws, but
he threatened to cancel the exhibitions in Atlanta if any circumstance, legal
or otherwise, barred Robinson and Roy Campanella from playing in them.
In response to Samuel Greens claim that integrated sports violated the law in
Atlanta, the Dodgers president imperiously fulminated, Nobody can tell me
anywhere what players I can or cannot play. If we are not allowed to use the
players we want to play or are informed that by using certain players we are
violating a law, why, the Dodgers simply wont play there, and that is all there
is to that. Speaking on his nightly radio program in New York, Robinson was
equally resolute: I will play baseball where my employer, the Brooklyn Dodgers, wants me to play. He expressed the hope that fans in Atlanta would not
allow Greens objections to cancel the games. Campanella expressed a similar sentiment. Mann brushed off the Grand Dragons howling: We will play
whatever team the Dodgers put on the field. Since Robinson and Campanella are rated as Brooklyn regulars we expect they will be in the Dodger lineup. The following day he reiterated his unwavering resolve to host integrated
games at Ponce de Leon Park: We scheduled the first string teams in order to
give the Cracker fans the tops in entertainment. We knew this meant Robinson and Campanella would be in the Dodger line-up as they are regulars.23
Newspapers throughout the South endorsed and supported the integrated
exhibition games between the Brooklyn Dodgers and local teams.24 Sportswriters and editorialists in Atlanta and elsewhere scorned and ridiculed
Green. They represented Green as hopelessly obsolete, with no place in post
World War II America, and suggested that his venomous objections to integrated sporting events were hateful, malicious, and the height of absurdity.
The editors of the Sporting News contemptuously described Green as the
Supreme Megoozelum and the Grand Goofus. Integrated games were so
commonplace that the Sporting News averred, Nobody gives a hoot what
color a ball player may be. Only his skills and abilities measure his degree of
desirability. Arthur Daley, sports editor of the New York Times, denounced
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Green and his fellow Klansmen as small-minded ignorant men. According

to Daley, Jackie Robinson was just another ballplayer, and southerners would
get beyond his race and accept him. This, Daley concluded, is as inevitable
as death and taxes. Jack Tarver, associate editor of the Atlanta Constitution,
viciously caricatured the Grand Dragon as a jackass in a column acerbically
titled, Green the New White Hope? A lifelong Georgian who was known as
a social critic with a caustic sense of humor, Tarver sarcastically admitted to
the reader,
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Well, sir, I am certainly glad to see that old Doc Green has come charging to my rescue and is going to protect me from having to watch Jackie Robinson perform with
the Brooklyn Dodgers when they play three exhibition games here this spring. It sure
would be a terrible thing for me, sitting in the bleachers, to be contaminated by that
darkey out there playing second base. Not only that, but it might make me wonder
a little about white supremacy, comparing Robinsons batting average with those of
some bush-league Aryans who have appeared at Ponce de Leon from time to time.
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In his daily column, Ed Danforth, the sports editor of the Atlanta Journal, the
dean of Atlanta sportswriters, and a native southerner, condemned Green and
his sheeted playmates:
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They can now rush out to defend us white folks from the threat to our supremacy
as manifested in the sight of Jackie Robinson and a boy named Campanella playing
on the same lot with several dozen paler men of varied racial origins. . . . The two
Negroes are considered paid entertainers.... Men of good will have no earthly objections to the Dodgers playing their full team. Those to whom the sight would be offensive may stay at home. There is no compulsion to attend.
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Aware of the negative press that Georgia and the city of Atlanta in particular had recently received over racial issues, Danforth warned his readers that
the national media was eagerly waiting to pummel the city and the state once
again with ripe adjectives. . . . Meanwhile most folks will writhe over the
sorry press Georgia already has reaped over the incident. When the full treatment is given us, we will wonder why the game was scheduled in the first
place. We are not yet ready for a senior membership in the community of
states. We must wait until our voice changes.25
The press campaign against Green peaked with the Sporting News issue
of January 26, 1949. The secondary headline proclaimed, Atlanta Fandom
Okays Jackies Visit. In the accompanying article, John Bradberry, sports editor of the Atlanta Constitution, summarized the major developments concerning the games since Rickey had first announced them on January 14, 1949. A
large cartoon titled Over the Fences of Prejudice occupied most of the front
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page, reinforcing the sentiment expressed in the headline. In the background

of the cartoon, a huge crowd of fans in a southern ballpark cheers wildly for
Jackie to hit a home run. The foreground shows two Klan robes and hoods
abandoned on a bench just outside the ballpark while a white man, presumably a Klansman, has bought a ticket and passes through a turnstile to watch
the game. His hand gesture, a raised forearm with a clenched fist, indicates
his excitement and eagerness to see Robinson perform. Two young boysone
white, the other African Americanstand side by side outside the ballpark
peering at the game through knotholes in the outfield fence. The sight of Robinson coming to bat enthralls them equally.
In addition to the lead editorial, eight other articles in this issue of the
Sporting News directly related to the upcoming Dodgers-Crackers series. A
majority of these articles appeared on either page one or two, the others on
page four. They repeat the themes the Atlanta and New York writers delineated at the beginning of the controversy. Arthur Daley once again censured
Green and his fellow Klansmen as a disgraced and impotent bunch of bigots
who childishly like to play cops and robbers while wearing bed sheets, disowned and scorned by their own communities. He again insisted that southerners would accept integrated play just as northerners had. Jimmy Cannon
of the New York Post condemned Greens actions and opinions as reminiscent of Nazi Germany. After finishing his lengthy telephone interview with
the Grand Dragon, Cannon felt covered in filth: I hung up and took a bath.
I stayed in the tub a long time. Bradberry dismissed Greens objections as
meaningless hullabaloo and concluded that most Atlantans would accept the
games as exhibitions featuring major- and minor-league baseball teams without emphasis or concern that a couple of the big timers happen to be Negroes.
Bradberry added, Just for the record, I am just as much a Southerner as anybody.... But Providence willing, Im going to see those three Dodger-Cracker
games and am glad of the opportunity.
Bradberry judged popular opinion correctly. People in Atlanta overwhelmingly supported the games. The vast majority of the letters Earl Mann received
at his office approved of them; very few opposed. Unofficial and unscientific
surveys found broad popular support for the precedent-setting series. The
Associated Press chose fifty people from the Atlanta telephone directory at
random and asked their opinion of allowing Robinson and Campanella to play
against the Crackers at Ponce de Leon Park. Forty unhesitatingly approved,
four declared indifference, and only six expressed mild opposition. One man
proclaimed, If the Klan is against it, Im for it. Its a swell idea. I havent seen a
ball game since I was kid. Ill see one of these. The Atlanta Constitution queried ten people on the streets about the upcoming games. Eight wanted Rob-
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inson and Campanella to play, while only two opposed. By the end of January 1949, excitement about the Dodgers-Crackers contests had reached fever
pitch, and it remained high throughout the spring. Crackers Vice President
Jasper Donaldson and several sportswriters predicted that each game would
draw capacity crowds and that the exhibition scheduled for Sunday, April 10,
might attract the largest attendance in franchise history. Already the railroad
had arranged to add extra cars to the Nancy Hanks passenger train to bring
African American fans to Atlanta from Savannah. By the middle of February,
fans had besieged the Crackers front office with requests for tickets, and the
railroads had scheduled special trains to bring baseball enthusiasts to Atlanta
from all over Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama. By the end of March, African
Americans had deluged the office of Atlantas African American newspaper,
the Atlanta Daily World, with requests for tickets to the games. The Worlds
sports editor, Marion Jackson, believed that the series should be the biggest
sports event ever carded here during springtime.26
At the same time that fans were manifesting their excitement about the
games, a bill before the state legislature threatened to prohibit Robinson
and Campanella from competing against the Crackers in Atlanta. In midFebruary, four rural lawmakers introduced a bill in the Georgia House of
Representatives and the Georgia Senate that would make interracial athletic
events illegal. Atlanta newspapers editorialized against this proposed law. Perhaps remembering the failed bomb plots of the Columbians, Danforth sarcastically commented that this legal attempt to ban the games was better than
dynamiting the ballpark. In his regular column Jackson angrily interpreted
the bill as fighting the Civil War and Reconstruction all over again while the
rest of the nation moved forward. He warned that passage of the law would
have dire consequences for the state: The major league clubs will shun Georgia like it has the Black Plague.... It is quite sad that the world will move on
without us, and that in the backwash of its departure, we will fume and fuss
because people look at us as an alien and strange race for which there is no
hope. Yet Georgia is asking for it and unquestionably will get it. The World
reprinted most of Jacksons column as its lead editorial a few days later under
the title Dont Re-Fight the Civil War. Although the bill cleared the Senates
State of the Republic Committee and had the strong support of the Talmadge
administration, it failed to become law, removing the last legal obstacle to the
playing of the unprecedented series.27
With the holding of the games apparently assured, the Atlanta Daily World
shifted its focus from condemning efforts to prevent the games to making sure
that the games were played without incident. The papers staff expected fans
from all over the southeast and sportswriters from across the country to attend
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the series. Neither the city nor the state could afford any more negative publicity over racial issues. Jackson advised his readers, It behooves Atlanta to be
on its best behavior for it seems as though some folks are expecting a racistlike cause celebre over a routine three-day exhibition between the Crackers and the Dodgers. Jackson continued to emphasize this concern, writing two weeks later that the national press coverage of the Dodgers-Crackers
games would provide racists, rabble-rousers, crackpots, and troublemakers of
any stripe an excellent opportunity to bring national and even international
opprobrium and infamy to the city. He asked rhetorically, Wouldnt it be the
worst publicity in the world for any hate mongers in this state to make trouble for Jackie Robinson? Especially since he was born in Cairo, Ga. Wouldnt
the tabloids love this angle and the gazettes behind the Iron Curtain in Russia jump with glee? Less than a week later and only five days before the first
Dodgers-Crackers game, the sportswriter penned two separate articles in the
same issue informing his readers that the eyes of the nation would soon fix
on Atlanta and that all citizens had a duty to prevent untoward incidents. In
this same issue, the World published an editorial titled, Lets Hang Out the
Welcome Mat. It argued forcefully that the series offered Atlanta and Georgia
an excellent opportunity to overcome the negative press they had received in
recent years over racial issues. The games, the editorial opined, allow
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Georgia to dispel the fog of prejudice and intolerance which has surrounded this state.
It can give the lie to much of the publicity in the newspapers and magazines circulated over the nation which pictures Georgia as a backward state in which lynchings,
masked hoodlums, and lawbreakers abound and in which gleeful lawlessness is sanctioned with legal and governmental support.
A tolerant and sportsmanlike view of the two players can restore us unto the fellowship of states which make up the United Statesand in which we have developed
the Great American Pastime of organized baseball.
We in Atlanta and Georgia know that much of that which is written and said about
Georgia is untrue. We know that the Ku Klux Klan spirit is in the minority and that
the majority of citizens are fair and law abiding. Unfortunately the good is seldom
written and the evils of the state are glamorized in stories and featuresit is this in
which the characterizations of us have been obtained....
We welcome Jackie and Roy in Atlanta. We commend the management of the
Atlanta Crackers for giving us a chance to see them in baseball, sportsmanship, dignity, and in honor.28
Earl Mann, Branch Rickey, Police Chief Herbert Jenkins, and others
expected no disturbances or racial incidents at the games. Local and state
officials, sportswriters and editorialists, ordinary citizens, and the Crack-
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ers players all approved of them. Rickey predicted that the only mob Robinson might confront would consist of exuberant fans wanting his autograph.29
Dodgers radio announcer Ernie Harwell, who had grown up in Atlanta and
had a longstanding affiliation with the Crackers, thought the Klan was a gang
of publicity-seeking cowards who would not dare cause any trouble during
the series. On the three game days, Chief Jenkins stationed extra officers to
handle traffic outside the ballpark, but he was so convinced that no untoward incidents would occur inside Ponce de Leon Park that he assigned only
the regular detail of policemen to work the white grandstand. Because he and
Mann expected a large crowd of African Americans to attend the games, Jenkins assigned seven African American officers to patrol the segregated African American bleachers. They were not there to squelch enthusiasm or pride;
they were on hand for crowd control. The chief assured Mann that this police
presence was sufficient to handle any situation that might arise and that his
officers would prevent disorder. Mann, in turn, warned ticket purchasers
that the police would eject troublemakers and drunks from the ballpark. He
informed Jackson that out of the metro areas population of nearly six hundred thousand, fewer than eight had telephoned his office to object to integrated play. He received one such call while discussing traffic control with
Jenkins. Mann handed the telephone to the chief. After Jenkins identified
himself, the caller immediately hung up and the phone went dead. According to Jackson, who discussed arrangements for the visiting black press with
Mann at Ponce de Leon Park on April 6, the Crackers president insisted that
the game was a landmark in race relations but it had the complete acceptance
by the press and public.30
As the games approached, Samuel Green acknowledged that all legal attempts
to ban them had failed. Nevertheless, he persisted in his efforts to prohibit
integrated play at Ponce de Leon Park. The Klan leader now invoked southern
custom to prevent the Dodgers-Crackers series from occurring. On Friday,
April 8, the day of the first game, Green told a New York Times reporter, There
is no law against the game. But we have an unwritten law in the Souththe
Jim Crow law. The Atlanta Baseball Club is breaking down traditions of the
South and the club will pay for it. The Grand Dragon threatened a permanent
boycott of Crackers games, warning, 10,000 persons have signed a pledge
never to enter the Atlanta baseball park again if a game is played there by
players of mixed races. The Atlanta Baseball club will lose thousands of dollars if the game is played tonight as scheduled.31
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Several researchers have accepted the existence of this petition as fact.32

However, the only evidence for its existence are the statements Green made
to a New York Times reporter and the subsequent brief article based on those
statements on page thirteen of the April 9 issue of the Times. Since midJanuary, the three Atlanta dailiesas well as the Baltimore Afro-American, the
Pittsburgh Courier, and the Sporting Newshad provided extensive coverage
and commentary about the Dodgers-Crackers series and Greens opposition
to it. They would continue to do so for several days after the games had been
played. None of them ever mention this petition. Moreover, the three Atlanta
newspapers, especially the World, reported regularly on the various activities
of Green and the Klan. For example, on the same day that the Times carried
the article about the petition, the Atlanta Constitution published a story about
Greens speech scheduled for that evening in Langley, South Carolina. In its
April 10 issue, the World printed a front-page story about the Grand Dragons complaint that the US Navy and the Marine Corps barred Klan members from enlisting. But these two newspapers had nothing in them about
any Klan petition.33 If this petition had existed, it is inconceivable that the
three Atlanta dailies would have ignored it. In the forty-one years between
1949 and his death in 1990, Earl Mann never mentioned this petition to his
son Oreon or his wife Myra. Norman Macht, who worked for the Crackers
radio announcers in 1949 and as an office boy for Mann in 1950, also never
heard Mann refer to this petition. A teenager in 1949, Charles Pettett traveled by himself from nearby Marietta to Atlanta to attend one of the DodgersCrackers games; he insists that his parents would never have allowed him to
do so had they heard of any Klan petition.34 In 1952, Furman Bisher, sports
editor of the Atlanta Constitution, published a highly laudatory article about
Manns life and baseball career in a popular national magazine. Bisher began
the article praising Manns defiance of Green and the Klan in 1949, but he did
not mention any Klan petition.35 A petition signed by ten thousand persons
committed to a permanent boycott of Crackers games would have negatively
affected attendance at Ponce de Leon, especially in the early part of the 1949
season when the offensive events were still fresh in the minds of the signatories. In spite of inclement weather that cancelled four games and a crippling
strike by the citys transit workers, attendance at Crackers games soared in
April, May, and June. Atlanta baseball fans flocked to Ponce de Leon Park in
such great numbers that as of June 22, 1949, the Crackers were on pace to
establish new franchise and league attendance records.36 The evidence is not
conclusive, but it strongly suggests that the petition with ten thousand signatures existed only in Greens twisted imagination. A desperate man, Green in
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all likelihood invented the petition as a last-ditch effort to preserve a way of

life that was inevitably vanishing before his very eyes.
The threat of a boycotteven one based on a nonexistent petitioncould
have had serious repercussions for Mann and the Crackers. As the Crackers
president, Mann worked for the Coca-Cola Company, which owned the team,
and its chief executive officer, Robert W. Woodruff.37 Woodruff did not like
baseball and never attended Crackers games.38 The baseball team was an insignificant appendage of his vast soft drink empire.39 As a businessman, Woodruff s chief concern was selling soda and making a profit. On race issues, he
was the ultimate pragmatist: he opposed racism because it was bad for business. The Coca-Cola executive wanted people of all races to buy his product.
He could not afford to offend or alienate either, but especially whites, people
like Green and the putative ten thousand who signed the petition, because
they were the companys best customers. A white boycott of Coca-Cola was a
possibility as a backlash to the Dodgers-Crackers series.40 The easiest way for
Woodruff to solve this dilemma would have been to order Mann to cancel the
games. Woodruff had several opportunities to do so. Mann never met personally with Woodruff, but he had regular monthly meetings with Hughes Spalding, the chairman of the board of directors of the Atlanta Crackers, the senior
partner of the law firm that represented Coke, and a member of Woodruff s
inner circle of friends and confidants.41 Mann met with Spalding at the lawyers
office on the afternoon of April 8, 1949, the same day that the Grand Dragon
announced his boycott of Crackers games.42 To his credit, Woodruff did not
interfere, the games were played as scheduled, and they drew record crowds.
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Just prior to the first game of the series on the night of Friday, April 8, 1949,
Dodgers manager Burt Shotton gathered his players in the clubhouse and read
aloud a letter in which the author threatened to shoot Jackie Robinson if he
took the field against the Crackers. According to Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine, the atmosphere in the clubhouse became so tense that the players, who
were accustomed to rowdy and angry fans, were dumbstruck and numb. They
found the threat on their teammates life inexplicable; everyone was at a loss for
words and no one knew what to say or do. Outfielder Gene Hermanski broke
the tension in the morbid locker room with comic relief. He suggested that
all Dodgers players wear Robinsons uniform, number forty-two, so that the
assassin would not know whom to target. Robinson and the rest of the team
laughed heartily at this joke. The good humor continued when the Dodgers
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took the field for pregame warmups. Shortstop Pee Wee Reese asked Robinson
to move further away from him just in case the shooters aim was poor.43
The Dodgers and the Crackers played the three games before 49,309 fans, a
record for a three-game series in the Southern Association. Brooklyn won the
first contest, 63, and Atlanta prevailed in the next two, 91 and 84. Whatever fear or anxiety Robinson may have felt dissipated quickly. Before the first
game he told Associated Press sportswriter Joe Reichler, Believe me, this is
the most thrilling experience of my life. Its the most wonderful thing that ever
happened to me.... The strain is over now, but I dont mind telling you I was
plenty worried.... I didnt know what to expect.... Deep down in my heart,
though, I knew nothing would happen. Robinson played a full nine innings
in each of the three games and performed well at bat, in the field, and on the
bases. In the third game he stole home on the front end of a double steal,
one of the most rare and thrilling plays in baseball. Roy Campanella appeared
only in the first game of the series. He warmed up Dodgers pitchers between
innings in the other two contests. No one shot at Robinson (or Campanella),
and only two untoward incidents marred the three games. In the first game,
two men got into a scuffle over a foul ball hit into the grandstand down the
third-base line. During the fourth inning of the same game, two portly white
men engaged in fisticuffs behind the home plate. Two policemen immediately
separated and escorted the pugilists from the ballpark.44
In their accounts and descriptions of the series, eyewitnesses, researchers,
the Sporting News, and the three Atlanta newspapers emphasize the importance of the third game played in perfect baseball weather on Sunday afternoon, April 10, 1949. This game is significant and memorable because of the
record-setting attendance. It drew 25,221 fans, including 13,885 African Americans, to Ponce de Leon Park, which seated only 14,500. Baseball enthusiasts
had taken every seat in the ballpark long before game time. African American fans had occupied every inch of the left-field bleachers before noon, three
hours prior to the start of the game. Thousands more formed a deep semicircle in the outfield that extended from the left- to the right-field bleachers. Still
others perched on the branches of the stately magnolia tree that stood in deep
right-center field about 450 feet from home plate. At 2:30, standing-roomonly signs went up at all the entrances to the ballpark. Earl Mann estimated
that more than 5,000 persons turned away at the gate when they learned
that only standing room remained. This crowd was the largest ever to attend
a baseball game at Ponce de Leon, shattering the old record of 21,812 set on
opening day in 1948 when the Crackers hosted the Birmingham Barons.45 It
was also the largest in the history of the Southern Association. An excited Earl
Mann told a New York Times reporter, Nothing like this has ever happened
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before. He also commented that the throng was one of the most orderly he
had witnessed in his two decades as a minor-league executive. The Constitution and the World made the game and especially the record-breaking attendance front-page news. The Journal also emphasized the enormous crowd but
relegated its coverage to the sports pages. In addition to the usual game summary, the three Atlanta dailies and the Sporting News published large photos of
the jam-packed ballpark. The Journal printed a panoramic view of the crowd
that extended across the entire width of the newspaper. The World published
a panoramic photo that is even more dramatic: it is a shot of the crowd taken
five minutes before game time that stretches across the entire width of the top
of the front page. The caption eloquently and powerfully captures the vastness
of the crowd, its sense of anticipation and excitement, and the feeling that it
was about to watch history unfold: When this photo was made the left-field
and right-field bleachers were packed; thousands were lined from foul line to
foul line; hundreds were sitting and standing on the steep terrace behind center field; some were comfortably seated atop sign boards; and others were still
streaming into the park.46
Actually, the first game of the series, not the third game, made history. The
first game established an unequivocal acceptance of integrated play in Atlanta
and by extension the South. Bumper-to-bumper traffic choked Ponce de Leon
Avenue an hour before game time. An overflow crowd of 15,119, including
about 6,000 African Americans, attended the game.47 The contest also drew
the largest press corps to cover a baseball game in the history of Ponce de
Leon Park. The press coverage may have been the largest ever for a spring
exhibition game anywhere in the country. Sportswriters from the Pittsburgh
Courier, the Baltimore Afro-American, the Birmingham World, the Chicago
Defender, the Savannah Herald, and papers from New York, Brooklyn, and
Atlanta were on hand to witness and report on the first integrated game in the
city. Each of Georgias leading dailies, the Associated Press, the United Press,
and the International News Service dispatched representatives to report the
game. Time magazine recalled its correspondent from the prestigious Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia; Life magazine sent a photographer
and a feature writer; and Newsweek sent a reporter to cover the game. Many of
them expected Klan riots, mob violence, and a racial blood bath, but nothing
happened except a baseball game. The high drama of a confrontation between
Samuel Green and Earl Mann, Branch Rickey, and Jackie Robinson was over
before it even started. The only story from Ponce de Leon Park that night was
racial tolerance and goodwill. When Robinson came to bat in the first inning,
he received a thunderous ovation from African American and white fans alike
that quickly overwhelmed a few scattered, sophomoric boos. After he lashed
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a hard ground-ball single past the second baseman to drive in the first run
of the game, Robinson received another round of deafening applause and a
standing ovation. The reception, wrote sportswriter Sam Lacy of the Baltimore Afro-American, was something to behold; something that had to be
seen to be believed. When the top of the first inning ended, Robinson took
the field, and for the rest of the game, he was just the Dodgers second baseman. After the game, Robinson told sportswriter Joe Reichler, I wouldnt
change shoes with any man in the world.... Its great to feel that I am playing a part in breaking down the barriers against the people of my race. I was
afraid it would never be in my lifetime. But it did happen and it happened on
the night of Friday, April 8, 1949 at Ponce de Leon Park in the heart of Georgias capital. Atlanta, wrote Ed Danforth, double-crossed them. Not a cross
was burned. If any of Doc Greens boys were there, they left their nightshirts
at home and paid $1.10 for a grandstand seat. Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella... were not molested. They... promptly were put in their places at
second base and catcher respectively. Marion Jackson interpreted the game
similarly: The fansall Georgiansforgot that Negroes and whites were
competing for the first time in Georgia and rejoiced in the Great American
Pastime of Baseball. Lacy agreed, writing, The Klan and its hooded despots
were never more thoroughly repudiated. When the game ended and fans left
the ballpark to return home, they felt no contamination after having watched
two Negroes play baseball with and against white people. The Atlanta players
didnt feel any either.48
The second game, played the following afternoon, attracted a crowd of
18,969 fans and built on the foundation of racial tolerance established the previous night. Interviewed after the game, both Robinson and Roy Campanella
told a Constitution reporter that the best treatment they had received from
whites came in Atlanta. Dodgers radio announcer Ernie Harwell agreed, commenting that whites in Atlanta gave Robinson louder and longer applause
than anywhere else. Before and after the game, white children besieged Robinson for his autograph. The Constitution and the Baltimore Afro-American
thought these incidents were so poignant that they published photographs
of them in their sports pages. The only editorial about the series written in
Atlantas white dailies appeared in the Constitution following the second game.
The editors emphasized the large crowds and lauded the orderly behavior of
both white and African American fans at the first two games. They aimed an
especially sharp barb at the four state legislators who had attempted to ban the
series back in February. No law, the editorial opined, is needed to protect
us. Although the attendance at the second game at Ponce de Leon Park was
smaller than Earl Mann and several sportswriters had predicted, thousands
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of people watched the game on the new medium of television and even more
listened to it on the radio. This vast exposure to integrated play was, according to Marion Jackson, a democratic gesture [that] meant something towards
tolerance in this state.49 The first two gameswith their absence of violence;
their large, orderly, and enthusiastic crowds; and the exuberant and gracious
reception the fans gave to Jackie Robinsonmade possible the record-setting
attendance of the third game.
The Dodgers-Crackers series had far-reaching consequences for the city of
Atlanta, the African American community, Earl Mann, and organized baseball in the South. The press lauded Atlanta for its racial tolerance, repairing
the soiled image that it had garnered following World War II. In his first regular column after the games, Marion Jackson argued that the record-breaking
crowds that attended the series and the lack of untoward incidents struck a
powerful blow for racial harmony and democracy. He compared the citys and
the states virulent racial hatred of the immediate postwar years with the racial
goodwill displayed during the games: The State of Georgia which has often
been the testing ground for new schemes of bigotry and intolerance likewise
did a complete about face in welcoming home Georgia-born Jackie Robinson. Jackson returned to this theme in a column penned nine days later. The
only good publicity that Georgia has sent to the nation in recent years, he
wrote, was the news of Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella in action with
the Brooklyn Dodgers against the Atlanta Crackers. The Sporting News, baseballs bible, devoted several pages to the story that Georgia had rejoined the
United States in fellowship and Democracy in welcoming the two Negro stars.
Likewise the nations newspapers devoted reams of copy and space to the story.
This ought to be a lesson to Georgia!!! In the only editorial published in its
April 14 issue, the World praised the people of the city and the state for their
spirit of interracial tolerance. Fans at Ponce de Leon Park treated Robinson
and his teammates with sportsmanship and respect. The series, the editorial
concluded, was played without incident and Atlanta and all Georgia are better for it in the eyes of the nation. Lacy attended all three games in Atlanta,
and he too emphasized the shift in racial attitudes from bigotry to tolerance. In
the Sporting News, Lacy eloquentlyalmost poeticallyinformed the nations
baseball aficionados, The State of Georgia accepted its inter-racial baptism
with grace and bearing. Immersed in the waters of liberalism, its head anointed
with the oil of democracy, Georgia came up smiling. The Great experiment is
over and none of the principals is any the worse for wear.50
Robinsons appearance in Atlanta received widespread publicity in the
nations newspapers. A resident of Seattle, Washington, named Lloyd Thorpe
was so moved by the game accounts and descriptions in his local paper that
20
he wrote a letter to the Constitution. Thorpe believed that the racial tolerance
Atlanta fans demonstrated during the games set an example for the rest of the
country to emulate:
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From this far corner of America I would like to pay my respects to the broad-minded
sportsmanship of Atlanta citizens for the reception they accorded baseball player
Jackie Robinson on the occasion of his recent appearance in your city.
Our local press gave prominent space to the superbly written wire story which very
fittingly, it seemed to me, to place but minor interest on the game and instead dealt
with great understanding of the significance of Robinsons being there.
Certainly the ultimate solution to Americas great problem draws nearer more
quickly and with less pain when people act as did Atlanta men and women in your
ballpark that day.51
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The games electrified the African American community in Atlanta and

elsewhere. According to Jackson, the Dodgers-Crackers series was the biggest
sports story in the nations African American newspapers in the winter and
spring of 1949. Only the inauguration of President Harry Truman received
more coverage. As Jackson traveled around the state attending high school
and college athletic events, people bombarded him with questions about the
games. The Atlanta sportswriter observed that by early April, African American sports fans throughout the South were so excited about the games that
they talked nonstop about them. Atlantas African Americans reacted to the
series in the same way that they had responded to the integration of the citys
police department a year earlier. They came [to the games] dressed in their
finest wear and created in the ballparks colored section a gala, a picnic, a carnival, and a party atmosphere all in one. It was indeed a weekend to remember. Robinson replaced heavyweight champion Joe Louis as the African
American communitys sports hero, and baseball replaced boxing as the communitys favorite sport. Robinson became our Jackie who owned that spring
weekend of 1949 and won the hearts of black Atlanta. Moreover, the games
set a new standard for what African Americans in Atlanta could achieve. During the mayors race that summer, John Wesley Dobbs, one of the foremost
leaders of Atlantas African American community, demanded the hiring of
African American firemen and the construction of an African American fire
station. He made this demand in front of a large African American audience
and the two candidates for the office. Dobbs told them that if Robinson could
draw the largest crowd ever to Ponce de Leon Park for a baseball game, then
African Americans could successfully fight fires.52
Mann emerged from the games with his prestige greatly enhanced. Because
he had defied Green, he earned a national reputation as a prejudice buster.
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Writing in the Sporting News, Dan Parker of the New York Daily Mirror extolled
his courage and fortitude: If more people told the Ku Klux Klan where to get
off as bluntly as President Earl Mann of the Atlanta Baseball Club did, the bedsheet braves would all scurry back into their rat holes. In the same issue of
the Sporting News, the lead editorial lauded Mann for his resolute determination to do what was right in the face of grave adversity. Baseball had benefited
from his judgment and wisdom, and Mann, the editorial concluded, should be
in the major leagues.53 The Crackers president also won the accolades of the
Atlanta Daily World. In an editorial, the newspaper held him up as an example for church leaders to follow on racial issues. In defying the Klan, Mann
showed great courage and leadership, qualities that they too often lacked.54
The Dodgers-Crackers series in Atlanta cleared a path for integrated games
in the other cities of the Southern Association and the smaller towns of the
South. Atlanta was the major city of the region. It was the headquarters of
the Klan. Moreover, Atlanta was the undisputed baseball capital of the South.
Under Manns leadership the Atlanta Crackers became the premier minorleague organization in the South and one of the finest in the country. Between
1934 and 1948, his teams won six pennants, more than any other club in organized baseball except the New York Yankees.55 Manns Crackers led the Association in attendance every year from 1934 to 1947; in 1948 the team finished
second. In 1935 Atlanta became the first team in the history of the Southern
Association to attract more than 300,000 paid admissions. Atlantas attendance
of 330,795 was the highest in the minor leagues that year. The Crackers surpassed the 300,000 mark the following year and again led the minor leagues
in attendance. Atlanta was the first city in the history of the minors to draw
a two-season total of more than 600,000 spectators. In 1935 Atlantas attendance surpassed that of five major-league teams and in 1936 it exceeded that of
three. After his first season running the Crackers in 1934, Mann turned a profit
every year between 1934 and 1948, with the exception of 1942 and 1943, when
World War II forced many minor-league teams and leagues to cease operations
altogether. Twice Mann won the coveted Sporting News Minor League Executive of the Year Award. Only one other minor-league executive won this award
twice, and only one other Southern Association executive won it between 1934
and 1949. By April 1949, Mann had earned a reputation as a baseball genius
and as one of the most talented and successful minor-league operators in the
country. With this recognition and unparalleled record of achievement both
on and off the field, Mann and the Atlanta Crackers exercised paramount
influence over the rest of the Southern Association. Because Mann and Atlanta
had approved integrated play, integrated play was right for the Association and
for the South. The fact is that when the liberal forces in Atlanta, stronghold of
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the Ku Klux Klan, defeated the white shirters who wanted to bar Jackie Robinson from appearing there with Brooklyn last spring, wrote Dan Parker in
the Sporting News, a powerful blow was struck against the color line in sports.
The whole South seems to have regarded the issue as settled by the Atlanta
case.... It would seem that the racial issue as it affects baseball is practically
dead in the South. Indeed, between 1950 and the end of the spring exhibition
season in 1954, every city in the Southern Association, including Birmingham
and Little Rock, had accepted integrated baseball games. During these years,
Southern Association cities hosted fifty-five mixed-race games, all without
incident. Almost four hundred thousand fans attended them, voting with their
feet and their money in favor of integrated play.56
Green did not live to see this phenomenon. He suffered a massive heart
attack and died at his home on August 18, 1949. Mann had purchased the
Crackers from the Coca-Cola Company twelve days earlier, and he continued to operate the club successfully and profitably for another decade.57 By
bringing the integrated Dodgers to Atlanta for a series of games against the
Crackers at Ponce de Leon Park, Mann engineered a revolution that reverberated throughout organized baseball in the South. He broke decisively with the
decades-old custom of Jim Crow, shattering a tradition that spread inexorably
throughout the region. The Dodgers-Crackers games in 1949 marked the end
of an era and the beginning of a new one for Atlanta and southern baseball.
Notes
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1. Desk diary entry of Hughes Spalding, April 8, 1949, Hughes Spalding Papers
[hereafter HSP] MS 1413, box 18, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of GeorgiaAthens. Only rarely did Spalding add notes or commentary in his
desk diary, and usually they concern his family life. Unfortunately, he did not summarize his meeting with Earl Mann on April 8.
2. This paragraph is a synthesis of many secondary works. The following were the
most useful: Frederick Allen, Atlanta Rising: The Invention of an International City,
19461996 (Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1996); Frederick Allen, Secret Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship Made Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product
in the World (New York: Harper Business, 1994); Andy Ambrose, Atlanta, New Georgia Encyclopedia, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/Cities
Counties/Cities&id=h-2207; David Harmon, Beneath the Image of the Civil Rights
Movement and Race Relations: Atlanta, Georgia, 19461981 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1996); George Lankevich, Atlanta: A Chronological and Documentary History
(Dobbs Ferry NY: Oceana Publications, 1978); Harold Martin, Atlanta & Environs: A
Chronicle of Its People and Events, vol. 3, Years of Change and Challenge, 19401976
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987); Harold Martin, William Berry Hartsfield:
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Mayor of Atlanta (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978); Paul Miller, ed., Atlanta,
Capital of the South, American Guide Series (New York: Oliver Durrell, 1949); Mark
Pendergrast, For God, Country & Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It, 2nd ed. (New York: Basic Books,
1999); Welcome South Brother: Fifty Years of Broadcasting at WSB, Atlanta, Georgia
(Atlanta: Cox Broadcasting, 1974); and all population statistics are from http://www
.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076.twos0076.html.
3. Ronald Bayor, Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 7.
4. In 1877 the enactment of a poll tax drastically reduced the number of black voters in Georgia. In the 1890s the state Democratic Party adopted a white-only primary
that barred blacks from choosing the partys nominees for office. In 1908 a constitutional amendment completed the disenfranchisement of the states black population.
See Harmon, Beneath the Image, 911; Bayor, Race and the Shaping, 6; Alton Hornsby,
Black Power in Dixie: A Political History of Blacks in Atlanta (Gainesville: University
of Florida Press, 2009), 1272 passim; and Kevin Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the
Making of Modern Conservatism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 2021.
5. Lorraine Spritzer, The Belle of Ashby Street: A Political Biography of Helen Douglas Mankin (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1982), 6473.
6. Spritzer, The Belle of Ashby Street, xiii.
7. Spritzer, The Belle of Ashby Street, 74, 85, 100101. Talmadges disparaging references to Ashby Street were to the largest black voting precinct in Atlanta, Precinct 3-B,
which was located at the E. R. Carter Elementary School on Ashby Street. Because
of a huge turnout of black voters, this precincts votes were counted last in the 1946
election. When the count began, Mankin trailed her chief opponent, Tom Camp, by
about 150 votes. In this precinct, Mankin received 963 votes to Camps 8, giving her
the election by about 800 votes. See Spritzer, The Belle of Ashby Street, 72. Although
I have relied primarily on Spitzers work, several other books discuss Mankins victory and its racial significance. None, however, are as detailed or insightful as Spitzer,
a journalist, who knew and befriended Mankin. See Allen, Atlanta Rising, 17; Bayor,
Race and the Shaping, 23; Harmon, Beneath the Image, 2022; Hornsby, Black Power,
6970; Kruse, White Flight, 3233; and Gary Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet
Auburn: The Saga of Two Families and the Making of Atlanta (New York: Scribner,
1996), 15053. For more on Talmadge and his 1946 campaign for governor, see William
Anderson, The Wild Man from Sugar Creek: The Political Career of Eugene Talmadge
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1975), 21539.
8. Allen, Atlanta Rising, 8; Ambrose, Atlanta; Bayor, Race and the Shaping, 18;
Harmon, Beneath the Image, 2224; Hornsby, Black Power, xvxvi, 7072; Kruse,
White Flight, 33; Martin, William Berry Hartsfield, 50; Pomerantz, Where Peachtree
Meets, 152. Because of the end of the white-only democratic primary, about one hun-
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dred thousand African Americans in Georgia had registered to vote by the summer of
1946. See Numan Bartley, The Creation of Modern Georgia, 2nd ed. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990), 201; and Wallace Warren, The Best People in Town Wont
Talk: The Moores Ford Lynching of 1946 and Its Cover-Up, in Georgia in Black and
White: Explorations in Race Relations of a Southern State, 18651950, ed. John Inscoe
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994), 268.
9. Steven Weisenburger, The Columbians, Inc.: A Chapter of Racial Hatred from
the Post-World War South, Journal of Southern History 69 (2003): 833. See also Stetson Kennedy, Southern Exposure (New York: Doubleday, 1946), 162263 passim.
10. On the Klan and Green, see Allen, Atlanta Rising, 910, 1819; Anderson, Wild
Man, 22425; David Chalmers, Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan,
3rd ed. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1981), 325, 329, 332; Stetson Kennedy, The
Klan Unmasked (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990), originally published
as I Rode with the Klan (London: Arco Publishers, 1954), 11, 16, 26, 39, 4445, 118; Kennedy, Southern Exposure, 212; Kruse, White Flight, 5051; Wyn Wade, The Fiery Cross:
The Ku Klux Klan in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 27679; and
Weisenburger, Columbians, 835.
11. J. Wayne Dudley, Hate Organizations of the 1940s: The Columbians, Inc.,
Phyon 42 (1981): 264. Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the Klan, won the confidence of its
members, and joined the whipping squad. He describes in excruciatingly vivid detail
the murder of the cab driver in The Klan Unmasked, 10812. The quotation is from
Kennedy, The Klan Unmasked, 117. See also the Baltimore Afro-American [hereafter
BAA], January 22, 1949.
12. Stetson Kennedy also infiltrated the Columbians. The quotations in this paragraph are from his The Klan Unmasked, 122, 123. See also the photograph of Kennedy in his Columbian uniform in The Klan Unmasked, viii. On the Columbians, see
Dudley, Hate Organizations, 26669; Kennedy, The Klan Unmasked, 12026; Kruse,
White Flight, 4248; Robert Patrick, A Nail in the Coffin of Racism: The Story of
the Columbians, Georgia Historical Quarterly 85 (2001): 24656; Spitzer, The Belle of
Ashby Street, 11726; and Weisenburger, Columbians, 82126.
13. Allen, Atlanta Rising, 12; Anderson, Wild Man, 232; Bartley, The Creation of Modern Georgia, 203; Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 329; Kennedy, The Klan Unmasked,
64, 129, 161; Kruse, White Flight, 21; Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets, 153; Spitzer,
The Belle of Ashby Street, 9596, 105; and Wade, The Fiery Cross, 277. Mankin loved
baseball and appointed Mann to her 1946 reelection committee. In 1948 Mann hired
her as a scout, explaining, Mrs. Mankin is a baseball fan and sees games nearly every
day. She already has given us tips on good players. She deserves the proper credentials. A year later, she joined the National Association of Professional Baseball Scouts.
Manns hiring of Mankin was not a publicity stunt. As a teenager, her primary interest
was baseball. She was a skilled player and was the only girl on her neighborhood team.
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Mankin was extremely knowledgeable of baseball, and Mann valued her judgment.
Moreover, throughout her life, Mankin was a strong-willed, outspoken, intelligent,
and independent woman who would not have tolerated such patronizing. Spitzer, The
Belle of Ashby Street, 10, 1213, 45, 5455, 94, 150; clipping from Atlanta Constitution,
May 30, 1948, Atlanta Cracker Scrapbook, Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, Macon; and
unidentified clipping, August 14, 1949, Atlanta Cracker Scrapbook, Georgia Sports
Hall of Fame, Macon.
14. Dudley, Hate Organizations, 263.
15. The best and most thorough study of the Moores Ford Bridge Massacre is Laura
Wexler, Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America (New York: Scribner,
2003). I have relied primarily on this book. The quotations come from Wexler, Fire in
a Canebrake, 81, 92. See also BAA, January 22, 1949; Allen, Atlanta Rising, 1516; Anderson, Wild Man, 233; Harmon, Beneath the Image, 53; Martin, Atlanta and Environs,
12425; and Warren, Best People, 26688. The FBI reopened the case in 2006. To
date, the guilty have not been identified.
16. The most thorough treatment of this incident is Harold Henderson, M. E.
Thompson and the Politics of Succession, in Georgia Governors in an Age of Change:
From Ellis Arnall to George Busby, ed. Harold Henderson and Gary Roberts (Athens:
University of Georgia Press, 1988), 4965. See also Allen, Atlanta Rising, 1417; Bartley, The Creation of Modern Georgia, 2035; and Scott Buchanan, Three Governors
Controversy, New Georgia Encyclopedia, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge
/Article.jsp?path=/GovernmentPolitics/Politics/PoliticalIssuesandControversies&i
d=h-591; Timothy Crimmins and Anne Farrisee, Democracy Restored: A History of the
Georgia State Capitol (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2007), 11723. I would like
to thank my friend and colleague Paul Hudson for showing me this book.
17. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 329; Wade, The Fiery Cross, 283, 289; and BAA,
January 22, 1949.
18. Because of the restrictions placed on the African American officers, Hornsby describes them as only quasi-policemen (Black Power, 77). Charles Rosenzweig
argues that they were full policemen from the moment the city hired them (The Issue
of Employing Black Policemen in Atlanta, Georgia [masters thesis, Emory University, 1980], 7172). This work is the only study devoted exclusively to the integration of
Atlantas police force. Allen concludes, By the standards of the day, they enjoyed near
parity [with white policemen](Atlanta Rising, 35).
19. Hornsby, Black Power, 78. According to Hornsby, Hartsfield made this statement in a ceremony at the black Greater Mount Calvary Baptist Church in front of
a large audience of African Americans. According to Pomerantz (Where Peachtree
Meets, 163), Hartsfield made this statement only to the eight black police officers in
the basement of the Butler Street YMCA. Hartsfield then thrust his fist in the air for
emphasis. None of the other works cited in note 20 mention this incident at all.
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20. In writing this paragraph, I have relied primarily on Rosenzweig, Black Policemen. See also Allen, Atlanta Rising, 35; Raymond Andrews, Once Upon a Time in
Atlanta, The Chattahoochee Review 18 (1998): 85; Harmon, Beneath the Image, 24
34; Hornsby, Black Power, 7579; Herbert Jenkins, Forty Years on the Force: 19321972;
Herbert Jenkins Reminisces on His Career with the Atlanta Police Department (Atlanta:
Emory University Center for Research in Social Change, 1973); 4453; Jenkins, Keeping the Peace: A Police Chief Looks at His Job (New York: Harper, 1970), 2432; Kruse,
White Flight, 3334; Martin, William Berry Hartsfield, 5152; and Pomerantz, Where
Peachtree Meets, 16163. On the significance of the integration of the police department to Atlantas black community, see also the illustration by Benny Andrews of an
African American officer in Raymond Andrews, Once Upon a Time, 87. This gigantic officer towers over a large crowd of blacks lined up to purchase tickets at the Royal
Movie Theater. Other than his enormity, the most prominent feature of the officer is
his oversized pistol. The two people at the front of the line look approvingly at this
imposing figure of public safety and authority. Award-winning novelist Raymond
Andrews moved from his native Madison, Georgia, to Atlanta in December 1949 when
he was fifteen years old. He lived at the Butler Street YMCA just off Auburn Avenue,
the political, economic, social, and cultural heart of black Atlanta. His aunt, whom
he visited often, lived in a duplex next door to one of Atlantas first black police officers. The prospect of seeing an African American policeman left the young Andrews
awestruck: Never before had I seen a colored policeman.... A colored policeman living right next door to my aunt and cousin! Lord, Atlanta! (Andrews, Once Upon a
Time, 22; italics in the original).
21. Sporting News [hereafter SN], February 1, 1950; SN, January 26, 1949; New
York Times [hereafter NYT], January 14, 1949; Atlanta Journal [hereafter AJ], January 14, 1949; Atlanta Constitution [hereafter AC], January 15, 1949; and Charlie Brown
with James C. Bryant, Charlie Brown Remembers Atlanta: Memoirs of a Public Man
(Columbia SC: Bryan Company, 1982), 15965. On Hartsfields dislike of baseball, see
Furman Bisher, Miracle in Atlanta: The Atlanta Braves Story (Cleveland: World Publishing, 1966), p. 8; Brown, Charlie Brown Remembers, 286; and Earl Mann to John
Mullen, May 8, 1959, Robert W. Woodruff Papers [hereafter RWP] MS 10, box 12, folder
5, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
22. AC, January 15, 1949; AJ, January 15, 18, 1949; NYT, January 15, 18, 1949; Atlanta
Daily World [hereafter ADW], January 16, 25, 1949; SN, January 26, 1949; Memphis Press
Scimitar, January 18, 1949; BAA, January 22, 1949; and Pittsburgh Courier [hereafter
PC], January 22, 29, 1949.
23. AJ, January 1415, 1949; NYT, January 15, 1949; ADW, January 16, 1949; AC, January 15, 1949; SN, January 26, 1949; Memphis Press Scimitar, January 15, 1949; BAA, January 22, 1949; and PC, January 22, 1949.
24. NYT, January 16, 1949; ADW, January 20, 1949; BAA, January 22, 1949; and PC.
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January 22, 1949. Articles in these papers quote statements supporting the games from
the two Atlanta papers; the two Macon, Georgia, papers; and the Charlotte and Ashville, North Carolina, papers; and Greenville, South Carolina, papers.
25. SN, February 9, 1949; NYT, January 18, 1949; and AC, January 17, 1949. On Tarver
as a journalist, see Leonard Teel, Ralph Emerson McGill: Voice of the Southern Conscience (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2001), 172; and AJ, January 16, 1949.
26. SN, January 26, 1949; NYT, January 18, 1949; AJ, January 30, 1949; ADW, February
16, 1949; ADW, March 29, 1949; and BAA, January 29, 1949.
27. AC, February 1517, 1949; AJ, February 1516, 1949; ADW, February 1617, 20,
1949; and Jonathan Mercantini, Coming Home: Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers
Face the Crackers, Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South 41 (1997): 910.
28. ADW, March 11, 17, 24, 29, 31, 1949; and ADW, April 1, 3, 1949.
29. Rickeys prediction was correct. The AC of April 10, 1949; the ADW of April 13,
1949; the SN of April 20, 1949; and the BAA of April 23, 1949, have photos of white children besieging Robinson for his autograph at Ponce de Leon Park. See also the PC,
April 16, 1949; Jackie Robinson with Alfred Duckett, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography (New York: Putnam, 1972; Hopewell NJ: Echo Press, 1995), 81. Citations refer
to the Echo Press edition.
30. ADW, March 31, 1949; ADW, April 1, 7, 12, 1949; BAA, April 9, 16, 1949; Arnold
Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A Biography (New York: Knopf, 1997), 208; Robinson, I
Never Had It Made, 81; Jenkins, Forty Years on the Force, 108; Norman Macht e-mail to
the author, October 1, 2010; AJ, April 9, 1949; and interview with Oreon Mann, March
10, 2011. Although Oreon was only seven years old in 1949, he said in this interview
that this story was one of his fathers favorites and that he never tired of telling it.
On Ernie Harwells background, see Curt Smith, Voices of the Game: The Acclaimed
Chronicle of Baseball Radio and Television Broadcastingfrom 1921 to the Present,
updated ed. (New York: Simon Schuster, 1992), 23032.
31. NYT, April 9, 1949.
32. Jules Tygiel, Baseballs Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 265; Mercantini, Coming Home, 15; and Norman Macht, Memories of a Minor-League Traveler, in The National Pastime: Baseball in the Peach State, ed. Ken Fenster and Wynn Montgomery (Cleveland: Society for
American Baseball Research, 2010), 64.
33. AC, April 4, 9, 1949; ADW, February 11, 1949; ADW, April 5, 6, 10, 1949; and AJ,
April 8, 1949.
34. Interview with Oreon Mann, March 10, 2011; interview by telephone with Myra
Mann Morrison, October 30, 2010; Norman Macht e-mail to the author, October 1,
2010; and interview by telephone with Charles Pettett, July 26, 2011. Unfortunately,
when Loran Smith of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame interviewed Mann in the late
1970s or early 1980s, he did not ask the former Crackers president about the 1949
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Dodgers-Crackers games. A videotape and typescript of this interview is at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Archives, Macon.
35. Furman Bisher, They Call Him a Genius in Dixie, Saturday Evening Post, June
28, 1952, 3233, 68, 70, 74.
36. Weather information and attendance data are from the AC. On the recordsetting attendance pace, see the AC, June 22, 1949.
37. Robert Woodruff was more than just the leading businessman in the city. He
was the most influential man in Atlanta for decades. Mayor Hartsfield never made an
important decision concerning city affairs without first consulting Woodruff and getting his approval. Woodruff once remarked, Bill [Hartsfield] thinks he runs the city.
Hell its my city. Allen, Atlanta Rising, 29; Allen, Secret Formula, 28889; and Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets, 207.
38. Every year from 1935 to 1949, Mann sent Woodruff the number one season pass
and pleaded with him to attend Crackers games. Woodruff never did. Woodruff did
not even bother to sign his pass for 1949. Manns letters to Woodruff and many of
Woodruff s passes are in RWP, box 12, folder 5. Woodruff s preferred sports were golf,
horseback riding, poker, gin rummy, and especially hunting. Allen, Secret Formula,
18889, 27981; and Pendergrast, For God and Country, 156.
39. Even so, Woodruff wanted the team to make a profit. He once chided Mann for
giving out too many free passes because they reduced paid admissions. Robert Woodruff to Hughes Spalding, April 14, 1939, RWP, box 12, folder 5.
40. Allen, Secret Formula, 7, 285290.
41. On the relationship between Woodruff and Spalding, see Allen, Secret Formula,
268, 272, 29394.
42. Desk diary entry of Hughes Spalding, April 8, 1949, HSP, box 18. The entries
for April 911 contain no reference to the Dodgers-Crackers games. Unlike Woodruff,
Spalding liked baseball and attended games frequently.
43. Carl Erskine with Burton Rocks, What I Learned from Jackie Robinson: A Teammates Reflections on and off the Field (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 2022; Smith,
Voices of the Game, 248; and Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer (New York: Harper
and Row, 1972; New York: Harper Perennial, 1998), 325. Citations refer to the Harper
Perennial edition. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets, 18283.
44. Nashville Banner, April 9, 1949; AC, April 911, 1949; AJ, April 911, 1949; ADW,
April 910, 12, 1949; and SN, April 20, 1949. The two incidents are mentioned in the
AC, April 9, 1949; and the fistfight behind home plate is mentioned in the PC, April 16,
1949; but these sources do not indicate the cause of the fight.
45. The previous record for an exhibition game was 21,642, established in 1946
when the Crackers hosted the New York Yankees. The largest crowd to attend any
event at Ponce de Leon Park numbered nearly 40,000 and came for the Baptist World
Alliance in 1939.
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46. AC, April 11, 1949; AJ, April 11, 1949; NYT, April 11, 1949; SN, April 20, 1949;
and ADW, April 12, 1949. Some newspapers in Southern Association cities limited
their coverage of the series to the third game. See Memphis Press Scimitar, April 11,
1949; and New Orleans Times Picayune, April 11, 1949. For researchers, see Mercantini, Coming Home, 1215; Macht, Memories of a Minor-League Traveler, 6465;
Tygiel, Baseballs Great Experiment, 267; Tim Darnell, Southern Yankees: The Story of
the Atlanta Crackers (Atlanta: self-published, 1995), 1089. For eyewitnesses, see Clyde
King with Burton Rocks, A Kings Legacy: The Clyde King Story (Lincolnwood IL: Masters Press, 1999), 67. See also Burt Shottons comments to a banquet audience in Miami
in early 1950: Ill never forget that crowd. The normal seating capacity of the park was
15,000, and how they got 25,000 into it I dont know.... It was a great sight and so far
as crowds are concerned that turnout gave me my biggest thrill (SN, February 1, 1950).
47. The exact number of African Americans who attended this game is not known.
John Bradberry estimates it at 6,000; Ed Danforth and Marion Jackson give 6,419, but
they do not give a source for that exact figure; the NYT gives 5,000; and the PC of April
16 says at least 5,000.
48. ADW, April 3, 7, 9, 12, 1949; AC, April 9, 1949; AJ, April 9, 1949; Nashville Banner,
April 9, 1949; SN, April 20, 1949; and BAA, April 16, 1949.
49. AC, April 10, 1949; AJ, April 10, 1949; ADW, April 10, 1949; and BAA, April 23,
1949. On March 20, 1949, Mann sold the rights to televise Crackers home games to
WSB-TV. Four exhibition games that spring, two against the Philadelphia Phillies and
two against the Detroit Tigers, had already aired on television. See clipping from AJ,
March 20, 1949, Atlanta Cracker Scrapbook, Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, Macon; and
AC, March 20, 1949.
50. ADW, April 12, 14, 21, 1949; and SN, April 20, 1949.
51. AC, April 24, 1949.
52. ADW, January 21, 1949; ADW, March 11, 1949; ADW, April 5, 1949; Andrews, Once
Upon a Time, 86, italics in the original; Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets, 185.
53. In its October 1950 issue, Baseball Digest reported that Mann might become
the next general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the position that went to Branch
Rickey the following month (74).
54. SN, January 26, 1949; ADW, April 14, 1949; Bisher, They Call Him a Genius, 32,
70.
55. In 1944 Atlanta had the best overall season record, but finished second in both
halves of a split season, making Atlanta ineligible for the championship playoff. In the
Southern Association, Nashville won four pennants during this period. The Scranton, Pennsylvania, entry in the Class A Eastern League won five pennants. No other
minor-league team in the country won more than four.
56. Charles Hurth, Baseball Records, The Southern Association, 19011957 (New
Orleans: The Southern Association, 1957), 78, 134; Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff,
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eds., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd ed (Durham: Baseball America,
1997), 279377, 659; SN, September 5, 19, 1935; SN, October 29, 1936; SN, December 31,
1936; Earl Mann to Robert Woodruff, April 12, 1937, RWP, box 12, folder 5. The loss
in 1934 was 40% less than the loss in 1933, and the combined losses in 1942 and 1943
were 17% less than the loss in 1934 (statement of selected financial data of the Atlanta
Crackers, 19321948, RWP, box 12, folder 5). SN, February 22, 1950; Bisher, They Call
Him a Genius, 70; and Kenneth R. Fenster, Earl Mann, Nat Peeples, and the Failed
Attempt of Integration in the Southern Association, NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture 12 (2004): 8587.
57. AJ, August 18, 1949; resolution of the Board of Directors of the Coca-Cola Company authorizing the sale of the Atlanta Crackers, August 6, 1949, RWP, box 12, folder
5; desk diary entries of Hughes Spalding, August 5, 6, 1949, HSP, box 18; stock purchase
and transfer form, August 6, 1949; personal papers of Oreon Mann, kindly shown to
me by Mr. Mann; AJ, August 7, 1949; and AC, August 7, 1949.
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Rooting for the Clothes

The Materialization of Memory in Baseballs Throwback Uniforms
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Stephen Andon
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At their essence, sports jerseys function as symbolic materializations that

foster a constitutive identity and unity between fans, players, and cities or
regions. When new teams are created, often the team logo and uniform are the
first manifestations of the teams identity. These designs are so important that
many franchises consult with professional marketing firms on new designs
intended to connect with new fans and maximize merchandizing streams.1
Furthermore, when teams acquire new players, the first act as a new member
of the team often involves a ceremonial press conference that is opened by the
new player donning the teams jersey (a similar practice takes place during
amateur drafts for new players). The jersey thus signifies both an identity and
a membership while existing as a transformative object with its own magical provenance: the wearer, whether on the field or off, defers their individual
identity for the sake of a team. As such, jerseys are constantly put in place
as performance pieces, as when uniforms are raised to arena rafters to give
enduring presence to their greatness, or when city statues are draped in team
jerseys to unite the citizenry. These uniforms come to symbolize more than
just a team; they can become transcendent icons that represent a city, even a
country, and its enduring memories.
In the United States, the most enduring uniforms belong to the nations
pastime: baseball. With several teams founding their identities in uniform
designs established almost a century ago, the symbolic power of uniforms has
reached unprecedented levels in a society that is enamored with nostalgia.
Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises have sought to exploit this infatuation by unveiling and donning throwback or retro uniforms on a regular
basis. These garments mimic the uniform histories of earlier teams, utilizing
new fabrics and sewing techniques to meet contemporary expectations for
uniforms while appearing as a facsimile of a bygone era. As proof of the popularity of throwbacks during the past decade, every MLB franchisesave the
Colorado Rockieshas deployed some version at least once.
Andon: Rooting for the Clothes
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Given that baseball uniforms first appeared in the 1840s, MLB clubs have an
almost infinite number of throwback uniforms to delve through. With such a
library of offerings, the commemorative and nostalgic functions that throwbacks provide is occasionally placed in contrast with histories that reopen
divisive franchise relocations. With uniforms serving as the materialization of
this divisiveness, multiple teams throughout the major leagues have employed
throwback jerseys that highlight their clashing histories. Specifically, the Seattle Mariners recently wore throwbacks to the Seattle Pilots, a franchise that
moved to Milwaukee in 1970 and became the Milwaukee Brewers. Conversely,
the Brewers have also worn throwbacks to the Milwaukee Braves, a franchise
that originated in Boston, moved to Milwaukee to start the 1952 MLB season,
and then moved to Atlanta before the 1966 MLB season. The Washington (DC)
Nationals, a franchise with roots in Montreal, has ignored Expos throwbacks
and instead has used Washington Senators jerseys, recalling two earlier franchises that did exist as the Senators but relocated to two different cities. After
the 1960 season, the Senators moved to Minnesota (and became the Twins)
while, simultaneously, a new expansion franchise was given to Washington,
thus keeping a professional baseball franchise in the nations capital. That version of the Washington Senators left DC after the 1971 season, moving to the
Dallas area to become the Texas Rangers.
These complicated, contextual, and, at times, contradictory histories make
throwback uniforms, as nostalgic symbols loaded with meanings and memories, appealing targets for rhetorical criticism. Specifically, throwbacks force
us to consider how the material representation of history is fraught with questions regarding collective memory, commemoration, and the impact of materialized style. Perhaps the most contentious and significant relocation in MLB
history was when the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles,
California, after the 1957 season, as then-owner Walter OMalley clashed with
New York Citys officials over a new stadium and sought to capitalize on the
lucrative Southern California market. The relocation, which seemed incredulous given the franchises roots in the borough since the late 1800s, cruelly
reminded fans that a sports team is far more a business than an outlet for
civic identity, unity, and pride. This memory was revisited when the Dodgers
announced their plans to wear Brooklyn Dodgers throwback uniforms for six
home games during the 2011 MLB season. Rather than celebrate the teams history, however, the throwback jersey, contextualized by the franchises recent
financial troubles, served as a reminder that teams are financial entities whose
commitment to a city is temporal.
Therefore, this paper will consider how commemorative and material rhetorics, as well as a rhetoric of style, operate to contextualize the meaning of
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throwback jerseys. I will first outline the rhetorical literature that frames the
design of throwback jerseys as intended for nostalgic effect. Next, I will trace
the history of baseball uniforms in order to locate how throwbacks emerged as
nostalgic products in the late stages of the twentieth century. Finally, I use the
Dodgers decision to wear throwback uniforms in 2011 as a rhetorical choice
that reveals how uniforms can materialize conflicted identities, resurrect politics of memory, and further subjugate fans to the commercialization of sports.
Material Rhetorics and Selling Nostalgic Style
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Driven by attempts to expand merchandise offerings, teams that offer throwback jerseys are tapping into powerful symbols. In this section, I will outline
the complexities of these commemorative symbols by implementing the theoretical approaches used to analyze commemorative and material rhetorics
while considering throwback jerseys as material manifestations of memory.
In order to so, I argue that a rhetorical approach offers a grammar for conducting such an analysis because throwback uniforms exist as non-discursive
texts, implement colors and shapes for emotional effect in both commemorative and commercial contexts, and exemplify postmodern nostalgic appeals.
At a foundational level, Carole Blair, Greg Dickinson, and Brian L. Ott
define rhetoric as the study of discourses, events, objects, and practices that
attends to their character as meaningful, legible, partisan, and consequential.2
As such, rhetoric is not limited solely to discourse. Their definition allows
material objects to be submitted to the four aforementioned categories as follows. First, an object is meaningful when it is emotionally significant as well
as when it is thick with signs that may take on a range of signification.3 Second, the legibility of rhetorical objects requires that, as a public symbol, it is
identifiable within context. The partisanship of a rhetorical object proposes
that it cannot exist objectively, but is tendentious.4 Finally, in channeling
rhetorics origins as outlined by Herbert A. Wichelnss 1925 essay, objects must
have, at least, the potential for effect. This definition provides Blair, Dickinson, and Ott with a starting point for examining rhetoric and public memory
as implemented in commemorative museums and national monuments.
This kind of definition was necessitated by rhetorical scholars lack of
attention in effectively engaging symbols like memorials. Across all rhetorics, Carole Blair posits, scholars bypassed the material articulation of the
symbol... [except] as a means of transport to its telosits meaning.5 This
gap allowed for the possibility to engage in what of Dickinson calls nondiscursive texts like visual and spatial texts, as outlined above.6 Even though
these kinds of texts have received some attention from scholars of architecture
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and landscapes, Blair ultimately sees their work as fail[ing] in my view to

describe adequately how the places they study do rhetorical work.7 Because,
Blair asserts, while they may understand that architecture has its own grammar, they fail to grasp what it means for architecture to have a rhetoric, in
that it does not just speak, it advocates.8 These shortcomings are matched
by rhetoricians failure to effectively address what happens to or with a text,
once it has been produced.9 Consequently, Blair insists that we must ask not
just what a text means but, more generally, what it does; and we must not
understand what it does as adhering strictly to what it was supposed to do.10
Importantly, this means that critics must also consider the context surrounding the memorial in order to understand its effect.
Moving past the legitimation of the rhetorical implications of material
objects, Carole Blair and Neil Michel are primarily interested in how the
design of a memorial site acts upon its audience via its color, shape, size, and
inscriptions, a distinction that is consistent in their other memorial studies.11
In material rhetoric scholarship, design is important because certain colors,
shapes, sizes, and placements become evocative tools. Among other functions
of material objects, they work in various ways to consummate individuals
attachment to the group.12 Thus, the reflective black granite of the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, serves to emplace visitors with the
memory of the fallen while the decision not to reveal soldiers ranks acts as a
unifying force.13 In another example, the individuality of the many different
colored panels in the AIDS Memorial Quilt speaks to its democraticrather
than synecdochalrepresentation.14 Both exist in distinct contrast with the
other bright white memorials that cover the National Mall.
The significance of colors and shapes in material objects extends beyond
memorials to include a role in constructing commercial spaces as well. Notably, Greg Dickinsons analysis of Starbucks focuses on how the natural shapes,
colors, and design orientation of a local coffee shop convey an authentic experience that masks any potential negative connotation associated with being
part of the global economy. The analysis pays specific attention to color, noticing the images of the coffee beans pictured throughout the stores displays,
as a means of creating a visual naturalness that delivers a kind of serenity to
the consumer. Among these displays, Dickinson also observes the predominance of the corporate logo: Perhaps the best place to start the discussion of
the visuality of naturalness is with the dominant color in the space, namely
the color in the Starbucks logo.15 While the color of the logo, he asserts, connects Starbucks with the natural green of nature, the logos design makes
an implicit argument about the quality of the coffee itself.16 Essentially, the
logo advocates a connection between Starbucks and the rainforests of Cen-
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tral America without invoking complicated associations to global labor inequities that may be perpetuated through the images of say, Juan Valdez, the
characterized representative of Colombian coffee. Furthermore, the stores
Art Nouveauinspired design aesthetic, implemented in the color and shapes
of objects throughout the store, speaks to that art movements connection to
nature, all as a means of creating a naturalized and ritualized authentic coffee
experience.
While logos, colors, and shapes are used in Starbucks to create authenticity,
they have an equal power in creating a commodified nostalgia in commercial
projects, as identified in Greg Dickinsons examination of Old Pasadena, California. A redeveloped commercial project whose rhetorical strength lies in
its nostalgic invocations, Dickinson sees Old Pasadena as a construct enabled
not only by its architecture but the way memories [are] encoded by inscriptions, signs, and legends.17 Specifically, these signs appear everywhere, in
what Dickinson calls the nostalgic style, to match the style of the towns new
buildings, which are retro as well. These structures, new replicas built to look
old, forego historical accuracy in a way that makes them look better than
the originals... in the guise of historical forms.18 Thus, the deployment of
retro or nostalgic style leads Dickinson to conclude that rhetorical invention
must be expanded to include not just the invention of linguistic arguments
but the stylized invention of the self, as consumers pour into places like Old
Pasadena and heavily-stylized, faux-nostalgic stores like Victorias Secret and
Banana Republic.19 Importantly, this style is an appealing sales technique that
helps to situate identity in postmodernity.
The notion that style can be fabricated to evoke nostalgia speaks to the
predominance of style over substance in popular culture, as Barry Brummet
attests: Style is so central to popular culture that the rhetoric of style and
the rhetoric of popular culture are practically the same thing.20 The use of
signs and images in popular culture may be merely stylized manipulations,
but Brummets example of the projected self-image associated with wearing
a cowboy hat underscores that it is the surface/skin/screen spaces of style
[that] people respond to. I can take on the skin of a cowboy, if that is what
persuades, by adopting certain styles.21 These surface manipulations, as Dickinson observes in Old Pasadena, are borrowed across a range of contexts in
order to provide a familiarity in public memory. As twentieth-century industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss explains, People will more readily accept
something new, we feel, if they recognize in it something out of the past. Our
senses quickly recognize and receive pleasure when a long-forgotten detail
is brought back.22 Such is the fabricated nostalgia on display in MLB, where
teams have worn throwback jerseys, putting authenticity aside in favor of his-
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toric jersey amalgamations designed to evoke a nostalgic style and affirming

Andreas Huyssens claim that memory... is itself based on representation.23
The accuracy of these throwback jerseys, as symbols, is far less important than
the nostalgic style they convey in their colors, patterns, shapes, and logos.
There is no greater example of this fabricated nostalgia than in the throwback uniforms worn in 2012 by the Tampa Bay Rays. Having run out of historical uniforms to resurrect during their annual turn-back-the-clock promotion,
the Rays invented a hypothetical throwback uniform. Labeled a 1979 throwback, the uniform predated the existence of the franchise, established in 1998,
by nearly two decades. In order to [embrace] the style of the era while keeping the Rays modern colors, the Rays design team channeled the uniform
aesthetic of the 1979 San Diego Padres.24 Despite their anachronistic quality,
Rays manager Joe Maddon praised the uniform and verified the accuracy of
its style: Theyre tasty colors, a great design... definitely a 70s moment.25 In
this case, the appropriation of another teams style history, replete with colors
and fonts popular at the time, allows the Rays throwback uniform to evoke
nostalgia despite having never existed.
Although the nostalgia of sport has received some critical attention,
detailed investigations of uniform style are notably missing. Even as scholars make note of the nostalgic power of baseball films like Field of Dreams,
The Natural, and dozens of others, they fail to mention the use of purportedly historically accurate throwback jerseys. There is, however, a precedent
for deploying the grammar of rhetoric to contemporary baseball uniforms.
Conducted in the span of a few short paragraphs, Michael Butterworth briefly
mentions the logo style of MLBs Washington Nationals. Relocating from Montreal after the 2004 season, where the franchise existed as the Expos for over
three decades, the new team identity capitalized on nationalist sentiments
with the new name and the teams red, white, and blue color scheme. Yet,
the context of the redesign had implications in the politically divisive Capital region. A scripted W atop the teams home caps, a reference to the professional Washington baseball teams from the first half of the twentieth century, was interpreted by some fans and members of government as a symbol
of support for then-president George W. Bush. As Democrats opted to wear
the teams alternate blue caps adorned with an interlocking DC logo instead
of a W, Butterworth highlights the irony in the Nationals [being] celebrated
for bringing Washington-area residents together, [since] the very symbols of
fan unity drove at least some of them apart.26 This short section highlights
the potentially divisive power of sports uniforms logos, yet the case is made
more intriguing in the context of throwbacks since retro merchandise is still
produced for the now-defunct Montreal Expos.
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Therefore, the Los Angeles Dodgers throwbacks case study will utilize the
approaches and grammar of material rhetoric and nostalgic style, and apply
it to the complexities of throwback uniforms, outlining not just what they are
but what they do. Using the definition of rhetoric offered by Blair, Dickinson,
and Ott, I posit that the Los Angeles Dodgers decision to wear 1944 Brooklyn
Dodgers satin uniforms during six home games in the 2011 season reflected
a complicated identity, which the team was unprepared to fully engage, in
exchange for the commercial exploitation of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Instead of
offering memorial pieces that consummate a group identity, the resurrection
of their Brooklyn origins in material form invited a level of divisiveness from
fans in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles. As such, selling reconstructed memories in a nostalgic style has repercussions for fans who see sports jerseys as
more than just manipulated surfaces. To understand the potential for jerseys
to act as powerful symbols, however, I must first outline the historical trajectory of sports uniforms and the development of fashion that revived throwback jerseys on a regular basis.
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Sports Uniform History: From Wool to Throwbacks
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Baseball uniforms are an essential part of baseball history, pictured in old

photos and films of Americas greatest players. The value of some of these historic jerseys and the prices they fetch in sports auctions aside, the overwhelming number on display in Cooperstown at the National Baseball Hall of Fame
and various stadia and museums across the country are a testament to the
enduring aura of baseball uniforms.
Their beginnings can be traced to 1845 and the New York Knickerbockers. Notably, the Knickerbockers were organized in accordance with a formal constitution and bylaws... that were based upon those mens social clubs
of the era.27 As a result, the club strictly adhered to a level of gentlemanly
propriety that behooved their position as elites. Beyond requiring membership dues, the club also issued fines on its members for using profanity (e.g.,
damned imprudence), arguing with umpire decisions, and drinking alcohol
during games.28 According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, at a club
meeting on April 24, 1849, the Knickerbockers decided to establish a team
uniform comprised of blue woolen pantaloons, white flannel shirts and chip
(straw) hats, with leather belts.29 These fashionable sartorial choices empowered the uniform to further denote elite status. Uniform scholar Jennifer Craik
posits that the Knickerbockers channeled contemporary aristocratic fashions
and were generally inspired by British cricket uniforms that shared a close
parallel history to that of school and military uniforms.30 Concordantly, the
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National Baseball Hall of Fame attests that the blue color of the Knickerbockers pants resembled the color schemes of other well-established, manly
organizations such as fire departments and volunteer military companies
and thus maintained a separation from the lower classes.31 The result of the
especially close association between baseball clubs and volunteer fire companies, Warren Goldstein asserts, created some striking... cultural similarities
between the two institutions, including similar club and team names, socializing procedures, and uniforms.32 This relationship was also manifest in distinctive shirt fronts that comprised the most visible resemblance between
fire companies and baseball clubs.33 The teams jerseys were based entirely on
firemens uniforms, with a shield-front or a bib-like attached piece of fabric
that covered the chest. This part of the uniform would feature team names,
crests, or initials, typically in Old English or similar fonts.
As for the materials used in the uniform, wool was (and still is) far from a
reasonable cloth for athletic endeavors. It was chosen because, at the time, cotton clothing was associated with the working class. For societys elites, therefore, wool uniforms signified the affluence to afford separate clothes for the
purpose of playing sport.34 Furthermore, the teams straw cap, Craik suggests,
was also a style that American baseball teams borrowed directly from cricket,
although, in time, teams would draw from a plethora of different kinds of hats
inspired by jockeys and conductors.
With the assistance of new technology (Elias Howe is credited with inventing the sewing machine in 1846), baseball uniforms embraced new trends.
Famously, the Cincinnati Red Stockings made baseball fashion history in
1868 by adopting brilliant-colored knickers that prominently evidenced their
teams namesake. Though they were more comfortable than baggier pants that
could be tripped over, this amount of showmanship, Craik asserts, made for a
rather unlikely outfit for virile males, [though] knickerbockers have nonetheless remained the basis of contemporary baseball uniforms.35 However, the
San Francisco Chronicles coverage of the Red Stockings during their California tour in 1869 posed the opposite conclusion, noting:
Its a bully set for good legs. Its easy to see why they adopted the Red Stocking style of
dress which shows their calves in all their magnitude and rotundity. Everyone of them
has a large and well-turned leg and everyone of them knows how to use it.36
In either case, the widespread use of knickerbockers patterned after the Cincinnati team helped to create nicknames for a handful of other teams like the
White Stockings, the Browns, and the Grays. The Detroit Tigers, known earlier as the Wolverines, earned their current nickname by wearing dark socks
with horizontal yellow stripes during the 1896 season.37 But uniform history
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does not end with the introduction of stockings. Other developments in uniform fashions during this time included the introduction of bowties as well as
the transition from the shield-front to lace-up and, finally, button-down jerseys. Teams also experimented with jersey designs by introducing pinstripes
and checks. Through the first two decades of the twentieth century, full city
names and player numbers would become commonplace on jerseys, while
teams would also begin to implement collarless shirts, reflective satin fabrics, script and arched lettering, zippered-fronts, and vests. Many of the wordmarks and logos that eventually became iconic symbols for Major League
Baseball (MLB) franchises were introduced at this time, including the Detroit
Tigers Old English D (1904), the Cincinnati Reds wishbone C (1905), the
Chicago Cubs encircled C (1909), and the New York Yankees interlocking
NY (1912). From the 1930s through the 1950s, the Baltimore Orioles, Boston
Braves, Boston Red Sox, Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland
Indians, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals also
instituted what would become long-standing logos and designs.
In the second half of the twentieth century, professional baseball franchises
altered and updated their looks via new fabrics and fashions. Notably, MLB
teams continued to wear wool until the 1950s and wool-blend jerseys until
1970, when the Pittsburgh Pirates introduced a double-knit synthetic pullover style jersey. Soon afterwards, every MLB team adopted the polyester synthetic standard. This lighter, more breathable fabric led to wholesale adoption across all four professional leagues. Commercially, MLB licensing began
in 1970 and the sale of authentic MLB jerseys began just four years later. The
first company to market these jerseys was Medalist/Sand-Knit, a company
that began as an athletic uniform supplier in 1921. Throughout the 1970s and
1980s, Medalist/Sand-Knit not only outfitted MLB teams but provided replica
jerseys for sale as well. The company was eventually purchased by MacGregor,
and when that company filed for bankruptcy in 1991, both team uniforms and
replica jerseys began to be produced by a variety of corporate suppliers.
Also during the 1970s, as color televisions became common, new uniform
colors and logos found their fashion.38 Garish oranges and yellows smothered
the jerseys of the Houston Astros, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, and
San Diego Padres. A powder blue color seemingly invaded the MLB uniform
landscape throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with eleven teams (out of twentysix) wearing a shade of the color as a primary part of their road uniform during the 1980 season. One of those franchises relying on powder blue in the
early 1970s, the Chicago White Sox, even experimented with wearing shorts
on three separate occasions during the 1976 season. Used as a publicity stunt
by team owner and promoter extraordinaire Bill Veeck, the shorts are consid-
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ered by manyincluding baseball historian Bruce Markusento be one of

baseball historys worst uniforms. The designation is impressive, considering
the first ninety years of professional baseball in American produced nearly
three thousand uniform variations.
Strange colors and logos continued to infiltrate uniforms of all types well
into the 1990s, primarily for new and expansion franchises that delivered some
cartoonish logos and an almost overwhelming amount of teal blues and
greens.39 But for all of the advancements in jersey fabrics as well as the pressures to provide new and fashionable logos, a serendipitous discovery of some
old fabric encouraged one small sportswear company to look back, sparking
a national fashion trend that continues to influence uniform choices today.
Mitchell & Ness got its start as a sporting goods supplier in Philadelphia in
1904, but from 1938 through 1955, their business included supplying jerseys for
the NFLs Philadelphia Eagles, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Philadelphia
Athletics. Then in 1983, a customer brought two game-worn wool baseball
jerseys to then-owner Peter Capolino and asked for some repairs to be made.
Two years later, the challenging request fatefully led Capolino to a stockpile
of twelve thousand yards of discarded wool flannel at Maple Manufacturing,
a Philadelphia clothing manufacturer that sewed local and college team uniforms before the switch to synthetic fabrics.40 After acquiring the extra fabric, Capolino went to work copying old wool baseball jerseys, beginning by
imitating one of the jerseys brought to him two years priora 1949 St. Louis
Browns jersey. Because accuracy was critical, a significant amount of research
was required for Capolino before he could begin manufacturing more jerseys.
Fortunately, the bookstore located above his Philadelphia shop maintained an
extensive library of old sports journals. He spent days investigating the exact
details of jerseys he would go on to recreate, including Warren Spahns 1957
Milwaukee Braves and Stan Musials 1946 St. Louis Cardinals jerseys. Given
the nostalgic nature of these jerseys, Capolinos white-collar customer base
soon purchased his entire first-run stock of these $125$175 jerseys.
While Capolino had discovered an emotional reaction to retro sportswear,
he was also becoming one its few pioneers. The novelty of his products drew
the attention of Sports Illustrated and, in 1987, a short article chronicled the
growing trend. Carefully crafted and historically accurate sports jerseys had
not yet been made available in any sort of quantity. As the article noted, Capolino asked, If baseball hats can sell, why not shirts.... Collectors will pay
$2,000 to $25,000 for authentic uniforms, so wouldnt a serious fan pay $125
for a good reproduction of a [jersey]?41 While other merchandise was entering the mainstream, Capolino was selling limited quantities of his throwback
replications to mostly white collar clientele. The hefty price tag, however,
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soon caught the attention of MLBs copyright divisions. At roughly the same
time, MLB was also alerted to a second company recreating flannel jerseys, a
Seattle-based outfit known as Ebbets Field Flannels. Channeling the inherent nostalgia of the Dodgers former Brooklyn home, Ebbets Field Flannels
was founded in 1988 by a former rock musician with a dedicated eye for baseball jersey accuracy. Soon after catching the attention of MLB, the company
decided it could not afford the expensive licensing fees for the rights to produce MLB jerseys. Instead, their business shifted to reproducing the jerseys
of minor-league teams, a turning point described in a 1990 Sports Illustrated
article as a blessing in disguise by company founder Jerry Cohen.42 Consequently, in the years since, the company has expanded to producing flannel
throwbacks for minor-league football and hockey teams.
Conversely, Mitchell & Ness decided that rather than cease-and-desist MLB
jersey production, Capolino would hand over his sales records, pay fifty thousand dollars in back royalties, and ask MLB to allow him to license their properties.43 Beginning in September 1988, their official collaboration specifically
sold throwback jerseys from what was deemed the Cooperstown Authentic
Collection.
While throwbacks eventually became a fashion fad in the late 1990s and
early 2000s with hip-hop artists sporting Capolinos creations throughout
mainstream culture, the enduring legacies of Mitchell & Ness and Ebbets Field
Flannels point towards the discovery of nostalgia as material commodity in
sport. With baseball leading the way, the practice of utilizing throwbacks continued, at an abated pace initially, but steadily throughout the remainder of
the decade and onward, as MLB teams continued to see the value of nostalgic
marketing opportunities. Deploying nostalgia, however, resurrects the potential conflicts that are most clearly manifest in material form.
The Divisive History of the Dodgers
42
As one of MLBs oldest franchises, the Los Angeles Dodgers have a storied yet
complicated identity, rooted in significant historical ties to Brooklyn, New
York, where the team resided from 1890 through 1957. After the conclusion
of the 1957 season, however, the team joined the New York Giants in their pilgrimage to the west coast when owner Walter OMalley moved the franchise
to Los Angeles (the Giants moved to San Francisco). Introducing a throwback jersey from the 1944, as the team did for six home games during the 2011
MLB season, therefore, hearkens the teams deep connections to the borough
as part of its identity narrative.
Beginning in the late 1800s, the team spent its first few decades under var-
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ious designations and iterations (Trolley Dodgers, Bridegrooms, Superbas,

Robins), permanently becoming the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1932.44 The team
nickname originated from an old, derisive nickname that Manhattanites used
for Brooklyn baseball fans who had to avoid (dodge) the boroughs new, but
ill-planned, trolley tracks.45 After playing in different stadiums, the team
most famously made their home in Brooklyns Ebbets Field from 1913 to
1957. During this time, the Dodgers enjoyed various levels of success. From
1941 to 1953, for example, the Dodgers won five National League pennants,
only to be thwarted by the New York Yankees in the World Series each time.
Another trip to the World Series was derailed in 1951, due to a dramatic collapse against the archrival New York Giants, punctuated by Bobby Thomsons game-winning, walk-off home run in the final inning of a playoff series
between the two teams. The victory for the patrician Manhattan followers
of the Giants against the plebeian Brooklynites was devastating for Dodgers fans whose team had occupied first place throughout the regular season.46
However, their pain has endured throughout history, given that Thomsons
home run is one of MLBs most famous everfamiliarly known as The Shot
Heard Round the World.
Such failures engendered a unique bond between the Dodgers and their
fans, a bond that was further strengthened by the local feeling surrounding
the club as well as the consistency in the teams roster. Fans appreciated the
local interaction and commitment to the oft-overlooked borough: a former
Brooklyn Dodger fan told NPR in 2005, The Dodgers were family because
they lived in Brooklyn. You know, we loved them dearly.47 Consequently,
while the locals nickname for the club, Dem Bums, as well as the teams
unofficial slogan Wait Till Next Year, thoroughly encapsulates the frustration with losing, the Dodgers were a lovable fixation in Brooklyn.48 Dodger
dreams finally came true in 1955, when the club overcame the label of perennial losers and defeated the New York Yankees for their only World Series
championship in Brooklyn.
Notably, the Brooklyn Dodgers are also known for featuring a cadre of
future Hall of Famers, including Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, and Jackie Robinson, the leagues first African American player. Robinsons iconic role in breaking MLBs color barrier in 1947 endures through
today, as his number is the only one to ever be permanently retired by every
team. In regard to his debut appearance on April 15, 1947, Michael Butterworth claims, It is difficult to overstate the significance of this moment, and I
agree with sportswriter Bob Ryan, who claims it to be the single most important social happening in American sports history.49 Robinson spent all ten of
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his MLB seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers and, in 1973, he was the first African American player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
While a stable and respected Dodgers identity in Brooklyn was solidified
by the 1955 title, the owners behind the franchise had begun to make the news
themselves and shake the teams roots in Brooklyn. By 1945, Walter OMalley,
the Dodgers attorney since 1941, had an ownership stake of 25 percent.
According to Dodger historian Glenn Stout, OMalley was first and foremost
a businessman... who believed that a man of his business sense, among the
rubes who ran baseball, could make a killing.50 Thus, one of OMalleys first
concerns for his investment was a new ballpark to replace Ebbets Field.51 Yet,
despite the success of the Dodgers that culminated with the 1955 title, OMalley
had a hard time getting his new stadium built, as Stout attests, [because]
there just didnt seem to be a compelling need for a new ballpark apart from
OMalleys desire for one.52 Even after playing a handful of games during the
1956 season in Jersey City, New Jersey, OMalley could not mount the pressure needed to obtain a new stadium. Throughout the subsequent offseason,
OMalley held meetings with various councilmen from Los Angeles to hammer
out a deal. Meanwhile, in concert with OMalleys behind-the-scenes machinations, which included the purchase of a minor-league franchise in Los Angeles and selling Ebbets Field, a hostile debate raged between OMalley and New
York City construction coordinator Robert Moses over where to build a new
stadium for the team. Mosess proposal to move the team to a site in Queens,
as well as his stern opposition to a stadium on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn,
underscored his aversion to compromise and a general disdain for the borough and the Dodgers.53 Baseball historians Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella go even further to say that Moses . . . detested OMalley personally.54
This stalemate was accompanied by OMalleys public relations B.S. in regard
to staying in Brooklyn while he kept the Los Angeles deal quiet.55 Therefore,
unable to procure a new stadium to replace Ebbets Field, OMalley announced
in October of 1957 he was moving the team to a three hundredacre site in
downtown Los Angeles the following season.56 The fallout from the move vilified OMalley, whom Brooklyn sportswriters Pete Hamill and Jack Newfield
infamously placed, along with Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, among the worst
people of the twentieth century.57 Nevertheless, as one of the first West Coast
MLB teams, OMalley took advantage of the growing baseball market in the
western half of the United States and cultivated a new generation of fans with
three World Series victories in their first eight seasons in California.
Several decades later, the shock of the Dodgers move across the country
still lingers, as baby-booming Brooklynites continue to cherish the memories
of their beloved team.58 This aging demographic remembers the legends that
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lived next door as their neighbors, as part of a tight-knit Brooklyn community.59 For those baby-boomers who were still very young during the Brooklyn Dodgers era, there is an equally strong connection to the team by virtue
of their parents. In Ken Burnss definitive nine-part historical documentary,
Baseball, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin recalls crying with her father the
day they learned the Dodgers would be moving to Los Angeles: We lost the
Dodgers, my father never transferred his allegiance to Los Angeles, nor did
I, and baseball was gone out of our lives for many years.60 Far from a bandwagon fan, Kearns-Goodwins memoir reveals a deep bond with her father
over baseball, gleefully reminiscing about her father teaching her to keep
score and telling her animated stories about the 1920s and 1930s Dodgers.61
When Peter OMalley, son of Walter, put the Dodgers up for sale in 1997, a
host of local New York politiciansmany of them barely teenagers when the
Dodgers moveddrummed up support to investigate the possibility of the
team returning to Brooklyn as part of what New York Governor George Pataki called an all-out effort to bring the Dodgers back to Brooklyn, where
they belong.62
Considering Columbia journalism professor Michael Shapiros claim that
the Brooklyn Dodgers endure as a ghost, there is little more than memory
that substantializes the former franchise.63 But, while the number of Brooklyn Dodgers fans and players is slowly dwindling, the team maintains its presence across a variety of formats. Sports histories and memorabilia regarding
the Brooklyn Dodgers remain popular and the team is a constant focus of
sports documentaries on ESPN, HBO, and PBS. Notably, the Dodgers are a central focus in the 1950s episode from Burnss aforementioned documentary.
Officials at the Library of Congress estimate that there are over one hundred
Brooklyn Dodgers titles in their collection, more than any other team besides
the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.64
Still, this divisive identity, a history torn between Brooklyn and Los Angeles, which has been separated by decades and abated (somewhat) by aging
memories, is rarely materialized. In fact, the only place where the teams new
location in Los Angeles is put in conflict with its Brooklyn past is through
team merchandise and memorabilia. For decades, however, the commercial
value of this past was not recognized in Los Angeles. The sale of Brooklyn
merchandise was not spearheaded by the team, but by throwback jerseys and
caps produced in the late 1980s by Mitchell & Ness and nostalgic hat manufacturer Roman Pro.65 Notably, Brooklyn Dodgers merchandise began to
catch on in the mainstream after filmmaker and Brooklyn-native Spike Lee
wore a Brooklyn hat and a Jackie Robinson throwback in his 1989 film, Do the
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Right Thing.66 Over twenty years later, sports memorabilia executive Brandon
Steiner estimates that upwards of $20 million in Brooklyn Dodgers merchandise is sold every year.67
Materializing Throwbacks
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Within this context, the Dodgers use of throwback uniforms during the 2011
season was a meaningful rhetorical practice that engendered a wide range of
emotional reactions not intended by the franchise. These material symbols
resurrected over one hundred years of a disparate Dodgers history, one that
began with Brooklyns love affair with their local team, the introduction of
Jackie Robinson, the ultimate triumph in 1955 after years of frustration via
their local rivals, and the painful loss of a civic institution. Resurrecting and
representing uniforms from the teams history in Brooklyn, therefore, had
a series of unintentional, but interrelated, consequences. First, by inaccurately reproducing the throwbacks, the Dodgers deceived their fans in order
to make a marketable and profitable product that forsook the teams unique
identity. Second, by wearing a Brooklyn throwback in their home stadium, the
Dodgers portrayed an attitude that the franchise owns with absolute authority the memory and history of Brooklyns famous franchise. Consequently, the
throwbacks communicated that the Dodgers own the symbol but only intend
to use it for commercial purposes, a position enhanced by the context of the
teams dire financial straits during the 2011 season.
As part of a six-game promotion entitled throwback days, which included
a special rate for purchasing a ticket package for all six contests at Dodger
Stadium in Los Angeles, the franchise elected to let their fans choose one of
three road Brooklyn Dodgers uniform throwbacks for the team to wear during afternoon home games. Over a period of three weeks in February 2011,
over fifty thousand fans voted online for their favorite of the three uniforms
options. The oldest throwback choice was used during the 1911 season and,
other than its function as a centennial marker for the teams 2011 season, was
noteworthy for two specific designs. First, the jersey featured narrow navy
pinstripes, a design that remained with the team through the 1936 season but
is most famously ascribed to other historical MLB franchises like the Chicago
Cubs and the New York Yankees. Second, the front of the jersey displayed
Brooklyn in capital letters vertically along the shirt placket, a unique feature
in MLB history. A block letter B atop the cap of the 1911 uniform is the only
link to the second available throwback choice, a 1931 uniform that positioned
the same block B, in baby blue, on the left chest. The off-white uniform also
featured the same baby blue color trim throughout and the team cap delivers
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the same script B popularized by later Brooklyn teams. Overall, this style is
also unique in that it lasted for just one season for the Dodgers, as full city and
team names adorned their jerseys in subsequent seasons.
The baby blue color of the 1931 jersey did not reappear for Brooklyn until
the 1944 season, when it was predominantly featured in the teams road alternate uniforms, Dodgers fans final throwback option. These uniforms, made
of a reflective satin fabric in order to increase player visibility during the
first night games in MLB history, were first used in the 1944 season and then
sporadically throughout the latter half of the 1940s. Outside of the new uniforms, the 1944 season was a largely forgettable one as the team stumbled to
a seventh-place finish in the National League.68 Without any particular historical event or achievement to celebrate, the design of the 1944 uniform was
critical to understanding why it was an available choice for the 2011 season.
The baby blue uniform had white trim, with Brooklyn in a familiar white
script across the chest and a royal blue cap with a white script B, by then a
prominent feature of Dodger uniforms. With fans intrigued by the possibility
of reintroducing satin to the major leagues for the first time in seven decades,
albeit for afternoon games, the 1944 alternate jersey won the online vote over
the 1911 jersey by less than two thousand votes.
However, when the winner was announced, the Dodgers indicated that
although the color and design of the 1944 jersey would remain, the fabric
would not be satin but a modern polyester blend instead. In recreating the
uniform, however, the details are not always necessary, as Pierre Nora asserts:
Memory, being a phenomenon of emotion and magic, accommodates only
those facts that suit it.69 Such is the predicament of many throwback jerseys
utilized across all sports. Because of the material composition of any remaining originals, if any still exist, the replication of jerseys is fraught with the
opportunity to revise history. The vulnerability, therefore, of the original presented an opportunity that was inherently rhetorical because even as it offered
new access, it [was] an intervention in the materiality of the text, and it is
important to grapple with the degrees and kinds of change wrought by it.70 In
this instance, that change obscured accuracy for the sake of a more marketable product.
In specific response to the 1944 throwbacks, the color choice of baby blue is
not an inherent part of Dodgers history. The color is especially contradictory
to the team jerseys since the team has established Dodger blue, the shade
of blue that regularly adorns the team, as both a legitimate part of the color
wheel and a euphemism for playing for the Dodgers. Popularized by former
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who is known for coining the
phrase bleed[ing] Dodger blue, wearing Dodger blue is an important part
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of Dodgers identity.71 The baby blue of the 1944 throwback violated that in
principle, although the players wore Dodger blue throwback caps during all
six throwback games, the baby blue color of the throwbacks approximated the
conspicuously baby (or powder) blue styling of the far-less prestigious Kansas
City Royals. The Royals wore baby blue as their primary color on road jerseys
from 1973 to 1991, the teams most competitive era, and in recent years the look
has popularly served as a throwback. The resulting confusion between Royals and Dodgers colors was exacerbated by the decision to forgo satin for the
modern fabric technology that official uniform supplier Majestic uses for all
MLB teams. As a polyester double-knit, the jersey lost the shimmery look and
feel of the originals, thus exaggerating the blandness of the re-creation. Further curtailing the uniqueness of the Dodgers throwback, baby blue jerseys
were not only one of the most popular colors of the Mitchell & Ness throwback fad but the color was represented on the jerseys of almost half of MLB
franchises throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Therefore, in addition to betraying Dodger blue, the 1944 throwback for the 2011 season sacrificed its potential uniqueness by embracing modern technologies and reverting to fashionable colors for the purposes of marketability.
Importantly, all three choices for Dodgers fans in 2011 were road uniforms
that prominently featured a Brooklyn wordmark or logo, to be worn during Los Angeles Dodgers home games. The use of Brooklyn on all of their
throwback jerseys, therefore, attempted to further congeal the franchises unified historical narrative that delivers one team, albeit in two cities, and not
two separate and unique teams. The throwbacks performed as supports that
tell a selective story about the Dodgers, a story controlled by Dodger ownership interests who seek to control and contain Brooklyn Dodger history by
controlling its material deployment. Thus, everything Brooklyn Dodgers
especially its extremely valuable historical significanceis owned by a franchise that left the city and now resides thousands of miles away.
As a result, numerous Brooklyn Dodgers fans regard the Los Angeles
Dodgers as unsympathetic to their history. The interpretation follows that
the Dodgers are only interested in Brooklyn when they want to use nostalgic appeals for commercial purposes. Such was the rationale behind the team
suing a Brooklyn bar in 1993 for their use of the Dodger name to, as the New
York Times wrote, secure the tightest possible grip on sales of merchandise
carrying team logos... [a] business [that] grew from about $200 million in
sales in 1986 to $2 billion in 1991, according to testimony at the trial.72 As
those profits have soared in the past two decades, these interests have kept
an eye on Brooklyn. For example, in 2010, MLB, on behalf of the Los Angeles franchise, sued a restaurant, Brooklyn Burger, on account of the restau-
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rants script Brooklyn logo. In reaction, borough president Marty Markowitz defended the local business: They left us in 1957 and theyve got the gall
to think that they own the name Brooklyn.73 Given the numerous lawsuits
the franchise has brought against residents and businesses in its former home,
Brooklyn fans interpreted the Dodgers throwbacks as merely a convenient
tribute guised in a potential financial windfall for the current team. As borough president Markowitz defiantly asserted, If they have any interest in nostalgia, they could leave L.A. and come back home.74
By deploying the Brooklyn Dodgers at their discretion, the franchise
sought to utilize the commercial value of their history without reminding the
public of the real consequences of their tragic past. That history is an unpleasant reminder to fans that even the most beloved local sports franchises would
not hesitate if given the opportunity to relocate to a more financially profitable locale. The Dodgers treated the Brooklyn throwbacks as a stylized symbol and as copyrighted property they own for the purpose of selling, not
commemorating.
Finally, the decision to again prioritize their Brooklyn past was contextualized by the time of deployment and the beleaguered financial standing of the
teams then-owner, Frank McCourt. The plan to wear the throwback uniforms
for weekday afternoon games during the 2011 season revealed no purpose
except to increase merchandise sales and attendance for these often poorlyattended games. Considering that the team had already used 1955 throwbacks
in the past, the new throwback choices were not honorific items, but merely
new products added to the teams inventory. In part, this understanding is
based on the fact that, as previously mentioned, the 1944 throwbacks did not
celebrate any of the teams specific seasons or significant accomplishments. In
addition, the satin jerseys were a footnote in MLB history, with just a few teams
experimenting with them for a handful of games during the 1940s. From this
standpoint, the satin uniforms were remembered as a unique gimmick, not
an enduring jersey that is representative of Dodgers history. When packaged
as a featured part of a six-game throwback plan, where fans who purchase the
entire six-pack of tickets can receive half-priced food and drink (including
alcohol), the legitimacy of the attempt at commemoration was placed in doubt.
The criticism of the throwbacks as a blatant promotional tool was furthered by the financial indiscretions of the McCourt family, who while using
the Dodgers and related assets as collateralhad racked up a staggering $459
million in debt, much of which was used personally.75 The bitter divorce that
took place between Frank and Jamie McCourt from 2009 to 2011 also revealed
the Dodgers attempt to procure a $200 million loan, as an upfront payment
for television rights, from their cable broadcaster Fox.76 The financial stand-
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ing of the team, which the Los Angeles Times believed affected the teams ability to field a championship roster, contextualized the throwback promotion
for the 2011 season.77
Given his lavish indiscretions and abuse of funds intended for the Dodgers franchise, MLB spent most of the 2011 season trying to oust McCourt as
team owner. In April, as a response to the divorce proceedings and the belief
that McCourt was no longer fit to run the team, MLB commissioner Bud Selig
stepped in to manage the franchises finances. As part of a bankruptcy agreement signed three months later, McCourt agreed to sell the team at auction.
Despite the apparent turmoil, the team was sold for a record price of $2.15
billionover five times what McCourt paid for the team in 2004to a group
of investors that included former basketball star Magic Johnson and veteran
baseball executive Stan Kasten.78 The new sale brought closure to an ignominious chapter of Dodgers history and represented a new opportunity for the
Dodgers and their material history.
of
Conclusion
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Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once attempted to clarify sports team devotion by

focusing on team uniforms. Because teams (and players) are constantly moving, he opined, Youre actually rooting for the clothes when you get right
down to it. You are standing, cheering, and yelling for your clothes to beat the
clothes from another city.79 This observation both points to the significance
of sports jerseys, which have operated as symbolic representations of cities
and fans for over a century, and implies that sports jerseys can simply exist as
ahistorical (or historically-inaccurate) stylized clothes.
Jerseys then, as the example of the Dodgers throwbacks has revealed, comprise a critical library of commemorative material that have strong, evocative appeals. The Brooklyn Dodgers and their jerseys thereby encapsulate a
wide range of emotions, covering Brooklyns underdog status as representative of the working-class borough, engaging the deep connections that fans in
Brooklyn had with the players who lived in their community, and epitomizing the potential of sport to stand against racism. But the Los Angeles Dodgers 1944 throwbacks, beset by their inconsistencies in fabric and their attitude
towards the powerful Brooklyn symbol, are overwhelmed by the context of
their deployment as a commodity. Like all memorials, throwbacks are susceptible to their surroundings and, in this instance, the financial questions that
surround the team adversely impact the jerseys potential to advocate a Dodgers history.
The case study reveals how difficult it is to materially represent a complex
50
history, yet MLB teams continue to deploy throwbacks with little concern for
historical accuracy or consistency. Rather than be concerned with the potential divisiveness that reveals questions about the ownership of memories,
these teams are only interested in the financial rewards of exploiting these
memories as stylized symbols. Ultimately, the power of nostalgia encourages a
style so vacuous that it can overcome the weight of its substance: messy legacies, moral questions about the appropriateness, and the contradictory context of the teams current identity. Producing a stylish throwback is enough.
And so the Brooklyn Dodgers play on, in Los Angeles.
es
Notes
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1. Jeff Z. Klein, Modern Team Moves to a Traditional Look, New York Times, February 7, 2011, accessed February 28, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/sports
/hockey/08logo.html.
2. Carole Blair, Greg Dickinson, and Brian L. Ott, Rhetoric/Memory/Place, in
Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials, ed. Carole Blair,
Greg Dickinson, and Brian L. Ott (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010), 2.
3. Blair, Dickinson, and Ott, Rhetoric, 3.
5. Carole Blair, Contemporary U.S. Memorial Sites as Exemplars of Rhetorics
Materiality, in Rhetorical Bodies, ed. Jack Selzer and Sharon Crowley (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999), 19.
6. Greg Dickinson, Joes Rhetoric: Starbucks and the Spatial Rhetoric of Authenticity, Rhetoric Society Quarterly 32 (2002): 6.
7. Blair, Contemporary U.S. Memorial Sites, 17.
8. Carole Blair, interview with author, February 26, 2009.
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Studies, ed. Thomas Rosteck (New York: Guilford, 1999), 40; Carole Blair, Marsha S.
Jeppeson, and Enrico Pucci Jr., Public Memorializing in Postmodernity: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype, Quarterly Journal of Speech 77 (1991): 26388;
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17. Greg Dickinson, Memories for Sale: Nostalgia and the Construction of Identity
in Old Pasadena, Quarterly Journal of Speech 83 (1997): 7.
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Press, 2008), xiii.
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23. Andreas Huyssen, Twilight Memories: Making Time in a Culture of Amnesia
(New York: Routledge, 1995), 3.
24. Rays introduce original retro jersey to be worn on June 30 in Turn Back the
Clock game against Tigers, Tampa Bay Rays press release, June 20, 2012.
25. Stephanie Hayes, Rays Turn Back the Clock with a Fake Throwback Jersey,
Tampa Bay Times, June 30, 2012, accessed October 11, 2012, http://www.tampabay.com
/features/popculture/rays-turn-back-the-clock-with-a-fake-throwback-jersey/1237982.
26. Michael L. Butterworth, Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime
and American Identity during the War on Terror (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama
Press, 2010), 126.
27. David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 78.
28. William J. Ryczek, Baseballs First Inning: A History of the National Pastime
through the Civil War (Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, 2009), 55.
29. Dressed to the Nines: A History of the Baseball Uniform, National Baseball Hall of Fame, accessed January 12, 2012, http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org
/dressed_to_the_nines/timeline_1849.htm.
30. Jennifer Craik, Uniforms Exposed: From Conformity to Transgression (Oxford,
UK: Berg, 2005), 146.
31. Dressed to the Nines.
32. Warren Goldstein, The Base Ball Fraternity, in Baseball History from Outside
the Lines: A Reader, ed. John E. Dreifort (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001),
14.
33. Goldstein, The Base Ball Fraternity, 15
34. Craik, Uniforms.
35. Craik, Uniforms, 149.
36. Christopher Devine, Harry Wright: The Father of Professional Base Ball (Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, 2003), 8.
37. Sarah Ballard, Lots of Sox, Sports Illustrated, April 5, 1989, 10818.
38. Joey Novak, Padres Uniforms Through the Years: 1969 to 2009, San Diego
Union Tribune, July 18, 2009, accessed December 18, 2011, www.utsandiego.com
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39. Jeff Z. Klein and Stu Hackel, Buffaslug among Cartoonish Logos to Go
Extinct, New York Times, October 5, 2010, accessed October 12, 2010, http://www
.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/sports/hockey/06sweaters.html; Rob Bagchi, Barcelonas
Cool Mint Reveals Sorry Lack of Taste, Guardian, February 23, 2011, accessed February 25, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/feb/23/barcelona-team-kits;
and Patricia Leigh Brown, Pine-tar Couture, New York Times, July 18, 1993, accessed
February 12, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/18/style/pine-tar-couture.html.
40. David Butwin, Baseball Flannels are Hot, Sports Illustrated, July 6, 1987, 105.
41. Butwin, Baseball Flannels, 105.
42. Jay Feldman, Flannel Jerseys To Order, Sports Illustrated, July 30, 1990,
accessed October 14, 2012, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine
/MAG1136587/index.htm
43. Peter Capolino, interview with author, May 6, 2010.
44. Ben Osborne, The Brooklyn Cyclones: Hardball Dreams and the New Coney
Island (New York: New York University Press, 2004).
45. Ed Shakespeare, When Baseball Returned to Brooklyn: The Inaugural Season of
the New York-Penn League Cyclones (Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, 2003).
46. Marshall Sahlins, Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture
and Vice Versa (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004), 128.
47. WNPR National Public Radio, When Next Year Arrived for Dodgers Fans,
Weekend Edition Saturday, radio broadcast, October 22, 2005.
48. Yuval Rosenberg, What the Dodgers Meant to Brooklyn, WNYC, July 26,
2010, accessed July 28, 2010, http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/jul/26
/what-dodgers-meant-brooklyn/.
49. Butterworth, Baseball, 63.
50. Glenn Stout, The Dodgers: 120 Years of Dodgers Baseball (New York: Houghton
Mifflin, 2004), 16566.
51. Stout, The Dodgers, 152.
53. Peter Ellsworth, The Brooklyn Dodgers Move to Los Angeles: Was Walter OMalley Solely Responsible?, NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture 14
(2005), 1940.
54. Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella, Total Ballclubs: The Ultimate Book of
Baseball Teams (Toronto: Sport Media Publishing, 2005), 123.
56. Rudy Marzano, The Last Years of the Brooklyn Dodgers: A History 19501957
(Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, 2007).
57. Vic Ziegel. Book Rewrites OMalley History, New York Daily News, April
26, 2003, accessed February 12, 2011, http://articles.nydailynews.com/20030426
/sports/18226267_1_shapiro-dodgers-ebbets-field.
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58. When Next Year Arrived.

59. Mike Dodd, Ghosts of Flatbush Alive 50 Years after Dodgers Exit, USA
Today, January 17, 2008, accessed February 15, 2010, http://www.usatoday.com/sports
/baseball/200709-23-cover-brooklyn_N.htm#; and Manny Fernandez, When Players
Like Duke Snider Were Also Neighbors, New York Times, February 28, 2011, accessed
March 2, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/nyregion/01flatbush.html.
60. Baseball, directed by Ken Burns (1994; New York: PBS Paramount, 2010), DVD.
61. Doris Kearns Goodwin, Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1998), 17.
62. State Panel to Study Return of Dodgers, New York Times, March 7, 1997, B6.
63. Michael Shapiro, The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and their Final
Pennant Race Together (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 329.
64. Dodd, Ghosts of Flatbush.
65. Spiked on Top: Brooklyn Dodger Caps are a Hot Headgear Trend, New York
Times, July 3, 1989, 35.
66. Spiked on Top, 35.
67. Dodd, Ghosts of Flatbush.
68. Dewey and Acocella, Total Ballclubs, 125.
69. Pierre Nora, General Introduction: Between Memory and History, in Realms
of Memory: Rethinking the French Past, Conflicts and Divisions, ed. Lawrence D.
Kritzman and Arthur Goldhammer (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 3.
70. Blair, Commemorating in the Theme Park Zone, 38.
71. Lasorda Takes Over as Dodgers Manager, Telegraph-Herald, September 26,
1976, 19.
72. Douglas Martin, Historic Day at Bar: Dodger Stays in Brooklyn Judge Says,
Among Other Things, that Los Angeles Club Has No Good Name to Lose, New York
Times, April 9, 1993, B1.
73. Erin Durkin and Jake Pearson, Los Angeles Dodgers Burn Brooklyn Again,
File Trademark Suit over Brooklyn Burger Logo, New York Daily News, October
31, 2010, accessed February 19, 2010, http://articles.nydailynews.com/20101031
/local/27079741_1_brooklyn-bridge-brooklynites-logo.
74. Barry Paddock and Bill Hutchinson, L.A. Dodgers Try to Make Amends with
Throwback Uniforms, but Theres No Love Lost in Brooklyn, New York Daily News, February 9, 2011, accessed February 10, 2011, http://articles.nydailynews.com/20110209
/local/28550664_1_uniforms-brooklyn-dodgers-fans-dodgers-sym-phony.
75. Monte Burke and Nathan Vardi, Special Report: Inside Baseballs Debt Disaster, Forbes, March 23, 2011, accessed April 2, 2011, http://www.forbes.com/sites
/monteburke/2011/03/23/special-report-inside-baseballs-debt-disaster/.
76. Bill Shaikin, Jamie McCourt Says Frank McCourt Endangered Value of Dodg-
54
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ers with Secret Fox Deal, Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2011, accessed March 10, 2011,
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/01/sports/la-sp-0302-dodgers-mccourt-20110302.
77. Bill Plaschke, Dodgers Look Out of Place in L.A., Los Angeles Times, April
18, 2010, accessed March 10, 2011, http://articles.latimes.com/print/2010/apr/18/sports
/la-sp-plaschke-20100418; and Bill Shaikin and E. Scott Reckard, Frank McCourt Has
Taken Dodgers Deep in Debt, Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2010, accessed March 10,
2011, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/01/sports/la-sp-dodger-finances-20100902.
78. Bill Shaikin, Dodgers Sale Complete, McCourt Era Ends, Los Angeles Times,
May 1, 2012, accessed October 30, 2012, http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/01
/sports/la-sp-dn-dodgers-sale-mccourt-magic-20120501
79. The Label Maker, Seinfeld (New York: NBC, January 19, 1995).
55
Rhetorical Constructions of Anger

Management, Emotions, and Public
Argument in Baseball Culture
The Case of Carlos Zambrano
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Kevin A. Johnson and Joseph W. Anderson
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Carlos Zambrano was a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, and at the time of this
essay, a pitcher for the Miami Marlins. Many baseball fans and writers know
him for his pitching talents as well as his emotional outbursts. For example,
Matt Leland recently noted, The guy just has a fiery temperament. Sometimes, its a focused intensity that he channels into his pitching performances.
When thats the case, the Big Z normally dominates. Too often, though, Zambrano has let his emotions get the best of him, both on and off the mound.1
Leland described Zambrano as having no qualms about fighting teammates
in his own dugout, showing up his manager or letting the umpires know
exactly how he feels about their calls.2
Leland is one of many baseball writers who have questioned a string of
incidents involving Zambrano. In June 2007, Dave Van Dyck reported, It has
come to this with the Cubs: Unable to beat other teams, they have started beating on each other.... In the midst of losing their fifth straight game and 11th
in the last 15... batterymates Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett tussled in
the dugout and then apparently had an all-out set-to in the clubhouse.3 The
fistfight between Zambrano and Barrett would be followed by many temper
tantrums in the dugout. In June 2010, Zambrano was suspended indefinitely
after a dugout tirade where he had to be separated from teammate Derrek
Lee in the visitors dugout after surrendering four runs to the Chicago White
Sox in the bottom of the first inning at U.S. Cellular Field.4 As part of his suspension, Zambrano completed anger management counseling before being
able to return to the playing field.
Zambrano talked about the counseling, telling Carrie Muskat, Its all done.
Im cured.... The problem I have to solve is when I get upset on the field. I
think my problem is after I cross those lines. When somebody makes an error
or I make an error, thats my problem.... It did work, and believe me, that was
an experience that I can take through the years.5 Fans and baseball writers
Johnson and Anderson: The Case of Carlos Zambrano
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have begun to question the sincerity of Zambanos reflection given two subsequent incidents.
As a batter, Zambrano struck out in a game on May 31, 2011, and broke his bat
over his knee in frustration. Then, on June 5, 2011, he called the Cubs embarrassing and questioned Cubs reliever Carlos Marmols pitching strategy after
the Cubs lost six games in a row and eight of their previous ten. Many baseball
writers called for a suspension. For example, Gene Wojciechowski wrote, You
could see this latest meltdownone in a lonnnnnnng line of nut-job moments
by the Chicago Cubs startercoming for days. And after what he said about his
teammates Sunday, Cubs management ought to suspend him for days, weeks,
months or, in a perfect world, the remainder of the season.6 A few writers were
sympathetic to Zambranos claim that the Cubs were an embarrassment, but
even those reporters commented on Zambranos anger getting the best of him.
For instance, Dylan Polk noted, If [the Cubs] look long enough, theyll understand Zambranos point of view and turn things around. Although sympathetic, Polk still commented, Zambrano has a history of flying off the handle
and letting his temper get the best of him, which prior to Sunday, fans thought
had culminated in 2010 with an altercation with then-first baseman Derrek Lee,
landing Zambrano in the bullpen as well as anger management. Since then,
his temper has been a running joke among baseball fans, sort of a ticking time
bomb that fans... knew would inevitably explode.7
The purpose of this essay is to explore the implications of the rhetoric of
baseball fans and writers surrounding the early June 2011 episodes involving Zambrano. Zambranos case is perhaps the most notable and most recent
example of an athlete receiving attention because of his anger, as well as being
required to undergo anger management therapy. While this essay does suggest that Zambranos case has much to teach us about MLBs anger management rhetoric, we do not mean to imply that he stands alone. Indeed, there are
at least three other examplestwo from baseball and one from basketball
that also grabbed national attention.
For example, in 2005, the Los Angeles Times featured an article on thenDodger Milton Bradley who had been ordered to undergo anger management
therapy for, among other things, throwing a water bottle at a fan.8 The article
related conversations between Bradley and his teammates to those between
former basketball teammates Magic Johnson and Kurt Rambis. A year earlier, in 2004, the New York Times featured a piece titled Anger Management
May Not Help at All, in which Benedict Carey referenced the cases of baseball players Bradley and Jose Guillen, and basketball player Ron Artest.9 Carey
described anger management rather disparagingly, citing Dr. Ray DiGiuseppe
of St. Johns University, who calls anger management classes a band-aid
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which allows people to think they have done something, when in fact they
have not had any real treatment. DiGiuseppe goes so far as to suggest that
anger management therapists are operating under the delusion that they are
helping people when they may be making the problem worse.10 Articles such
as this perhaps color the publics trust in anger management therapy, and serve
to elide expert opinions on the subject. Notably absent from these depictions
of anger management therapy is any serious engagement with anger management experts and/or therapists. Such absence is problematic for a number of
reasons that will become clearer by analyzing the rhetorical constructions of
anger management in the case of Zambranonot the least of which include
the way baseball culture perceives the philosophical categories of argumentation, therapy, and expertise.
The rhetoric reacting to Zambranos case of anger management is important for at least three reasons. First, it marks the first accusation from baseball
fans and writers that Zambrano had stepped over the line in terms of his anger
management. As such, the Zambrano case promises to shed light on the permissible displays of anger in the current culture of baseball. Second, it marks
the most recent incarnation of judgmental rhetoric concerning the effectiveness of anger management therapy. Third, and perhaps more contentious, is
the idea that Zambrano has functioned as an icon of hot-headedness for
MLBhe has become a player most fans would identify quickly as having
anger problems. Thus, taken together, examining Zambranos case we are
likely to gain a critical understanding of the baseball publics perceptions of
acceptable ways to manage anger and emotions.
This essay argues that the end of Zambranos time with the Chicago Cubs
provides a site for understanding deeper issues about MLB culture concerning
the perceptions of anger, anger management, emotions, and norms of argumentation. In order to defend and explain this argument, this essay delves
into four different areas of inquiry that undergird the rhetoric surrounding the Zambrano episode in early June 2011. First, the essay examines the
underlying skepticism and beliefs concerning the practice of anger management counseling. Second, the essay explores the degree of argument aversion
between players and the general public. Third, the essay provides an inquiry
into the degree of cultural sensitivity in the rhetoric surrounding Zambrano
in his postanger management era. Finally, the essay explores some of the
implicit assumptions concerning the range of acceptable player expression of
emotions in the game of baseball.
Before proceeding, it is important to note that whether or not Zambrano
engages in outbursts after the beginning of June 2011 is largely irrelevant
to our examination. Zambrano could undergo a marked transformation in
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the public eye. What this examination is concerned with is the initial baseball public disapproval after the June 2011 episode, and more specifically, the
implications of the expressed disapproval against Zambrano after he both
went through anger management counseling and stated that the counseling
worked. Notably, Zambrano completed his first full season without incident.
At the same time, Zambranos attitude change was attributed more to a change
of scenery or situation than to the anger management therapy. For example,
MLB sportswriter Tom Green wrote, Theres something different about Carlos
Zambrano now that hes in Miami. He isnt the same short-tempered pitcher
who took out his frustration in the dugout when things didnt go his way on
the mound in Chicago.11 To be fair, the change of scenery could have played
a large role in the attitude change. Our examination is more concerned with
three important areas: (1) the general lack of public discussion about anger
management therapy itself, (2) the lack of public engagement with anger management therapists (who might have suggested a change of scenery like what
happened when he went to Miami), and (3) the way MLBs public immediately
dismissed the effectiveness of anger management therapy after the June 2011
episode. Thus, this study focuses on the rhetoric concerning anger management in MLB and its public.
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Anger Management and the

Questioning of Therapeutic Expertise
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Mitch Abrams is a respected expert on anger management in sports. He

earned his doctorate in psychology, has counseled thousands of athletes in
anger management, and is the chair of the Anger and Violence in Sport Special Interest Group of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. According to Abrams, anger is a normal emotion. Anger is neither good nor bad,
and no judgment need be attached to it. Some people believe that a problem arises if a person becomes angry. This idea is not true. To pass judgment
on anger and condemn those who admit to becoming angry is the equivalent
of robbing people of their humanness. He continues, The belief that anger
is bad is so strongly engrained that people will sometimes deny its existence
even when it is spilling out all over the place. . . . Therefore, when we talk
about anger management for peak performance in sport, we are not always
talking about making athletes polite and calm. Rather, we are referring to
their ability to self-regulate their emotions to what their tasks require.12
That Zambrano has struggled with an anger problem is uncontested.
Even Zambrano has admitted he continues to struggle with his anger problem. However, the rhetoric surrounding Zambrano in the first episode after
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his anger management counseling has almost conclusively decided that anger
management counseling has failed. To name a few examples, David Haugh
wrote in the Chicago Tribune, Zambrano was the same immature hothead he
swore he wouldnt be again.... [I]f it were me, after severing ties with whatever therapist signed off on Zambranos anger management last July, the Cubs
next move seems easy. Suspend Zambrano as long as it takes Hendry to find
a trade partner willing to take on [Zambranos contract].13 Sean Kernan similarly expressed his cynicism about anger management counseling, Yes, Big
Z looked good in his eight innings even with the busted bat, but if the frustration continues all of the anger management classes in the world wont keep
Zambrano from a meltdown.14
Undergirding such rhetoric is a fundamental disbelief in the process of
rehabilitation. A minimal belief and understanding of anger management
counseling would result in a different kind of rhetoric. For example, we would
likely hear more rhetorical sensitivities concerning the struggles Zambrano
goes through when managing his anger. The rhetoric surrounding Zambrano
constructs anger management in a consistent manner of the myth Abrams
pointed outthe point of anger management is not always talking about
making athletes polite and calm. And regardless of whether or not anger
management objectively worked, there was not a single instance in fan and
media reactions where they sought to hear the voice of anger management
professionalsthere simply was no engagement. Even if fans and writers got
it right, they certainly did not rely on any level of expertise on the subject
before jumping to conclusions.
One can certainly imagine a different story regarding anger management
counseling than the overwhelming opinion that anger management counseling had failed. For example, in 2007 the fight between Zambrano and Barrett had nearly identical conditions to the early June 2011 events. The former
was a five-game losing streak, the latter was a six-game losing streak. The former was in the beginning of June, and the latter was in the beginning of June.
However, in the former, Zambrano confronted Barrett in the middle of his
anger which resulted in a fight between the two of them. In the later, Zambrano did not confront Marmolhe talked to the press, but he did not take it
out by yelling at Marmol or any other of his teammates. Rhetoric that is sympathetic to anger management counseling might point to the fact that the later
incident shows that anger management counseling had made a difference. If
anger is not something that goes away, but something that is to be managed,
then the later event seems to mark progress. Zambrano expressed his anger
to the media rather than getting into a verbal confrontation and fight with a
teammate. Expressing anger to the media is a far cry from fighting teammates.
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However, the rhetoric of fans and sports writers constructed anger management as a failure, and by extension, called for Zambrano to be suspended or
traded. Such rhetoric risks the delegitimization of anger management counselings ethos by not accounting for the complexities of anger management
and anger in general.
Furthermore, the lack of reliance on anger management experts is particularly noteworthy given MLBs deference to other forms of mandated counseling. For example, when Miguel Cabrera was arrested in 2012 for his second
DUI offense, Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski was asked
about whether Cabrera would have to spend time away from the team. Dombrowski said, Those [decisions] are in experts hands. Theres people that are
experts in these areas, doctors that handle these types of situations. The commissioners office and players association work very closely together in trying
to help these types of situations. Their knowledge far exceeds mine.15
Even more troubling, perhaps, is the blatant disregard offered by many fans
who are quick to dismiss behavior so long as the athlete is contributing to a
winning team. Examples of this certainly abound in professional sports across
the board. In terms of therapy, however, the necessity for therapy is dismissed
in times when they perhaps need it mostwhen the glamour and fame is at
its peak. This becomes notable in Cabreras case, where the severity is downplayed by many fans. Fans of Cabrera exhibit an attitude reflecting that they
do not care if Cabrera drives drunk, so long as he is a productive player. For
example, on October 12, 2012, Twitter user @CurseOfBenitez tweeted at the
Tigers official account, Ive decided that Miguel Cabreras DUI was actually
an arrest for Driving Under the Influence of Greatness #MVP. Meanwhile, on
October 11, 2012 @MattCapozzi tweeted Watch out oakland Miguel Cabrera
got a hold of some champagne #DUI waiting to happen hahahahaha. On the
same day, @Faraj_MoeAli opined You know a man is a great man if they
smile in their mugshot after getting a DUI. #Cabrera #MVP.16
Argumentation Aversion
Another tenant of anger management is the ability to engage in constructive
argument. Zambrano made two particular claims to the media. One claim
was that the Cubs were embarrassing. The other was the argument that Carlos
Marmol should not have pitched anything other than a fastball to Ryan Theriot (that pitch selection was responsible for the loss). While it goes against
the norm to criticize teammates in the media, the violation of the norm in
this case tells us a little bit about the role of argument aversion in baseball
culture.
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Many fans and members of the media took Zambranos first argument (the
Cubs being an embarrassment) seriously. For example, Tyler Juranovich commented, I am not one that usually agrees with Chicago Cubs [sic] pitcher,
Carlos Zambrano, but he spoke nothing but truth yesterday when he called
the Cubs embarrassing after being swept by the St. Louis Cardinals. I dont
know if any of you have watched the Cubs lately (or any time really) but if you
have, its hard not to agree with Zambranos assessment.17 Matt Snyder wrote,
I can envision Zambrano catching a lot of flak for this, but is he really wrong?
The Cubs obviously dont have the best collection of talent and have suffered
injuries, but theyre playing pretty embarrassing baseball right now. Taken
together, reporters were able to maintain a sense that Zambranos comments
were somehow inappropriate, but agreed with his assessment that the Cubs
play was embarrassing.
Conversely, fans and members of the media took Zambranos second argument (Marmol should have pitched nothing but fastballs to Theriot) as insulting. Rather than treating the argument with any sincerity, most of baseball
culture called on Zambrano to immediately apologize to Marmol because
they believed the comments to be inappropriate. For example, a Cubs fan
stated, I agree with what Z said, but it would have been better to not throw
Marmol under the bus at the same time.18 Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago
Sun-Times wrote an article entitled, Carlos Zambrano rips Carlos Marmol,
calls Cubs embarrassing.19 There are at least a couple of problems with this
rhetorical construction of Zambranos comments.
First, anger management is not about making an athlete polite and calm.
Thus, the assertion that Zambrano somehow violated politeness toward
Marmol is implicated in the rhetorical response and understanding of anger
management. Second, media reaction did nothing to inquire about baseball
strategy and engage with fans about the question of strategy. While reporters and fans were happy to engage on the question of whether the Cubs were
embarrassing, there was no such discussion about pitching Ryan Theriot anything but fastballs. ESPN regularly does pitch tracking, and spotlights entire at
bats to talk about pitch selection and location. They could have easily tracked
Ryan Theriots at bats to show baseball fans whether or not Zambranos argument was warranted. Furthermore, one could easily imagine Marmol refuting
Zambrano in front of the media so that fans have an idea about the strategy
involved in baseball. He could have said something to the effect of, It was
my strategy to show a slider out of the zone that would make the fastball look
faster and more unpredictable. Set-up pitches are necessaryI just missed my
location on the slider today by getting it in the zone and Theriot made me
pay for it. That would be a reasonable argument against a reasonable argu-
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ment. Then there could have been a debate about the strategy. However, the
debate was closed when people demanded Zambrano apologize rather than
engage in a discussion about who chose the strategy or whether the strategy
was reasonable.
Taken together, both of these comments and the fan and media reaction
confirms a general lack of tolerance for a players ability to make arguments
about a teammates performanceargumentative players may be easily construed as angry players. The media may make arguments. The fans may make
arguments. Managers may make arguments. Organizational leaders (GMs,
presidents, etc.) may make arguments. However, the people who are closest
to the action should not. According to baseball culture, an argument about a
teams performance is marginally permissible, but arguing about a teammates
performance is dangerous territory. Perhaps baseball fans stand to benefit in
understanding strategic aspects of the game by encouraging players to engage
in debate on a regular basis in front of the mediamore debate results in
more learning about strategies, details, and norms of baseball.
Aristotle believed in debate from the most credible people on all sides of
an issue. To exempt players from debates about baseball strategy in the public
is to limit fans understanding of the game. Furthermore, an even bigger risk
is that refusing to allow the expression of anger in the form of making arguments in front of the media risks escalating the way anger is relieved. When
players feel like they cannot express their anger, it can build to aggression and
physical fights. When internalized, it can lead to depression and lowered selfesteem.20 Perhaps expressing anger in words to the media is a productive outlet
and should be encouraged so long as the expression is in the form of argument
and not ad hominem. Zambranos expression was a far cry from ad hominem.
20
Culture and Performance

While cultural bias is an increasingly difficult factor to determine given
todays subtle and unconscious biases, the rhetoric surrounding Zambrano is
consistent with a long tradition of popular constructions of the hot-tempered
Latino. Alfredo Mirande found that Spanish conquistadores introduced the
image of the super-macho, virulent, and violent Hispanic man to the New
World, an image which has been reinforced in one form or another in mass
media.21 Carlos Monsivais traced the perpetuation of this image, including
the angry, nostrils-flaring, Latin characters in many American movies in the
1950s.22 Celia Falicov found that contrary images of Latino masculinity rarely
find their place in the media. She noted that while watching many movies,
as well as in my clinical practice, I have observed many characters that offer
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alternative positive portrayals of Latino masculinity. However, these characteristics have not received the attention that the negative construction has
acquired over time.23
There might be a little bit of this perpetuation imposed on Zambrano.
Granted, definitive proof of the framing of Zambrano as a quintessential
angry Latino may be a bit of a stretch given how subtly such bias may be manifest. On the one hand, numerous Latinos have been featured as problems to
their teams because of their temperamentOzzie Guillen, Carlos Silva, Francisco Rodriguez, and Jose Canseco. On the other hand, numerous Latinos
have displayed the calm and polite expectation of baseball cultureAlex
Gonzalez, Benji Molina, and Carlos Lee. To get a better sense of the framing,
the case of Zambrano thus requires an examination of the historical construction of Latin American masculinity in the context of MLB.
For decades, scholars have examined sports in general and baseball specifically as a masculine space, a place for hegemonic notions masculinity to
develop and flourish.24 Further, gender in general, as well as masculinity specifically is not monolithic but rather intersects with other cultural factors such
as race, class, and ethnicity.25 In MLB, the specific construction of Latin American masculinity is an example of such intersectionality. A careful reading of
Latin American integration into MLB reveals that the construction of Latin
American masculinity developed along four overlapping yet separate items.
First, Latin players in the 1940s1970s faced a double bind of sorts, being
perceived as both black and Latin. As the late Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente once famously put it, Me, Im a double nigger because Im black and a
nigger because Im Puerto Rican.26 Clementes remarks underscored the tensions that many Latin athletes suffered during their integration. Part of this
tension was due to their being unprepared for the type of institutionalized
segregation that American baseball offered. While professional baseball in the
United States was exclusive (both in terms of MLB and the Negro leagues),
professional baseball leagues in Mexico as well as the Caribbean were racially
inclusive, a fact that Adrian Burgos Jr. argues shaped their expectations about
what playing professionally in the States would be like once the racial barrier
was dismantled.27
Pioneering black (also referred to as darker-skinned) Latinos (such as
Minnie Minoso and Vic Power) faced the double-burden of entering MLB as
both black men and Latinos. Being black and Latino complicated their place
in baseball integration, and Latinos who participated as integration pioneers
after 1947 continued to face many of the same cultural constraints encountered by those who preceded them into the majors, and also mirrored what
everyday Latinos faced in their interactions in US society.28
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A second factor in the identity of Latin American players was the fact that
many Latino players did not mesh with pioneering African American players. Cultural assimilation was no easier for Latinos than any other group. Alex
Pompez (given a job by the Giants to assist in Latinos cultural assimilation)
explained that many foreign-born Latinos did not adjust well: some boys
cry and want to go home due to racial segregation. Latin players relationships were often strained with their black teammates. One African American
player said, Latin Negroes cry when they encounter segregation for the first
time... We [African Americans] dont cry and we have it a hell of a lot worse
than they do.... But were conditioned, I guess.29 Latin players also had to
negotiate being confronted with the choice of whether or not to identify as a
Negro regardless of their individual family history or physical appearance.30
Many Latinos were accused of denying their colored identity, and of thinking theyre better than the colored guy.31
The third and fourth factors in the construction Latin American masculinity revolved around the public behaviors of Latin players. As with pioneering African American players, Latino players were forced to carefully guard
their public image. The cultural stereotype of the hot-blooded Latin often
shaped public perceptions of Latin players. Minnie Minoso, the first black
Latino in the major leagues, contradicted the stereotype of the hot-blooded
Latin by fighting back without anger.32 Minoso reportedly would obey segregation policies, figuring that such laws could not harm him, however he
also recounted that because of his demeanor, some black ballplayers tell me
that I didnt understand prejudice and discrimination because I was Cuban,
not black.33 Minoso was isolated, not always accepted by black players, and
also subject to Jim Crow laws. Like Jackie Robinson did for African American players, it was Minosos demeanor perhaps even more than his talent that
allowed future Latin stars such as Roberto Clemente to speak more freely as
men fiercely proud of being black and Latino.34
Not all players however had Minosos temperament. Perhaps the starkest
example is Silvio Garcia, a talented Latino player who had extensive experience playing integrated ball in Cuba and who was refused integration into
MLB. Branch Rickey, four years prior to signing Jackie Robinson, believed that
Garcia had major-league talent, but was dissuaded due to Garcias temperament. When asked by Rickey how he might respond to a physical confrontation with a white player, Garcia reportedly responded by saying, I kill him.35
According to Burgos, Latinos intolerance to racial slurs and confrontations
based on race was not limited to Silvio Garcia.
Also contrary to Minoso, Vic Power was unafraid of speaking about racism
and the institutionalized nature of American inequality. He also was gregari-
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ous, a jokester of sorts, who spoke out without always considering the social
codes of conduct. Signed by the Yankees, Power was a black Puerto Rican
[who] ran counter to the genteel black southerner or the corporate player who
abided by the rules.36 Ultimately, the Yankees, who lagged far behind in baseballs integration process in general, refused to promote Power to the major
leagues, and instead traded his rights to the Philadelphia As. Burgos summarized that the controversy over the Yankees failure to bring up Power illustrates how Latinos were essential actors in baseballs integration drama.37
The popular image of the violent Latino, intersecting with issues of masculinity and baseball, was given more or less concrete form in 1965. One of the
more noted, if not lamented, instances of violence by a Latino came in 1965
when Juan Marichal struck opposing catcher Johnny Roseboro in the head
with his bat during a game. Marichal, who accused Roseboro of nearly hitting
him in the head with return throws to pitcher Sandy Koufax, was blamed for
letting his emotions get the best of him. Marichal, known for taunting opponents (or bench jockeying), had broken the informal masculine and professional code regarding behavior in the heat of competition.38 Burgos commented that bench jockeying helped create a hyper-masculine space where
players proved their masculinity through physical displays of athleticism,
attempts to unsettle their opponents with their words, and control of their own
emotions.39 This concept of hyper-masculine space intersecting with the
world of baseball is consistent with Messners (and others) arguments regarding sports, masculinity, and the negotiated rules of performing masculinity.
Such is also consistent with Zambranos instance of supposedly publicly chastising his own teammate in a postgame interview: Zambranos major transgression was not so much that he got angry, nor even that he called out a teammate, but rather that he broke the code by calling out his teammate publicly.
Finally, the fourth area of masculinity and construction of Latin American
masculinity in baseball centered around language. For example, former Giants
manager Alvin Darks English only policy infuriated some of his Latin players, such as Orlando Cepeda. Cepeda felt not only proud of his native Puerto
Rican Spanish, but also felt embarrassed by being forced to speak in broken
English. Burgos documented that cultural pride and masculinity were inextricably involved in negotiating the politics of language.40 While Felipe Alou
explained that speaking in their native language was not meant to alienate
English-speaking teammates, but rather to alleviate the stress of fumbling for
the right words, English-only policies or even the expectancy of English forced
the non-fluent to no longer sound like men able to speak for themselves.41
Additionally, the English-language sports media frequently engaged in
what Burgos and others call intellectual disenfranchisement of Latino play-
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ers by focusing on the players accents and pronunciations as opposed to the

content of their message. As readers attention was shifted from content to
accents and difference, the sports media reinforced popular perceptions of
Latinos as unintelligent, inarticulate, and unworthy of being treated as intellectual peers.42 The press also reinforced the stereotype of the hot-blooded
Latin. As Rico Carty discussed, when you cannot express yourself the way
you want to, you get frustrated, and when Latin players expressed frustration
with the press (for being misquoted, misunderstood, or quoted out of context) they were often labeled as hot-headed, hot-blooded Latinos.43 Carty
explained that when you were not fluent enough to explain and defend yourself with words, all you have left is to fight and defend yourself.44
In the face of such intellectual disenfranchisement, many Latino players responded by refusing to talk to the press, as not appearing in print was
better than being publicly mocked, which was considered an affront to their
masculinity.45 Burgos explained that the baseball diamond provides a space
for performances of masculinity, and that the ability to verbally defend ones
self is a reflection of ones cultural pride and as part of ones masculinity: men
stand up and speak for themselves to defend their honor.46 The intellectual
disenfranchisement perpetrated by American-English-media stripped nonfluent men with accents of this facet of what it means to be a man in many
traditional Latino cultures.
Carlos Zambrano, the public figure, is, like all public figures, a cultural
production. Burgos explains that
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cultural productions of Latino in media coverage, marketing campaigns, and selfrepresentations have combined to sustain the image of Latinos as persistent foreigners
in baseball and U.S. society, arrivals in a recent wave. The public face constructed
to represent Latinos distorts the Latino past within the game and powerfully elides
the long history of Latino participation and the social forces that have shaped that
participation.47
Recent media productions, as well as self-representations of Zambrano,

depict him as cured of his anger problems. The current cultural production depicts anger as a problem to be solved and anger management issues
as synonymous with immaturity. In 2011, for instance, prior to his most recent
outburst, Zambrano actually joked with a Los Angeles blogger who asked
him whether he was always emotional when he pitches by turning the question around, asking where have you been the last nine years?48 Later in the
same piece, Zambrano admitted to getting angry, but that when hes mad he is
on his game, and that now he has learned to control it.49
After and since Zambranos later frustrations with teammates, he has been
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cast as a redeemed athlete. In one recent interview, Zambrano claims that

he will be a preacher in the future, and he credits his rebirth and maturity
to spiritual enlightenment.50 For another example, Showtimes recent reality series The Franchise featured a three minute and thirty-five second spotlight on Zambrano, in which four basic themes emerged. The first theme is
that the old Carlos Zambrano is gone (Zambranos words) and that he has
matured. FINALLY (Marlins announcer).51
Secondly, an unnamed source states he could have been an angry, sulky,
pain in the asspiece of shitwhich is what the scouting report said he was.
Everyone was wrong. This quotation is interesting for two reasons: first, it
underscores the idea that Zambrano has been cured, noting everyone was
wrong, and yet it cites no experts in the field of anger management (in fact,
the segment in total did not feature a single anger management therapist or
expert); second, this quote links Zambranos past anger with being sulky
and a pain in the ass. While it is true that Zambrano had outbursts of rage,
being sulky would seem to be at odds with depictions of the pitcher as a
fiery, hot-blooded Latino.
Third, in several montages, as well as a voice-over by a teammate, Zambrano is depicted as intense, but also jovial, almost childlike. For example, in
one montage, he is seen talking to himself, yelling at himself to be motivated
and focused. This montage gives way to images of him laughing, even singing
Take Me Out to the Ballgame in the dugout. Also, Zambrano is quoted saying that he feels grateful and blessed for his new opportunity, and that he
plans to enjoy every moment. Finally, a Marlins announcer notes that Zambrano has become a real fan favorite since arriving in Miami. In sum, Zambrano is depicted as a calm, happy-go-lucky caricature of his former self.
Fourth, Zambranos segment in The Franchise features an apologia of sorts
for his past frustrations with teammates. There seems to be a concerted effort
to depict Zambrano as a good teammate. For example, Zambrano is quoted
saying in the past I wasnt mature.... Now I dont care about what I cant
control. This quote then cuts to a clip of his third-baseman making a throwing error, and Zambrano says, if somebody fail[s] you go out there and Ill
pick him up. Another example of Zambrano being a good teammate is in his
cheerleading for his closer Heath Bell. The announcer reveals that of Bells
four blown saves this year, three could have been wins for Zambrano. The
final clip of the segment shows Zambrano in the clubhouse cheering on Bell
and practically jumping for joy when Bell saves the game.
In total, the spotlight feature in The Franchise provides a picture of Zambrano as a calm yet intense man who has matured, a good teammate who has
put the past behind him and is in control of his emotions. Notably, viewers do
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not hear from Zambranos anger management therapists, nor any experts in
the field of sports psychology. The Franchise further reinforces the idea that
anger is immature, a problem to be solved, and that the appropriate way
to perform masculinity is to be intense within culturallynot clinically
negotiated limitations.
What might cause some to raise an eyebrow is that media depictions of
Zambrano focus more on his temper than they do on his likeability (e.g., very
little coverage is devoted to his Big Z Foundation). Eyebrows are raised, for
example, when one considers the comparison of media and fan reactions to
Zambrano with the reactions to Boston Red Sox pitcher Jonathon Papelbon.
In the 2011 season Papelbon was suspended for two games for making contact with an umpire during an argument. Previously, Papelbon threw a towel
and yelled, Dont take my fucking picture to a photographer. He screamed
at an umpire while throwing his hat into the ground. He called his teammate Manny Ramirez a cancer, among many other similar incidents. Yet he
has plenty of positive publicity. Papelbon gets positive press for his charity
appearances, his dances, his celebrations, and he appears as a positive figure
in commercial advertisements. Despite Papelbons background, Papelbon was
not ordered to undergo anger management. Regardless, Papelbons behavior
is not intended to justify Zambranos behavior. At the same time, the disparate coverage between the two might indicate a media and fan bias in baseball.
In any case, Zambranos behavior did not help to eliminate the stigma of the
angry Latino in the media.
Of course, as previously noted in the case of Cabrera, there is also the issue
of performance. The baseball culture of fans and media are probably more
likely to forgive anger issues if the playing performance is at a high level.
Papelbon is legendary in terms of his success. He was instrumental in the Red
Sox winning World Series titles, has 275 saves as a closer, a career 2.31 ERA, and
is considered a team leader. Perhaps because of his success, fans and media do
not think he needs anger management. Bo Jackson was a dual sport all-star
and named by some as the best athlete ever, and baseball fans saw little problem with him smashing bats over his knee. Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan beat up
on a young Robin Ventura and he was valorized for his fighting abilities. One
encounters troubled waters when performance is poor and attitude is poor.
The lesson of this rhetoric of baseball fans and media appears to be that poor
behavior may be permissible depending on how bad the anger is, balanced by
how well the player performs (and in the case of Nolan Ryan, whose fault
the behavior appears to beNolan Ryan is rarely perceived to have instigated
Robin Ventura by throwing at him). In the end, culture and performance are
subtle issuesthe degree of influence such perceptions had on the rhetoric
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surrounding Zambrano is difficult to determine. Still, one cannot help but

raise these issues since they appear as trends in baseball culture.
Rhetoric of Emotions
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The reaction after Zambranos June 2011 episode also teaches a bit about how
baseball fans and writers talk about emotions. For Aristotle, emotions were
important to understanding pathos. And emotions do not exist in isolation.
For example, according to Aristotle, fear may turn to anger, attraction may
turn to love, and pleasure may turn to pain. One characteristic of the effective rhetor is the ability to steer their audience from one emotion to another.
Learning how to maneuver an audience from one emotion to another allows
a certain command of the audiences attention. Aristotles theory of emotions
is telling in the case of Zambrano as it helps to highlight the remedial beliefs
about emotions in baseball fan and media culture.
According to baseball media and fans, Zambrano needed to channel his
emotions effectively in order to be effective. While this is likely true, the rhetoric surrounding Zambrano demonstrates the problematic lumping of all
feeling into the category of the emotions. For example, a Chicago Tribune
headline read, At times, Carlos Zambranos emotion is his Achilles heelbut
the Cubs ace cant succeed without it. The point of the Achilles heel metaphor
is that Achilles heel was specifically an area of weakness that led to Achilles
death. As such, Zambranos emotions are constructed as a paradox. The question of what feelings of emotion result in positive outward performance and
what feelings of emotion result in negative outward performance is notably
absent in the rhetoric concerning emotions in general.
Importantly, Zambrano has appeared to talk about his emotions in a
slightly more sophisticated manner after anger management counseling than
do most baseball fans and media. Zambrano explained, The emotions always
will be there,... thats the way I am, thats the way I know how to pitch. Ive
been in the big leagues nine, 9 years and Ive been like that since I came in.
He said the problem comes when he lets the emotion go out of my hands.52
Just like Aristotle theorized the rhetorician should be able to move an audience from one emotion to another, Zambrano has acknowledged his desire to
steer his mind from one emotion to another rather than letting the range of
emotions get the best of him. What Zambrano, baseball fans, and media seem
to lack is a rhetoric of subtleties when it comes to emotions.
According to this view, Zambranos case is about anger as an isolated emotion that is directed. Anger is good when Zambrano is able to direct it into his
pitching performance, and it is negative when it harms his pitching perfor-
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mance. However, anger leads to several other emotions that are absent from
rhetoric surrounding Zambranos emotions. Anger may lead to aggression,
and aggression is what occurs in Zambranos outbursts. Anger may lead
to a feeling of empowerment, and a sense of empowerment leads to a feeling of being able to control a given situation. Anger may lead to appreciation that baseball is just a game and small compared to the more important
things in life (family, etc.), and appreciation of the more important things in
life may lead to a calming sense of relaxation before approaching another batter. Anger may lead to a feeling of curiosity, and curiosity may lead to learning more about the game of baseball. However, the subtleties of emotions are
rarely, if ever, found in the rhetoric of baseball fans and media. Typically, one
emotion is singled out, and linked to a positive or negative outward display.
Furthermore, the rhetoric of baseball fans and media suggests a strong connection to the construction of emotional feelings as relative to their outward
display. In other words, emotions are measured based on the external appearance rather than the highly subjective internalized emotional feeling. For baseball fans and media, the more a player shows emotion, the more emotion a
player feels. Garrett Anderson provides a telling case as he is often constructed
as the polar opposite of Zambrano. Anderson was an outfielder for the Angels
who stated on several occasions that he felt uncomfortable expressing his emotions and heard complaints from people who want him to express emotion to
show that he cares about playing baseball.53 When Anderson hit a home run
or won a baseball game, he seldom expressed any emotion. When Anderson
struck out or made an error, he seldom showed any emotion. Anderson is as
stoic as they come on the baseball field and off of it.54
Notably absent from the rhetorical construction of Anderson is any discussion about how he controls his emotions. For fans and media who believe
Anderson experiences intense emotion and passion, Anderson is perceived
to keep those emotions in controla testament to the fact that Anderson is
either a master of emotions (mastering emotions is privileged), or that he
must not experience the intensity of emotions that are difficult to contain. For
baseball fans and media who believe Anderson does not experience emotion,
Anderson is perceived as not caring about the game as much as they do, or
worse, not caring about the game at all (e.g., perhaps it is only about money
or some other selfish interest). The larger point, of course, is that we are only
left to theorize the possibilities, because baseball fans and media culture do
not tend to delve into discussions about how to talk about emotions with any
degree of sophistication in cases of either too much emotion (i.e., Zambrano)
or too little emotion (i.e., Anderson).
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Perhaps Aristotle offers a better way of talking about how emotions are
channeled into baseball performance. Specifically, Aristotle explained
that for the rhetorician, there are certain vices and virtues. The comparison
between Zambrano and Anderson demonstrates that for baseball fans and
media, caring is a virtue and a vice. When caring is expressed as aggression, the player risks that the emotion will be taken as a vice. When caring is
expressed as joy, it will certainly be taken as a virtue. Expressions of joy or
happiness are virtues when things are good. Showing no expression is a vice
when things are good. Expression of moderate anger is a virtue when things
are bad. Expression of disappointment is a virtue when things are bad. Expressions of anger risk the perception of vice when things are bad. No expression
when things are bad is a vice of not caring. Thus, expressions of disappointment hold a certain sense of decorum for baseball fans and writers.
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Conclusion
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Baseball fans and media may have been correct in many of their judgments
concerning Zambrano. The fact that Zambrano struggles with anger management is uncontested. There is no certainty that in the future Zambrano will
avoid fighting with teammates and opponents. In the future, he might break
a bat over his knee, and he might take his anger out on a Gatorade machine.
He might mock an umpire again by signaling for the umpire to be ejected.
Regardless of Zambranos future behavior, there is a lot to be learned from the
way baseball fans and media have talked about his first incidents after going
through anger management counseling.
Baseball fans and media might learn to understand the complex struggle to
manage anger. We might stand to gain an increased understanding and appreciation for anger management counselors and the progress that they are able
to make with their clients in expressing their anger by turning away from violent confrontations with teammates. We might be more reflexive of the inconsistency of our standards of permissible aggressive behavior so that when one
player breaks a bat over their knee it is as (im-)permissible as when another
player breaks a bat over their knee. We might open the conversation about
anger management to include the perspective of anger management professionals before castigating them as failures. We might be more willing to be
understanding of peoples anger, to encourage a spirit of argumentation, to
further understand the complexities of baseball. In that spirit, we might view
argumentation as a practice of caring rather than a threatening endeavor. We
might choose to question whether cultural bias has any relation to our perception of outward expressions of anger and the way our hunger for watching
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good performances may cloud our judgment of improper behavior. We might

question why we perceive certain outward expressions of emotion as virtues
and others as vices. We might work to develop a more sophisticated vocabulary to talk about the range of emotions experienced in the game.
We might also learn a type of patience in letting a story unfold without
imposing our own sensationalism on those immediately affected. Marmol did
not have a problem with Zambrano to begin with. A day after the incident,
Marmol told reporters that he accepted the apology and said there were no
problems between the two in the first place.55 Marmol may be more willing to tolerate criticism than baseball fans and media. Perhaps baseball fans
and media may consider allowing players more control over managing their
own tensions without attempting to create issues for them. In sum, we might
encourage behavior within ourselves, as part of baseball culture, that increases
expressions of care and compassion for a game that, when at its best, inspires
those emotions in us.
One area requiring future study and consideration also emerged: an extensive study of how the Latin American press has covered Zambrano, as well as
other Latino baseball players, is warranted. Our initial reaction to the Latin
American coverage is that while some is similar to English/US coverage, English media still perhaps biases readers based on language barriers. Furthermore, much more can and should be done to compare the Latin American vs.
US mainstream media to determine the continued prevalence of intellectual
disenfranchisement within US media sources.
Zambrano has been cast as a redemption story of sorts by recent US
media sources. Redemption stories are not new, and such stories make good
copy from a newspaper standpoint. While Zambrano has largely been
redeemed, two items are worthy of note: first, his redemptionbe it spiritual enlightenment, newfound maturity, or whateverhas been documented
along with his pitching success. This indicates that success on the fieldnot
spiritual growth or maturityis the primary necessary condition for such
redemption stories. After all, if Zambrano could no longer pitch, his story
would not be spotlighted on reality television programs. Second, the rhetorical construction of anger management is socially significant. Persistently
absent from media commentary on the Zambrano redemption story is the
voice of experts within the field of anger management. We find this continuing trend of ignoring specialists alarming, and hope to move towards a society
which is more trusting of intellectual and technical expertise. If nothing else,
it is our contention that the experts ought to have a voice at the table.
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Notes
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1. Matt Leland, Big Z and His Big Mouth, Out of Left Field, June 7, 2011, http://
www.out-of-leftfield.com/?p=883.
2. Leland, Big Z and His Big Mouth.
3. Dave Van Dyck, Zambrano vs. Barrett: The Slugout in the Dugout, Chicago
Tribune, June 1, 2007, http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-070601cubsgamer
,0,1493423.story.
4. Cubs Zambrano Suspended After Tirade, ESPNChicago, June 26, 2010, http://
sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=5328972.
5. Quoted in Aaron Gleeman, Good News for Gatorade Coolers: Carlos Zambranos Anger Management Issues are Cured, NBC Sports: HardballTalk, February 22, 2011,
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/02/22/good-news-for-gatorade-coolers-carlos
-zambranos-anger-management-issues-are-cured/.
6. Gene Wojciechowski, Carlos Zambrano and the Blame Game, ESPNChicago,
June 5, 2011, http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/columns/story?columnist=wojcie
chowski_gene&page=wojciechowski/110605&sportCat=mlb.
7. Dylan Polk, Is Big Zs Criticism Justified?, The Courier, June 7, 2011, http://www
.lincolncourier.com/sports/pro/x1595586353/Polk-Is-Big-Zs-criticism-justified.
8. Steve Henson, Dodgers Home Opener; Bradley Has a New Outlook; Dodger
outfielder says anger management sessions helped him change his demeanor,
Los Angeles Times, April 12, 2005, http://search.proquest.com/newsstand/docview
/422013250/fulltext/13a9916a8b538d8073d/1?accountid=10351.
9. Benedict Carey, Anger Management may not Help at All. New York Times,
November 24, 2004, http://search.proquest.com/newsstand/docview/432907637/13a9
91d6bc527e3eb0b/21?accountid=10351.
10. Carey, Anger Management may not Help at All.
11. Tom Green, Big Z Harnessing Emotions, Thriving in Miami: With Windy City in
Rearview, Zambrano Enjoying Career ReBirth, MLB.com, June 14, 2012, http://miami.
marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120614&content_id=33287856&vkey=news
_mia&c_id=mia.
12. Mitch Abrams, Anger Management in Sport: Understanding and Controlling Violence in Athletes (Champaign IL: Human Kinetics, 2010), 3.
13. David Haugh, Time for Cubs to Cut Ties With Zambrano, Chicago Tribune,
June 6, 2011, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/20110606/sports/ct-spt-0606
-haugh-zambrano20110605_1_jim-hendry-mike-quade-cubs.
14. Sean Kernan, Cubs Fans Feeling the Frustration: A Fans Take, Yahoo! Sports,
June 3, 2011, http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ycn-8583173.
15. Jennifer Kay and Dionisio Soldevila, Migeul Cabrera Arrested: Tigers Slugger Charged with DUI, Huffington Post, February 17, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost
.com/2011/02/17/miguel-cabrera-arrested-dui_n_824455.html.
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16. Search results for Cabrera DUI, MLB.com, http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/search

/?query=cabrera+dui&start=31&site=mlb&hitsPerPage=10&hitsPerSite=10&c_id=det
&teamCode=det&teamFilter=det
17. Tyler Juranovich, Carlos Zambrano is Right: The Cubs are Embarrassing,
ChiCitySports.com, June 6, 2011, http://www.chicitysports.com/2011/06/06/carlos
-zambrano-is-right-the-cubs-are-embarrassing/.
18. Fan quoted in Carrie Muskat, 6/6 Agree, Disagree with Big Z?, Muskat Ramblings: MLBogs Network, June 6, 2011, http://muskat.mlblogs.com/2011/06
/06/66-agree-disagree-with-big-z/.
19. Gordon Wittenmyer, Carlos Zambrano Rips Carlos Marmol, Calls Cubs
Embarrassing, Chicago Sun-Times June 5, 2011, http://www.suntimes.com/sports
/baseball/5794145573/carlos-zambrano-rips-carlos-marmol-calls-cubs-embarrassing
.html.
20. Dr. Laila Ahmed is a master trainer for the National Federation of Neuro
Linguistic Psychology and certified Clinical Hypnotherapist. She found that unexpressed anger can have these negative outcomes for people. See Laila Ahmed,
Anger Leads to Danger, Ezine @rticles, June 7, 2008), http://ezinearticles.com/
?Anger-Leads-to-Danger&id=1307691.
21. Alfredo Mirande, Hombres Y Machos: Masculinity and Latino Culture (Boulder
CO: Westview Press, 1997).
22. Quoted in Matthew C. Gutmann, The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).
23. Celia Jaes Falicov, Changing Constructions of Machismo for Latino Men in
Therapy: The Devil Never Sleeps, Family Process 49, no. 3 (2010): 311.
24. See, for example, Adrian Burgos Jr., Playing Americas Game: Baseball, Latinos,
and the Color Line (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007); R. W. Connell,
Masculinities, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995); A. M. Klein, Dueling
Machos: Masculinity and Sport in Mexican Baseball, in Masculinities, Gender Relations and Sport, ed. J. Mckay, Michael A. Messner, and Don Sabo (Thousand Oaks CA:
Sage, 2000); and M. A. Messner, Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1992).
25. Marian Meyers, African-American Women and Violence: Gender, Race, and
Class in the News, Critical Studies in Media Communication 21 (2004): 95118; and
Ralina Joseph, Tyra Banks is Fat: Reading (Post-)Racism and (Post-)Feminism in the
New Millennium, Critical Studies in Media Communication 26 (2009): 23754.
26. Phillip M. Hoose, Necessities: Racial Barriers in American Sports (New York:
Random House, 1987), quoted in Burgos Jr., Playing Americas Game, 224.
27. Burgos Jr., Playing Americas Game, 180.
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48. Paul Sullivan, Cubs Zambrano Excellent as He Finds Anger Management
Works, McClatchy-Tribune News Service (DC), May 4, 2011, http://search.proquest
.com/newsstand/docview/864745528/13a994758ca4a3792c8/14?accountid=10351.
49. Sullivan, Cubs Zambrano Excellent.
50. Joe Capozzi, Zambrano Experiences Awakening; The Volatile Right-Hander
Credits his Career Rebirth to a Spiritual Transformation, Palm Beach Post, May 18,
2012, http://search.proquest.com/newsstand/docview/1014202536/13a994758ca4a3792
c8/2?accountid=10351.
51. The Zambrano spotlight in the program The Franchise is available at http://
sports.sho.com/videos/1046.
52. Quoted in Mike Dodd, With Zambrano and Garza, Cubs Passions Run Deep,
USA Today, April 8, 2011, http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/cubs/201104
08-emotions-run-high_N.htm.
53. Garrett Anderson, In My Own Words, Fox Sports News Archive, May 7, 2008,
http://multimedia.foxsports.com/m/video/19831815/imow-anderson-s-personality.
htm.
54. Doug Miller, Anderson Signs Contract Extension, Angels.com, April 13,
2004, http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/ana/y2004/m04/d13
/c701862.jsp.
55. Quoted in Matt Snyder, Zambrano Apologize to Marmol, Who has No
Issue, CBSSports Online, June 6, 2011, http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry
/22297882/29834657.
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Baseball Players, Organizational

Communication, and Cultural Diversity
Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Minor-League Clubhouses
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As baseball attracts players from more and more cultures, players are called
on to function in an increasingly diverse environment. Scholars of baseball
and culture have been following these changes from various perspectives.
Several presentations at the Nineteenth Annual NINE Spring Training Conference on the Historical and Sociological Impact of Baseball, for example,
looked at the roles of owners, media, league officials, and governments in promoting or stifling diversity in baseball.1 One presentation, however, alluded to
players approaches to diversity: Ila Borders described how her on-field performance improved following her move to a culturally diverse minor-league
team. She attributed much of her improvement to the communication among
team members, which she characterized as supporting and embracing cultural differences.2
Her story was thought-provoking and leads to a number of questions.
What aspects of being in a multicultural context influence communications
among team members? What significance does cultural identification hold
for professional baseball players? In what ways might culture affect performance? In an initial effort to address questions such as these, prior interviews
with culturally identified minor-league players were analyzed and results were
interpreted with reference to relevant and instructive approaches from the
field of organizational communication.
Methods
To explore what culture means to players, thirty-seven minor-league players
were interviewed during the 2011 season. Of the thirty-seven players interviewed, six were playing Class AAA ball, eleven were playing Class AA ball,
an additional player was interviewed twiceat both the AA and AAA levels
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and nineteen were playing Class A Short Season ball. They included seventeen
Jewish players, fifteen African American players, and three Spanish-speaking
players born in the United Statestwo additional players, native speakers of
neither Spanish nor English, were born outside the United States.
The predominance of Jewish and African American interviewees reflects
the original goals of the study: to understand the phenomenological meanings of cultural identification in baseball among members of two minorities,
one visible (African American), one not (Jewish). During the course of the
interviews, and in light of Ila Borderss story, players comments suggested a
different research question: How do players react to cultural diversity within
their teams? To help address this question, data from interviews with an additional thirty Spanish-speaking minor-league players were also included in the
analysis. These latter interviews were conducted in Spanish during the 2009
and 2010 seasons as part of a separate study.3
Semistructured interviews were conducted with players individually, with
the exception of three two-player interviews and one three-player interview
that included two players who had previously been interviewed separately.
Indeed, four of the thirty-seven players were interviewed on two separate
occasions. All players were at least eighteen years old, and all were informed
that (a) the researcher was affiliated with a college and not with any team
or league, (b) participation was voluntary, and (c) no information would be
shared that could identify a particular player or team. The inferred trustworthiness of responses is also based on observations that players were accessible and generous with their time and expressed interest in the research; many
actually thanked the researcher for addressing the topic of culture in minorleague baseball. Many players requested contact information to obtain a copy
of the results or additional information related to cultural identification. In
addition, it was possible to observe a number of the players interactions with
other culturally-diverse teammates, and thus to validate their statements.
Players gave their consent to have the interviews audio recorded. All interviews were transcribed and players comments about cultural groups were
coded. After a series of meetings and exchanges of memos, the researcher and
three graduate research assistants grouped players statements into emergent
categories, including:
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representations of culture;
forms of cultural identification, past and present;
meanings and salience of cultural identification;
within-group relations; and
approaches to cultural diversity.
Ressler: Organizational Citizenship Behavior
The analysis focused on players comments specifically regarding approaches to cultural diversity. The main theme that emerged captured players natural and genuine interest in cultures and cultural diversity, along with
the discretionary, inconspicuous, informal nature of their actions to embrace
diversity. Six additional themes included players reasons for this interest.
Results: Players Embrace Diversity
Even When Management Does Not
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In organizations, any given internal communication or inwardly directed

action, including approaches to diversity, can be formal, top-down, and
driven by management, or informal, bottom-up, and initiated by individuals.4
The latter is captured in the concept of organizational citizenship behavior
(OCB): discretionary actions taken by an organizations individual members,
at their own initiative, that are not formally rewarded by management, that
involve interpersonal communication and specifically interpersonal helping, and that promote both the internal functioning and external image of the
organization.5
A complementary concept, self-perception theory recognizes that being
rewarded for performing a task or disciplined for not performing it reduces
internal motivation to perform that task. Top-down, formal requirements to
perform a task make the task less likely to be performed when the reward
or threat is no longer present.6 Seeing their actions as voluntary, without formal demands or rewards, reinforces individuals self-perceptions and sustains helping behaviors, because it focuses individuals attention on their personal reasons for helping. For example, one of the players explained why he
enjoys visiting childrens hospitals throughout the season on his own, outside
the framework of team-mandated community service, and without receiving credit: The honest truthdo you want me to go deep down inside?
baseballs a selfish game.... Minor-league baseball is spent mainly as the most
selfish game you could ever play.... Its such a selfish, cut-throat thing, that
I feel like, maybe subconsciously, I need a balance.... [Visiting sick children
spontaneously] is just stuff that really makes you feel good about yourself.
Consistent with the concepts of OCB and self-perception theory, players tended to say that helping each other, across cultural lines, was perhaps
encouraged but generally not mandated by their organizations. As a result,
players took the initiative in helping other culturally-diverse players and saw
their actions as internally motivated. For example, after describing the process
of helping different groups of players on the team, one of the players was asked
who initiates those contacts. He explained, I think its something thats dealt
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with among [players in] the locker room between ourselvescommunicating

and stuff. Another player echoed this idea, explicitly downplaying the role of
team officials: The players take it on themselves to introduce themselves to
a new guy and try to communicate with them as much as they can.... I dont
think it has anything to do with the staff. A third explicitly reflected the idea
of self-perception theoryand OCBthat without strong external influences,
individuals are more likely to internalize a sense of personal responsibility
to initiate prosocial, internal, cross-cultural communications: As players we
should take it on ourselves to get to know the guys.
Asked directly if the organization encourages him or other players to interact with the teams Spanish-speaking players, for example, a player replied,
That was my personal goalthe day that I signed... and I am still living it
every single day.
Many of the Spanish-speaking players said they actually did not expect to
receive a great deal of assistance from team officialsand many did not. As
one Spanish-speaking interviewee noted, It is not like the team is obligated
to help you.
None of this is meant to suggest that organizations and individual minorleague teams do not use policy or programming to promote cross-cultural
communication. Players acknowledged that they do. One of the players even
admitted he was not always enthusiastic about interacting with the multitude of cultural groups and languages spoken on his team; he also conceded
that he was initially skeptical about his organizations efforts to force different
cultural groups into close contact. At the same time, however, he described
his personal efforts and successesand the satisfaction he feltinteracting
socially with members of different cultural groups. He made the point that,
while the team created an initial opportunity, successful internal communication across cultures was up to the players themselves.
Furthermore, the preceding analysis is not meant to imply that all interactions are cross-cultural or that players eschew social interactions driven by
common cultural identification. The same player acknowledged, for example,
that even when he would go out to eat with one member of another culture,
the other members of that cultural group would invariably all come along as
well. Players initiatives are meant to bridge but not to erase the boundaries
between groups. Their reactions to diversity were a recognition, not a negation, of social categories.
When players communication activities surrounding cultural diversity were internally motivated, what did those motivations include? Players
explanations can be categorized into six separate but related reasons for their
choosing to help their culturally diverse teammates.
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Six Reasons
Players Embrace Diversity Because Cultures Matter
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Players expressed an appreciation for cultural diversity on their teams,

because culture is meaningful to most of them. Many players, however, initially said that culture does not matter, that they all play the same game, on
the same team, with the same goals. Nevertheless, their further statements
and at times their actionsshowed that culture really is important to them.
In one representative example, an African American player began to explain
why culture is irrelevant: When you get on the field, baseball is baseball. No
matter where youre from. You still play it the same In the middle of that
sentence, an African American player from the visiting team called to the
interviewee by name, who responded, using the opposing players nickname.
Returning to the interview, the interviewee continued the sentence exactly
where he left off, base paths ninety feet, the mound is the samesixtyfeet-sixstill got the fence, still got a guy throwing the ball, and people got
to make plays. At the end of the interview, with the microphone off, he was
asked how he knew the player from the visiting team. He replied matter-offactly that there are not many African American baseball players, so when
they see each other, they notice. He made it clear that this is something that
he does regularly and that other players do as well: African American minor
leaguers notice each other, form friendships, and follow each others progress.
In other words, culture does not matterexcept when it does.
Most of the culturally identified players responded similarly, as if they felt
that they ought to say that cultural identification should be irrelevant. Thus,
many players first asserted that culture was no longer significant or noticeable, then gave examples of noticing and even actively looking for other members of their own culture, making efforts to meet them, helping them when
possible, following their careers, and rooting for them to succeed. Almost all
said that being baseball players who belong to a particular culture made them
feel special.
Culture, however, included much more than race, religion, or language. For
example, meaningful cultural identification was frequently geographical
not just being from a particular country, but being from a given region, city,
or even neighborhood. Age and tenure in organized baseball formed bases
for meaningful group membership and identification. So did draft order, as
reported by one player who said he befriends, follows, and identifies with
other players who were selected in the latter rounds of the amateur draft. Culture also included physical condition, such as being a member of deaf culture
or having a noticeable skin condition, both of which were cited as having cre-
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ated bonds of identification with others with the same condition. Culture,
then, was defined to include any meaningful social category membership.7 In
turn, meaningful social identity was often defined by whatever a player felt
made him different.8 As one player observed, Everything is culturally related.
This juxtaposition of ignoring culture while at the same time noticing different aspects of culture and using them as a basis for socially meaningful
identification was summed up by one of the players. I dont think people are
saying, Hey, this is what I am, listen to my story, but if you look, you can see
it.... Music, dress, food choices,... where people are, what they like, what
they do, who they hang out with, who they speak to, what language they speak
in, what religion they are, what theyre wearing, what theyre doing before
games. Culture is pervasive in the clubhouse, and players acknowledged its
significance in their daily lives. This, in turn, led players who felt different to
empathize with players from other cultures who also felt different.
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Players Embrace Diversity Because They Feel Empathy
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Daniel Batson has presented extensive empirical evidence supporting the

important mediating role of empathy in helping others.9 It is not surprising,
therefore, that taking the initiative to help others across cultural boundaries
could potentially be moderated by empathy. Indeed, players comments suggested that some embrace diversity out of feelings of empathy for members of
other minority cultures. Asked where these feelings of empathy come from,
players answers reflected a diversity of sources: parents, culturally diverse
youth baseball teams, or playing in Spanish-speaking countries in the offseason. Even American-born, Spanish-speaking players noted that playing in
South and Central America fostered a greater empathy for diversity.
In addition, some players suggested that identifying as a member of a
minority culture was a source of the empathy they felt toward players from
other minority cultures. One of the Spanish-speaking players, referring to an
African American teammate who makes more effort to learn Spanish than
other players on his team (a pattern repeated on other teams as well), said,
Maybe he understands both minorities, I guess.
One player, when asked what he would want to know about players from
other cultures if he were conducting this research, replied, I guess Id just
want to know, really, do they feel somewhat left out or kind of set aside. I feel
like that at times, being the only African American. I feel likethat Im left
out sometimes from some things... you know? He explained that he was not
implying racism or intentional exclusion from activities, but that the other
players simply had other culturally driven values and interests and that he was
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unable to find anyone else on the team who enjoyed spending free time the
way he didbecause of his cultural uniqueness on the team. A second player,
after the recorder was turned off, admitted that he has tried to help members
of other cultures because he has known what it is like, in his words, to be a
stranger.
A third player noted, in reference to teammates from other minority cultures, They interact with everyone else but for the most part they stick with
each other, and me being on the outside and seeing that, I immediately want
to cling to them, because I know that all they want is for someone to go that
extra mile just to know them even more.
A fourth player directly connected empathy with OCB. He noted that players understand the challenges teammates face and choose to help, without
prodding or rewards from management, and without recognition for their
good deeds: We do more than what people think. I mean, a lot of people
dont understand how extremely tough it is to come to a completely different
country and be involved with people who dont speak the same language and
try and be successful.
Thus, players who felt like outsiders expressed a certain empathy for other
players whose distinctiveness could have led to their exclusion. None of this is
to suggest that players communication activities surrounding cultural diversity were motivated entirely by altruism, however. Indeed, these same players
recognized the inherent self-interest in selflessness.
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Players Embrace Diversity to Affiliate and to Achieve
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The concept of group cohesion is expressed through sharing common goals,

taking collective responsibility for outcomes, valuing group membership,
using we more than I in discussing their roles, and building a culture of
teamwork and mutual support.10 Not surprisingly, because these are many of
the defining components of OCB, members of more cohesive work teams tend
to be more likely to adopt a pattern of OCB.11 Group cohesion can take the
form of social or task cohesion, and both types of cohesion can work together
to help build successful sports teams.12 More generally, this is also true for any
work team.13 At the same time, stronger group cohesion has been shown to
reinforce group members social (cultural) identities.14 In other words, when
team members identify with each other more strongly, it becomes easier to
express and to accept cultural differences.
Players are therefore not disinterested parties when they take initiatives
to help each other. Rather, when players approach diversity, they appear to
recognize the opportunities for improved social affiliation and professional
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achievement that embracing diversity offers. The difference between this set
of rewards and externally (organizationally) generated rewards is that internally generated rewards are potentially more long-lasting, more meaningful,
and more likely to sustain prosocial behavior.
One internal motivation comes from the anticipated satisfaction derived
through improved social interaction, consistent with the concept of social
cohesion. Players indicated that, given the need to spend so much time
together, on and off the field, improved social ties have intrinsic value.
Another internal motivation comes from the anticipated benefit to a players professional achievement, consistent with the concept of task cohesion.
Players beliefs that cultural diversity can affect their professional achievements appear to be an expression of what organizational communication
refers to as Value In Diversity.15 The basic tenet underlying this concept is
that diversity among organization members can result in more varied ideas,
perspectives, knowledge, and skills becoming available for accomplishing
work-related goals more effectively.16
Thus, a number of players implied that their desire to affiliate with teammates across cultural boundaries was driven by their motivation to succeed
professionally. A player remarked in this context, They learn from us and we
learn from them. Players from Spanish-speaking countries noted specifically
that they learn English as they share baseball skills with English speakers.
Consequently, a player explained that he advised his brother to reach out
to Spanish-speaking peers, partly for the potential professional profit: He is
down in rookie ball right now, and theres a lot of Latins down there, and I
told him, You have to get to know those guys because those are the guys that
are going to help you more than anyone else out there.
Another player noted that taking the initiative to affiliate across cultures
builds trust, and that once you have that trust, guys are going to play better. Not just playingpeople operate better when theyre around people they
trust.... I feel more comfortable playing with that guy because I trust him.
The player went on to give specific examples of cross-cultural communication
leading to trust and yielding better performance on the field. Not surprisingly,
OCB has been shown in other settings to be a function of trust.17
Benefits can even extend beyond baseball. One player, who spoke neither
Spanish nor English before entering professional baseball, talked about his
options once his playing days ended. He connected the multicultural experiences he has embraced as a player to his future success as a business owner. I
can speak English now, and I can speak Spanish now, so its two languages that
I picked up while I was here doing baseball, and its going to help me going up.
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Internally generated motivations for embracing cross-cultural interactions

can thus reflect enlightened self-interest and the anticipation of benefit. Players prosocial behaviors, however, can also be motivated by an inherent interest in culture and cultural diversity.
Players Embrace Diversity Because They Enjoy Different Cultures
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The concept of cultural intelligence (CQ) has been developed in an effort to

capture the tendency for some individuals to have a greater interest in and
facility with cultural diversity. It includes four elements: drive, strategy,
knowledge, and action.18 Of the four, CQ-Drivewanting to experience other
culturesoffers the most insight into players reasons for their communication activities across diverse cultural backgrounds.
CQ-Drive represents not only individuals interest in experiencing other
cultures but also the extent to which they think they are capable of interacting
effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds, their confidence
in being able to navigate culturally diverse environments. It includes the
anticipation of both types of internally generated rewards discussed above:
the personal enjoyment and sense of satisfaction that come from interacting with others from diverse cultures as well as the instrumental benefits that
those different cultures offer.
CQ-Drive can be seen in players comments, such as a player who said simply, I love their culture, or another player who said, When I go to a different
culture, I want to be part of their culture as well. It was reflected in expressions of personal gratification, such as when a Jewish player said, Its fun
interacting with different cultures, and when another Jewish player noted,
You get to know different people. You get to learn a different culture. Their
interest was reciprocated: African American and Spanish-speaking players
occasionally asked their Jewish teammates detailed questions about being
Jewish, such as what kosher means. Players from Spanish-speaking countries further expressed the desire to learn about English-speaking cultures,
especially through the personal, cross-cultural interactions that being in the
United States affords them: They learn from you and you learn from them,
how to treat a person... in a different way, whether it be because of race or
anything else.
A connection between CQ and OCB was actually made by players. One
player recalled, It has been a great experience getting to meet many players from all around and getting to know them real well and just being able to
help whoever I can. Another player, when asked what he would study if he
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Players Embrace Diversity Because They Love Baseball
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were conducting this research (most of the players were asked this question),
replied, I would ask, do you feel that having people with ability from many
different cultures is a positive or a negative for the game?... I think its a positive, because baseball is worldwide. . . . I think it adds something that you
have to have. You have to have people from many different cultures to make
the game great. This was not only a reflection of the perceived instrumental benefits of cultural diversity, it was an acknowledgement of an additional
motivation for players taking the initiative in embracing cultural diversity:
their love of the game itself and their belief that cultural diversity benefits the
game of baseball.
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It is not surprising that players love of the game would be related to their tendency toward OCB. After all, organizational identification and commitment
are related to OCB.19
To the players interviewed, embracing culture helps to promote the game.
While organizations should play a role, they felt ultimately the responsibility rests with players, especially if players feel organized baseball is not doing
enough to promote the game to culturally diverse audiences. In the words of
one player, Basketball does a great job of promoting its players and promoting the game to different cultures, and I think baseball could do a better job
of that.... I feel like its my responsibility, you know?... Thats how the game
grows. I feel like its handed down from one generation to the next, and I feel
like its your responsibility. I enjoy it, but at the same time, I feel like its something I should do [players emphasis].
This quote is typical of comments made by many players. Culturally identified players appear to perceive, within their fidelity to their cultures, an
opportunity to pass along their love of baseball and to help sustain and even
bolster the popularity of the game. Thus, one player pointed out that culture,
overall, is a way to increase fan identification with the players and therefore
with baseball: Most people will be like, How can I relate to that guy? Hes a
baseball player, but if you have the middle ground of being Jewish, or Black,
or Asian, I feel that helps.... It is kind of like an icebreaker,... it makes you
more approachable.
One player said that sharing a common cultural identity with fans not
only draws fans to him, it ultimately draws him closer to fans: Im not gonna
lie... whenever I see a young black kid, I always make sure I try to toss him
a ball or sign an autograph or just go shake his hand or something, because
I feel like it helps them to identify with you and identify with baseball, and
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hopefully theyll want to come out again. Despite the seeming particularism
of this quote, heand other playersrepeatedly said that all cultures offer a
bridge to greater fan engagement, that cultural diversity benefits the sport as
a whole, and this realization enhances players appreciation of diversity. Their
desire to give back to a new generation, moreover, reflects appreciation not
only for the game, but also for the communities the players came from.
Players Embrace Diversity Because Communities Matter
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African American, Jewish, and Spanish-speaking players discussed various

needs within their own communities and pointed out the benefits that playing
baseball offers to young members of their respective communities, benefits
that they believed they, as culturally identified baseball players, could bring
back to their communities. One African American player said, Its just something that motivates me... just because I want to and I love giving back and
can help change a kids life or make him feel like, Hey, I can do anything I
want. Its just a very great feeling to have that effect on young people,... especially African American kids.
African American, Jewish, and Spanish-speaking players asserted that they
can be especially influential when interacting with members of their own
communities. One players representative comments captured this: When I
do have the opportunity, I jump at it, because I know that, coming from an
African American background, if you hear it from somebody that looks like
you, its a little bit easier to relate to whats coming out of that persons mouth.
The latter quote also contains a clue for understanding players voluntary
choices to embrace culture and cultural diversity. Understanding the importance of community within their own cultures also makes players more
understanding of the importance of community to all cultures. It thus represents an additional source of players appreciation for cultural diversity,
one that finds expression in the voluntary acts that players perform. It brings
the results back to Ila Borderss reflections on her own experiences. Perhaps
her teammates were better at embracing cultural diversity, and therefore at
accepting her, because they understood the contribution of cultural identification to effective communication, based on their experiences connecting to
their own communities. If anything, having a strong connection to ones own
community actually facilitates cross-cultural communication. This was noted
by individual Spanish-speaking players and has support in psychological concepts of in-group identification, going back to Kurt Lewins work on core versus marginal identification.20
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Discussion: What Organizational Communication Can Learn

from Baseball Players; What Organized Baseball Can Learn
from Organizational Communication
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What began as a study of baseball players own cultural identifications ended

up as an exploration of players reactions to each others cultural identifications. This was because of a realization that appreciation for diversity and
accompanying communication activities originate in the voluntary decisions
of players themselves. This, in turn, suggests a number of lessons that can
benefit both organized baseball and organizational communication practitioners. The relationship between OCB and culture, especially diversity, is still
being studied; minor-league baseball can offer fertile ground for exploring
possible connections.
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One of the lessons for baseball and other organizations seems to be that
organizations are well served when they offer their members opportunities
to embrace diversity. Results of the current study suggest that the emphasis
should be on opportunities. Meaningful approaches to diversity seem to come
from individual choice, flowing organically from the bottom up, not from
organizational policy, dictated from the top down. To use a baseball analogy,
Branch Rickey could communicate the value of diversity by hiring Jackie Robinson, but it was up to players like Pee Wee Reese to take advantage of the
opportunity and embrace diversity. Bill Veeck could move spring training to
Arizona so Larry Doby could stay in the same hotel with the rest of team, but
after that the players were on their own, in the hotel and in the clubhouse.
One opportunity involves starting early in players careers.21 Lower organizational levels tend to involve higher task interdependence, which has possible links to OCB.22 Moreover, some of the concomitant aspects of being at
a lower organizational level, such as having limited resources, can lead to
higher OCB, as well.23 One player noted, in this context, From talking to people, I have heard that as you get higher up and closer to the majors, when it
becomes more real that it is so close, within reach, I think that it is a little
more competitive. I feel at this point [Class A Short Season] we are far away
from there, so its slightly more team-oriented.
How, then, should players be given the opportunities to embrace diversity,
especially at these lower organizational levels? Their comments during the
interviews (and self-perception theory) suggest that, left on their own, players
can initiate multiculturally inclusive communication activities. Giving players
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a certain latitude in creating roles within the organization rather than having formally defined expectations can go a long way toward creating these
opportunities.
Roles, Not Rules
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CQ is related to the ability to negotiate culture and conflict.24 Thus players

with higher CQ should be more likely to initiate prosocial internal communicationsto adopt an OCB orientation. One player said, I like to be kind of in
the middle and try to help out a little bit if problems come up. Like if Spanish
people have problems with the American guys or the other way around, I try
to [explain], you got to understand... thats how these guys are... because
I am not really American, I am not really Spanish. But I am speaking English and a little bit of Spanish. So, yeah, it kind of helps to be in the middle
sometimes.
Flexible, informal organizational styles can facilitate OCB.25 Perhaps, then,
simply letting players take leadership roles in internal communications allows
those with higher CQ to engage in cross-cultural OCB. CQ approaches, however, suggest that individuals are more likely to initiate those activities if they
are given the confidence that their efforts will succeed. This is one area in
which top-down approaches can bear fruit.
Cultural Satisfaction, Not Awareness Training
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Asked what organizations could do to promote cultural diversity, players

offered ideas that went beyond hackneyed cultural sensitivity workshops or
diversity training seminars. A player suggested that celebrations of heritage
nights could be used to showcase culturenot to attract more fans, but to
let the players on the diamond know that culture is valued by the organization. He said, They could do different cultures on different nights. So you
can make everybody on the field feel like they are part of it, and everybody in
the world is part of this game, regardless of what country, what race you are,
and what background you come from. Other players also expressed an appreciation for heritage nights, while admitting that they derived the greatest pleasure from events that celebrated their own culture. Studies have shown that
an increase in perceived support for members culture by their organization
seems to increase the probability of members adopting an OCB orientation.26
Similarly, opportunities for fostering CQ also include a range of non-work
experiences.27 These can include community service, for example, which has
been shown to bolster minor leaguers positive perceptions of culture and
comfort with cultural diversity.28
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So, too, community service and other socially responsible communication activities can be related to OCB. Athletes derive personal satisfaction
from helping others; they also report stronger feelings of attachment to their
team when the team is involved in socially responsible acts, such as promoting or raising money for a prosocial cause.29 These outcomes are related to the
clear, immediate, positive feedback that can accompany these activities, and
that feedback can come from the organization. This can help raise individuals feelings of self-worth, which is in turn related to the tendency to initiate
OCB.30 Thus organizational expressions of appreciation, while avoiding the use
of incentives, can encourage players spontaneous acts of embracing cultural
diversity.
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Doing good can come from the anticipation of feeling good, but players can
also perform selfless acts while motivated by more tangible forms of personal
self-interest. One player, for example, described why he helps members of all
groups: One thing that my father always told me is that you never know who
you are going to need. So it doesnt matter who you come across, you know,
white, black, tall, skinny, it doesnt matter. You may need them one day.
Rather than appealing to self-sacrifice, then, encouraging players enlightened self-interest may be a more effective way to stimulate OCB. Organizations can frame diversity as being in individuals interests; this approach can
offer greater potential for success in encouraging OCB by its being consistent
with players nascent perceptions. One of those seemingly selfish interests can
be acquiring better skills; greater cultural diversity can mean greater access to
diverse and innovative approaches to playing the game.
More Cultures, More Innovation
90
As noted above, players can perceive professional benefit when linking OCB
with diversity. One player said, Its fun learning how to communicate with
them, but its alsohey, this isnt just the American game now, this is the Latin
game as well. Another said, In the process of me doing that for them, theyve
taught me so much about the game.
These commentsand others, some of which were quoted abovesuggest
that increased diversity leads not only to increased knowledge (of language,
customs, or style of play), but also to increased appreciation for the value of
diversity as a resource offering innovative professional and communication
skills.31 In turn, comments like these and others quoted above suggest that
players might see the game as moving toward a tipping point, in which so
many cultures interact that the concepts of majority and minority are rendered increasingly less meaningful.32
Is Multicultural the New Majority?
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One lesson from minor-league baseball seems to be that, as the number of

culturally diverse players continues to grow, the divide between majority and
minority cultures becomes increasingly blurred. One player commented,
The world grew together so much, everybody has to live together. And the
clubhouses are the same way. Everybody in the world plays baseball. You have
Asian people, you have Latin American people, European people nowadays,
American people.... And if you just build groups and just separate yourselves
from the other cultural groups then that is not going to work out in the end.
Comments such as thisand othersseem to suggest that because so
many different groups play baseball, the mosaic of cultural minorities together
constitute the majorityor soon will. As cultural diversity becomes the new
majority, then, professional success could become intertwined with a players
motivation and ability to navigate a multicultural environment. If so, then
perhaps an individual players approaches to culture could factor into estimations of the overall value of that player to the organization.
Is Culture the New Moneyball?
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In Moneyball, Michael Lewis described an approach through which advanced

statistical analysis of player performance is used to identify previously undervalued players.33 As cultural diversity is rapidly becoming the norm, communication skills might serve as an additional means for determining player
value and identifying undervalued players. Perhaps CQ and a predisposition
to engage in OCB can be used to identify undervalued players with the potential to contribute to team success in a growing multicultural environment.
The essence of this idea was originally suggested by the culturally identified
broadcaster of one of the Class A Short Season teams, who, although he did
not specifically address OCB or CQ, referred to that next inefficiency. Moneyball, Oakland, the whole thing. Thats the inefficiency, how many guys are
going by the wayside because they just didnt have the resources to deal with
certain things. Those things can include the challenges of cultural diversity,
and those valued resources can include the ability and motivation of players
to take the initiative in addressing those challenges.
Some organizations, such as IBM, Lloyds, Novartis, and Nike, have used CQ
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in some form as a criterion for hiring. CQ has been related to working smarter
and learning faster while also being more patientfor example, being able to
delay gratification in receiving workplace rewardsskills demanded of baseball players working their way up through the minor leagues.34 Moreover,
research has suggested that CQ-Drive is correlated with successfully identifying with a multicultural group, such as a culturally diverse baseball team.35
High CQ of individual team members, then, might relate to increased team
cohesion and even enhanced team performance, and could add to a players
value to the team.
OCB has also been suggested as a possible criterion for selection, retention,
and promotion within an organization.36 OCB has been shown to improve
organizational productivity and efficiency.37 While feelings of collective
group potency (such as winning) have been shown to increase the tendency
toward adopting an OCB orientation, OCB could conceivably enhance feelings
of group efficacy, which in turn can increase the probability of success, on a
baseball team or any work team.38 In that case, a tendency toward OCB could
be used in baseball as a criterion for evaluating potential team members.
Attention is often directed to what organized baseball has or has not done
sufficiently in addressing and promoting cultural diversity. Typically, however, the conversation ignores players contributions, perhaps because their
actions tend to be private and informal. Nonetheless, minor-league baseball
players appear to initiate meaningful, cross-cultural communication in ways
that embrace cultural diversity, and organized baseball can benefit from these
self-motivated choices to span cultural boundaries, when teams:
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1. recruit and promote individuals who have the motivation to initiate

and sustain cross-cultural communication;
2. nurture those motivations by demonstrating that cultural diversity is
valued, using carefully planned external and internal communications
that celebrate cultures; and then
3. give those individuals latitude to explore culture in their own personally meaningful ways, taking care to avoid imposing external, organizational incentives that undermine internal, individual motivations to
embrace diversity.
92
Players comments indicated that the point is being reached where management can focus on encouraging and trusting individual players initiatives,
by actively listening to the players reasons for embracing cultural diversity.
It would therefore be worth testing players beliefs that were expressed in the
interviews. Future research could examine, for example, to what extent and in
what ways events such as heritage nights affect players perceptions of cultures
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and their perceptions of how their organizations value cultures. Studies could
evaluate how different ways of planning and promoting those events have an
effect on players. It would be instructive, as well, to analyze the roles cultural
diversity plays in community relations, or the extent to which culture-specific
community service influences players reactions to culture and cultural differences; both planning and evaluating these activities could incorporate an
experimental approach, to try to understand what aspects of the activities
have the greatest influence on the players. Observation and interviews can
help provide more detail regarding ways in which socially responsible communication activities can impart greater appreciation for culture and increase
players motivation to explore diverse cultures.
Interactions among OCB, CQ, communication, and cultural diversity warrant further study.39 Minor-league baseball offers a promising environment
for studying those interrelations. Studying the effects of these interconnected
variables among baseball players represents a potential contribution to the
growing understanding of cultural diversity and communication. The outcomes can have implications not only for baseball teams but for any organization with a multicultural, team-based workforce and an interest in understanding what motivates its members to build working relationships that
cross cultural boundaries.
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Notes
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1. Raymond Doswell, 19 for 31: Jackie Robinson Steals Home and History; Andy
McCue, Barrio, Bulldozers and Baseball: The Clearing of Chavez Ravine; Samuel
Gale, Its a Press Victory: The Role of the African American Press in Desegregating Major League Baseball; Mitchell Nathanson, Race, Rickey, and All Deliberate
Speed; Robert F. Garratt, Horace Stoneham: The Neglected Pioneer; John Sillito,
Building the Pirates of Tomorrow: Race, Mr. Rickey, and R. C. Stevens, 195255;
Maureen Smith, Constructing History and Heritage 21st-Century Style: Major League
Baseball and Statues; Rebecca Alpert, Bud Selig: The First Jewish Commissioner of
Baseball; Bill Staples Jr., From Internment to Hope: Celebrating Japanese American Baseball in Arizona; Steve Treder, The Pioneers Pioneer: Masanori Murakami;
Scott D. Peterson, A Novelty in Baseball Literature: Ella Black and the 1890 PreSeason; Willie Steele, Poetic Players: Baseball Poetry from Within the Game (presented papers, Nineteenth Annual NINE Spring Training Conference on the Historical
and Sociological Impact of Baseball, Tempe AZ, March 811, 2012).
2. Ila Borders, Baseball: My Past and the Present and Future of Women in the
Game (presented paper, Nineteenth Annual NINE Spring Training Conference on the
Historical and Sociological Impact of Baseball, Tempe AZ, March 811, 2012).
3. William Harris Ressler, Sebastian Itman Bocchi, and Patricia Rodriguez Maria,
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English- and Spanish-Speaking Minor League Baseball Players Perspectives on

Community Service and the Psychosocial Benefit of Helping Children NINE 20, no. 1
(2011): 92116.
4. John W. Berry, Acculturation: Living Successfully in Two Cultures, International Journal of Intercultural Relations 29 (2005): 697712.
5. Dennis W. Organ, Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Good Soldier Syndrome (Lexington MA: Lexington Books, 1988).
6. Daryl J. Bem, Self-Perception Theory, in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, ed. Lawrence Berkowitz, vol. 6 (New York: Academic Press, 1972), 162.
7. Henri Tajfel, Human Groups and Social Categories (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981); Henri Tajfel and John C. Turner, Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior, in Psychology of Intergroup Relations., ed. William G. Austin and Stephen Worchel, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1986), 3347.
8. William J. McGuire, Claire V. McGuire, Pamela Child, and Terry Fujioka,
Salience of Ethnicity in the Spontaneous Self-Concept as a Function of Ones Ethnic
Distinctiveness in the Social Environment, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 36 (1978): 51120.
9. C. Daniel Batson, Prosocial Motivation: Is It Ever Truly Altruistic? in Advances
in Experimental Social Psychology, ed. Lawrence Berkowitz, vol. 20 (New York: Academic Press, 1987) 65122.
10. David M. Paskevich, Lawrence R. Brawley, Kim D. Dorsch, and W. Neil Widmeyer, Relationship Between Collective Efficacy and Team Cohesion: Conceptual
and Measurement Issues, Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice 3 (1999):
21022; H. Prapavessis and Albert V. Carron, Sacrifice, Cohesion, and Conformity to Norms in Sports Teams, Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice 1
(1997): 23140; Kevin S. Spink, Mediational Effects of Social Cohesion on the Leadership Behavior-Intention to Return Relationship in Sport, Group Dynamics: Theory,
Research, and Practice 2 (1998): 92100; and David Yukelson, Principles of Effective
Team Building Interventions in Sport: A Direct Services Approach at Penn State University, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 9 (1997): 7396.
11. Roland E. Kidwell Jr., Kevin W. Mossholder, and Nathan Bennett, Cohesiveness
and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Multilevel Analysis Using Work Groups
and Individuals, Journal of Management 23 (1997): 77593; and Philip M. Podsakoff,
Michael Ahearne, and Scott B. MacKenzie, Organizational Citizenship Behavior and
the Quantity and Quality of Work Group Performance, Journal of Applied Psychology
82 (1997): 26270.
12. Albert V. Carron, Steven R. Bray, and Mark A. Eys, Team Cohesion and Team
Success in Sport, Journal of Sports Sciences 20 (2002): 11926; Albert V. Carron,
Michelle Coleman, Jennifer Wheeler, and Diane Stevens, Cohesion and Performance
in Sport: A Meta Analysis, Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 24 (2002): 16888;
94
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Albert V. Carron and Kevin S. Spink, Team Building and Cohesiveness in the Sport
and Exercise Setting: Use of Indirect Interventions, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 9 (1997): 6172; L. Hodges and Albert V. Carron, Collective Efficacy and Group
Performance, International Journal of Sport Psychology 23 (1992): 4859; Stephen A.
Kozub and Justine F. McDonnell, Exploring the Relationship Between Cohesion
and Collective Efficacy in Rugby Teams, Journal of Sport Behavior 23 (2000): 12029;
Kevin S. Spink, Group Cohesion and Collective Efficacy of Volleyball Teams, Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 12 (1990): 30111; and Mike Voight and John Callaghan, A Team Building Intervention Program: Applications and Evaluations with
Two University Soccer Teams, Journal of Sport Behavior 24 (2002): 42030.
13. R. Edward Freeman, The Politics of Stakeholder Theory, Business Ethics Quarterly 4 (1994): 40921; and R. Edward Freeman, Andrew C. Wicks, and Bidhan Parmar, Stakeholder Theory and The Corporate Objective Revisited. Organization Science 15 (2004): 36469.
14. Audrey J. Murrell and Samuel L. Gaertner, Cohesion and Sport Team Effectiveness: The Benefit of a Common Group Identity, Journal of Sport and Social Issues
9 (1992): 114.
15. Taylor H. Cox Jr., Cultural Diversity in Organizations: Theory, Research & Practice (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1993).
16. It should be noted that empirical support for this has been mixed; see Katherine Williams and Charles OReilly, Demography and Diversity in Organizations:
A Review of 40 Years of Research, Research In Organizational Behavior 20 (1998):
77140.
17. Prithviraj Chattopadhyay, Beyond Direct and Symmetrical Effects: The Influence of Demographic Dissimilarity on Organizational Citizenship Behavior, The
Academy of Management Journal 4 (1999): 27387; Dennis W. Organ and Katherine
Ryan, A Meta-Analytic Review of Attitudinal and Dispositional Predictors of Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Personnel Psychology 48 (1995): 775802; and Dennis
W. Organ, Philip M. Podsakoff, and Scott B. MacKenzie, Organizational Citizenship
Behavior: Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences (Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, 2006).
18. Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, Conceptualization of Cultural Intelligence:
Definition, Distinctiveness, and Nomological Network, in Handbook of Cultural
Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and Applications, ed. Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne
(Armonk NY: Sharpe, 2008), 315.
19. Philip M. Podsakoff, Michael Ahearne, and Scott B. MacKenzie, Organizational Citizenship Behavior and the Quantity and Quality of Work Group Performance, Journal of Applied Psychology 82 (1997): 26270; and Philip M. Podsakoff,
Scott B. MacKenzie, Julie Beth Paine, and Daniel G. Bachrach, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A Critical Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature and
Suggestions for Future Research, Journal of Management 26 (2000): 51363.
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20. Kurt Lewin, Field Theory and Experiment in Social Psychology: Concepts and
Methods. American Journal of Sociology 44 (1939): 86896.
21. P. Christopher Early, Soon Ang, and Joo-Seng Tan, CQ: Developing Cultural
Intelligence at Work (Stanford CA: Stanford Business Books, 2006).
22. Sheila S. Webber and Lisa M. Donahue, Impact of Highly and Less Job-Related
Diversity on Work Group Cohesion and Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Journal of
Management 27 (2001): 14162; and C. Ann Smith, Dennis W. Organ, and Janet P.
Near, Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Its Nature and Antecedents, Journal of
Applied Psychology 68 (1983): 65363.
23. Steve M. Jex, Gary A. Adams, Daniel G. Bachrach, and Sarah Sorenson, The
Impact of Situational Constraints, Role Stressors, and Commitment on Employee
Altruism, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 8 (2003): 17180.
24. Organ, Podsakoff, and MacKenzie, Organizational Citizenship Behavior.
25. You-Ta Chuang, Robin Church, and Jelena Zikic, Organizational Culture,
Group Diversity and Intra-Group Conflict, Team Performance Management 10
(2004): 2634; Michele J. Gelfand, Miriam Erez, and Zeynep Aycan, Cross-Cultural
Organizational Behavior, Annual Review of Psychology 58 (2007): 479514.
26. James W. Bishop, K. Dow Scott, and Susan M. Burroughs, Support, Commitment, and Employee Outcomes in a Team Environment, Journal of Management 26
(2000): 111332; and Jarrod Haar and David Brougham, Consequences of Cultural
Satisfaction at Work: A Study of New Zealand Maori, Asia Pacific Journal of Human
Resources 49 (2011): 46175.
27. Ibraiz Tarique and Riki Takeuchi, Developing Cultural Intelligence: The Roles
of International Nonwork Experiences, in Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and Applications, ed. Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne (Armonk NY:
Sharpe, 2008), 5670.
28. Ressler, Itman, and Rodriguez, English- and Spanish-Speaking Players,
92116.
29. Ressler, Itman, and Rodriguez, English- and Spanish-Speaking Players,
92116.
30. Linn Van Dyne, Jill W. Graham, and Richard M. Dienesch, Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Construct Redefinition, Measurement, and Validation, The Academy of Management Journal 37 (1994): 765802.
31. See, e.g., Thomas Rockstuhl and Kok-Yee Ng, The Effects of Cultural Intelligence on Interpersonal Trust in Multicultural Teams, in Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and Applications, ed. Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne
(Armonk NY: Sharpe, 2008), 20620.
32. Cf. Dora C. Lau and J. Keith Murnighan, Demographic Diversity and Faultlines: The Compositional Dynamics of Organizational Groups, The Academy of Management Review 23 (1998): 32540.
96
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33. Michael Lewis, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (New York:
Norton, 2003).
34. P. Christopher Early, Soon Ang, and Joo-Seng Tan, CQ: Developing Cultural
Intelligence at Work (Stanford CA: Stanford Business Books, 2006).
35. Efrat Shokef and Miriam Erez, Cultural Intelligence and Global Identity in
Multicultural Teams, in Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and
Applications, ed. Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne (Armonk NY: Sharpe, 2008), 17791.
37. Nathan P. Podsakoff, Steven W. Whiting, Philip M. Podsakoff, and Brian D.
Blume, Individual- and Organizational-Level Consequences of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis, Journal of Applied Psychology 94 (2009): 12241.
38. Michael Ahearne, Narasimhan Srinivasan, and Luke Weinstein, Effect of Technology on Sales Performance: Progressing from Technology Acceptance to Technology Usage and Consequence, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 24
(2004): 297310.
97
Patriotic Industry
Baseballs Reluctant Sacrifice in World War I
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Paul Hensler
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Nearly a century agoas the Red Sox and White Sox held sway over the
American League, and the National League was dominated by teams in the
Northeast corridorthe United States found itself in a super-heated atmosphere of patriotic fervor. In the spring of 1917, the continuing and expanding
German pugnacity on the high seas coupled with the revelation of the nefarious Zimmerman telegram, forced an agonized President Woodrow Wilson to
abrogate his reelection pledge to stay out of the fight. In early April, he asked
Congress for and received a declaration of war against Germany.
With Americas participation as an active combatant now a reality, the
nations mobilization lurched into high gear, and to remove any trace of doubt
as to the worthiness of the United Statess commitment to the conflict, the
Wilson administration sought to encourageothers would say coercea
skeptical public into supporting the war effort. Legislation, in the form of
the Alien Act, the Trading with the Enemy Act, the Sedition Act, and the
Espionage Act, was adopted to squelch dissent of any kind among the populace, while the propaganda machinery embodied in the Committee on Public Information, created by the administration and fronted by George Creel,
was chief among the instruments of promoting, indeed enforcing, patriotism.
Associations such as the American Protective League, described by the historian David Kennedy as practicing the excesses of a quasi-vigilante organization with the blessing of the Justice Department, intimidated the United
States citizenry into toeing the patriotic line so that the ultimate defeat of the
Central Powers could be hastened.1
In 1917, baseball became immersed in this cauldron. The exigencies of the
time dictated that young men be conscripted into the armed services or otherwise employed in war industry, such as working in a shipyard, munitions
plant, or steel mill, to prepare the American military for action in Europe.
On May 19, 1917, the government officially instituted the Selective Service Act,
Hensler: Baseballs Sacrifice in World War I
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subjecting men between the ages of twenty-one and thirtylater expanded

to a range of eighteen to forty-five yearsto conscription. Eventually 24 million men (44 percent of all American males) would be registered; 6.5 million
were deemed fit for service, with 2.7 million finally serving in the army during hostilities.2 Given these numbers, it was only natural that a swelling of the
military ranks would include athletes from the worlds of baseball, football,
boxing, and tennis. As the national pastime lost increasing numbers to the
war effort, baseball became increasingly resistant to the drain of players from
its teams lineups.
A nationwide Army Registration Day, held on June 5, 1917, was an unqualified success because Secretary of War Newton Baker and Provost Marshal
General Enoch Crowder employed the small tendrils of local draft boards
overseen by men who in most cases were friends, neighbors, or at least
acquaintances of many of their regional enlistees, thus avoiding the poor
response rates that Baker and Crowder knew had hampered Union conscription attempts during the Civil War, in which high-rankingand imposing
military officers comprised the committees that decided what men were to be
inducted into the army.
For baseballs part, however, two weeks before Registration Day, National
League president John Tener wrote to the NL club owners opining that he felt
no obligation, either fixed or moral, that we should depart from our daily
routine of business of playing scheduled games.3 Days later the National
Commissioncomprised of Tener, American League president Ban Johnson,
and commission head August Herrmannasked that each team co-operate
heartily with the registration event not by postponing games but by ensuring that bands be engaged to play patriotic music... where games are scheduled on that day.4 Those obligated to register could do so from seven oclock
in the morning until nine oclock that evening, and rather than overplay their
patriotism by postponing contests, the commission felt that music would sufficiently convey public expression of the willingness on the part of major
league baseball clubs to serve the country at this vital crisis of its history.5
Due to the time necessary for troop training and arms procurement, nearly
a year passed between the initiation of the draft in the spring of 1917 and the
American militarys first participation in substantial combat operations in
France. During the 1917 baseball season, the full force of the draft had not
caught up with team rosters, and both the American and National leagues
were able to finish their 154-game schedules, albeit with a shortfall in attendance due to an economy plagued by fears over the war.
But by the end of 1917, trepidation was rising about the conflicts impact
on baseball as more players answered the call to duty, either in uniform or
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by gainful employment in war industry. The fact that four members of the
Boston American League team have volunteered in the navy indicates how
great will be the loss of professional ball players next season, reported one
account in the press. Furthermore, Barney Dreyfuss, president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, warned of a crisis in baseball if exemptions from conscription,
which allowed players to remain in the employ of their clubs because of their
value as sportsmen and entertainers, were to be eliminated.6
In a letter to Tener, Dreyfuss expressed concern that changes to the policy
of granting exemptions to certain drafteeswhich would make it more difficult for ballplayers to avoid military servicewould leave most teams with
barely a handful of regular players to carry on the business of the national
pastime in 1918. It has been pointed out several times by those most strenuously engaged in war affairs, including I understand President Wilson and
Secretary of War Baker, that wholesome sports, and diverting entertainments,
should be continued for the benefit of the relaxation and recreation they furnish to those who remain at home, implored the Pirate magnate. It might
be, therefore, that if proper steps were taken, it would be considered that ball
players were in a degree worthy of consideration in this respect, as their services are unique and unusual, and cannot be performed properly except by
one who has a natural ability for the work and has developed it to the limit
of his skill.7 Dreyfusss missive more than implied that any draftee could be
molded into a soldier or that a common man could find work in a munitions
plant, but a baseball player gifted with a special athletic ability was entitled to
remain at his craft because his value to the war cause as an entertainer and
morale booster surpassed that of an infantryman or factory worker. Striving
for an eighteen-man exemption per team in both circuits, Ban Johnson concurred, citing that the high standard of the game would be destroyed if the
players were indiscriminately drafted for military service.8
If baseball tried to skirt the issue of service by its players, proof of the
sports commitment to the war effort and direct support of the troops abroad
were evident in other ways. Players and managers purchased war bonds,
assisted the Red Cross, and played in charity exhibition contests. Some costs
of transmitting baseball news, including accounts of World Series games via
cable dispatch to American newspaper bureaus in Paris for distribution to
the troops, were borne by the office of the National Commission. A proposal
was made to pay Series participants with Liberty Loan bonds rather than cash
winnings, and one percent of the Commissions revenue from the Series will
be donated to the Clark Griffith Ball and Bat Fund for supplying paraphernalia of the game to the American Soldiers who are abroad.9 White Sox uniforms for the 1917 Fall Classic were outfitted with American flags on both
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sleeves, complementing the star-spangled Sox logo on the front of the jersey, yet even before the United States became embroiled in hostilities, a 1915
edition of Baseball Magazine emphasized the importance of the World Series
in helping the country forget about the war if only for a brief time.10 With
America fully involved as of April 1917, baseballs flagship event assumed a
heightened importance.
Baseball Magazine also editorialized in June 1917, Enthusiasm is a fine
thing and patriotism a vital necessity.... War is a sober business demanding
the full co-operations [sic] of all classes and types of industry. And war above
most things needs the helpful co-operation, not the extermination of athletic
sport.... No industry has shown a stronger desire to do something of material benefit to the nation than baseball.11 As that publication conflated patriotism and industry, it also noted later that summer the enthusiastic manner in
which Braves catcher Hank Gowdy departed for the armed forces as the first
of major league players to join Uncle Sams army.12 By March 1918 and with
no fewer than seventy-six players in active serviceor nearly one-fifth of the
total number of participants among all clubsBaseball Magazine staunchly
defended the national pastimes contribution of manpower by rhetorically
asking, How many other industries have lost 19% of their working force?13
Offering a different interpretation, however, was the military. The organ of
the armed forces, Stars and Stripes, told its readers of the players resistance
to serve by sniping at the games magnates acclaim [of] the immense value
of baseball to the morale of the nation.14 Yet Baseball Magazine editor F. C.
Lane stood his ground and countered, We cannot believe that the administration would wreck the national game, the peculiar institution beloved by the
masses in order to supply a few hundred ill equipped young men for industries of which they know little[,] where their work would be on a par with the
most unskilled labor in the land.15 Lane had good reason to pander to the
best interest of baseball, since decreasing popularity in the game, which was
already manifest in a decline in attendance, also meant fewer copies of his
publication would be sold.
In early July 1918, August Herrmann, the president of the National Commission, along with league presidents Johnson and Tener, wrote to the majorleague teams instructing them to have players submit an affidavit to their
draft boards requesting deferred classification. The first argument proffered
by the affidavita stock form of which was furnished by the commission
held that a players compliance with Selective Service Act will cause substantial financial loss not only to himself and to his employer but to the general
prosperity of the country, and the second argued that the affiant further says
that he is not skilled in any employment other than the one in which he is
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now engaged, a claim which was to be stricken from affidavits submitted by

players who were also farmers.16 The affidavit cited Henry Groh and his $800
monthly salary$4,800 for a six-month seasonas an example of the financial loss that could be suffered, but Grohs case was hardly representative of
the common player. Based on his 1917 performance, in which he ranked near
the top of most offensive categories in the National League, Groh was one of
the better-paid players in the game, thereby skewing the impression of the
financial position of most players as indicated by the affidavit. In June 1918,
Herrmann informed Crowder that the average annual salary of drafted players and of those who volunteered was $2,441.26 and $2,521.24 respectively,
about one-half of what Groh was earning.17 To put these wages in perspective,
workers in manufacturing, mining, construction, transportation, and other
various trades earned on average about 53 cents per hour in 1918, and government statistics show that mean annual family income at the time was $1,518.18
With the average players salary at least sixty percent above that of an average
household, players subjected themselves to a serious financial loss upon heeding the call to arms.
Not convinced by Herrmanns argument, Secretary of War Baker at last
ruled on July 19 that baseball is a non-essential occupation, thereby making
players subject to the work or fight order which mandated either military
service or employment in a war-related industry. In sharp contrast with Lanes
disingenuous assessment of players being poorly fit for duty, Baker stated that
ball players are men of unusual physical ability, dexterity, and alertness, just
the type needed to help in the game of war at home or abroad.19 President
Johnson, in a sudden fit of obsequiousness, announced the suspension of play
in the American League, but the circuits owners quickly forced Johnson to
renounce his edict so that games could continue and allow revenue to flow
into each teams coffers.
Stars and Stripes also came down squarely on the side of the soldiers in a
scathing editorial of July 26 in which the paper announced it would no longer
print its sporting page. Choosing instead to focus on important war news
from the front, the paper lambasted players whose evasion of military service
had trumped becoming a brother-in-arms and offered this defense of its decision: There is no space left for the Cobbs [and] the Ruths... when the Ryans,
the Smiths, . . . and others are charging machine guns and plugging along
through shrapnel or grinding out 12-hour details 200 miles in the rear.20
Insult was added to the injury inflicted by recalcitrant players when it was
learned that some players who entered shipbuilding and steel trades did so
not for industrial employment but for the purpose of playing on companysponsored baseball teams. This construction of the work or fight order
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was hardly what Baker had in mind, and Baseball Magazines Lane properly
decried such slacker contracts as a menace to the national game.21 Cited by
Lane were Joe Jackson of the White Sox and Brooklyns Al Mamaux, the latter
among those excoriated by owner Charles Ebbets, who proclaimed his disdain
at the prospect of reemploying players who sought the haven of a shipyard.22
By the beginning of August, the National Commission was forced to capitulate to Bakers edict, and in spite of a final appeal to Provost Marshal General
Crowder for the suspension of the work or fight order as applied to baseball, agreement was reached to bring the regular season to a close on Labor
Day, September 2. The commission announced that after wind[ing] up the
GREAT NATIONAL SPORT with a big jollification and . . . appropriate ceremonies, the traditional Fall Classic was to follow.23 All players excepting those
on the two teams contesting the Worlds [sic] Series were to secur[e] useful employment, so that they lose no time in obeying the letter and spirit of
the amended order of Secretary Baker.24 Overcome by a sense of urgency
to comply with the order, the Cleveland Indians, who were in second place,
two and one-half games behind Boston and one and one-half games ahead of
Washington entering the holiday, elected to forego their doubleheader in St.
Louis. The Indians preferred to take a chance on losing second place rather
than take a chance with the work or fight order, reported the Sporting News.
[Manager Lee] Fohls workers were more anxious about getting into useful
employment than they were worried over the prospect of things coming out
that way in baseball.25
The grand finale of the World Series began on September 5the National
Commission claiming no mercenary intent for staging the championship
and the Red Sox bested the Cubs four games to two.26 This Fall Classic was
nonetheless marred by controversy when players on both teams threatened
to strike over a reduction in the amount of shares to be paid. Originally, players on the winning club were to receive $2,000 each, with $1,400 awarded to
players on the losing club, but the commission, blaming a shortfall in revenue,
offered $1,200 and $800. When the players bristled at the proposed cutback,
the Cubs and Red Sox ownership agreed to make up the difference out of their
own pockets, thus averting a work stoppage. It seemed that the players had
now outstripped the commission with regard to any mercenary tendencies.
However, damage had already been done to baseballs reputation as a result
of the lengthy controversy over work or fight. Readers of the Sporting News
learned that attitudes of the soldiers toward the players were both positive and
negative, but reporter Thomas Rice said that a letter he received from a relative serving in France indicated that all of the soldiers with whom he has
come in contact have a most profound contempt for the major leaguers who
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sought refuge from the draft and violated their contracts by hiding with ship
yard teams.27 Resentment that had been evident in the purging of the sports
page by Stars and Stripes obviously lingered as teams futilely resisted the attrition of their rosters during 1918.
From a business perspective, baseballs attempt to shield itself from the
eroding effects of conscription made sense, as replacement players unfit for
the military or other war service filled the shoes of departed major leaguers.
But in the zeitgeist of the day, the more honorable deed would have been for
baseball to forego its squabbles with the War Department and voluntarily suspend play earlier than the negotiated date. On an American home front where
sauerkraut was relabeled as liberty cabbage and the playing of German
music was all but banned, baseballs effort to confer its players with a status of
irreplaceable talent necessary to the nations morale rang hollow. Johnson recognized the futility of the situation when he opined to Hermann in late October, It would be the height of folly to attempt a continuance of professional
baseball until conditions are in a normal and healthful state.28
A fortuitous conclusion to the controversy emerged two months after the
end of the World Series, the armistice of November 11, 1918, having ushered
in an era of peace. The cessation of hostilities in Europe cut short the debate
over how patriotic an industry the national pastime had really been. By next
spring the game will be revived in full force, observed the Sporting News,
which added, [I]t will require little effort to reassemble the players who have
all been regularly reserved by their respective clubs.29
Bitterness on the part of some fans notwithstanding, attendance across
both leagues in 1919 more than doubled over the war-wracked year of 1918,
and the national pastime seemed eagerly poised to enter the postwar era after
weathering the ugly storm of its reluctant sacrifice during the conscription
controversy.
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Notes
1. David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 81.
2. John Milton Cooper Jr., Pivotal Decades: The United States, 19001920 (New
York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1990), 272.
3. John Tener letter to National League Club Presidents, May 21, 1917, Papers of
August Herrmann, 18871938, BAMSS12, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library,
National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown NY, Box 42, Folder 12.
4. Ban Johnson, John Tener, and August Herrmann letter to Major League Club
Owners, May 25, 1917, Papers of August Herrmann, 18871938, BAMSS12, National
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Baseball Hall of Fame Library, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown NY, Box
80, Folder 15.
5. Johnson, Tener, and Herrmann letter to Major League Club Owners, May 25,
1917.
6. Untitled Cincinnati Times-Star article, December 10, 1917, Papers of August Herrmann, 18871938, BAMSS12, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, National Baseball
Hall of Fame, Cooperstown NY, Box 112, Folder 26; and Barney Dreyfuss letter to John
Tener, November 20, 1917, Papers of August Herrmann, 18871938, BAMSS12, National
112, Folder 26.
7. Dreyfuss letter to Tener, November 20, 1917.
8. Players of Quality Are Needed, unknown newspaper, November 22, 1917,
Papers of August Herrmann, 18871938, BAMSS12, National Baseball Hall of Fame
Library, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown NY, Box 112, Folder 26.
9. Notice regarding Worlds Championship Series of 1917, Papers of August Herrmann, 18871938, BAMSS12, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, National Baseball
Hall of Fame, Cooperstown NY, Box 91, Folder 3.
10. Kid Gleasons jersey, on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and
Museum in Cooperstown, New York, features these adornments.
11. Baseball Magazine, 1917, vol. 19, no. 3, 359.
12. Why I Enlisted, Baseball Magazine, 1917, vol. 19, no. 5, 507.
14. Ball Players Say Theyre Productive, Stars and Stripes, June 28, 1918, 2.
16. Copy of affidavit, Papers of August Herrmann, 18871938, BAMSS12, National
113, Folder 4. Emphasis in original.
17. Copy of August Herrmann letter to Provost Marshal General E. H. Crowder,
June 15, 1918, Papers of August Herrmann, 18871938, BAMSS12, National Baseball Hall
of Fame Library, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown NY, Box 112, Folder 31.
18. Data sourced from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov.
19. Khaki or Overalls for Ball Players, Stars and Stripes, July 26, 1918, 6.
20. The Sporting Page Goes Out, Stars and Stripes, July 26, 1918, 6.
21. A Rising Menace to the National Game, Baseball Magazine, 1918, vol. 21, no.
4, 345.
22. Letter from Charles Ebbets to F. C. Lane, Baseball Magazine, 1918, vol. 21, no. 4,
347.
23. National Commission memo to teams, Papers of August Herrmann, 18871938,
BAMSS12, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, National Baseball Hall of Fame,
Cooperstown NY, Box 113, Folder 3. Emphasis in original.
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Cooperstown NY, Box 113, Folder 3.
25. Whats Position in Case of This Kind?, Sporting News, September 5, 1918, 1.
Cooperstown NY, Box 113, Folder 3.
27. Thomas Rice, Soldiers, Though Interested, Are Sore at Ball Players, Sporting
News, September 12, 1918, 1.
28. Ban Johnson letter to August Herrmann, October 22, 1918, Papers of August
Herrmann, 18871938, BAMSS12, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, National
Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown NY, Box 112, Folder 27.
29. Everybodys an Optimist Now, Sporting News, November 14, 1918, 2.
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TRIPLE PLAY
Personal Reviews, Op-ed Pieces, and
Polemics from Outside the Purview of the Umpires
Leagues of Their Own Design
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David Nemec
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In The Great American Novel Philip Roth stretched his genius to chart the history of the Patriot League, an imaginary third major league whose existence
was subsequently expunged from all record books and even from human
memory owing to its nefarious demise. An actual third major league, one for
women only, has similarly all but been forgotten. In 1954, for economic reasons, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) folded
its tent after a dozen seasons. Several generations of women with baseball in
their blood have emerged since. Here we meet three of them who came of
playing age in three very different parts of the country. The three seemingly
had only one thing in common before I sat down with them: each had played
baseball either with or against me. But as we all talked, I discovered they have
many more commonalities. Before recounting what they told me about the
diverse paths they have taken to play the game at a high level in the wake of
the AAGPBLs disappearance, let me introduce them:
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JAN BORGIA EDWARDS was born in Cleveland in 1938 and grew up in Bay Village, Ohio, where she was a classmate of mine. She holds a BA in English
from Wooster and also MAs in theater arts and counseling. After teaching in
Mansfield, Illinois, she and her ex-husband moved to California where she
completed a long tenure as a teacher, counselor, and coach. Following a fortytwo-year career in education, Jan retired in 2003 while serving as the director of counseling at Vallejo High School. Currently she volunteers by driving
high-risk patients to medical appointments and teaches adult classes on Living Well. During her playing days Jan was often called Borge, a tribute to
her ferocious bat; her career BA was in the .420s and she still swings a mean
golf club.
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SAL COATS was born in Walnut Creek, California, in 1961 and spent her early
years in Piedmont before moving to Sonora during her freshman year in high
school. She holds several degrees including an MA in kinesiology/teaching
and coaching from California State UniversityChico. In 199293 Sal was the
second baseman for the Oakland Oaks, an otherwise all-mens baseball team
for which I served as player-manager, and she later played professionally in
the Ladies League Baseball, the only womens pro league since the AAGPBL to
last a full season, before helping to found a California womens version of the
Mens Senior Baseball League (MSBL). Following a lengthy string of jobs that
allowed her ample time to pursue her first lovebaseballSal has worked for
the past eight years at Genentech, Inc., in South San Francisco.
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MELISSA FRYDLO is The Moll of a Million Monikers. Among them are Frid,
Mel, Mo, Bird Dog, Nurse Nancy, Muff, Missy, Albie, Sadie, Moxie, and a new
one she will discuss. Moxie, the nickname on her baseball card, best befits her.
Moxie was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1971. After moving to Amherst, New
Hampshire, when she was eight, she graduated from Milford High School in
nearby Milford. Moxie holds degrees in architectural design and landscape
architecture from Cazenovia College and the University of Massachusetts,
respectively, and is currently a project engineer for ARCADIS in Springfield,
Massachusetts.
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Jan: Three women meeting for the first time, were all naturally curious
about one other. Im especially curious how Moxie acquired so many nicknames and what Sal was paid to play pro ball.
Moxie: When you play on as many teams as I have its bound to occur.
Ive always felt nicknames were a sign of acceptance and even affection. In
vintage baseball, which I now play, everyone has several.
Sal: I pulled down $1,200 a month; I was a tough bargainer and among
the higher paid players.
Jan: Wow! Not bad. I know you both wonder what brought David and
me together. We were the pitchers in the 5th and 6th grades for our rival
crosstown elementary schools in the annual Army-Navy Game, I for
the girls and he the boys. But whereas David went on to play throughout
junior high, high school, and college, unhappily that was it for me as far as
any organized school baseball.
David: What was your first remembered experience playing baseball?
Jan: Pickup hardball games on my street in Bay at six. I then started
playing in pickup sandlot games with boys like you, David. Right away, I
was usually captain or else chosen first in games. The games themselves
and the favored position I held in them were equally compelling. But my
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first real awareness that I had an unusually strong passion for baseball
came at around seven when I realized I was the only girl playing in neighborhood games and that a lot of the boys didnt care nearly as much about
the game as I did.
Sal: For me it came in the early 1970s growing up in Oakland with the
run of the Swingin As and learning they had a captain named Sal
talk about hooked! My dad, whose father had barnstormed against Babe
Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1927, would come home from work and wed play
catch and hed throw batting practice to me (with tennis balls). In Piedmont girls sports were zilch so Id hang out with the boys at the school
playground where wed play strikeout. Playing with boys, most of them
older than me, I discovered I could keep up with them. I knew the rules
of the game, the stats of the Oakland As players, and constantly strived to
improve my skills.
Moxie: My brother Jamie and I would throw a baseball ball back and
forth to each other as fast as we could. We were right on target. Straight to
the chest. Almost as soon as I started throwing with my brother I felt just
about all I wanted to do was play catch with him. We also played a lot of
Wiffle ball by ourselves or with neighborhood boys. Not only did we make
up rules to various bat and ball games but we had different shaped fields
between our neighbors property and our own. So, in short, I was drawn
from early childhood to male competitiveness.
David: When did you realize how good you were at the game, especially for a female?
Sal: I never thought about it, playing baseball with the boys all of the
time, just that I was good enough for them to keep asking me back. But
when I moved to Sonora and tried out for the girls softball team (a first
for me), I was immediately one of the top players.
Moxie: My judges were always my teammates. After I moved to
Amherst, New Hampshire, a borderline rural, very historical environment, being shy it was hard for me to make friends. Fortunately, the town
had a recreation department and my parents signed me up. Nothing has
changed. I still feel most compatible with my teammates, all of them male
at the moment.
Jan: I didnt realize how far I was above my peers until I was recruited
for the semipro fastpitch Bay Steel team after my sophomore year in high
school and was put at first base, my favorite position by then. My girlfriends seemed oblivious to my athletic skill except to always choose me
first in gym classesthe boys actually acknowledged my sports ability
much more.
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David: What attitude did your parents, peers, and teachers take toward
your enthusiasm for baseball?
Sal: My mom, I wont say that she was adamantly opposed to me playing sports, but she certainly wasnt supportive. My brother wasnt athletically inclined and didnt care what I did. Most of my teachers were
supportive until it became a distraction (when the As were in the World
Series, I had a little TV in my desk that I would watch the games on).
Sometimes my girlfriends and I would play catch at recess (I only had
tomboy friends). My dads attitude was super positive.
Jan: Strangely, I remember nothing about their attitude, perhaps
because I was involved in so many other school, church, and musical
activities.
Moxie: My mom and my dad, Jerry, have always been my greatest fans
and chief supporters. My high school softball coach, Mr. Kelly, who just
passed away, was extremely supportive but tough to please and enigmatic.
My current job supervisor gets a kick out of me too. At every opportunity
he tells everyoneclients, co-workersabout my playing.
David: Your earliest influences on your developing enthusiasm for the
game?
Jan: My father was an excellent softball pitcher in a Bay Village league
and I was the bat girl. He and I played catch often, and he later came to
my games. My mother, in contrast, took no interest in my sports activities.
The first person to really take note of my ability was a young man whose
name I think will blow everyones mind when we discuss who our best
coaches were.
Sal: My dad all the way. He would play with me whatever the sports
season was at the time. There was only one other girl on our block and she
wasnt interested in sports, so I played with the boys in the neighborhood.
There wasnt anyone else in particular that taught me; just old-fashioned
repetition and practice. Plus, if I wanted to continue to be asked to play by
the boys, I had to keep improving.
Moxie: My entire family. My father and brother were huge fans of all
sports. I didnt have their same passion, but I always wanted to tag along
to take part in all the excitement. My brother is an ace at memorizing
baseball statistics and forming views about the sports industry. I got none
of that. Instead I decided to become involved in the way that interests me
mostby actively participating in what everyone was talking about. My
dad coached me in soccer and baseball throughout my formative years.
I didnt want special treatment because I was the coachs daughter, and I
never let him spoil me.
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David: Were you considered a tomboy or a jock?

Sal: Definitely a tomboy and also a jock. I took it as a compliment, as
long as it wasnt dumb jock!
Moxie: Tomboy... right! When I was young I felt the term had a
stigma. Now, I dont mind it at all. When people think of me I know other
things may come first to mind besides tomboy or jock. I have multiple
interests and backgrounds. So far, Im pleased how everything has turned
out. I wouldnt want to be anything or anyone elseexcept maybe a Fulbright Scholar.
Jan: Jock was never used around me, but I was surely a tomboy.
David: The position you first played?
Jan: Pitcher, but when the competition advanced to fastpitch I sensed
my arm wasnt strong enough for it and switched to first base.
Moxie: I played shortstop and caught in high school softball. When I
played Division III softball at Cazenovia College, I was strictly a catcher. I
still love the position and have caught on occasion in vintage games.
Sal: I preferred third base like captain Sal Bando but learned to play all
positions. I wanted to be on the left side of the infield. My second year in
college, I was moved from third to second, a move that I initially fought.
My impression at that time was second was for the weaker armed, less
skilled players; I soon learned that second is more difficult than third or
even short because the play is never in front of you.
David: Your favorite position at a competitive level?
Jan: I loved the games perspective from first base, and I loved being in
on almost every play. I played with a big mutha of a first basemans mitt.
My scoops and reaches and throws were all good. I had a great sense of the
runners and what the outfield would be doing. I caught in my later years
only because first base was taken and I was the only one on the team who
could throw out runners and guide our pitchers.
Sal: As Ive said, I can play everywhere. Probably because as a student
of the game I learned what was required of each position and showed the
confidence to be able to perform there, but my favorite position by college
became second base.
Moxie: When I was young third, short, and center were my positions, then catcher. Im now playing second in vintage baseball for the
1886 Whately Pioneers. I think partly because no one knows Ive got (or
once had) an arm. I like second now because I have a great shortstop. Im
becoming more accustomed to playing with him. Turning the double play
or opening up to make the throw to first is still a challenge, but I hope
someday to perfect both through muscle memory.
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David: Did you play Little League Baseball or Softball?

Moxie: I played all the way through Little League Baseball starting at
age seven.
Jan: Both were unavailable to me.
Sal: I too never had Little League opportunities.
David: Did your high school and/or college field a girls softball team?
If so, would you have preferred to play for or at least gotten the chance to
try out for the varsity baseball team?
Sal: When I transferred to Sonora High School, it was my first real
opportunity to participate in organized sports for girls and also the first
year that the school fielded a girls softball team. On the first day of spring
tryouts, I went to the baseball field, where I was instantly told to go play
softball.
Jan: For me there were no school teams or even girls intramural teams
after grade school and it was a huge black hole in my life. For several reasons, after my Bay Steel experience I had to put baseball on hold until my
late twenties, but Id love to have tried out for both my boys high school
and college teams.
Moxie: I played softball for the first time in high schoolpreviously it
was always baseball. I was the starting varsity catcher as a freshman. The
school was Class 1. Therefore it was the most competitive high school division. My pitcher was very wild and fastfun to catch. I didnt try out for
the baseball team. High school ball is a decent level of play. I would have
been benching on the boys team at best. I wish thered been a girls baseball team.
David: Your first organized team? The first in which you either played
with or against males?
Sal: During the summer in junior high there was an organized league
for boys that Id show up for and hang out relentlessly until they let me
play. I was an unofficial team member; I made my own uniform, just to
feel part of it.
Moxie: I never played tee ball. My first organized baseball team was
pre-Little League. I was the only girl in the league.
Jan: Bay Steel at age sixteen. I was never on a team that played with or
against men, but would have welcomed the opportunity.
David: The first great thrill you experienced on the ball field?
Jan: When I pitched a no-hitter in the sixth grade Army-Navy Game
to spearhead my Forestview team in trouncing your Glenview dubs,
David.
Moxie: My first unassisted double play. A double play from third
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around-the-horn is also fantastic. But the hidden ball trick... our vintage
Whately club was playing in Forest Park Stadium. Bulldog (Jim Bouton)
likes to keep a flow to his pitching and typically disdains attempted hidden ball tricks, but this time he decided to take the box. I was in my ready
position and had the ball in my hand on my knee at second. Bulldog fooled
around in the box. Nails, the catcher, was in his crouched position .... and
the runner took his lead. I tagged him in the chest. I tell you, a hidden ball
trick gets your adrenaline going way more than any double play.
Sal: Mine came in a fastpitch league game against my former team
when I turned an unassisted triple play while playing shortstop.
Jan: My greatest overall thrill, though, was slamming a walkoff double
to drive in two runs to win an A League fastpitch game at age forty-five.
It was my last hurrah as it turned out.
Sal: My greatest is a tie between playing on opening day of the professional Ladies League Baseball in 1997 and winning a championship ring in
Arizona with the Oakland Oaks in 1993.
Moxie: This may seem weird, but after injuring my knee this spring, I
was relegated to keeping score and rooting for my Whately team. One day
I was asked to fill in for the umpire who had to leave early. Id never seen
a woman ump a mens game before and felt both thrilled and honored. I
really saw the game from a new perspective. Players tried buttering me up,
pouring on the charm. On the flip side, even my own teammates werent
afraid of getting in my face. I told one, who received what he thought were
two bad calls from me, Remember, the umpire will make eight bad calls a
game. I only made six.
David: Your proudest achievement to date on the ball field?
Sal: Serving as the starting second baseman for the Oaks when we
won an over 40 Mens Senior Baseball League World Series in Arizona in
1993.
Moxie: Being able to say Ive always exhibited true sportsmanship and
have never once talked back to the umpire.
Jan: Still being able to play A League ball in my midforties. At the
time I was playing for a roofing company. The team was sponsored, but
we played mostly on our own dimes. They bought shirts, jackets, bats and
caps only. May I also share my most mortifying on-field achievement? In
an A League night game a pop fly hit to me came down in the lights. I
lost sight of it and tried to barehand it. The ball split the webbing between
my fingers. Blood spurted everywhere and it looked like I was throwing a
ripe tomato to third base. It turned out I had a warped contact lens, only
evident when a ball was hit in the air into the lights.
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Sal: Ive erased all such moments from memory.

Moxie: I remember in high school chasing down a wild pitch and getting my face mask stuck in the backstop while runners circled the bases.
Mr. Kelly, my coach, was frantically hollering, Missy! My old teammates
still remember that moment and we have a good laugh, but it wasnt funny
at the time.
David: The most bizarre play in a game in which you participated?
Sal: Its baseball; you see something new or bizarre every time you go
to the park.
Jan: While catchinga position I hatedin an A League tournament I was mowed down at the plate by a woman six inches taller and 60
pounds heavier than me. I tagged her, then passed out. When I came to it
was eerie to see the ball still in my hand.
Moxie: My vintage teammates just started laughing and throwing the
ball around carelessly in a game while trailing badly. Our player coach
went so ballistic he switched everyones position on the spot and that was
the day I permanently became a second baseman.
Jan: Ill add that having to move to catcher when I joined my last
A League team because my beloved first base post was occupied by a
woman whod held the job for ten years was my last great disappointment.
The damage to my bodyhip replacement and lower back problems
eventually superseded the fun.
Sal: My greatest disappointment came in July 1997 playing for the San
Jose Spitfires in the Ladies League Baseball. We were seven games into our
inaugural season. I was just getting used to the slower pitching after playing MSBL when I tore my ACL during a game and was out for the remainder of the regular season. I was devastated; here I finally got a chance to
not only play baseball with other gals but got paid to do it! I rehabbed
on the longshot that if we made the playoffs Id be able to play. I literally
busted my ass and defied the naysayers that said I couldnt do it in that
short period of time; well, dont tell me what cant be done! We made the
playoffs and the team doctor was floored when I was in the starting lineup for the postseason opener. My greatest regret, on the other hand, was
that my dad never got the chance to see me play MSBL in Arizona or in the
pro league.
Moxie: Witnessing cheating during a game or players who dont possess good sportsmanship is most disappointing to me. My regret? Quitting. I left my Babe Ruth team during the season without telling the
coach because I didnt want to be stopped. I tried quitting U Mass, but the
coaches wouldnt let me. They said bench warmers are the ones that push
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the starters to play well and keep their positions. A week and a half later
I was in California with the team. In one game I was a pinch runner and
came home. Still, I never bumped any of the starters, largely because we
were strong enough to win the Atlantic 10 championship that year.
David: Your greatest strength as a player?
Jan: Being a team player. I loved my teammates and the mutual encouragement. I was also very good at anticipating where a batted ball was likely
to go. My greatest weakness was that I was SLOOOOOOOW. Id have to hit a
triple to get safely to second.
Sal: Mental toughness, knowledge of the game, and defense. If only I
could have hit a curve ball!
Moxie: DEFENSE. But my hitting is another story, though Im continually trying to improve. This March I practiced with a championship team
at Wilbraham Munson Academy. I work in Wilbraham so stuck around
after work to play at 7:00 p.m. in their facility. Wed hit off the batting
machine at ninety miles per hour with wood bats. I tell you, the stinging
in my hands was excruciating. The player who brought me in was a great
motivator. Hed yell, Dont be afraid, Moxie, get back in there!
David: Do you take the game home with you after a loss?
Moxie: When you win the mood it sets carries with you all week. Likewise losing. Sometimes, after a successful game, Ill write down the plays
just for visual purposes to remember how much I achieved.
Sal: If we got our asses kicked because the other team was just better, Id get over it pretty quickly. If a teammate did something stupid that
caused us to lose (like a cartwheel at home plate to cost us the winning
run), it takes longer. Actually, Im not sure if Im over that one yet. However, if I somehow caused our loss, Ill replay it over and over in my head,
sometimes for years.
Jan: I didnt take many games home because I left so much on the field.
Moreover, no one at homemy kids or my ex-husbandcared about my
games.
David: Ever select a job on the basis of whether it gave you the time to
play ball?
Jan: While teaching adult school in California, I picked the classes I
wanted to teach based totally on practice and game times.
Sal: When I worked for Big B Lumber, I demanded Sundays off to play
MSBL. When the womens pro league formed, I took a leave of absence so I
could focus solely on enjoying the experience of playing in it.
Moxie: My hours have fluctuated over the years depending on my job.
But Ive always engineered things to make time to play sports.
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David: Has the game ever taken precedence over your social life? If so,
was your participation ever grudgingly chosen?
Jan: Yes, and never grudgingly.
Sal: Of course it has, which is why I have no social life.
Moxie: My teammates play a large role in my social life. With that you
can deduce that I have a very (short-term) goal-oriented social life. My
boyfriends have had issues of varying degrees with my baseball participation. What they dont appreciate is that nothing but good can come from
baseball. Self-assurance, skill development, team buildingwhod give up
that because it stood in the way of a social life?
David: Do you feel youve been able to push your baseball skills to the
edge given the opportunities available to you?
Jan: Lack of opportunity in my younger years impeded me. I never had
a chance to learn how well I could have competed in my late teens and
twenties, normally an athletes prime years.
Sal: Having the opportunities to play with and against men was a huge
push to improve and showcase my skills and help open the doors for other
women to play.
Moxie: Professionals in my field are encouraged to conduct activities to
push the limits to improve their job performance. Teamwork is a common
element in both the workplace and on the ball field. Both my career and
ball playing have improved because I am constantly working in groups. I
appreciate the value of camaraderie.
David: The highest level of competition youve faced in your career?
Moxie: 1886 vintage baseball and Division I softball tie for the honor.
Sal: Ive played at the highest levels in both baseball and softball. In
softball, Chico State won a National Championship my freshman year;
I played at the ASA major level during the summers and was on the gold
medal team at the National Sports Festival. At that time there was no
Olympic team or pro softball. In baseball I played on a MSBL World Series
champion my second year; the San Jose Spitfire won the championship
our first year. After the pro league folded, a teammate started a womens
baseball league, (similar to the MSBL) where I coached the Oaks to two
championships in four years. Teammates have said Im the David Justice
of womens softball/baseball. Wherever I go the team wins!
Jan: My Bay Steel experience in high school was both my most challenging and most gratifying. I was the youngest team member and playing a key positionfirst base. The competition was tough; my A League
competition in California was tougher, but I was much more mature.
David: If youve played both softball and baseball, which do you prefer?
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Sal: Fastpitch softball is great, but its not baseball! Because fastpitch
is such a quick-paced game and defense is key, this is where I learned to
think ahead, know what I was going to do before the ball was hit. That
really helped me with the transition to mens baseball. Given a choice, Im
playing baseball.
Moxie: Baseball. I left softball over five years ago even though I can
compete a whole lot better on a smaller diamond.
Jan: My competitive juices would have been more elevated if Id had an
opportunity to play baseball. They still get significantly stirred just watching a MLB game. Not nearly as much even when watching a good womens
softball game.
David: The most important game youve ever played in?
Jan: The playoff game in which I was clobbered at home plate by a
moose of a woman and realized my organized softball days were over. We
won the game incidentally.
Sal: The semifinal game in the 1993 MSBL World Series against Saskatchewan. Our taut 21 win enabled us to move on to the championship
game against Philadelphia.
Moxie: The Putney Diner (Brattleboro, Vermont) was a perennial
softball league champion. We would sometimes win tournaments. Those
games were all important.
David: Have you coached?
Jan: I coached a middle school softball team for three years and was
invited to coach at Vallejo High School, but as a single parent I needed to
be home once the regular school day ended.
Moxie: No, but Im going on my fourth year of teaching kids ranging
from ages four and one-half to thirteen at Williston Academy for the Nonotuck Hockey League Learn to Skate program.
Sal: Ive coached softball at the high school level up to college. I also
coached a womens team in the California Womens Baseball League, a recreational league patterned after the MSBL.
David: Jan, only you have children that played sports. Did they follow
in your footsteps?
Jan: Neither of my two children played contact sports. My daughter
was a swimmer and gymnast; my son also swam and was a superb water
skier. Growing up, they each had my undying supportincluding driving
them to practices and games, timing them in practice and cheering them
on. However, it wasnt mutual. I never really knew how my kids or my exhusband felt about my playing. They never came to my games.
David: Your most serious playing-related injury?
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Moxie: Right now Im rehabbing my knee. This is my first time being

benched for this long in thirty years. I simply wore out my knee on Whatelys Opening Day this year, which was a long, long doubleheader.
Jan: Hip replacement resulting from injuries directly related to catching. Nagging lower back injuries that dont interfere with my golf game.
Sal: Ive been relatively lucky. The worst was when I tore my ACL during the pro league and missed basically the entire season. The ACL is
healed and I was able to continue playing. In my postplaying career, Ive
had elbow problems due to years of use and abuse, but playing golf actually triggered my recent surgery for them.
David: The player you most admire, male or female, whom youve
played with or against?
Moxie: Pres Peiraccini, a hyper sixty-year-old man whos constantly
trying to perfect his game. He has a phenomenal swing that just keeps getting better. Part of his charm is his self-criticism. Hes not cocky, but definitely quirky and unbelievably psyched when he does well. On the average
he manages four teams per year. Peiraccini is the face of western Massachusetts vintage baseball.
Sal: Alex Sickinger, the catcher for the San Jose Spitfires. Alex was
seventeen when she became my teammate. Shed been the catcher on her
boys high school team. She was very confident behind the plate, took
charge on the field, could play any position, and could hit for the situation.
She was experienced way beyond her years.
Jan: No particular player but any who capitalized on average skills to
be the best they could be.
David: Did the best woman player that you ever played with or against
have the tools to play Organized Baseball?
Sal: Sickinger good enough to play Organized Baseball? I dont know
about that.
Jan: Maybe the pitcher on my last A League team, Judy Klein. To play
pro ball shed have had to drop some pounds and receive coaching to correct her tendency to pitch high and insidegood batters waited her out.
Moxie: Justine Siegal whom I played with in Whately. An amazing
pitcher and fielder. Incredible knowledge of the game. A Cleveland native,
in February 2011, at thirty-six, she became the first woman to throw batting practice to a MLB team, the Indians. Shes also a good coach, but the
best one Ive ever had was U Mass head coach Elaine Sortino whos now
battling cancer. She has over 1,100 wins and was the eighth coach in Division 1 history to reach that plateau.
Sal: My top coach was Joan Wallace at Chico State. She was a star for
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the Raybestos Brakettes in her heyday. She stressed fundamentals and repetition; there were no new-fangled gimmicks or tricks in her repertoire. I
went to Chico to play basketball. I didnt really care for softball that much,
but Kathy Arendsen was Chicos pitcher at the time and later won over
three hundred games for the Brakettes. When we met during basketball
tryouts, she convinced me to try out for softball. Joan not only honed my
raw skills but planted the seed that maybe coaching was what I wanted to
do for a living.
Jan: In junior high there was nothing athletic available to girls except
the Junior Olympics in the summer. There I met my best coachnone
other than George Steinbrenner! David, why arent you as shocked as the
others?
David: Because he was also probably the best coach I ever had. He
actually taught me thingshow to throw, high jump, get out of the starting blocks.
Jan: Along with being compassionate and tough at the same timeand
instrumental in getting me on the Bay Steel team, which was sponsored by
the shipping company his family ran.
David: We knew a different George than people remember now. Who
do you each think was the greatest woman ballplayer ever?
Sal: I dont know much about the history of womens baseballI just
know I love to play the game.
Jan: Dottie KamenshekI played first at her size: five-feet-six and 135.
Moxie: I know very little about modern baseball, but after attending
this years Vintage Base Ball Association conference Ive become fascinated
by the games early history. David, who do you think the best early-day
woman player was?
David: Alta Weiss would be a strong candidate. Did each of you have a
major-league idol as a kid, or a player you patterned yourself after?
Jan: Bob Feller. He filled up the whole infield when he pitched and was
beautiful to watch. But when I converted to first base, Lou Gehrig was my
modelhis grace and character under horrible circumstances.
Sal: Sal Bando, naturally. Even though I was already called Sal, it was
because of him I unofficially dropped the ly from my name. He was a
quiet leader on those great As teams, a team player; didnt mind letting the
Reggie Jacksons get the publicity. He just went about his business of playing baseball. That he was the team captain shows his true value.
Moxie: Mike Schmidt because he was a third baseman (my position at
the time in Little League) and wore a pretty pinstripe uniform. Hey, I was
a girl!
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David: Your favorite major-league team?

Jan: Still Cleveland. But its fun to live near San Francisco and see the
Giants. Im a Buster Posey fan but worry about his injury potential too
much to really relish watching him playthe cringe factor.
Sal: Forever the As! Though I dont get to many games anymore for
various reasons.
Moxie: Sorry to say Im not a fan. I dont even own a TV. Plus, I feel I
can learn a lot more from watching players closer to my level.
David: No TV and youve told me you rise daily at 4:00 a.m. Would you
say youre eccentric?
Moxie: Different anyway. One of Erik Eriksons theories included a
map of lifetime milestones. According to his timeline, mine are backward.
Ive been doing the things that people do in their later years. I joined the
Northampton Lions Club and became the first womens president six years
after getting out of college. I vividly remember my first meeting. It was on
September 11 at the Northampton Airport, which was temporarily closed
because of the orange terrorist alert. The board decided to hold the meeting. There was no hysteria, but there was a strong feeling of uncertainty. It
was imperative to keep my composure. I made the opening speech, carried
on with business, ate dinner and made plans for the future.
David: Sal and Moxie, youve played with mens teams. Whats been
their attitude toward you?
Sal: When I first tried out for the MSBL, the reception was, What the
hell is this girl doing here? Only one guy even offered to warm up with
me (Andy Weissmann). During the tryout, I opened some eyes but not
wide enough for any team to draft me. You, my friend, at Andys urging,
took a chance on me and added me to your over forty Arizona World
Series roster. I was the first woman to play in the MSBL World Series and
believe our opponents thought that I was only there as a favor to my boyfriend. They would soon find out otherwise. I knew Id have to have thick
skin that week but relied on my skills and ability to play the game to prove
myself. I was tested on every play and the recipient of some cheap shots,
but I just got up and went back to my position and readied for the next
pitch. Not all of the guys in Arizona were jerks about me playing, but
many were.
David: When I sought permission from the National MSBL commissioner in 1992 to add you to the Oaks roster even though you didnt
qualify age-wise, he was reluctant but finally supposed, A thirty-year-old
woman is the equivalent of a forty-year-old man. How did you feel about
that?
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Sal: I wish I still felt like a fortysomething. Seriously, I was just excited
to be allowed to play. I saw the commish at a game and went up to thank
him for the opportunity, and he just looked at me and walked away. If he
only knew then what a can of worms hed opened.
David: Talk about spending almost a week in Phoenix with an all-male
team, plus having to have a male roommate.
Sal: I was fine with hanging out and talking baseball with the guys.
Initially the idea of sharing a room was a bit awkward for both parties, but
there was nothing but respect and no big deal; I was there to play baseball.
I think it was of more interest to the other teams who was rooming with
the girl.
David: Remember when a Denver player took you out at second base
and was dissed for it?
Sal: A take-out slide would have been fine; the problem was he came
in standing and flung an elbow in my face causing me to throw wildly.
Knowing the rules, I threw while being interfered with, which should have
been an automatic double play. His excuse was hed pulled his groin and
couldnt slide. I was prepared for aggressive play by opposing players but
within the rules. I was angry that he elbowed me in the face and I couldnt
complete the double play, but I was angrier at the umpires for not seeing
the elbow contact and ruling no interference. The support of my teammates throughout the entire week was awesome and their reaction on that
play was not focused on me as the girl but for the unsportsmanlike conduct of an opposing player. When he got an earful for his shabby maneuver, I smiled inside.
Moxie: Like Sal, Ive received nothing but positive reinforcement and
a sense of complete equality throughout my baseball experiences. Lately,
however, when it began to seem that fewer batters were hitting balls my
way, I began being called Otto. That sounded derogatory until I learned
it was really Auto for automatic out. I rarely make errors. Recently Chris
Flynn, aka Blackjack of the Pittsfield Elms, moaned, I hit the ball as hard
as any man could and she threw me out. A tip of the hat from an opposing player in vintage baseball is as satisfying as a peck on the cheek.
David: In the early years of the game there were barnstorming Bloomer
girls teams. Would you have lived out of a suitcase and led the rugged life
Bloomer girls did just for the chance to play baseball and be paid for it,
albeit rather meagerly and sometimes not at all when your manager or the
promoter ran off with the gate receipts?
Jan: Probably not since I had kids.
Sal: I basically did that with fastpitch softball for many summers, trav-
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elling all over the country to play tournaments. Just about every Friday
wed head out for a tournament somewhere, get home Sunday night, go to
work on Monday, wash our unis and be gone again on Friday. We werent
paid, but our travel expenses were covered. This was probably the only
time my dad was miffed by my ball playing. He wanted me to pursue a
career in golf, where I could make some money.
Moxie: I have a difficult time traveling for sports and pretty much
loath the idea. But if times were tough and I had no other work, although I
might be miserable, Id do it.
David: How old were you when you first discovered that for a dozen
years there had been a flourishing womens professional baseball league?
Jan: In my twenties. Even though the league existed until I was in high
school I was unaware of it. There was no coverage of it in the Cleveland
sports pages.
Sal: Id heard of it but really became aware of the league through the
movie about it.
Moxie: I never knew until very recently.
David: Would you have tried to play in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League if it had still been extant during your peak playing
years?
Jan: Without question.
Sal: Sure, but I would have hated the charm school stuff.
Moxie: Absolutely.
David: Do you feel A League of Their Own was a fair portrayal of what
life in the AAGPBL must have been like in its early years of existence?
Jan: Despite all the Hollywood add-ons, I believe the feeling of the
period was accurate. The stuff on the field Im not so sure about.
Sal: Im sure a lot of it was accurate, but some the baseball scenes were
unrealistic to me. Personally, I fell asleep during the movie.
Moxie: (laughs) The charm school scenes were hilarious.
David: Sal, only you here had firsthand experience with the Colorado
Silver Bullets. What went wrong?
Sal: The Silver Bullets were both good and bad for womens baseball. They brought attention to the fact that females can play baseball and
offered girls a chance to play it and not be herded into softball. On the
negative side, the Bullets didnt choose the best baseball players; their players were successful softball players, but that doesnt always transfer over
to baseball. Also, the belief that a team of women could compete headto-head with a mens professional baseball team comprised of eighteen
to twenty-five-year-olds was far-fetched. As it turned out, they couldnt;
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they then began challenging high school and MSBL-type teams, with similar results. Men are just genetically faster, stronger, hit for more power
and receive better coaching growing up. I know a few of the players from
the first years Bullets team and went to a game once. After watching two
innings, I went looking for a beer. I was completely disgusted; it appeared
that the lineup was drawn from a hata quality shortstop was in left, the
leftfielder was at second. Seeing that made me thankful I wasnt selected
for the team because I was too old.
David: Moxie, you alone have played vintage baseball. There are several forms of it, each employing the rules extant in a particular nineteenthcentury season. What seasons have you participated in and whats your
favorite season?
Moxie: Playing 1886 rules with the Whately Pioneers. In 1886 they
pitched overhand. The ball was similar to a modern ball, harder than the
earlier version so it goes further when hit but not as far as a modern ball.
The Pioneers play in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
I also play 1865 and 1864 with the Wethersfield Liberty. I like to play by
these rules because theyre so different from 1886. We slide into first, steal
more frequently, play without gloves and therefore need to develop different offensive and defensive strategies. Presently Im designing a skirt to
fall just below the knee for my 186465 uniform. The skirt will be worn
over my knickers. Then Ill be in complete compliance with how women
dressed when they first began playing the game.
David: Why do you prefer vintage ball to modern ball?
Moxie: No swearing or spitting, no high fives or fist bumps. A simple
handshake, tip of the cap, and a huzzah for a spectacular play is the way
to congratulate a teammate or an opposing player. Doesnt that take you
back in time? Furthermore, the game is based on fundamentals like squaring your body in front of the ball to snag a grounder or a fly. Backhanded
catches are very rare. After playing for thirty-five years, Ive developed an
eye for knowing with whom and how I like to play. Right now I choose to
play with vintage players and by old-time rules.
David: Was Title IX as pivotal as its been made out to be with respect
to womens sports?
Jan: Title IX has fallen as flat as many other mandates. It did bring the
inequity to the attention of some male and female coaches who were able
to carry out its intent initially. Overall, its a fizzle, and I find it ironic that
to assure gender equality softball had to be dropped from the Olympic
Games because baseball was dropped.
Sal: At the time Title IX was instituted, it was a great thing, affording
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girls the same athletic opportunities and funding as boys. Today, I believe
it needs to be re-evaluated; some of the decisions that have been made
lately dont seem like what was intended when Title IX was written. Now
in colleges mens sports are being cut based on the campus population; I
think there are more guys interested in playing sports, but women make
up the majority of the student body on campus. There is also a glaring
inequity in the athletic opportunities available to white females as opposed
to those belonging to minority groups, particularly ones from poorer families who cant send their daughters to college, never mind tennis camps.
Moxie: Title IX was essential, at least for me. I came onto the scene
when everything was already developed. It would have been a shame to
miss out or start late. Ive heard many stories from both men and women
who were unable to play soccer because the school didnt have a program.
I feel very fortunate to have had so many choices right from childhood.
David: Do you feel you came along too early, too late or at the right
time to fully utilize your skills and passion for baseball?
Jan: I was far too early, and my life circumstancescaring for my
mother, working my way through school, being a single parent
prevented me from playing the game I so dearly loved during my prime
years.
Sal: I came along too early to take full advantage of the opportunities
that are available for women now. However, having said that, I also think
I came along at the right time to help pave the way for the opportunities
currently available.
Moxie: I came along the right time and I live in the right place. There
are so many baseball options in western Massachusetts.
David: Jan, we go back the farthest, so the last question belongs to you.
Prior to our senior year of high school you ran a brilliant campaign and
won the student council presidency. In looking back over your life, which
was more meaningful to you? Being the student council president with all
its attendant recognition and challenges, or your experiences playing ball?
Jan: Baseball by far, David. More effort, more results, more friends,
more life lessons. And, above all, more life skills.
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The author thanks Merrie Fidler and Debra Shattuck for their generous counsel in preparing this article.
The Fireman
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Robert A. Moss
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This is the story of a great pitcher and a deeply flawed man, of a duality that
elicits both admiration and regret, and of the tragic realization that it is often
impossible to savor the taste of one without the bitterness of the other.
In Brooklyn, the summer of 1947 was a time of hope for Dodgers fans. The
war had ended, and Branch Rickey, president and general manager of the
Dodgers since 1943, was building a pennant-winner. He had stocked up on
talent during the war, and now those young players, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges,
and Duke Snider, were back from the military, joining established returning
stars like Pee Wee Reese and Pete Reiser. The Dodgers were a rising force, perhaps one player away from dominance. That player arrived in 1947; his name
was Jackie Robinson. Despite the opposition of all fifteen of the other majorleague owners, Rickey had broken the color line. Baseball and the country
were changing.
I was seven that summer, just beginning to understand baseball and in
love with the Brooklyn Dodgers. After school, I would hurry home to catch
the end of Dodgers games on the radio. On hot summer afternoons, I would
often sit on an upended milk crate outside my fathers grocery store on St.
Johns Place in Brooklyn, listening to the dulcet southern tones of Red Barber
on our new portable radio. I learned about sittin in the cat-bird seat, rhubarbs on the playing field, and F.O.B., which meant that the bases were full
of Brooklyns.
Red Barber had been born in Mississippi, raised in Florida, and steeped in
the bigotry endemic to his habitat. When Rickey told him, in confidence, of
his plan to bring an African American to the Dodgers, Barber seriously considered resigning. As he tells it, his wife Lylah urged him not to act rashly.
Barber listened to her advice, thought things through, and realized that his
job was to broadcast the ballgame, not to concern himself with the color of the
ballplayers.1 And thats what he did; he described the game and Robinsons tal-
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ent spoke for itself. Not only did he galvanize the Dodgers, but he electrified
Brooklyn with strategic bunts, stolen bases, clutch line drives, and unquenchable verve. He was on his way to Rookie of the Year, to be followed in 1949 by
the MVP award, and the Dodgers were on their way to a pennant. Robinsons
Hall of Fame career has been recounted many times and, in 1997, his number
forty-two was permanently retired throughout Major League Baseball.
There were other stars on the 1947 DodgersPee Wee Reese, Pete Reiser, and Dixie Walkerbut there was another player I also came to admire.
His name was Hugh Casey, also known as the Fireman, a nonpareil reliever
who won 10 games, lost 4, and saved 18, the most in the National League. He
pitched seventy-six innings, all in relief, and it seemed to me that he magically
materialized at moments of maximum peril. I began to anticipate his appearance when the game was most on the line. The other Dodgers could forge a
lead, but only Casey could preserve it. In 1947, the closers role was not welldefined, and managers would put their best man on the mound late in the
game and ask him to pitch two or three innings as needed. For the Dodgers,
the best man was Casey.
As Red Barber put it: Trouble starts in the game and away down in the
right field corner, a bulky right-hander gets off the bullpen bench, picks up
his glove, and in almost majestic and unhurried tempo begins warming up...
then an arm is waved toward the bullpen and here he comes. Ole Casey, walking as serenely as a barefoot boy down an empty country road.2 Sukeforth
waited at the mound with the ball. He handed it to Casey, and left. There
was nothing Sukeforth could tell Casey. You dont tell a supreme artist how
to paint a canvas or sing an aria.3 Casey said that his manager, Burt (Barney) Shotton was responsible for his success in 1947: Barney handled me perfectly. He asked me how much work I thought I could do, and I told him I
could work three innings almost every day if necessary. So Shotton told me
he would never call on me before the seventh.4 Shotton used to sit next to
Casey in the dugout during the first six innings, picking his brain for advice
on the oppositions batters. Only in the seventh would Casey trudge down to
the bullpen in case he was needed.
Casey was born in 1913 in Atlanta, Georgia. Wilbert Robinson, who had
managed the Dodgers from 1914 until 1931, became president of the Southern
Associations Atlanta Crackers in 1932 and Casey joined his team at age nineteen. It was debated whether he was picked because he was a fine natural
pitcher or because he was an expert shot and had a way with a bird dog. When
Caseys first season was over, Mr. Robinson took him to his hunting camp and
kept him there all winter.5
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Casey meandered through organized ball for seven years with indifferent
results, stopping with the Crackers, the Chicago Cubs, their Los Angeles farm
team, Birmingham, and Memphis. It was in 1938 that Larry MacPhail, president of the Dodgers, picked Casey up for the bargain price of $7,500. MacPhail
had begun to rebuild a chronic second division team into a powerhouse that
would challenge for the pennant in 1940 and win it in 1941. With the Dodgers, Casey flourished, going 15-10 in 1939, 11-8 in 1940, and 14-11 in 1941. At
first, he was used as a starting pitcher, but he gradually shifted toward relief.
In 1941, he appeared in 45 games and pitched 162 innings, but started only
18 times, compiling 7 (unofficial) saves to go with his 14 wins. Hed become
a closer, finishing 25 games. After the 1941 pennant was secured, Dodgers
manager Leo Durocher said We couldnt have won it without Casey.6
Nevertheless, the 1941 World Series against the Yankees featured traumatic gaffe for the Dodgers. Trailing the Yankees two games to one, Brooklyn
entrusted a 43 lead in Game 4 to Casey. With two out in the ninth inning,
and a full count on Tommy Henrich, Casey struck him out on a pitch that
broke sharply down and in. Opinions vary whether the pitch was a curve or
a spitball, but, more crucially, catcher Mickey Owen couldnt handle it. The
ball rolled to the backstop, Henrich reached first safely, and the ensuing rally,
fueled by Joe DiMaggio and Charlie Keller, led to a 74 Dodgers loss. The
Series ended the following day with another Yankee victory; the Brooklyn
Eagles sorrowful headline, Wait Till Next Year, became the mantra of my
generation of Dodgers fans.
The 1947 season marked the summit of Caseys career and the World Series
his apotheosis, but it generated unprecedented obstacles for the Dodgers. Not
only did Jackie Robinson break the color line, with all the internal stress and
outward opposition that engendered, but, just before the season began, Manager Leo Durocher was suspended by Commissioner Chandler for conduct
detrimental to baseball. Branch Rickey installed his long-time friend Burt
Shotton as manager. Shotton had managed St. Louis farm teams for Rickey
and had piloted the Philadelphia Phillies from 1928 to 1933, but presiding over
Robinsons rookie year while attempting to bring an elusive pennant to Brooklyn were challenges of far greater magnitude. Casey made his contribution:
used only in relief, he appeared in 46 games, finishing 37, winning 10, losing
4, and saving a league-leading 18 games. He was the indispensable man, closing game after crucial game as the Dodgers finished 9460, five games ahead
of the Cardinals.
Once again, Brooklyns World Series opponent was the Yankees, a classic
confrontation that went the full seven games. It was a Series that featured two
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outstanding relief pitchers, Joe Page for the Yankees and Casey for the Dodgers. I vividly remember those games sixty-five years later. One of my fathers
customers had a television set, and I was invited to come to his home after
school to watch the late innings. In those days, even a tiny screen with a perpetual snow storm was a marvel not to be forgotten, and for the first time in
my life I learned what it was like to hang on every pitch and cheer or lament
every hit or run.
The Dodgers lost the first two games at Yankee Stadium; Casey pitched two
scoreless innings in Game 1, but did not figure in the decision. In the third
game, at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers led by 72 after three innings, but by the
seventh inning their lead was only 97 and Shotton called for Casey. Clutch
pitching limited the Yankees to one additional run, and Casey, who pitched
the final 2 and 2/3 innings, was awarded the victory. In the key moment, he
induced Joe DiMaggio to hit into a double play with two runners aboard.
The ninth inning of Game 4 remains high on the all-time list of World
Series tension. After eight innings, the Yankees led 21 and pitcher Bill Bevens, though wild, had yet to surrender a hit. In the top of the ninth, the Yankees loaded the bases with one out. Tommy Henrich was due up, and Shotton
brought in Casey. Six years after the debacle of 1941, Casey faced Henrich again.
This time, with a single pitch, Casey induced a comebacker that he turned into
an inning-ending double play! In the last of the ninth, Bevens walked Furillo
and Al Gionfriddo ran for him. With two out, Pete Reiser, on a badly sprained
ankle (actually fractured), pinch hit for the pitcher. On Shottons signal, Gionfriddo stole second. The Yankees then walked Rieser intentionally and Eddie
Miksis ran for him. What happened next has never been better described than
in Red Barbers classic radio play-by-play: Wait a minute... Stanky is being
called back from the plate and Lavagetto goes up to hit.... Gionfriddo walks
off second... Miksis off first.... Theyre both ready to go on anything....
Two men out, last of the ninth... the pitch... swung on, theres a drive hit
out toward the right field corner. Henrich is going back. He cant get it! Its off
the wall for a base hit! Here comes the tying run, and here comes the winning run!... Well, Ill be a suck-egg mule!7 The Dodgers won 32 on Lavagettos double, their only hit; they had evened the series at 22, and Casey was
awarded the victory for his single crucial pitch to Henrich. In Barbers words,
Casey was at a peak few pitchers ever reach. He had defended completely in
the Series everything his manager had entrusted to him.8
The Dodgers lost Game 5 to Spec Sheas four-hitter, 21. Casey pitched the
eighth and ninth innings of this tight ballgame, giving up no runs and one hit.
In the ninth inning, an error and a hit-batsman put two men on for the Yan-
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kees with none out, but Casey again induced a double-play grounder from
DiMaggio.
Game 6 provided the last hurrah for both the Dodgers and the Fireman. It
was another scintillating contest, featuring a come-from-behind rally that propelled the Dodgers to an 85 advantage, preserved by a spectacular catch by Al
Gionfriddo that robbed DiMaggio of a game-tying three-run homer (Red Barber: Heres the pitch, swung on, belted... its a long one... back goes Gionfriddo, back, back, back, back, back, back... heeee makes a one-handed catch
against the bullpen! Oh, Doctor!9). In the last of the ninth, Joe Hatten put two
Yankees on with no one out. Once again, Casey took the mound. Rizzuto was
retired on a fly ball. Aaron Robinson singled, loading the bases. Lonny Frey
grounded into a force out and a run scored, but that was the second out. Casey
then got Snuffy Stirnweiss on a comebacker, saving the 86 victory.
That the Dodgers lost the final game and the Series was not Caseys fault;
of the three Dodgers victories, Casey was credited with two wins and a save.
He appeared in six of the seven contests, but Game 7, a 52 defeat for Brooklyn, was lost before Casey entered in the seventh inning. He did surrender a
run on one hit, but Joe Page pitched five innings of shutout relief to seal the
win for New York. After the Series, Tom Meany asked DiMaggio what had
impressed him most about the Dodgers. DiMaggio replied: Casey, Ol Case
really had it this time.10 Red Barber summed it up: There he stood in October, but in my minds eye he has been standing there for many and many a
year. He was great against the Yankees in 1947, but he has been doing that
same job, game in and game out, through the weeks and months.11
I was devastated. How could my team have lost? It was the beginning of a
life-long detestation of the Yankees. Even today, with the Dodgers long gone
from Brooklyn, I watch Yankees games and reflexively root for their opponents. But Yankees-phobia is not my subject here. Rather, it is a young mans
realization that all people, most assuredly including baseball players, are amalgams of the admirable and the deplorable. Its one thing for a seven-year-old
to thrill to the Firemans on-field heroics; its another for someone ten times
his age to scrutinize the darker, ultimately tragic flaws of Caseys character. At
age eleven, in 1951, I was unaware of Caseys troubled life and ultimate suicide
(of which more later). My mother and I were then trying to cope with our
own tragedy, the untimely death of my father. Although baseball remained
important to me as I grew up, it assumed a more proportionate place in my
increasingly adult world.
From the vantage point of age, I can see Casey in the round: he was a
good old southern boy who, in no particular order of preference, liked cigars,
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liquor, women, and a good fight. And in keeping with his origins, he didnt
particularly like black people.
In Bums, Peter Golenbock gives us a reality check on Caseys personality and his hair-trigger temper. Once, late in the 1941 pennant race, umpire
George Magerkurtha particular peeve of manager Leo Durochercalled a
balk on Casey, waving in the tying run from third base in a hard-fought game
against the Pirates. Casey threw the next pitch at Magerkurths head; and the
ball whistled past Magerkurths left ear.12 In fact, in Superstars and Screwballs, Richard Goldstein maintains that Casey threw three successive pitches
at Magerkurth. When the umpire warned Casey, Durocher bounded out of
the dugout, took issue with Magerkurth, and was promptly ejected. Worse,
the Dodgers went on to lose the game.13
Another time, Casey and Bill Reddy, on the trail of someone kiting checks
forged with Caseys signature, explored and patronized a succession of Brooklyn bars, and then engaged in a brawl in Flatlands. Before the fight ended,
Hugh had thrown someone through a plate-glass window of a saloon. But the
police didnt arrest him, because he was Hugh Casey.14 Carl Furillo recalled
that whereas most players took along toiletries on road trips, Caseys kit bag
contained two quarts of whiskey. Red Barber heard from teammates that
Caseys bedtime routine included cigars, comic books, and a bottle of whiskey. He would lie in bed smoking the stogie, reading the comic books, and
drinking his liquor straight until either the bottle or he was finished.15
A legendary example of Caseys pugnacious temperament took place when
the Dodgers trained in Havana prior to the 1942 season. After a day of pigeon
shooting with Ernest Hemingway, several Dodgersincluding Billy Herman, Larry French, Augie Galan, and Caseyaccompanied Hemingway back
to his home outside the city. There, after preparatory libations, Hemingway
observed that he and Casey were of like size and ought to spar a few rounds.
As they were putting on boxing gloves, Hemingway quick-punched Casey,
arousing his ire. In return, he decked Hemingway, launching glasses and bottles across the room. Finally, the spectators separated the combatants, additional drinks provided calm (if not stupor), and the evening came to a close
around midnight. As the Dodgers were leaving, an inebriated Ernest took
Hugh by the arm and said, You got the better of me tonight, but Id like to
try you again. In the morning well both be sober and well have a duel. You
pick the weaponspistols or knives or swordswhatever you want to use.16
Fortunately, for both literature and baseball, the duel never took place; a chastened Hemingway apologized the next morning.
During spring training in 1947, also in Havana, Dixie Walker led an infamous attempt to prevent Jackie Robinsons addition to the Brooklyn roster.
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Walker enlisted mainly southern players, although Golenbock reports that

Casey was not enthusiastic. To his lasting credit, manager Durocher squelched
this initiative in colorfully profane rhetoric. Nevertheless, Caseys southern
bias was painfully evident in his unthinking way with words. As Golenbock
recounts: One time Robinson was playing poker with pitcher Hugh Casey,
and Hugh was losing. To everyone in the room, Hugh hollered, You know
what ah used to do down in Georgia when ah ran into bad luck. Ah used to go
out and fine me the biggest, blackest, nigger woman ah could find and rub her
teats to change my luck. Robinson became dizzy, but did nothing. Deal the
cards, he said icily.17
Baseball Annies abounded on Dodgers road trips and Casey was susceptible. Carl Prince maintains that the pursuit of sex was part of some Dodgers
road life.18 Paternity suits were a constant threat, and one of them ultimately
led to Caseys downfall. He owned a bar and grill near Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. It was there, Casey claimed, that he met Hilda Weissman. Hilda claimed
much more, specifically that she spent four nights with Casey at Brooklyns
St. George Hotel, where Casey fathered her son, born in November 1949.19
Weissman lodged a paternity suit against Casey which she won in December 1950. By then, Casey had left the Dodgers and was out of baseball, but his
marriagerocky to begin withbroke up. His wife Kathleen, who was living
in Georgia, accepted Caseys denials of paternity, but did not return to him.
According to Al Gionfriddo, Hilda Weissman was crazy for ballplayers and
it could have been anybodys baby.20 But, in those long ago days before DNA,
who really knew the truth?
Caseys had long skirted disaster on the ballfield, but it caught up with
him in 1948. Shortly after the season began, he fell down a flight of stairs at
his apartment, above the bar. Whether drink contributed to this accident is
unclear, but torn ligaments and tendons sidelined Casey for more than two
months. When he did pitch again, he was much less effective, logging only 36
innings and completing only 11 games, with his 3-0 record offset by a swollen 8.00 ERA. The Dodgers released him in September of 1948. In 1949, he
pitched acceptably for the sixth-place Pirates, appearing in 33 games, closing
23 of them, compiling a 4-1 record with 5 saves and a 4.66 ERA. However, the
Pirates released him too, and he signed with the Yankees, appearing in just
four games. He was not on the Yankees World Series roster and did not pitch
against his old team when the Yankees, much to my dismay, defeated Brooklyn four games to one in the 1949 Series.
Hugh Casey had just one more season of baseball left, and it ended where
it began, in Atlanta. Dixie Walker had been traded to the Pirates after the 1947
season, finishing his playing career with them in 1949. In 1950, he was named
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manager of the Class AA Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association and set
out to reinvigorate a struggling team. Walker hired Kirbe Higbe as pitching
coach and Hugh Casey for his pitching staff, while he took on the duties of the
batting coach himself. Although Casey was hit hard in his first few appearances,
he soon returned to form. By seasons end, the 92-59 Crackers boasted the best
record in the league, and Casey had appeared in 45 games, winning 10 and losing 4.21 Encouraged by his success, Casey attempted to return to the Dodgers in
1951, but nothing came of it; he was finished as a major-league pitcher.
And then Caseys troubles compounded. To his failure on the diamond was
added the stress of the paternity suit, separation from his wife, and tax troubles with his bar and grill. These were not problems to be solved with a curve
ball. Casey returned to Atlanta in June and checked into the Atlantan Hotel,
telling the bellboy that a heart condition gave him only ten days to live.22 At 1
AM on July 3, Casey called his friend Gordon McNabb and announced that
he was about to kill himself. While McNabb hurried to the hotel, Casey called
Kathleen informing her that he was ready to die, ready to go. She pleaded
with him, telling him that she believed he was innocent of the paternity
charge and that it was for God to decide when a man must die. But Casey
replied, I feel just like I was walking out to the pitchers box. I was never any
more calm than I am right now. He continued, I cant eat or sleep since going
through all the embarrassment. And I had to drag you through it, too, but I
swear with a dying oath that Im innocent. Im completely innocent of those
charges. Kathleen heard the shotgun blast over the telephone, as Casey shot
himself in the neck. Gordon McNabb, who arrived at Caseys door at the same
moment, heard it too.23 At Caseys funeral, his old teammates Dixie Walker
and Whitlow Wyatt served as pallbearers. The minister, referring to the paternity suit, said, You never know what is in a mans mind at such a time, but I
think Hugh believed that he had been knocked out of the box, unjustly perhaps, and he didnt want to go back to the bench.24
How do we measure a mans life? How does one square the flawed Casey of
reality with the idealized, one-dimensional hero of the seven-year-old child?
How can we reconcile similar dualities in anyone? Ive come to believe that
its impossible; its the cost of growing up; nothing is proof against disillusion. Perhaps only in the realm of art can good and bad coexist in a tenuous
equilibrium.
For poor Casey, I prefer to imagine a different dimension, another earth,
where Ebbets Field still stands. There, it is the late September of a close pennant race, the final innings of a bitterly contested game. An arm is waved
toward the bullpen, and, amid hopeful recognition from the faithful, num-
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ber twenty-five ambles slowly toward the mound. This Casey is neither
a bigot nor a boozer, and his life is in order. Without a word, Clyde Sukeforth hands him the ball and turns away. The small knot of players dissolves:
Bruce Edwards dons his mask and heads back to home plate, Spider Jorgensen
returns to third, Pee Wee Reese to short, and Eddie Stanky to second. The
black first baseman lingers for a moment. The country boy looks up at him
and smiles: Nothin to fear, Ole Caseys here. Jackie Robinson smiles too:
Go get em, big fella!
Notes
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1. Red Barber, 1947, When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball (New York: Da Capo,
1982), 6364.
2. Red Barber, My Ten Years with the Dodgers, in The Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers, ed. Ed Fitzgerald (New York: Bantam Books, 1949), 80.
3. Barber, 1947, When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball, 349.
4. Tom Meany, Hugh Casey, in The Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers, ed. Ed Fitzgerald (New York: Bantam Books, 1949), 109.
5. Casey, Ex-Dodger is Atlanta Suicide, New York Times, July 4, 1951.
6. Barber, My Ten Years with the Dodgers, 79.
7. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barber.
8. Barber, 1947, When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball, 349.
9. Red Barber, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barber.
10. Meany, Hugh Casey, 112.
11. Barber, My Ten Years with the Dodgers, 7980.
12. Peter Golenbock, Bums (New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 1984), 47.
13. Richard Goldstein, Superstars and Screwballs: 100 Years of Brooklyn Baseball
(New York: Dutton, 1991), 215.
14. Golenbock, Bums, 48.
15. Russell Wolinsky, Hugh Casey, in The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, ed. Lyle Spatz (Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 2012), 117.
16. Goldstein, Superstars and Screwballs: 100 Years of Brooklyn Baseball, 221. For
more on this incident, see Steven P. Gietschier, Slugging and Snubbing: Hugh Casey,
Ernest Hemingway, and Jackie RobinsonA Baseball Mystery, NINE: A Journal of
Baseball History and Culture 21, no. 1 (Fall 2012):1246
18. Carl E. Prince, Brooklyns Dodgers: The Bums, the Borough, and the Best of Baseball 19471957 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 79.
19. Wolinsky, Hugh Casey, 118.
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21. Lyle Spatz, Three Georgia-Born Former Dodgers Lead the Crackers to a Pennant, SABR, http://sabr.org/research/three-georgia-born-former-dodgers-lead-crackers
-pennant
22. Wolinsky, Hugh Casey, 118.
23. Casey, Ex-Dodger is Atlanta Suicide, New York Times, July 4, 1951.
24. Spatz, Three Georgia-Born Former Dodgers Lead the Crackers to a Pennant.
134
Bill Kulik
The Gringo Malo Speaks the Language of the Game
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Franklin Otto
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His introduction to the game of baseball came at the age of seven, on a summer vacation while visiting his cousins in Rhode Island. William Kulik was
born in New Jersey but moved with his parents at a very young age to South
America. He spent nine years living in Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia,
none of which are bastions of baseball. When Bill played Wiffle ball with his
cousins, his teammates stood behind the backstop because after he swung at
the ball, he threw the bat. Attending his first major-league game at Shea Stadium, Bill thought Wayne Garrett was Gods gift to baseball because he hit a
home run and Bill caught the ball. He thought every time you went to a game,
you caught a ball.
Being behind the other kids in learning the subtleties of the game almost
worked out to his advantage later on. Playing soccer at high elevations in both
Bolivia and Colombia, he was becoming a fine-tuned athlete. Returning to
New Jersey for four years of high school, his inexperience with the game was
welcomed by the baseball coaches who proceeded to mold him. He played
varsity ball in high school and at Bryant College in Rhode Island, mostly as an
outfielder and pitcher.
Currently, Bill anchors the three-person Spanish-language broadcast team
for the Philadelphia Phillies. They rotate their responsibilities doing three
innings each of play-by-play and color analysis. I interviewed him at Citizens
Bank Park in August 2011.
How did you become interested in broadcasting?
After graduating from college, I went to work in the fledging telecommunications field in Boston, building the New England Sports Network tower and
installing pay-per-view systems in hotels. Later on working for Comcast, I
headed up an innovative distance-learning program between the Museum of
Science and the Cambridge public schools. Deciding that if I was going to
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stay in the cable television business I wanted to do something I really loved, I

started a weekly show called Forever Baseball that got carried on many Comcast local-access stations. Before I knew it, I was in five million homes.
One afternoon, my crew and I went to Fenway Park to do a feature. The
Yankees are in town and Dan Duquette has just acquired Pedro Martinez, who
is going up against Roger Clemens. I happen to be standing within earshot of
Dan and some folks, and Dan sounds like hes annoyed because there is no
Hispanic coverage of any sorts. So I took a deep breath, walked over to the
group and told Mr. Duquette that I might be able to help. The next thing I
know its, Sit down, son. Watching the game from Mr. Duquettes box, a deal
is cut. I quit my job and started a company called Spanish Baseball Productions (SBN) which began carrying Spanish-language broadcasts in Boston.
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How did you wind up in Philadelphia?

We were in Philadelphia during an interleague series. After watching us, the
Philly brass wanted to know if I could do the same thing here that I was doing in Boston, which had a much smaller Hispanic community. I thought, if I
could be close to my high school home and double the sales efforts, why not?
So we expanded.
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How did you get nicknamed Gringo Malo?

We were doing our pre-game show, which includes a call-in portion. This is
back in 2003 around the time of the Sammy Sosa illegal-bat incident. I was
only producing then in Boston and was rarely on the air. My announcer was
Dominican and said very emphatically that Sammy didnt use the bat intentionally and he didnt know the bat had been doctored. Theres a lull in the
calls, so on the air I say to my colleague, Hey, an illegal bat is an illegal bat.
Sammy has to be suspended for it. My colleague says, Ay, ese Gringo Malo.
(Oh, that Terrible Gringo.) And dont you know the phone lines light up and
everyone now is on my case. So, if you ask the Hispanic ballplayers in Boston
or Philadelphia whether they know who Bill Kulik is, theyll say, No. But ask
them if they know Gringo Malo, and theyll immediately say, Sure.
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What kinds of feedback do you get from the listening audience?

At first, people were only interested in calling to talk about particular Hispanic
players or stars, like Sammy Sosa and Manny Ramirez. Not even interested in
whether the Phillies were winning or not. I notice that now on our call-in show
the hard-core audience has definitely converted to pure Phillies fans. They absolutely get it. They want to talk about why the Phillies lost last night, or moan
about a Charlie Manuel decision with a particular pitcher. They are caring
about how the team is going to win and what the rotation should be. They now
know just as much about Ryan Howard and Jimmie Rollins as they do of the
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Fig. 1. Bill Kulik. Photo by the author.
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Latino players. Five years ago, I guarantee, they would not have known who
any of these guys were.
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How do you address the cultural and linguistic nuances of the

Latino communities?
I dont really think a lot of markets understand the cultural nuances between
a Puerto Rican Latino, a Dominican Latino, a Cuban Latino, or a Mexican
Latino. We play our Spanish kind of down-the-middle, not favoring one group
over another. We absolutely allow Spanglish in our broadcasts because we are
talking to two, three, or four generations of Latinos, and some are more dominant in English than Spanish.1 I dont want to lose these folks to the Englishspeaking broadcasters. I want them to listen and enjoy the game with their
parents and to unite the Hispanic community. Thats our main goal.
Has fluency in Spanish and exposure to the Hispanic culture influenced the
manner in which you approach your job and look at life in general?
Absolutely. I can give you a recent example. I was on vacation with my fianc in
the Dominican Republic at an all-inclusive resort, which really limits your expo-
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sure to the local culture. I happened to strike-up a conversation in Spanish with

our maid and told her that Id love some local fish. Here was a humble woman
who saw my ability to communicate in her language and sensed my interest in
her as a person. A short while later, we visited her relatives, who treated us to a
horseback ride and a wonderful meal of fresh fried fish on the beach.
My fianc has a shoe store which caters to mostly Hispanic and African
American clientele. I am able to help her out from time-to-time. When the Hispanic women come up to the cash register to pay, I sometimes say, Diez pesos
y se acaba esta vaina. (Ten dollars and this nuisance is finished.) They get a real
charge hearing this gringo unexpectedly speaking their language. There is an
element of racism and apprehension that I dont feel, which I attribute to my being able to communicate in Spanish and my assimilation of the Latino culture.
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Some players say that 80 percent of the game is mental and 20 percent is ability.
Is there something comparable for you?
Absolutely. I think that one of my advantages is that I played as a starter at a
pretty high level through high school and college. That was my preparation,
and I lean on that all the time. Many broadcasters who have played at the professional level may not realize that they are leaning on all of their experiences.
Its a special gift weve been givenboth the chance to play on the field and
then to take it to the broadcast booth. I dont go to work, I go to the park, so I
cherish every day I have here. Taking those fun days from the neighborhood
or the playing field and bringing them into the broadcast booth is my favorite
thing to do.
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How do you keep all of your anecdotes and statistics organized so that you can
plug them in at the right time?
I probably have a very silly memory for a lot of the anecdotes, and in particular, some of the history of the sport. During the color analysis portion
of the broadcast, some of the anecdotes will be from my own playing career
even though its not a major-league career. Its an opportunity to teach the fans
about baseball, especially those who know very little about the game. With
play-by-play, you dont have much time for anecdotes because youre painting
a picture of the game as its unfolding and you have to keep everyone informed
about whats happening on the field. I do plenty of statistics, but too many
are a crutch to kill time. I rather do more banter or describing the scene, the
weather, the fans or something going on around the ballpark.
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When you talk with other broadcasters or writers, what do they seem
most interested in?
They get to know eighteen of the twenty-five players fairly well, including the
Latino players who are conversant in English. On occasion, they will ask me
Triple Play
about a particular Latino player, especially if there is a cultural or language

barrier. They might have seen a story of a player who is doing well and ask,
Whats he like? Is he from a poor neighborhood or rich neighborhood, because he seems different from the others? What are differences between a Caribbean player and a South American player? Well get all kinds of pronunciation questions, whether it is the players name or his hometown.
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Do you have any signature calls?

There is one I use to open the game. Abrochen los cinturones que el Gringo
Malo tiene el micrfono. Cudense. (Fasten your seat belts because Gringo
Malo has the mike. Beware.) My strike-out calls are, Sintate y gracias por tu
participacin (Take a seat and thanks for participating), and Puro vientos
or Congelado (All air or Frozen), depending on whether he was swinging
or watching. My home-run call is, Vete de aqu. Hasta la vista pelotita. (Get
out of here. See you later little ball.) I also like to use programmed recordings
for some dry, light-hearted humor. After an error, I play Bart Simpsons Ah
caramba! (Aw, shucks!) I tend to find rare statistics which make my colleagues wonder where the heck I got that from? Desde la mente del Gringo
Malo. (From the mind of the Gringo Malo.) And Ill play the theme from
The Twilight Zone.
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1. Spanglish, as a linguistic phenomenon incorporating code-switching and wordborrowing, elicits strong opinions on its viability as a form of communication. It is
evident in certain areas of the United States and has also been identified within the
British population of Argentina and in the Panama Canal Zone. Having worked in the
field of language policy in education for twenty seven years, I am aware of how practitioners value the correctness of language representation and usage and disdain the use
of Spanglish as a viable form of communication.
I have listened to Bill Kuliks radio broadcasts on several occasions and consider his
Spanish to be grammatical albeit infused with an Americanized accent. The play-byplay and color analyst roles of his broadcast team are shared each game on a rotating
basis with a native-born Cuban and Dominican. Bills passion for the game is beyond
question. He is informative and provides an accurate portrayal of the action on the
field in a uniquely entertaining manner. I hear other Spanish broadcasters seamlessly
incorporate baseball terminology in English into their narrations. Being Americas
game, its unavoidable. Its probably a matter of degree as to what their listening audience finds acceptable.
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Baseballs Other Expansion

Team of 1962
Fifty Years of Frustration in the National League Ends for Houston
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Ron Briley
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While the attention of the baseball world was drawn to the San Francisco
Giants 2012 World Series triumph and speculation about what roster changes
the New York Yankees would make following their disappointing performance in the American League Championship Series, another baseball milestone received scant attention. After fifty years of futility in the National
League, the Houston Astros switched their affiliation to the American League
(AL) West. Ostensibly, the Houston club will now be able to foster a natural
rivalry with the AL West Texas Rangers, increasing interest for the sport in
the Lone Star State. During its fifty-year tenure in the National League, the
Houston franchise won six division titles and made two playoff appearances
as a wild card entry. In 2005, Houston won its only National League pennant
and played the Chicago White Sox in the World Series. The White Sox swept
the Series in four games, still leaving the Houston ball club without a World
Series victory. Since that World Series appearance, the club has suffered a
steady decline. The Houston Astros achieved the dubious distinction of having the worst record in Major League Baseball their last two National League
seasons, losing 106 games in 2011 and 107 contests in 2012.
But baseball in Houston seemed much more promising in 1962. Responding to Congressional antimonopoly concerns and efforts by Branch Rickey
and others to form a third major league, Major League Baseball placed expansion National League franchises in Houston and New York City. The two new
franchises, however, failed to receive equal attention from the nations media.
Houston, fielding a competent expansion entry, was overlooked by sportswriters and fans in favor of a New York Mets team which established modern
records for futility.
Of course, there were reasons for the national attention to focus on the
New York Mets. They resided in the nations media center and were able to
attract chroniclers such as Jimmy Breslin. The Mets were also represented by
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General Manager George Weiss and Manager Casey Stengel, who recalled the
glory days of the New York Yankees in the 1950s. Having to compete with the
popular Yankees for the New York market, Weiss decided that the Mets would
draft well-established veterans to fill the expansion roster. Players such as Gil
Hodges, Don Zimmer, Gus Bell, Charlie Neal, and Richie Ashburn adorned
the roster, providing the Mets with older hands who were household names
to baseball fans in New York and throughout the country. While the team
was old and short on pitching, Stengel remained quotable, and the nation
became infatuated with such loveable losers as former Yankee Marvelous
Marv Throneberry. Indeed, the Mets proved to be so bad that they did restore
some of the interest in baseball which many in the game feared was being lost
to professional football.
Meanwhile, ignored in the national hoopla over Stengel and the Mets, a
solid first-year expansion franchise was taking shape in Houston. Appealing
to the frontier images still associated with Texas and its largest city, the initial name for the Houston team was the Colt .45s, often shortened to Colts, a
symbol of the gun which was considered to have played a leading role in the
winning of the West. In 1961, the Houston electorate approved $22 million
in general obligation bonds for the Harris County domed stadium. However,
the Astrodome, as the stadium was eventually called, was not ready for the
inaugural 1962 campaign. The Colt .45s would have to compete against the
Mets without the publicity of the worlds first indoor baseball park. Instead,
the Colt .45s played in a temporary structure, Colt Stadium, which had a seating capacity of thirty-two thousand and was located on the same lot as the
projected domed stadium.
Unlike the Mets who emphasized name players in the draft, Houston
selected younger athletes, many of them out of the talented Los Angeles
Dodger system. Among the players assembled by Houston were Dodger products Norm Larker, Bob Lillis, and Bob Aspromonte; Boston Red Sox shortstop Don Buddin; and outfielder Al Spangler from the Milwaukee Braves. For
pitching help the Colts selected such players as veteran Dick Farrell from the
Dodgers, Bob Bruce from the Tigers, and knuckleballer Ken Johnson of the
Cincinnati Reds. To guide this group of young players, Houston management
pegged former Baltimore Orioles manager Paul Richards as general manager,
and former journeyman outfielder, and skipper of the Kansas City Athletics,
Harry Craft as manager.
Craft tried to lower expectations for the young club, but the Colts created considerable excitement by starting the season in Houston with a threegame sweep of the Chicago Cubs. On opening day, thirty-year-old, five-footseven Bobby Schantz went the distance for the Colts, holding the Cubs to just
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five hits in an 112 victory. Offensive punch was provided by former Pirate
Roman Mejias who blasted a pair of three-run home runs. Houston continued its mastery on April 11 and 12 by tossing consecutive shutouts at the overwhelmed Cubs. Hal Woodeschick and Dick Farrell combined for a 20 victory, followed by veteran left-hander Dean Stones three-hitter.
The expansion team was quickly brought back to reality by teams such as
the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. Nevertheless, the Colts, predicted to
finish in last place in the ten-team league, attained eighth place, completing
the year with a record of 64-96. While finishing thirty-six games out of first
and sixteen out of seventh, the Colts completed the season six games ahead
of ninth-place Chicago and twenty-four ahead of the Mets, who compiled a
record of just 40-120. The Colts surprising finish was primarily due to a fine
pitching staff which achieved a 3.80 ERA, while amassing 1,039 strikeouts and
only issuing 467 walks. The hitting star of the franchise was outfielder Roman
Mejias with a .286 batting average, 24 home runs, and 76 RBI. However, during
the off season the Colts traded their popular Latino ballplayer to the Boston
Red Sox for American League batting champion, and Houston native, Pete
Runnels. The team also did well at the box office, ending up sixth in National
League attendance. Team owner Roy Hofheinz concluded, We made great
progress in a year, and we look forward to continued hard work and progress. No one in the Houston organization will be satisfied until Houston has a
worlds champion.
But the championship predicted by Hofheinz has eluded the Houston franchise. In 1965, the team sought to change its image from the old West to the
modern space age with the Houston Astros and the Astrodome. While enjoying some success and playing through the 1970s in rainbow-colored uniforms,
the Astros never attained a National League pennant, nor played in a World
Series game during their tenure in the Astrodome. In 2000, the club moved
into a new downtown park, Enron Field. The corrupt Enron energy corporation went bankrupt, and in 2002 the Minute Maid orange juice company purchased the naming rights for the park. These changes in venue and corporate
sponsorship have not produced a championship.
And there seems little chance that the shift to the American League West
will soon improve things. Under the ownership of Houston businessman Jim
Crane, who purchased the team in 2011, the club has jettisoned veteran players while focusing upon the development of younger talent which seems years
away from competing for any type of championship. Meanwhile, the American League Westwith strong clubs in the Oakland As, Texas Rangers, Los
Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and Seattle Marinerswill be a tougher division for Houston than the National League Central, where the Astros could at
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least compete with the Cubs (including three shutouts at the end of the 2012
season, reminiscent of the clubs start against the Cubs in 1962). Additionally, no player has entered the Baseball Hall of Fame as an Astro. Nolan Ryan
pitched for the Astros, but the no-hit and strikeout king opted to enter Cooperstown as a member of the Texas Rangers. This may change when Craig
Biggio, who played his entire career with Houston while compiling over 3,000
hits, becomes eligible for the Hall in 2013. So after fifty years, the prospects of
a championship season in Houston remain slim. And some of us who have
followed the team for fifty years despair that we may not see a World Series
victory in our lifetime. Nevertheless, I will stick by the team. As a young man
laboring in the cotton fields of West Texas in the early 1960s, the Astros were a
lifeline to a world beyond the back-breaking labor and heat of the Texas Panhandle. They kept me going then, and the least I can do now is to continue to
stand with them as the possibility of another one hundredloss season looms.
But hope springs eternal in baseball, and once more Ill have to say, Wait till
next year.
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BOOK REVIEWS
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Mitchell Nathanson. A Peoples History of Baseball. Urbana: University of

Illinois Press, 2012. 275 pp. Cloth, $29.95.
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Daniel A. Nathan
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Its hard not to be romantic about baseball, muses Oakland As general manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) in Moneyball (2011). Beane is right. Historically, many Americans have been unable to resist the games romance, its
cherished (and incessantly repeated) images of fathers playing catch with
sons on fields of dreams in the glory of their times (Cant Anyone Here Take
This Quiz?, Village Voice, August 18, 1992, 146). Sentimentality and nostalgia,
ignorance and nationalism, becloud our sense of baseball history and reality.
In this country, baseball romance rules.
Mitchell Nathansons A Peoples History of Baseball is a historical corrective. It examines Major League Baseball (MLB) through an alternative lens
(219), one that provides a useful, critical perspective. Nathansons critique is
founded on the idea that stories matter, that narratives help construct our
world (xii). A legal scholar, Nathanson explains that his book is not about
the baseball stories we already know but the ones we are much less familiar withthe counter-stories (xiv). By counter-stories Nathanson means
narratives that challenge accepted, conventional beliefs (xiii). As one might
expect, counter-stories are often dismissed as (take your pick) manipulative,
political, anecdotal, unprincipled, and/or unfair (xiii). That is, they are ontologically just like the dominant narratives that most people take for granted as
always-already true.
Organized thematically rather than strictly chronologically, the books six
chapters cover a lot of ground. The first considers the 1876 founding of the
National League, whose team owners promoted their version of the game as
a mainstay of Victorian values, especially when compared to upstart rival
leagues (15). In the process, the National League contributed to the baseball
creed (15), which, though little more than a cultural fiction (29), argued
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that the game was an educational, socializing, and acculturation tool of

great moral value (18). The second chapter traces the roots of MLBs extralegal authority, thanks largely to a series of court decisions based on some
dubious legal logic, beginning with the Supreme Courts infamous Federal
Baseball decision in 1922 (39). This chapter also discusses historically significant incidentsthe game-fixing Black Sox scandal, the Pete Rose gambling affair, the steroids debacle and subsequent Mitchell Reportduring
which MLB swung its extra-legal scythe (35). Chapter three assesses one of
the most affirming morality tales in American historythe story of Branch
Rickey, Jackie Robinson, and the integration of Major League Baseball in
1947 (68). Nathanson documents the nascent civil rights movement and the
political push to integrate MLB that predated Robinsons signing, the struggle
for control of the Robinson story, and despite the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the disappointingly slow pace of MLB racial integration after
Robinson.
The fourth chapter examines some of the most important ways in which
MLB changed in the postwar years: continental expansion (adding eight new
teams in the 1960s); an influx of new corporate ownership; a revolution in
television broadcasting; the rise of the Major League Baseball Players Association, led by the remarkably effective executive director, Marvin Miller; and
the historic Curt Flood legal case, which challenged (but did not defeat) the
reserve clause. The end result of all these changes, Nathanson argues, was
that the entire structure of the game had been overhauled. It was now a players game, not an owners game (144). The penultimate chapter scrutinizes
the complex relationship among the American penchant of rooting for the
underdog, the power of positive thinking movement, and the collectivism of
the Players Association. This creative mlange of subjects reveals Americans
preference for romance over reality (173); it suggests a preference for idyllic baseball fantasies and mythology rather than sober historical assessments.
The concluding chapter focuses on baseballs storytellers, the members of the
media who spun tales of baseball as America (180), chief among them the
influential, British-born Henry Chadwick, who in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries was responsible for formulating many of baseballs
most cherished statistics, such as the batting average and the run batted in.
Nathansons appraisal of baseball writers is generally unfavorable. He writes
that despite their journalistic credentials, many media members were and
are unashamed fans of the game and have simply been unwilling to present a
more complex, perhaps less zealously patriotic, image of something they had
looked up to all of their lives (196). The one writer Nathanson admires was
an outsider: Bill James, the statistical innovator who directly and indirectly,
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challenged the baseball creed and who argued that there was no higher
moral purpose of the game and there could be none because the game existed
only on the field (202).
In most ways, A Peoples History of Baseball succeeds. The book is well
organized and engaging, and Nathanson is fundamentally correct. Baseball
is more than a game. It is, as he puts it, a concept that bears significant
emblematic weight (xi). While true, this is not a novel or trenchant insight.
Numerous writers, ranging from Walt Whitman and Mark Twain to Jacques
Barzun and George F. Will, among others, have also proposed that baseball
is indelibly linked with American ideals and values, history and culture. Add
Nathanson to the list, although unlike some of the aforementioned writers, he
is no cheerleader.
Nathanson is also right that over the course of many years, myriad people
most notably, MLB team owners and members of the mediahave successfully forged a strong nexus between baseball and America (xii). It was and is
in their interest to capture the flag, which is usually a winning strategy in the
United States. Oddly, however, an important baseball stakeholder is missing
here: baseball fans. They/we too have helped build and maintain the nexus
between baseball and America (xii). In a book titled A Peoples History of
Baseball this is a strange and perhaps disappointing omission. Baseball can
only be the peoples game if the people assent to it, no matter what stories the
power elites spin or what political and legal shenanigans they get away with.
The games enduring popularity (180) has many sources, including aesthetic
ones, some of which are beyond MLBs reach.
Speaking of the books title, it obviously evokes the work of Howard Zinns
popular A Peoples History of the United States, 1492Present (1980), and
Nathanson thanks the late historian and social activist for inspiring him and
for demonstrating to anyone willing to listen that the received wisdom is
hardly the only wisdom (ix). Zinns book, like Nathansons, is drawn mostly
from secondary sources and is polemical (which is fine by me). But many
respected historians panned Zinns work when it was first published. Cornell Universitys Michael Kammen said that it read like a scissors-and-pastepot job and called it simpleminded (Michael Kammen, How the Other
Half Lived, Washington Post, March 23, 1980), while Columbia Universitys
Eric Foner argued that it reflects a deeply pessimistic vision of the American experience (Eric Foner, Majority Report, New York Times, March 2,
1980). My point is not to suggest that A Peoples History of Baseball is similarly
flawed, although it too has a dark vision of MLB ownership and the media, but
to emphasize its intellectual and political lineage.
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At the same time, Nathansons title also calls to mind Harold Seymours
Baseball: The Peoples Game (1990), which we now know was mostly written
by his widow, Dorothy Seymour Mills. The books are remarkably different.
Baseball: The Peoples Game chronicles how the game was played by boys on
sandlots and in schoolyards; by adults in colleges and prisons; by ballplayers on semiprofessional, industrial, and town teams; by men, women, whites,
African Americans, and Native Americans. In her review of A Peoples History
of Baseball, Mills, no doubt thinking about the relationship between Nathansons title and the books content, writes, When most writers speak of baseball, they really mean the major leagues. They dont even consider the minor
leagues, the independent leagues, and the thousands of amateur players. To
them, Major League Baseball is the only baseball that counts. Mr. Nathanson,
too, falls victim to this narrow use of terminology (Dorothy Seymour Mills,
review of A Peoples History of Baseball, New York Journal of Books, February
23, 2012, http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/peoples-history-baseball).
She has a point. Then again, Nathansons project is different (and more complicated) than his title suggests.
And finally, Nathanson is right that MLB is conservative by nature,
extremely proprietary, and willing to fight to protect its interests, which are
principally financial (212). The same is true of most multi-billion-dollar
industries. But since baseball is more than a gamebecause it is a valued
cultural institution and a text shared by millions of citizens and fans, passed
down from one generation to the nextNathansons desire for us to understand its complex, messy history (rather than just its sanitized mythology)
is salutary, worthy of praise. A thoughtful, substantive exploration of some
aspects of MLBs unsavory past and present, A Peoples History of Baseball is a
welcome alternative to the far more numerous baseball romances published
every spring.
Patrick K. Thornton. Legal Decisions That Shaped Modern Baseball.

Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2012. 240 pp. Paper, $39.95.
Richard C. Crepeau
Over the past two decades there has been a growing interest in the intersection of sport and the law. Websites and journals devoted to the subject have
appeared across the academic landscape, emanating from law schools, history
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departments, and sport studies programs. At the same time it seems as if there
has been an increase in litigation involving sports at many different levels.
Litigation has been a significant element in baseball for well over a century.
Patrick Thornton, a professor of sports management at Rice University, completed this survey of baseball and the law just prior to his death in January
2012. Thornton put together a set of essays on a number of law cases that he
felt had particular importance in baseball history.
His choices were guided by a desire to represent a variety of areas of the
law and a desire to include cases that would be of interest to fans. He begins
with the legal struggle over the Barry Bonds home run ball, which he says
has become a staple for law students studying property law. In terms of time,
the first case he reviews is the 1890 suit in which John Montgomery Ward
challenged the reserve clause. Philadelphia Base-Ball Club, Limited, v. Lajoie is
given a thorough analysis with all its implications for issues of contracts and
the reserve clause.
Thornton devotes several chapters to other cases involving the reserve
clause, including Flood v. Kuhn and the Andy Messersmith/Dave McNally
arbitration ruling, along with the subsequent legal appeals of that decision.
The latter is one of the strongest chapters in the book. Several cases deal with
the powers of the commissioner of baseball, including the John Rocker suspension, the Pete Rose case, and the banning of Steve Howe from baseball. The
Bernice Gera and Pam Postema discrimination cases also receive a full airing.
Other cases of lesser importance but perhaps of some interest are the trial
of the Black Sox and the suits brought by fans who suffered from an injury or
the death of a loved one at the ballpark. Of more contemporary interest are
the suits over the use of players images and baseball statistics by fantasy baseball gamers.
In each of the chapters Thornton summarizes the circumstances leading
to the lawsuits or arbitration cases, examines testimony and rationale for the
suits, and reviews the content and reasoning of the legal decisions. In some of
the chapters he comments on subsequent legal developments.
In my view, baseball historians will find much of the background material
on the cases and those involved to be superficial or relying too heavily on conventional wisdom. Several times Thornton asserts that baseball has a long history of being vigilant in its opposition to gambling, when in fact the historical
record is spotty and contradictory. Within the confines of the Black Sox case
alone, there is repeated evidence that baseball authorities were not vigilant
in opposing gambling across the board, but were willing to use it as a club
against some players but not others. The names of Hal Chase, John McGraw,
and Rogers Hornsby come to mind here.
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When reviewing books of this nature, it is always quite easy to quibble over
what is chosen for inclusion and what is excluded from the book. Certainly
there is a case to be made for the inclusion of the cases Thornton examines.
What is quite remarkable, however, is that neither Federal Baseball Club
of Baltimore v. National League nor Toolson v. New York Yankees is treated in
separate chapters. The Federal Baseball case is central to the understanding of
the antitrust exemption and would seem to be a case that would be featured
in a book titled Legal Decisions That Shaped Modern Baseball. The Toolson
case might be of less importance, but it did move the antitrust issue forward.
Both cases were cited in the Flood decision, and of course, Federal Baseball
was the controlling case for the decision. Thornton does discuss these cases
in the context of the Flood case, but a full treatment prior to dealing with the
Flood case would seem to have been advisable. It is also somewhat surprising
that Danny Gardellas legal battle with baseball is not mentioned in connection with the antitrust issue.
There are times in these chapters that the significance of the cases chosen
is not clear. Greater attention to that issue would be helpful. Cases involving
stadium injuries, the fight over Barry Bondss home run ball, and the batting
championship of 1910 are interesting and entertaining reading, but their significance seems to be slight.
In the end this is a book that should and will find an audience. The larger
baseball public will find many of the cases quite interesting, as indeed they are.
Many of the examinations of the judicial decisions are informative, enlightening, and explained clearly. Thornton compensates for the unevenness of the
book with some strong chapters and sections, and ultimately Legal Decisions
That Shaped Modern Baseball does advance our understanding of this important part of baseball history.
Mathew J. Bartkowiak and Yuya Kiuchi. Packaging Baseball:

How Marketing Embellishes the Cultural Experience. Jefferson NC:
McFarland, 2012. 216 pp. Paper, $39.95.
Roberta Newman
As its title suggests, Packaging Baseball: How Marketing Embellishes the Cultural Experience ostensibly deals with marketing the major-league product
outside the lines, from bobblehead giveaways to wide-scale globalization, in
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relation to the culture of the game. While a vast body of literature has been
published scrutinizing the marketing of baseball, most particularly in publications dedicated to the business of sport, there has been surprisingly little
work done on the cultural meaning of sports marketing, and much of what
has been written tends to focus on the Olympics. Packaging Baseball, therefore, should be a welcome addition to the literature. But overall, this work
misses the mark.
In a previous work entitled More Than Just the Crack of the Bat, published in Rockin RBIs: Popular Music and Baseball (New York: Praeger, 2012),
authors Mathew J. Bartkowiak and Yuya Kiuchi examine walk-on music as
part of the larger sound politics of the ballpark (11). Treating the ballpark
as sacred space, a conceit common to the cultural analysis of baseball, the
authors rely upon theories as varied as Emile Durkheims notion of collective
effervescence and what they identify as Aristotles idea on music and leisure
(17) to undergird their argument that, in some vague manner, walk-on music
functions as marketing. Indeed, in spite of their discussion of use values and
the dubious claim that music interrupts the quiet space of the ballpark, the
authors do little to indicate exactly how player walk-on music works in this
regard. Although Bartkowiak and Kiuchi eventually conclude that individual
teams use specific walk-up songs to brand individual players, their clearest example of this practice is fictionalthe use of Wild Thing in the film
Major League to identify pitcher Ricky Vaughn. When the authors reference
actual players and their musicciting, for example, Prince Fielders preferred
walk-on music, the Theme from Shaftthey do not explore the commercial
impact of player music choice. Nor do they expound upon how different players who choose the same music, albeit on different teams, are differentiated
from one another in the marketplace.
The authors make some interesting points in this chapter regarding the
use of music in ballparks, particularly when not addressing marketing issues.
Packaging Baseball, however, is considerably less successful when dealing with
its stated subject matter. The second chapter, which focuses on the uses of
bobbleheads and other ballpark giveaways as marketing tools, has the potential for cogent analysis. But there is very little here. The authors research is
far from comprehensive. For the most part, they derive their information on
fan responses to giveawaysan important feature of any work purporting to
scrutinize the ways in which marketing adds to the cultural experience of the
gamefrom postings on a variety of websites. While fan postings may serve
as important examples of the impact of giveaways, postings alone provide thin
justification for the authors conclusions. Responses to SI.coms rankings of
ballpark promotions, for example, are certainly entertaining, but they do not
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scholarly research make. A fan who resents his teams practice of only giving
bobbleheads to children because he prefers not to pay 10-year-olds $10 to get
a bobblehead (37) and the like hardly serve as sufficient evidence to support
arguments both on the success and cultural importance of giveaways.
Only in later chapters that deal more specifically with MLBs marketing of
the game on a global level, most particularly in Japan, does Packaging Baseball begin to approach its stated subject. But where the earlier chapters deal
specifically, if not especially effectively, with ideas of cultural embellishment,
the globalization sections pay less attention to the fan experience than to
MLBs commercial interests. Indeed, the impact of marketing on fan culture
takes a backseat to the discussion of the ways in which globalization changes
the culture of professional baseball for the players. While this is certainly an
interesting topic, it is not the stated focus of this workto decode baseball
today, and not just the sport itself, but the experience that constitutes Major
League Baseball today (2). Neither are the presumed anti-American bias
of the International Olympic Committee or the anemic play of the United
States national team in the World Baseball Classic, topics that receive considerable attention here.
Writing about the effect of MLBs commercial interests in Japan, the authors
note, Although relevant industries in Japan, MLBs Japanese office, and the
Japanese professional baseball league try to identify various ways to generate
profit through Japanese baseball players in the U.S., they has [sic] not been
successful erasing the common idea that the trans-Pacific baseball diplomacy
resulted in the loss in Japanese culture and sport (131). As this passage indicates, Packaging Baseball is beset with problems far more serious than its soft
and shifting focus on its stated subject matter. Despite its lack of heft, Packaging Baseball might have been at the very least a good read, had it, in fact,
been well written or well edited. Given the professional background of the
authorsBartkowiak is an associate professor of English at the University of
Wisconsin at Marshfield-Wood County and Kiuchi is an assistant professor
of writing, rhetoric, and American culture at Michigan State Universityit is
rather surprising that Packaging Baseball is so riddled with awkward syntax,
repetition, and lack of clarity. Particularly unfortunate in this regard is the
way in which interviews are presented in this text.
Without a doubt, interviews with MLB officials and others intimately
involved with the marketing of the game have the potential to serve as important tools in support of the authors arguments. And Bartkowiak and Kiuchi
make frequent use of interviews, most notably in the globalization sections.
As such, their interview with Brad Horn, senior director of communications
and education at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, certainly
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has its place in this text. But while the interview appears to have yielded some
interesting information, the way in which it is presented, in the form of an
unedited transcript, makes that information difficult to locate and process.
A full page-and-a-half anecdote detailing Kiuchis unfortunate refusal of an
offer by the Red Sox to become Daisuke Matsuzakas translatoras well as
how Mat was in the same office with me and thats when we started talking
about you know its quite interesting to see how some random things happen with the globalization of Major League Baseballprecedes any statement by Horn other than, Oh, okay (97). Although explaining the genesis of
the project to an interviewee may be a good way to commence an interview,
it is not germane to this portion of the text, especially when presented in this
manner.
Although Packaging Baseball attempts to take on a subject much in need
of studya subject which led its authors to say, Okay, lets write an academic book on this, so we could talk about things that many people, typical
baseball fans, were not really talking about (97)this work fails. This is particularly unfortunate, as its failure leaves a gap in the literature which it ought
to have filled.
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Rob Fleder. Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the

Worlds Most Loved (and Hated) Team. New York: Ecco, 2012. 304 pp.
Cloth, $27.99.
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Rob Fleder invited twenty-four writers to contribute their feelings about the
Yankees without devolving into the never-ending bar-stool chatter that sustains baseball fans, focusing instead on the idea of the Yankees (2). As a
result, Fleder brings together the memories and remembrances of many notable contemporary authors (many of whom are familiar names from The New
Yorker and Sports Illustrated), including Jane Leavy, Colum McCann, Pete
Dexter, and Roy Blount, Jr. While many of the stories are overwhelmingly
friendly to the home team, Fleder has compiled a selection that ranges from
the introspective to the genuinely funny, from the historical to the sentimental. The result: a collection that simultaneously seeks to dismantle essentialist
conceptions of the Yankees, while casually reifying many of the stereotypes,
tales, and glories of Yankee lore and fandom. Accessible, funny, and delight-
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fully self-aware, Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the

Worlds Most Loved (and Hated) Team appeals to baseball fans of all stripes,
not just the bleacher creatures.
The contributors to this volume were asked to reflect on the Yankees conceptually, allowing for visceral and, at times, honest and funny reflections on
the game of baseball as a whole. Invariably, the trope of baseball as a representation of America weaves itself into the stories, but not always sentimentally. Reading this collection, two things become clear: it is almost impossible
to talk about the Yankees without eliciting an impassioned response to The
Boss, George Steinbrenner, and it is equally unimaginable to talk about the
Yankees without talking about the city they call home. New York establishes
the binary language upon which fandom relies: it is always about us and them.
Steinbrenner, too, represents a challenge to the cognitive dissonance of the
average Yankee fan: he is us, but throughout this collection he is unequivocally them. Enshrined in perpetuity in the House That He Built, the legacy of
the brigand shipbuilder from Cleveland (51) hangs tenuously between the
memories of those of us who survived him and the annals of Yankee lore yet
unwritten. Steinbrenners presence in all but a handful of the narratives collected here should, then, come as no surprise.
While the repeated references to Steinbrenner offer a glimpse into the id
of the modern Yankee fan, the strength of this collection lies in the independence given to the contributors. Jane Leavy opens her contribution, Sully and
the Mick, with an anecdote about how she listed Frank Sullivan as dead in
her Mickey Mantle biography. Mickey murdered the ball, sure, Leavy writes,
but I killed Frank (132). Dan Barry reminds the reader that there was a time
when being a Yankee fan meant developing a keen sense of humility, as they
fac[ed] two opponents every time they stepped onto the field: the American
League team of the moment and the Yankees team of the past (210). Humor
and healing go hand-in-hand, the past ever present, and each author in this
collection navigates the past with an astute awareness of the present.
While it is, perhaps, unfair to single out any one of these entries, Will
Leitchs An Innocent Abroad captures with nearly perfect candor the message behind this collection. Leitch, like many other New Yorkers, is a transplant, and his experience of leaving home and moving to New York is
recounted humorously through the sights and sounds of the bleachers of the
Cathedral in the Bronx. With Mark Twains shadow looming throughout,
Leitch writes of the communal comedic concertos (127) with the erudite ear
of a fan. Ultimately, Leitch reminds the reader of the real reason New York
flourishes: the blue collar community that calls New York City home and that
doesnt easily fit the narrative of the vibrant city of wealth. Ultimately, there
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are reasons to laugh with, and at, the absurdity of grown men with painted
stomachs. Somewhere along the line, the Yankees became synonymous with
Steinbrenner, with the hyperreality of excess, with the money and power and
win-at-all-costs attitude, rather than with the people who fill the cheap seats.
Leitch reminds the reader that it isnt that simple.
Rob Fleder brings his years of editorial experience with Sports Illustrated
to bear in Damn Yankees as he weaves the varied submissions into a narrative that evokes the entire emotional spectrum. The humorous tone is often
supplanted by the sonorous facts of life: the passing of legends, the fears of
uncertain times, the mistakes that yield friendships. There will always be new
ways for people to find fault with the Yankees or with the inequitable system
that has, at times, seemed to favor the large-market teams. There will always
be something to be said about a city, a team, or a player with which people
will take issue. Ultimately, this is where Fleders collection is most successful. Worthwhile reading for any fan, Damn Yankees succeeds in finding the
ground between a celebration and a critique, all the while making accessible
the bright lights, the big city, and the stories behind the pinstripes.
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Charlie Bevis. Jimmy Collins: A Baseball Biography. Jefferson NC:

by
Ron Kates
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In the wake of Ron Santos passing, Bill James offered a spirited endorsement
for the Cubs third basemans inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Among
other arguments, James posited that Santos offensive and defensive statistics outshone a number of already-inducted third basemen, specifically, and
ballplayers in general. James and other baseball writers often single out turnof-the-century star Jimmy Collins as a prime example of a playera third
baseman to bootwhose reputation outshone his actual accomplishments,
leading critics to emphasize Santos merit in competition. In his biography
of Collins, Charlie Bevis documents not just Collinss playing career, but also
his business acumen, devoting a good portion of the book to discussing how
Collins negotiated contracts to his favor, then invested heavily in real estate
throughout his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Despite some redundancy in
emphasizing Collinss success off the field, Bevis presents a certain divergence
from the typical trajectory of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
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star player: rises out of obscurity/poverty, overcomes early struggles, becomes

a regular or a star, then (often) has an inability to integrate into life outside of
baseball once his playing career is finally done.
As Bevis notes, James named Collins as the third baseman on his AllWhy-Did-They-Elect-Him Team in The Politics of Glory (1994). Bevis concurs in his conclusion that while every third baseman that the BBWAA elected
to the Hall of Fame since Collinss enshrinement in Cooperstown in 1945 is
a legitimate choice as a better third baseman than Collins, he was the best
third baseman for the entire Deadball Era and even the entire first century
of professional baseball (219). Earlier in the text, however, Bevis recounts
the circumstances surrounding Collinss first professional appearance at the
hot corner, a legend . . . [that] like so many ball legends, grew over time
to eventually bear only a partial resemblance to the 1895 facts (33). Having been loaned by his Boston club to the last-place Louisville team, right
fielder Collins assumed the hot corner following third baseman Walt Prestons four errors in five innings. The opponents, the mighty Baltimore Orioles, in the midst of a championship three-peat, purportedly laid down four
bunts aimed at Collins, only to see Collins throw out all four bunters, including Hall of Famers Willie Keeler and John McGraw. Never mind that the
games box score shows only one assist for Collins or that he didnt play third
base again for another two weeks (34), the legend began, as Bevis notes, to
bend from fact into fiction (69). Another Oriole Hall of Famer, shortstop
Hughie Jennings, recollected in a 1926 interview that the Orioles kept their
promise to Collins that they would not pull any balls down the third base
line and that [they] would not bunt on him, and that Collinss mythic fielding demonstration occurred several weeks later in Louisville when three men
bunted in succession, and Collins threw out each man (35). The legend persevered beyond Collinss respectable career to the point where Collins name
regularly surfaced as the third baseman picked for the various all-time teams
selected by famous ballplayers and sportswriters, including Ty Cobb, Connie Mack, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, and Grantland Rice (204). In exploring
the role adulterated facts play in establishing Collinss reputation as a stellar
fielder and all-around player, Bevis offers a vision of how such reputationbuilding trumped statistics when Deadball era players were considered for
Cooperstown enshrinement. Indeed, several other late nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century Hall of Famers make Jamess list based largely on reputation, most specifically Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance, all lionized in Franklin Pierce Adamss poem Baseballs Sad Lexicon.
Bevis also devotes a significant portion of his narrative to Collinss role in
working with American League president Ban Johnson to establish the leagues
Boston entry, now known as the Red Sox, offering a window to the machina-
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tions that resulted in baseball becoming a bi-league sport. Despite leading the
Red Sox to victory in the inaugural World Series in 1903 and to a pennant the
following year, Collinss fame diminished in Boston shortly after taking control of the franchise. Indeed, Bevis notes, over a two-year span, Collins plummeted from revered hero who led a veteran team to a second consecutive pennant to a reviled bum who deserted an aging last-place team (152). Following
the inglorious end of his Boston tenure, Collins then joined Connie Macks As
for one and a half seasons followed by three mediocre minor-league seasons.
By the time the Red Sox reascended as a baseball powerhouse in the 1910s,
the 1903 World Series title was a distant memory, and Jimmy Collins was just
another old ballplayer (192).
Having emphasized Collinss business and real estate acumen in the chapters covering his playing career, Bevis devotes two chapters to detailing the
players post-baseball life, including the loss of his real estate investments in
the 1929 stock market crash, an event that resulted in his eventually having to
move in with his daughter and her family, and Collinss role as evangelist for
municipal ball in Buffalo (205). Following a chapter covering the successful
campaign by a Buffalo newspaperman to induct Collins into the Hall of Fame,
Bevis concludes by considering Collinss legacy to Baseball (213). Rather
than ending with a statistical defense of Collins as a Hall of Famer, Bevis links
Collinss entrepreneurship and operational fortitude to the building of
Fenway Park as well as the enduring success of the Red Sox franchise, declaring that Jimmy Collins truly is the patron saint of Red Sox Nation (22021).
Much the same argumentthat of the player as spirit or patron saint
of a ball clubappeared in contemporary support of Santos Hall of Fame
bid, leading one to wonder whether Jimmy Collins would have operated
differentlyand perhaps even more successfullyin baseballs mediasaturated twenty-first century. That Beviss book leads a reader to ponder such
associations indicates the quality of its research and argument.
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L. M. Sutter. Arlie Latham: A Baseball Biography of the Freshest Man on

Earth. Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2012. 280 pp. Paper, $29.95.
Charlie Bevis
L. M. Sutters exploration of the life of nineteenth-century baseball player
Arlie Latham is not your stereotypical baseball biography that is peppered
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with scores and play-by-play details of games long forgotten. Rather, this
biography is a refreshing look at the personality, escapades, and foibles of a
man who happened to play baseball for a living.
Lathams 1,629-game major-league career spanned two decades, from 1880
to 1899 (supplemented by four appearances in 1909). His public persona
extended five more decades through the first half of the twentieth century,
culminating in a celebrated 1951 photograph of fourteen ballplayers snapped
at Toots Shors restaurant in New York City. In the photo, the ninety-oneyear-old Latham was conspicuously out of place among the thirteen Hall of
Fame players, with his leg jokingly kicked up in the air like a Rockettes and
a smirk on his face as if he had just launched into a ribald song (9).
After apprenticing with several professional teams in his native New England, Latham made his major-league debut with Buffalo of the National
League in 1880, where he took his first steps toward being baseballs neediest
clown, a man who would spend his life in hot pursuit of a crowds adulation
(21). After a few more stops among the eras many independent professional
teams, Latham returned to the major leagues in 1883, where he launched his
journeyman career as a third baseman for seven seasons with the St. Louis
Browns of the American Association. As Sutter recounts in detail, Latham not
only had his ups and downs in baseball by both entertaining and battling with
team owners, opponents, and teammates, but he also had a colorful life off the
baseball field, where he was an inveterate gambler, spendthrift, womanizer,
and alleged wife beater.
Latham was best known for his clowning antics on the coaching lines,
where he used his acerbic tongue to pester both the opposition and the umpire
to gain an edge for the Browns, who finished in first place for four consecutive years (18851888), partly as a consequence of Lathams badgering. While
it was his vocal coaching style that thrust him into the limelight of baseball,
Latham also literally spoke under the stage lights for several winters in the
baseball off-season (33). In 1888, he first appeared on stage in the vaudeville
production Fashions, where he sang the song The Freshest Man on Earth
(also his on-field nickname, hence the subtitle of the book). Sutters writing
about the intersection of baseball and theater is one of the strongest portions
of this biography.
After retiring from baseball after playing several years for Cincinnati in the
1890s, Latham became an umpire and then a coach for John McGraws New
York Giants. Unfortunately, his tongue, as it was wont to do, began to get the
best of him, so McGraw had to let him go (203). During World War I, Latham
served as a baseball ambassador in England, where, with his tongue finally
more under control, he diplomatically chatted in public with King George V.
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In the books preface, Sutter notes that she tried to paint a picture of the
cities and decades in which Arlie lived (1). As she did in her two earlier
books, Ball, Bat and Bitumen: A History of Coalfield Baseball in the Appalachian South and New Mexico Baseball: Miners, Outlaws, Indians and Isotopes,
1880 to the Present, Sutter provides plenty of social context for the reader to
place Lathams inimitable gall, brazen cheek and ready wit (71). For example, it was no wonder that Latham went adrift with his bad habits in St. Louis,
as Sutter depicts a wanton city where the list of saloons was endless, and
there were so many brothels that the city was compelled to legalize prostitution so as to regulate it (2627).
This is a well-researched biography, as Sutter mined the digital archives
of the Sporting News and Sporting Life baseball publications as well as other
newspapers to ferret out details of Lathams non-baseball life, providing not
only evidence but zest to her examination of the mans personality. Sutter,
though, periodically lapses into having the research tell the story through the
extensive use of block quotations that can overwhelm the reader.
By not focusing only on Lathams positive persona as the biggest entertainer in baseball, Sutter avoids descent into a hagiographical account of his
life (211). Instead, Sutter provides a balanced look at both the good and bad
aspects of the man who was beloved one minute, a goat the next (198). However, she writes in the preface that it is not my job to decide for the reader
whether he was ultimately a good man or a bad one (23). Readers may be
disappointed that Sutter is not more demonstrative in siding one way or the
other on an overall evaluation of Lathams life. Readers benefit from biographers who see their role as interpreting the research evidence in a quest for
truth, which in his seminal work How to Do Biography: A Primer biographer
Nigel Hamilton calls the wellspring of the biographical endeavor (111). Even
the writer of a Rogerian argument, which is predisposed to a balanced look at
both sides of an issue, eventually reaches a common ground and develops a
proposed outlook that inevitably leans to one side or the other.
On the whole, Sutter makes a valuable contribution to baseball biography
with this exploration of Latham. In a subgenre dominated by biographical
subjects who are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Sutters work demonstrates that biographies of baseballs lesser-known but eminently intriguing
characters can add much to our understanding of how the sport has affected
American culture.
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Book Reviews
Daniel R. Levitt. The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal
League Challenge and Its Legacy. Lanham MD: Ivan R. Dee, 2012. 314 pp.
Cloth, $39.95.
Steve Treder
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To the extent that its known at all to most modern baseball fans, the Federal League tends to be known merely as a footnote, a peculiar triviality. The
league played ball for just three seasons, and in only two of those (1914 and
1915) did it endeavor to, in Daniel R. Levitts word, challenge the Americans and Nationals to be taken seriously as a third major league. And in that
endeavor, of course, the Federals failed.
Failure isnt something that tends to be celebrated by historians; as the
old saying goes, History is written by the winners. And the winners in this
case, the American and National leagues, quite definitely went on to forge
their own historical narrative in which the Federal League was, if not forgotten, then relegated to the background. Why should anyone care about these
obscure losers?
Levitts book goes against that normative grain and takes the Federal
League episode seriously. We discover that, yes, the Federal League failed to
take root, but its brief and desperate struggle is not only quite a story in its
own rightamong the decades-before-their-time innovations that the Federals either seriously considered or actually implemented were the designated
hitter and night baseball, and a Federal League franchise built the edifice we
know today as Chicagos Wrigley Fieldbut the legacy of the Federal Leagues
challenge of the operational structure of organized baseball is immense.
Levitts previous book was his 2008 biography of Ed Barrow, a landmark
achievement that vividly demonstrated the authors bona fides as a business
of baseball expert. No other historian of the sport surpasses Levitts skill at
grasping a bewildering tangle of financial and legal strands, and weaving them
into a coherent and instructive narrative fabric. While the scale of this effort
is less sweeping than the multi-decade Barrow epic, The Battle that Forged
Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy shares the same
capacity to tell an inherently complicated story in a direct and understandable
manner without dumbing it down. Levitt makes this look far easier than it is.
One way he succeeds is by spiking the bland punch of balance-sheet and
court-briefing facts and figures with a healthy shot of personalities and anecdotes. Indeed, for all the historical heavy lifting going on, for this reader the
most enjoyable aspects of The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball are the
digressions that hydrate the dry details of the business battle.
For example, in early March 1914, an aggregation of star players was
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returning to New York from a world barnstorming tour (on board, interestingly enough, the R.M.S. Lusitania). Levitt devotes several pages to the
tale of how Federal League and Organized Baseball owners feverishly competed to be the first to grab the attention of the ballplayers at the moment of
arrival. The hilariously complicated efforts included elaborate plans, crosses,
and double crosses, involving a customs ship meeting with the liner before it
docked, East Side gunmen, and agents secretly passing notes to players coming down the gangplank. The derring-do is almost cinematic.
Another rollicking yarn revolves around the Federal Leagues scheme to
spirit star first baseman Hal Chase away from the Chicago White Sox in June
1914. The Feds signed Chase on a Sunday, so that, with the courts closed, the
White Sox could not secure an injunction. Chase was then whisked away
from Chicago before Monday morning, and a party led by White Sox owner
Charles Comiskey boarded a train in hot pursuit. The effort to get Chase
into a Federal League game in Buffalo before he could be served with papers
required private detectives to hide him in Canada and then on an island in the
Niagara River. Then, Chase was sped via motorboat to US mainland soil and
disguised in feminine clothes while being snuck into the Buffalo ballparks
toolshed, where he finally suited up and triumphantly appeared on the field in
mid-game. The highly entertained reader cant help but speculate about which
Hollywood hunk would get the role of Chase.
In broad spans between the adventurous sidebars, Levitt proceeds with his
primary thrust. Necessarily, that thrust mostly resides in meeting minutes and
trial transcripts, and despite Levitts best effort, there are points at which this
reader found his eyes glazing over at the recitations of dollar amounts and
legal precedents. To be sure, The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball is not for
the casual fan or the reader seeking only batting averages and no business valuations. This is a work of serious historical scholarship, and it may well be the
case that it succeeds more strongly as an economic, legal, and social history
than a baseball story per se.
But succeed in that hardheaded realm it surely does. Illuminating how the
Federal League confrontation came to be and how its uneasy culmination had
multiple and lasting effects, Levitts ultimate achievement is to place his particular characters, events, and details within resounding historical perspective, answering that nagging Why should we care? question in a number of
insightful ways.
Were smoothly guided to the central point: the multilateral disputes
sparked by the Federal League led directly to the monumental 1922 United
States Supreme Court ruling that upheld professional baseballs claim of
exemption from federal antitrust law, and therefore allowed continued appli-
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cation of the infamous reserve clause in player contracts. Thus, the Federal
League challenge stands as the final and pivotal event in the developmental phase of professional baseball history, the vital step to establishing a
profoundly stable structural form. That form, in turn, served as the essential model followed by all other major professional team sports in the United
States, and it remained firmly in place until the arrival of a genuinely forceful
players union in the 1970s.
At the books conclusion, when considering how things might plausibly
have turned out differently, Levitt puts the exhaustive details and diverting
anecdotes into perspective and pulls his many-layered construction together.
The case presented is highly persuasive that the Federal League challenge,
though largely forgotten, was indeed not only a lively chapter in baseballs history, but one with deep and lasting importance. For the serious student of the
development of the organizational framework of baseball as a business, Levitts work should be required reading.
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Mitchell Conrad Stinson. Deacon Bill McKechnie: A Baseball Biography.

Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2012. 238 pp. Paper, $29.95.
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Mitchell Conrad Stinsons second book with McFarland, Deacon Bill McKechnie: A Baseball Biography, is a full-length biography of a man who spent
nearly fifty years in professional baseball as a player, manager, and coach. Best
known for his managerial success and kindly way, Bill McKechnie piloted five
clubs in three major leagues, winning four pennants with three of them. The
Hall of Famer and two-time World Series winner was the first manager to
take three franchises to the Fall Classic. Despite occasional and brief tangents,
Stinsons informative profile is a foundational resource for understanding
McKechnies baseball career.
An award-winning sportswriter in Evansville, Indiana, Stinson has followed up his 2010 profile of Edd Roush with a book that is what the subtitle
suggests: a baseball biography. While interviews with and records from McKechnies only living child enhance Stinsons brief recounting of family history
and add insight to the Deacons early years and life off the field, the bulk of the
text focuses on McKechnies life between the chalk lines and in the dugout.
This new biography shows McKechnie in his best light: a sagacious manager
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with uncanny abilities to get the most out of his pitchers and to have solid
defensive teams.
William Boyd McKechnie, son of Scottish immigrants, was born in 1886
in Wilkinsburg, outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He embraced baseball at a
young age, starting his professional career in 1905 with an independent team
north of Pittsburgh. For fifteen of the next sixteen years, McKechnie played
major- and minor-league baseball with eleven franchises. His managerial
career included six major- and minor-league teams in twenty-six seasons,
including one year as a player/manager. Include his eight seasons as a coach
with four major-league teams, and McKechnie worked with sixteen different
franchises during his forty-six years in organized baseball.
As a player, he was a versatile, switch-hitting infielder with a good glove
and a weak bat. McKechnie bounced between teams for much of his career,
and perhaps these peregrinations taught him insights about ballplayers thinking that later improved his managerial skills. He also learned finer points of
the game from men like Honus Wagner, a fellow Pirate infielder, friend, and
mentor. Ultimately, as Stinson says, McKechnie proved ordinary as a player,
and that part of his life ended about the time Babe Ruth gave up pitching for
swinging lumber. As a manager he was sublimeone of the greatest ever (4).
He is most often remembered as the Cincinnati Reds manager from 1938
to 1946, where he won the 1939 National League pennant and the 1940 World
Series. It was his final managerial stop after piloting National League (NL)
teams in Boston, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh as well as an earlier stint with Newark of the Federal League. His only place without an overall winning record
was woeful Boston, and even there he exceeded most peoples expectations.
Further, he won the 1925 World Series with Pittsburgh, and he won NL pennants with St. Louis in 1928 and Cincinnati in 1939.
When considering McKechnies career, what stands out is its sheer breadth.
He entered the game when stars included Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson,
and Joe Tinker. He strategized against managers like Leo Durocher, John
McGraw, and Wilbert Robinson. And when he retired, the big-name players
included Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, and Jackie Robinson. In the intervening decades, McKechnie had accompanied the games evolution from dead
ball to lively ball, through baseball wars and world wars, and from segregation
to integration.
In retelling McKechnies life, Stinson uses typical sources like team histories, baseball biographies and autobiographies, and materials at the National
Baseball Hall of Fame. Contemporary sources include national and local
newspapers, and his most unique information comes from his efforts to interview those who remembered McKechnie. That groups MVP is Carol McKech-
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nie Montgomery, who published her memoir, The Deacons Daughter, in 2011.
Beyond sharing her book with Stinson, she adds information that paints a
fuller portrait of Bill McKechnie.
A good example of Stinsons efforts to show McKechnies personal side is
his use of an interaction between Beryl BienMcKechnies future wifeand
the Deacon: The first time Beryl Bien spoke to him, he got so flustered that
he swallowed his chewing tobacco (3940). Knowing that McKechnie was so
rattled in such an exchange personalizes him with readers.
Further, Stinson effectively describes games and seasons in an understandable manner that maintains the readers interest, occasionally adding nuggets
of detail that enrich the final product. When he describes spring training in
1946, he includes the flattering experience of fourteen-year-old Carol being
on the beach when one Reds prospect asked her to the movies. In response,
Deacon Bill issued a wide-ranging edict: His daughter could NOT date ball
playersever (193).
Stinsons writing is sometimes limited when connecting McKechnie and
baseball to contemporary national and world events. Although the effort is
understandable, at times it feels forced and unnatural, like when he mentions
the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds after the 1938 season (17071).
Another story that Stinson relatesthat of the aged McKechnie handling
an attempted home robberyis too foreboding. Using phrases like Deacon
Bill was shown no mercy (6) and If only McKechnie had just handed over
his valuables (211), Stinson leads the reader to assume the worst. As it turns
out, McKechnie effectively defended himself with no mentioned injuries, even
returning with a shotgun to an empty room because the two robbers had fled.
Nonetheless, with his biography of Deacon Bill McKechnie, Stinson has
attempted to repeat his efforts with Edd Roush: to pull from baseball obscurity a giant of the past and make him relevant today. It appears that Stinson
has been successful, reminding readers that occasionally good guys actually
finish first. As Reds pitcher Paul Derringer memorialized, In a sentence Id
say he was the greatest manager I ever played for, the greatest manager I ever
played against, and the greatest man I ever knew (212).
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John Rosengren. Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes. New York:

New American Library, 2013. 400 pp. Cloth, $26.95.
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To paraphrase a popular movie title, theres something about Hank. My father,

who cared little about baseball, knew very few Jewish people. Yet when he
talked about baseball, he mentioned Hank Greenberg as a great playernot
Babe Ruth, but Hank Greenberg. While John Rosengrens new biography
on Hank Greenberg is comprehensive and lengthy, it provides a pleasurable
reading experience. Better yet, despite the hyperbolic subtitle (The Hero of
Heroes), Rosengren presents a well-rounded portrait of Greenberg the man.
Rosengren reveals that Greenberg was not Roy Hobbs, a natural player.
He was big, ungainly, and lacked self-confidence. One of his key attributes,
though, was his determination. Again and again, Greenberg felt the need to
prove himself and did so by outworking many of his peers.
Of course, a key element in the Greenberg story is his Jewishness. Even
eight decades later, a players ethnicity or race can be an identifying mark
(Witness 2012s Lin-sanity with Chinese American basketball player Jeremy
Lin). As with many children of immigrants, the young Greenberg struggled
to reconcile his life in America with his parents cultural mores. As in the Lou
Gehrig story, Greenbergs parents did not initially understand or approve of
his love of baseball, but they grew to appreciate the fame and respect their son
earned from his ball-playing prowess.
Greenbergs debut during the 1930s came at a dramatic moment for Jewish people. With virulent anti-Semitism erupting in Germany and spreading
across Europe and even America, Greenberg, similar to Joe Louis and, later,
Jackie Robinson, could not simply be a baseball player. He became a symbol,
which is a particularly difficult burden for any person to carry. If he failed
or reacted in an unseemly way, some people would ascribe his behavior to
all Jewish people. Even when sportswriters praised Greenberg, they resorted
to stereotypes. For example, Dan Parker writes, But none of these attributes
is half as important to Hanks baseball career as the good old Jewish qualities of thoroughness and perseverance (161). Rosengren believes Greenberg
changed the way Jews thought about themselves (162). Since he cherished
his privacy, this burden was an exceptionally onerous one; fortunately, as with
Jackie Robinson, he handled it largely with grace and aplomb.
The book opens with Greenberg pondering whether to play on Rosh
Hashanah during the 1934 season. The Tigers were hanging on against the
Yankees, so the game was a critical one. He had promised his parents he would
not play, but his teammates and the Detroit fans needed and wanted him to
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play. He played and performed wonderfully, increasing his popularity with the
fans. Sad to say, the Detroit fans and management proved remarkably fickle
throughout his career (shades of that other hero, Ted Williams). Greenbergs
decision mirrored that of Sandy Koufax in the 1960s. Unfortunately, Rosengren calls Greenberg the greatest Jewish player, but a similar claim could be
made for Koufax. Theres no point in anointing one or the other.
What-if questions swirl around Greenberg. After the Tigers captured
consecutive pennants in 1934 and 1935, the team appeared primed to rebuff
a resurgent New York Yankees club in 1936. Greenberg broke his wrist early
in the 1936 season, and player-manager Mickey Cochrane was badly beaned.
The balance of power shifted to the Yankees, who won the 193639 pennants
by blowouts. Would the Tigers have been able to capture a third consecutive
pennant had Greenberg and Cochrane been healthy? Greenberg lost many
of his prime playing years to military service. Would he have ended up with
more than five hundred home runs had he not lost those years, or would injuries have sidelined him? How much money would he have earned in more
recent years? As a sign of the era, Greenberg had to fight to get a five thousand dollar raise after driving in 170 runs in 1935 (only his third season in the
major leagues). He had an easier time getting a five thousand dollar raise after
hitting 58 home runs in 1938 (179). Similar to Joe DiMaggio, Greenberg had
a keen sense of his value to the team, so he fought hard for pay raises. In the
midst of the Depression, his concern over money irritated many fans.
As World War II ended, Greenberg returned from military service in time
to help the Tigers win the 1945 pennant. Greenberg played in his fourth World
Series. The three times he was healthy during the World Series, he hit over
.300 in each, along with at least one home run. While he was disappointed
with his 1934 showing, failing in some key situations, he certainly had an enviable postseason record.
After he stopped playing, Greenberg became a front-office mainstay of the
Cleveland Indians. As general manager, he developed a reputation for being
a tough, even ruthless, negotiator. Aside from the teams triumph in 1954,
Greenbergs efforts were sufficient to maintain the Indians as perennial runners-up to the New York Yankees.
While Rosengren describes how Greenberg was capable of extraordinary
feats of grace, such as encouraging Jackie Robinson at a crucial moment, he
also relates incidents of pettiness, such as mistreating Al Rosen. Because he
was a symbol of both hope and hatred, Greenberg had to deal with annoying
and ugly distractions. He could erupt in bad temper. That he did not always
respond with grace and dignity does not diminish him, because as Rosengren
documents, the ledger was heavily balanced in favor of grace.
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Rosengrens biography is likely to remain the definitive biography of Hank

Greenberg, especially since the eyewitnesses to Greenbergs life are fading.
Greenberg is fortunate to have Rosengren for a biographer.
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Robert C. Cottrell. Two Pioneers: How Hank Greenberg and

Jackie Robinson Transformed Baseballand America.
Washington DC: Potomac Books, 2012. 270 pp. Cloth, $27.50.
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Every contemporary grade-schooler should know that Jackie Robinson was

the first African American to play in the major leagues in the twentieth century. Thats a fact of history, and it transcends balls, strikes, and on-field
exploits. Hank Greenberg, on the other hand, may not have been the first of
his faith to make the majors, but he was the initial bona fide Jewish baseball
superstar and surefire Hall of Famer. When Robinson came to the Brooklyn
Dodgers in 1947, Greenbergs career was on the wane; that year was the last of
his thirteen big-league seasons. Yet both are linked in that, during their time
in the limelight, they frequently (and often painfully) confronted the pervasive racism and anti-Semitism that were embedded in the American fabric.
Their life storieswith an emphasis on how, in their time, both men were
set apart from the mainstream of professional baseballare simply and effectively recounted in Robert C. Cottrells Two Pioneers: How Hank Greenberg
and Jackie Robinson Transformed Baseballand America.
Because the struggles of Greenberg and Robinson are well-documented
elsewhere, the baseball fan with a grasp of the sports history will already
have insight into their lives as presented by Cottrell. The author also need not
remind such fans of the rudimentary facts of baseballs past; even casual followers of the sport will know that the 1941 season was highlighted by Ted Williamss .406 batting average and Joe DiMaggios fifty-six-game hitting streak.
But the reportage contained in Two Pioneers, which consists primarily of profiles of both ballplayers, offers a first-rate introduction to younger readers.
Additionally, Cottrell puts forth some facts and insights that are well worth
pondering, and that just may expand the awareness of those already in the
know. For instance, he observes that, under different circumstances, Robinson easily might have played professional football or basketballand thus,
baseball history would have been inexorably altered. Greenberg, who was
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reared in the Bronx, was scouted by the hometown New York Yankees but
chose not to sign because he simply did not believe he could displace Gehrig at first base (27). The presence of Jewish gamblers who were connected
to the 1919 Black Sox scandal ignited anti-Semitic feelings in certain quarters,
playing into the stereotype of the Jew as a brainy, manipulative cheater. Some
of Cottrells reportage transcends sports. He notes that, during the Civil War,
General Ulysses S. Grant issued a directive, General Order #11, expelling
Jews from his military district, blaming them for pervasive smuggling and
speculation that caused a spike in cotton prices (20). Over and over, Cottrell
stresses that, during the 1930s and 1940s, anti-Semitism did not just contaminate Nazi Germany; in his time, Greenberg encountered narrow-minded fans
and bigoted fellow ballplayers without leaving the shores of his native country.
He was viewed not just as a great slugger but as a great Jewish sluggerjust as
Robinson was labeled a multitalented Negro ballplayer.
While generally well researched, Two Pioneers is not flawless. Cottrell
reports that the celebrated incident in which Kentuckian Pee Wee Reese placed
his arm around Robinson in a show of public support took place in a game pitting the Dodgers against the Boston Braves. However, its exact time and location, not to mention the Dodgers opponents, has never been determined; various individuals have offered different recollections of the incident. In a chapter
covering the events of 1947, Cottrell describes Lena Horne as the young singer
and Brooklyn resident (192), yet by that time Horne had long left the borough
of her birth and was established in Hollywood as an MGM contract player. He
notes that the 1947 film Crossfire spotlights the murder of a Jewish war hero
(195); however, the victim is no Audie Murphy but rather a World War II veteran who was discharged because of wounds sustained at Okinawa. Cottrell
cites the title of another 1947 release that deals with anti-Semitism as Gentlemens Agreement, rather than Gentlemans Agreement (195). Too often, it has
been my experience that historians who thoroughly explore the area of their
expertise misstate the simplest facts when dealing with other topics.
Despite these imperfections, Two Pioneers serves as an all-purpose history
lesson for both the seasoned and the novice baseball buffnot to mention
those with no interest whatsoever in the sport. Cottrell offers a thoughtful
portrayal of Greenberg and Robinson as proud men who loathed the racial
and religious prejudice directed their way. He also emphasizes that the link
between them was a public one. From firsthand experience, each understood
the abuse that the other was subjected to as well as its impact on the human
psyche. During the 1947 season, Robinson and Greenberg collided at first base
on a play in Pittsburgh. Cottrell notes that the encounter resulted in a mutual
display of respect rather than the abuse and slurs that each frequently suffered
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from other players and fans (xiii). Robinson eventually admitted that Greenberg offered the first real words of encouragement I received from a player
on an opposing team, while Greenberg observed that he identified with
Jackie Robinson... because they had threatened me the same way (xiii).
When one reads these quotes, one is reminded of the antagonism that has
often characterized African AmericanJewish relations across the decades.
In this regard, Two Pioneers is a sobering testament to the fact that African
Americans and Jews have more in common than individual members of both
groups are often willing to admit.
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Lyle Spatz, ed. The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America:
The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.
380 pp. Paper, $26.95.
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This lovely volume is an entry in SABRs series Memorable Teams in Baseball History. Here are 380 double-column pages devoted to the 1947 Brooklyn
Dodgers of Jackie Robinsons rookie year, a multifaceted, multiauthor effort
edited by Lyle Spatz.
Of course, other books deal with Robinson and the 1947 Dodgers: Red
Barbers 1947, When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball (1982) provides a passionate and personal perspective from the Dodgers longtime play-by-play
announcer; Jonathan Eigs Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinsons First
Season (2007) affords an updated introduction to one of baseballs most exciting seasons and a pivotal chapter in the evolution of civil rights in postwar
America; and Jules Tygiels classic, Baseballs Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (1983), provides an even deeper and broader treatment of
this topic.
However, The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The
1947 Brooklyn Dodgers is unique: three intertwined threads combine timeline capsule summaries of the Dodgers 1947 games; multipage, fully sourced
biographies of the players, coaches, managers, and owners; and freestanding
essays devoted to various aspects of the season. This nonlinear, interspersed
structure allows the book to be opened anywhere and browsed for pleasure
and instruction, and a detailed table of contents is available for those who
desire a more deliberate or selective approach.
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To briefly unpack the tripartite structure of The Team, consider first the
1947 season. The Dodgers had finished the 1946 pennant race in a dead heat
with St. Louis, but lost the ensuing playoff. The addition of Robinson in 1947
might lead to victory, but only if the racial tensions within the clubhouse and
those emanating from opposition dugouts could be contained. Adding to the
combustible situation, Dodgers manager Leo Durocher was abruptly suspended for the season by Commissioner Chandler as a result of the accumulation of unpleasant incidents detrimental to baseball. Branch Rickey
installed Burt Shotton as Durochers replacement. Although Shotton was an
experienced minor-league and major-league skipper, he was, in Red Barbers
words, handed by Rickey and the fates the most upset, torn-apart ball club
in history. The coming of Jackie Robinson brought a seething turbulence that
was waiting to explode.
Following the timeline game summaries in The Team, we see how Shotton melded his disparate cast of players into a championship club. The heart
of the season was July 2131, when the Dodgers fashioned a thirteen-game
winning streak, including doubleheader victories against the Reds and Pirates
and a three-game sweep of St. Louis, increasing their lead over the Cardinals
from two and one-half to ten games. The key contributors included Dixie
Walker, Bruce Edwards, Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Carl Furillo, Pete
Reiser, Eddie Stanky, and Gene Hermanski among the hitters and Joe Hatten,
Ralph Branca, Vic Lombardi, and Hugh Casey among the pitchers. Although
there would be ups and downs for the remainder of the season, the Dodgers coalesced under Shottons direction: rookies and veterans, southerners and
Robinson, journeyman pitchers and Hugh Casey, the nonpareil reliever, all
became one team. As Barber put it, I have known two actual magicians
Blackstone and Shotton. Blackstone was on the stage. Shotton, with what
passed for a pitching staff in 1947, was in the Brooklyn dugout.
The Teams fifty-three biographies, each accompanied by a photograph,
comprise the largest portion of the book. Here are stars like Dixie Walker,
Pete Reiser, Pee Wee Reese, and Hugh Casey; soon-to-be greats like Gil
Hodges, Duke Snider, and Carl Furillo; and the cup-of-coffee drinkers. Who
now remembers Dan Bankhead, the first African American pitcher in Major
League Baseball? He pitched ten indifferent innings for the 1947 Dodgers, but
homered in his first at bat. Who recalls Tommy Brown, the youngest position
player to appear in a major-league game, at the age of sixteen years and seven
months in 1944? Brown went on to play in fifteen games for the 1947 Dodgers, posting a .235 average. The Team provides a cavalcade of names to freshen
our memories: Rex Barney, Clyde King, Bobby Bragan, Arkie Vaughan, Al
Gionfriddo, and Cookie Lavagetto. Coaches are included: Clyde Sukeforth,
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who scouted Robinson for Rickey, and Jake Pitler, the Jewish first base coach
who did not appear on the High Holy Days. Sportscasters and owners receive
equal coverage with the players. In addition to Rickey and Walter OMalley,
we encounter John L. Smith, president of the Pfizer pharmaceutical company,
who loved the Dodgers and bought a one-quarter interest in the club. Pfizers
Brooklyn plant was a major supplier of penicillin, and Sir Alexander Fleming, who was the drugs Scottish discoverer as well as a Nobel Laureate, visited Smith in Brooklyn. Who knew that Fleming, through Smith, became a
Dodger fan and acquired a collection of autographed memorabilia?
The essays in The Team focus on various aspects of the 1947 season, including spring training in Havana, Rickeys relationship with the press, the suspension of Durocher, ownership infighting, and Robinsons first game. Several essays are devoted to the memorable 1947 Dodgers-Yankees World Series,
won by the Yankees in seven games. Highlighted are Al Gionfriddos gamesaving catch of Joe DiMaggios 415-foot potential home run in Game 6, and
Cookie Lavagettos pinch-hit, walk-off double in Game 3, which knocked in
two runs and spoiled Bill Bevens bid for the first World Series no-hitter.
The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn
Dodgers is a volume to be treasured, to be read in small, savory portions, but
it is not a dissertation on how the 1947 Dodgers changed baseball and America. Other booksTygiels Baseballs Great Experiment and Chris Lambs
Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinsons First Spring Trainingprovide
more synoptic treatments of this topic. Rather, The Team excels in recreating
the era and its ethos, the players and their arena, the drama and the triumph
of Robinson. Something wonderful happened in the Brooklyn of 1947; The
Team is a portal to that time and place.
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John G. Zinn and Paul G. Zinn, eds. Ebbets Field: Essays and Memories
of Brooklyns Historic Ballpark, 19131960. Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2013.
240 pp. Paper, $39.95.
Steven P. Gietschier
This package of essays and related materials was compiled and edited by a
father-son team, neither of whom ever had the good fortune to see a ball
game played at Ebbets Field. John Zinn, the father, is chairman of the board of
the New Jersey Historical Society. His son, Paul, is a former sportswriter now
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working for a virtual communications software company. They have teamed

up before, coauthoring The Major League Pennant Races of 1916: The Most
Maddening Baseball Melee in History (2009). Other contributors are Ellen
M. Snyder-Grenier, former chief curator of the Brooklyn Historical Society;
James Overmyer, biographer of Effa Manley; and Ronald Selter, whose essay
here is adapted from his book, Ballparks of the Deadball Era (2008), also published by McFarland.
This collection is the second in the publishers Historic Ballparks series,
following the initial volume on Forbes Field (2007) put together by the series
general editors, David J. Cicotello and Angela J. Louisa. No doubt each volume will include some testament to its subjects exceptionalism; this one gets
right to it. All historic ballparks created important relationships, John Zinn
writes in the preface, but Ebbets Field is special in its own way (1). No reader
should be surprised by that assertion.
Perhaps the most interesting essay in the book, Snyder-Greniers A Ballpark and Its City: Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, and Changing Times, is a solid
piece of cultural history. Written in two sections, it contrasts Brooklyn in
1913, when Ebbets Field opened, with Brooklyn in 1957, after which season
the Dodgers left. Her thesis, not unique but certainly presented well here, is
that Ebbets Fields construction suggests why the ballpark served as one of
a number of enduring symbols of a cityeven after Brooklyn had become a
borough of New York Cityand how its demolition in 1960 was all the more
poignant as a symbol of changing times (34).
Similarly fine, Overmyers essay is a neat summary of all the African American baseball that Ebbets Field hosted before the debut of Jackie Robinson in
1947, including the ballparks stints as the home field for the Bacharach Giants;
the Brooklyn Eagles, who later moved to Newark; and the Brooklyn Brown
Dodgers of the short-lived United States League. Selter, an expert on ballpark dimensions, presents a thorough history of how Ebbets Fields evolving
configuration affected team offenses. Simply put, Ebbets Field was an average offensive park during the Deadball Era, but as more seats were added at
the expense of fair territory, the park, not surprisingly, became an offensive
heaven.
The other four essays include two by Zinn pre, one by Zinn fils, and one
cowritten by both. John Zinn contributes a rather standard and uncritical biographical treatment of Charles Ebbets, the man who built the ballpark and
was majority owner of the Dodgers until his death in 1925. As much a business
history of the Dodgers as a biographical essay, this piece does not say much
about Ebbets personally, nor does it engage the argument that his shortsightedness in acquiring insufficient land before construction began led inevitably to the parks being hemmed in and handicapped by future development.
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Johns second essay is much shorter. It presents simple narrative accounts of

the first and last Dodgers games at the ballpark.
Paul Zinns solo effort, Ebbets Field: Sporting Venue and Community
Center, covers the many uses besides baseball to which the ballpark was put.
These include a remarkable amount of boxing and football, both college and
professional; soccer; and a handful of opera performances in the 1920s. Fans
tend to think of Ebbets Field as a pure baseball park, but it, like so many others, was also multipurpose.
The Zinns joint effort is a rather large accumulation of the most notable games played at Ebbets Field, starting with the Dodgers first win in 1913
and concluding with the last game of the 1956 regular season. For each, they
include a pithy narrative and, for most, the box score.
Following the essays, the editors present three sets of remembrances: one
by Dodgers, a second by opposing players, and a third by fans. These reminiscences are culled mostly from interviews conducted by Paul Zinn with
some coming from oral histories conducted by the Brooklyn Historical Society. Much of what the players have to say is repetitive: Ebbets Field was small;
it was cozy; the fans sat close to the action; the fans were loud and exuberant;
one could hit well there; the Dodgers were tough to play against. More than
one opposing player remembers that the playing surface was always in firstrate condition, a recollection that is a bit of a shock to those who have pored
over photos of old ballparks and seen lots of bare earth where grass should
have been. The fans memories, perhaps surprisingly, prove to be well worth
reading. Each tells an individual story adorned with family tradition, memories of first games attended, and nostalgia for a team that truly was part of the
neighborhood. One is struck by the intensity of these experiences, like that of
Mary Walsh Heagney, now seventy-five years old, who, once wanting Pee Wee
Reeses autograph, simply walked a few blocks to his apartment, rang the bell,
and saw Reese, who answered the door, oblige with a smile.
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Donald Spivey. If You Were Only White: The Life of Leroy Satchel Paige.
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2012. 347 pp. Cloth, $29.95.
Jim Overmyer
Another book on Satchel Paige? There has been so much written about the
legendary African American pitcher since he was finally allowed into the
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white major leagues thirty-six seasons ago that another biography might seem
redundant. A search of the New York Public Librarys online catalog by Paiges
name, for example, turns up twenty-five titles. Donald Spiveys bibliography
for this book references seven devoted to the hurler.
But few of these dealt with Paige the individual, as opposed to Paige the
legend. And fewer still put Paige in the context of the historical eras in which
he lived, fitting him into a much broader narrative than that of his lengthy
baseball career. People interested in Paige have waited a long time for this
book. Spivey spent twelve years researching and writing it, and the result is
biography the way it should be written and a top-flight entry in the extensive
Paige canon.
Spivey, a history professor at the University of Miami, has done deep
research on several of the eras and places in which Paige lived and pitched.
First, theres the early section on what it was like to grow up African American
in Mobile, Alabama, in the early 1900shis family was dirt-poor and, commensurate with their lowly status, lacked every conceivable amenity associated with a good life (2). Something of a lawbreaking youngster, Paige was
shipped off at age twelve to the Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Law
Breakers at Mount Meigs, which despite its imposing name was a progressive place where youngsters were well-cared for and learned a trade. Paiges,
of course, turned out to be baseball, and Spivey has dug so far into Mount
Meigss history that he claims to have correctly identified Paiges first coach,
Moses Davis, whose credit has been given to others in past biographies.
To add depth to the well-covered defection of Paige and other Negro
League stars to Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillos team in 1937,
Spivey has delved into State Department files in the National Archives to bolster his claim that African American baseball owners complaints to the government created a sort of international incident in which Paige, of course,
was at the center. And he has gained access to the FBIs file on Paige as agents
dutifully tracked his statements encouraging baseball integration in the 1940s,
which became suspicious because, on that subject alone, he was on the same
wavelength as the Communist Party.
The best of Spiveys sources, though, are a multitude of interviews with former Negro League players, particularly Ted Double Duty Radcliffe, a childhood friend and teammate of Paiges, and two of Paiges children, Robert and
Pamela. Those remembrances allow the Satchel Paige story to leave the baseball field and become a personal profile in which Spivey doesnt soft-pedal the
less than heroic parts. More than once he connects the dots of circumstantial
evidence to come to the conclusion that Paige was an enthusiastic womanizer, marriage vows notwithstanding. He keeps track of Paiges many material
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acquisitionsfancy autos, antique furniture, photography equipment. But he

also makes it clear that the great pitcher was a very poor saver, telling how
Paige and his second wife, Lahoma, worried a great deal over how to make
ends meet when the baseball career was over and how Paige suffered maladies
that were the result of sheer medical neglect of his body.
Likewise, there is no glossing over Paiges constant movement among
Negro League teams, leagues, and entire baseball playing areas of North and
South America, contractual or handshake agreements notwithstanding. The
pitchers constant jumping from teams earned him something of a reputation as unreliable. But in Spiveys analysis this was a conscious decision of
a man who grew up dirt-poor but with tremendous talent to maximize his
earning potential over the years: He may well have been not only the first
free agent in baseball but the most successful one (140).
Spivey does a particularly good job describing the summer of 1933 when
Paige, Radcliffe, and other African American players paired up with white
teammates to represent Bismarck, North Dakota, in the citys attempt to
become the undisputed champions of the relatively obscure baseball empire of
the upper Great Plains. The team conquered its opposition, maintained good
racial relations among themselves with just a few setbacks, and foreshadowed
the integrated professional baseball that was still years down the line everywhere else. The Bismarck team, faced with limited hotel choices in far-flung
Plains towns, were in all likelihood the first integrated sport team on which
blacks and whites also roomed together (115).
Paige often was paid separately from the rest of his teammates to make special appearances on the mound. This star-for-hire persona, in which he often
employed stagecraft aspects of his trade such as his hesitation pitch, double
and triple windups, and calling in his outfielders before striking out the side,
made him appear a comic figure at the same time that he was seen as a dominant ballplayer. Spivey confidently asserts, though, based in large part on the
interviews, that under Paiges constant performer faade burned an interest
in and commitment to racial civil rights: The affable and easy going manner
that Paige displayed to the media and the public did not mean that there was
not fire in his bosom, a constant burning and smoldering because of racism in
America (241).
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Book Reviews
Joseph M. Schuster. The Might Have Been: A Novel. New York:

Ballantine Books, 2012. 329 pp. Cloth, $25.00.
Adi Angel
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In the opening monologue of Arthur Millers After the Fall (1964), Quentin,
reflecting on his decision to leave his job, says to his offstage listener, I felt
I was merely in the service of my own success. It all lost any point. Although
I do wonder sometimes if I am simply trying to destroy myself. In the wake
of his lifes tragedies, Millers Quentin leaves his career, only to wonder if his
decision is one of self-destruction. Not so for Joseph Schusters Edward Everett Yates. Yates, a late-blooming minor leaguer coming up for his cup of coffee with the 1976 Cardinals, falls victim to his own hubris, only to reflect upon
and repeat his mistakes in a life defined by the almosts, the should haves, and
a string of never-agains. Earning a spot as the starting right fielder in a game
against Montreal, Yates sees his future in baseball before him. Hitting for the
cycle before the end of the fifth inning of a game destined for a rainout, his
entire career hinges on a two-out fly ball to right. Knowing that this catch
would be the final play, making the game and his place on the team official,
Yates leaps to catch the ball, but gets caught in the chains and suffers a catastrophic knee injury. The injury brings the unofficial game to a close and with
it Yatess cycle.
Yatess injury leaves him bedriddenfirst in the hospital, then in his
hotelisolated and forgotten. The Cardinals move on to their next series,
leaving him in Montreal to recover. Isolated, alone, and ultimately forgotten
by his team (literally), Yates invites his ex-girlfriend Julie to stay with him. The
relationship develops around his vision of a new life. He can make this work
this time. He can have a different life. But like Roy Hobbs before him, Yates
undermines his own good intentions when he meets Estelle Herron, whose
hair is, naturally, red. Thus begins Yatess fall from grace: unfortunate circumstances, poor decisions, and a pattern of questionable behavior and failed
relationships. Losing Julie leads to a relationship one year later with Connie.
Connie, however, is also no more than a fleeting glimpse at a life Yates almost
allows himself to have. The novel jumps from 1977 to 2009, where Connie has
become no more than a passing memory: a name Yates can barely recall, a
love he no longer clings to.
What Schuster builds in the second half of his novel is something of a
familiar story. Yates, older if not wiser, has grown into the seasoned manager
of a minor-league-affiliate team whose memories are as untrustworthy as his
knees. Names of players, statistics, cities, datesall become a blur, as the collection of Sporting News he has assembled through the years get flooded in the
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basement of his home. The past, crossed and forgotten, comes back into view,
and Yates tries to accomplish for his players what he never could accomplish
himselfeven if only on the minor-league scale. The story of what could have
been, what might have been, is compelling. In the realm of novels that use
baseball as a metaphor for life, The Might Have Been ranks high, with familiar images woven together with the agony of watching something so precious
slip away from a character who, but for the grace of God, could have been me.
Schuster knows his audience.
Though the novel may recall many themes familiar to the seasoned baseball fiction audience, Schuster breathes new life into the genre through his use
of sound. From the familiar organ sounds of the ballpark to the slap of the
ball into leather at perhaps the instant his foot [meets] the bag (11), Schuster
transports the audience into the ballpark and into Yatess life. The more Yates
learns to see things differently, the sounds that surround him are the sounds
that ground him in the reality that Schuster has carefully crafted. Where the
familiar sights of a ballpark become the unfamiliar world of the professional,
the sounds remain the same, both to Yates and to anyone who has ever spent
a summer day playing catch. To appreciate The Might Have Been is to appreciate the little details about life and baseball: the sights and sounds that escape
if you dont pay attention. With enough detail for a casual fan to appreciate the action on the field, yet with enough nuance for a seasoned fan of the
game, Schusters novel is one of those rare gems that reaches out to all fans.
Schusters novel is, ultimately, a moving testament to choice: the decisions we
make, on the field as in life, can change the way things play out. The sights
and sounds encountered along the way, like the people that weave in and out
of our lives, become the backdrop upon which life plays out.
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Dorothy Seymour Mills. Drawing Card: A Baseball Novel. Jefferson NC:

Tim Morris
Drawing Card: A Baseball Novel is a historical novel that asks a question for
the sake of argument: if a woman signed a contract to play professional baseball, and then found her opportunity denied by a baseball commissioner solely
on the grounds of her sex, how might she react? The question isnt entirely a
what if ; two such contracts were annulled in real life, in 1931 and 1952. I
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have often wondered how these two women felt about being prevented from
playing baseball because of their gender, Dorothy Seymour Mills says in her
Note on Sources (259), and she wrote this novel to explore that wonder.
Drawing Card is incident-packed, written in a utilitarian style that tells
more than it shows. Every scene is fully explained and worked into the overall rhetorical purpose of the novel. All the characters sound exactly the same,
speaking in decorous, full sentences that reveal much background information
and give a clear account of their actions and motives (even their deceptions are
carefully explained and clear, at least to the reader). Copious research is on display: this is a book where you trust the baseball details (given the authors considerable ethos as a sport historian) and also trust the descriptions of places as
far-flung as Ohio and Sicily, in the present, recent past, and deep past.
And as the books cover foreshadows, the novels incidents are nicely unrestrained, often sinister in a way that borders on black comedy. To quote that
cover (so that Im not spoiling the plot very much), Annie plots her revenge
murder. A deft blend of sports history and thriller, Drawing Card demonstrates the danger of a woman scorned, especially one with a mean curve ball.
Annie Cardello is believable as the Drawing Card of the title, pitching local
baseball in Cleveland, exemplifying her Sicilian roots. And shes at least consistent, in a far-fetched way, when she turns avenging angel. This is a woman
whose answer to a mildly disappointing marriage is a quickie divorce, Italian
style. One is prepared for her to wreak havoc on Organized Baseball.
The accumulation of incidents, time frames, characters, and allusions
in Drawing Card may bewilder some readers. Its not a book for those with
ruminative tastes or Proustian attention spans. But as a contribution to the
re-imagination of the twentieth century from once-elided perspectives, the
novel has something to offer readers who like their fiction brisk, lucid, and
vividly imaginary.
Joel S. Franks. The Barnstorming Hawaiian Travelers: A Multiethnic

Baseball Team Tours the Mainland, 19121916. Jefferson NC:
John Harney
Barnstorming has an intriguing history beyond the borders of the American
mainland, particularly across the Pacific Ocean. Babe Ruth and his fellow All-
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Stars 1934 visit to Japan is the most prominent example of American players
bringing the sometimes chaotic world of early twentieth-century exhibition
baseball to East Asia, but it was by no means the only one. Herbert Harrison
Hunter led a significantly less stellar roster of players to games in Japan and
Taiwan over a decade earlier in 1920, but that particular experiment collapsed
amid acrimony between the athletes involved over money. In both cases, the
exclusively Caucasian American ballplayers made sure to entertain, regardless
of the conditions; antics in the outfield were a staple of these performances,
and Ruths decision to play first base during a rain-soaked game while holding
an umbrella immediately became an iconic image.
Exhibition baseball in East Asia did not remain the province of American
visitors alone. Japanese university teams in particular showed a tremendous
appetite for travelling abroad to find opponents, from Taiwan and Korea to
California and Chicago. These tours, ostensibly undertaken to engender positive relations between Japan and its colonies as well as between Japan and the
United States, in practice played directly into the complex politics of Japans
changing relations with the world as its own political and military ambitions
evolved in the decades leading up to World War II. Race played no small part
in such politics and not only cast a shadow over the visits of Japanese teams to
the campuses of Stanford University and the University of Chicago, but also
further complicated Hawaiis path to statehood, as Joel S. Franks ably demonstrates. In The Barnstorming Hawaiian Travelers: A Multiethnic Baseball Team
Tours the Mainland, 19121916, Franks examines the dubious politics of race
in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century and the complicated path for Hawaiians to truly inclusive American citizenship, while delivering unto the reader a fascinating narrative of a truly unique baseball team.
The Travelers, a barnstorming outfit from Hawaii that typically played
upwards of one hundred games a season on their visits to the American mainland each year between 1912 and 1916, featured an increasingly multiethnic
lineup that took on college and semiprofessional teams across the country.
Presented to American audiences as an all-Chinese team, the Hawaiians
acquitted themselves rather well on the field as their efficacy in advancing
Hawaiis profile on the mainland came under scrutiny at home in Honolulu.
In fact, the book is a particular source of fun for the reader when the author
returns to Honolulu to offer some context on the racially infused criticisms
of American papers, with Hawaiian journalists utterly bemused by the prevalence on the American mainland of the idea that the athletes represented
the fictional Chinese University of Hawaii. This particular ruse arose from
the foundations of the team in Honolulus Chinese community and American
interest in the Chinese mainlands recent emergence from centuries of dynas-
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tic rule following the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912. Frankss
account highlights the vast chasm between conceptions of racial identity on
the American mainland and the notably multiethnic composition of Hawaiian society, though by no means free of racially infused conflict itself. The
athletes themselves sought to actively manage the racial politics of the time,
skirting around the ethnicity of the Travelers first non-Chinese participants,
going as far as to pass off the teams first Caucasian athletes as Chinese in
1916. Interestingly, mainland journalists appear to have agreed to perpetuate
the myth that the visiting athletes represented Chinese interests rather than
those of fellow Americans.
Franks has succeeded in producing a valuable scholarly contribution to
the fields of American history, Asian American history, and baseball history,
but his book will also appeal to a wider audience. The narrative is characterized by exhaustive reports on individual game results from various locations
across America. Such accounts will delight readers accustomed to leafing
through box scores of both current and historical games and eager for more
information on the history of the American pastime. The newspaper articles
come thick and fast, and herein lies the heart of Frankss research: a thorough
investigation of the Travelers journeys through the forty-eight contiguous
states as recorded by newspaper after newspaper from the Oakland Tribune
to the Brooklyn Eagle. To have pored through so many of these accounts and
arranged them into a cohesive narrative is to be highly commended and, as
this reviewer can attest, is by no means a straightforward task.
This narrative approach is complemented by the authors consistent efforts
to contextualize each game with reports from local newspapers that often
reflect the open racism of early twentieth-century America. Honolulu was by
no means a bastion of racial integration, with the Chinese community so frustrated by the dilution of the Travelers ethnic composition that they supported
the creation of a new barnstorming outfit to travel west into East Asia as the
Travelers returned east to the American mainland. However, the city still succeeded in producing a team that, by 1916, contained players with claims to
Caucasian, Japanese, Chinese, and native Hawaiian ethnic origins. This barnstorming outfit was a world apart from an American baseball community still
decades away from breaking down the color barrier.
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Katya Cengel. Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life.

Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012. 272 pp. Paper, $19.95.
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*SPOILER ALERT* Baseball is people.

Granted, that is not as startling as Charlton Hestons revelation forty years
ago. But it feels good to remember every once in a while that the real stories in
baseball center on people. In the expansive world of baseball writing, plenty of
fine authors focus on politics and economics, teams and titles, numbers and
records. Even well-written baseball stories about people tend to center on the
people who play the game, particularly in the major leagues.
Katya Cengels Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life is devoted
to people and not just the players. Kentuckys minor-league teamsClass
AAA, Class A, and independentprovide the context for her well-conceived
and skillfully woven tapestry of personal stories that moves beyond a narrow focus on players to the often unnoticed and unrecognized silent majority of the minors: merchants, media, mascots, marketers, moms (and dads),
ministers, medics, mentors, and the many others who complete the picture of
minor-league baseball. Cengel profiles a host mom in Florence, for example,
one of the devoted and nurturing guardian angels who can be found throughout the minor leagues protecting players interests. Lori Snider organizes
housing for Florences players each year, and through her experiences readers
come to know some of the other archetypes populating minor-league baseball. She describes, for example, the cougar who wanted to host players in her
home: They call them cleat chasers, and every year theres somebody (205).
Through such personalities, Cengel reminds her readers that an indispensable
thematic element in minor-league baseball story lines is captured through
the eyes of the womengirlfriends and groupies, wives and wannabeswho
move in and out of the players lives. Her book, in fact, is filled with both men
and women whose perspectives and experiences help readers to understand
the minor leagues and professional baseball in general.
Cengels focus on people sheds light on other important facets of baseball.
Her portrait of Lexington Legends president Alan Stein, for example, takes
her readers from the teams national anthem auditions to the outrageous
bets Stein would make each season when guaranteeing a victory on opening day. In doing so, Cengel directs readers attention to the core of the minorleague brand: being able to touch the community, generating excitement for
the club, and, of course, providing entertainment (7).
Cengel also offers brief but important glimpses of the obstacles facing foreign-born players, who by 2011 and 2012 constituted over 46 percent
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of minor leaguers (Percentage of Foreign Players Rises, ESPN.com, April 5,

2012, http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7779279/percentage-foreign-major
-league-baseball-players-rises). She shows her readers a part of the minor
leagues that Alan Stein doesnt want you to see (36): the often neglected living situations of many Spanish-speaking players, unseen environments that
exemplify the many inequities concealed within the business of baseball. In
telling the stories of Louisville pitcher Aroldis Chapman and, more importantly, of Louisvilles trainer and general problem solver, Tomas Verawho
helped Chapman acclimateCengel is able to make the important point that
the problems confronting foreign-born players go beyond learning the language to the often more difficult challenge of mastering subtle yet significant
cultural differences.
Indeed, Cengel broadly directs her readers attention to challenges facing minor leaguers: travel and transportation, housing and laundry, shopping, relationships, and meeting the most basic of needseating and sleeping properly. Through Bowling Greens trainer, Scott Thurston, for example,
readers learn about the challenges of feeding a baseball team on a shoestring
budget while trying to maintain some semblance of nutritional balance. More
than anything, her descriptions serve as a reminder that the game of baseball revolves around details that are largely unknown to most followers of
the game: the more mundane tasks of fielding a baseball team, like debating whether to purchase smoked or regular turkey. Important stuff, but then,
when it gets down to it, the everyday business of baseball can be downright
boring (165). Actually, as they emerge from Cengels stories, those mundane details are what bring baseball to life.
Without betraying fidelity to their favorite team, many baseball fans sooner
or later focus on following and rooting for individuals. Cengels book captures
this repeatedly, such as when she introduces her readers to Louisville player
Matt Maloney: He is the kind of guy you cant help but root for; he wasnt
born with a ton of talent, money, or connections, just a dream and determination (90). Fans can relate to players like Justin [Lehr] who have seen success
and failure and have the fortitude to keep believing day after day that it is all
worthwhile (249). But devoted followers of the game also find satisfaction in
the successes of the people off the field: Jared Elliott, Bowling Greens strength
and conditioning coach, moving up to the next higher organizational level;
Tom Gauthier, the teams radio broadcaster, receiving a promotion to Class
AA; and Tomas Vera, the problem solver, getting to the bigs.
Bluegrass Baseball is a reminder that players are not the only people in
baseball with dreams of making it to the showthey are not the only or even
the best stories to follow in baseball. Baseball is more than just the teams and
the players, the records and the numbers. Baseball is people.
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FILM REVIEW
es
Moneyball. Dir. Bennett Miller. Columbia Pictures, 2011. DVD.

Trouble with the Curve. Dir. Robert Lorenz. Warner Brothers, 2012. DVD.
Pr
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Focusing on the application of sabermetrics and statistical analysis by general

manager Billy Beane and the Oakland As, journalist Michael Lewiss Moneyball (2003) was an unlikely bestseller, and baseball statistics would seem an
even more unlikely subject for a major Hollywood film. Indeed, it would take
eight years to translate Moneyball from book to film. The project was piqued
by the commercial and critical success of The Blind Side (2009), a film based
upon Lewiss 2006 bestseller of the same title. Nevertheless, the film version of
The Blind Side emphasized the relationship between Michael Oher (Quinton
Aaron) and his adoptive mother Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), rather
than how Oher helped to revolutionize the position of left tackle in professional football. Bill Beanes story in Moneyball fails to offer the dramatic possibilities of race, gender, and class contained in The Blind Side. Actor Brad
Pitts interest in the project, nevertheless, kept Moneyball alive as a film, and
Steven Soderberg was signed to direct the picture. Sony Pictures, however,
was reportedly nervous regarding Soderbergs efforts to inject humor into
the film as well as blurring the line between feature film and documentary
with actual players commenting upon Billy Beanes approach to talent evaluation. Accordingly, on the eve of filming in June 2009, Soderberg was removed
from the picture and replaced by Bennett Miller, who earned a Best Director Oscar nomination in 2005 for the biographical picture Capote, for which
Philip Seymour Hoffman received the Best Actor award. Filming commenced
in July 2010, and Moneyball was released in the fall of 2011 to critical acclaim
and a strong box office. With a budget of approximately $50 million, the film
grossed nearly $90 million while earning Oscar nominations for Best Picture
(in an expanded category), Best Actor for Pitt, and Best Supporting Actor for
Jonah Hill.
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By the time Moneyball was released, sabermetric concepts, such as OPS,

were common knowledge to serious baseball fans as well as baseball executives, but many of the ideas discussed in Moneyball were novel for more casual
observers of the game. In fact, in tracing the 2002 Oakland season Moneyball is somewhat of a history film, and in Hollywood neither the history nor
baseball film genre have generated great box office excitement. The appeal of
the film owes much to the performances of Pitt and Hill, as well as the script
by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, which reduces the abstract principles
of Moneyball to a few easily-internalized conceptssuch as hitting is more
important than pitching and fielding, a walk is as good as a hit (a clich which
many weak Little League hitters learn early in life), bunts and stolen bases are
risky activities which may squander scarce outs, and the worth of a player may
be measured statistically by past performance. Yet these simple concepts are
resisted by the baseball establishment who focus upon such traditional scouting tools as power, speed, and the look of a ballplayer. The audience is invited
to identify with Beanes smug sense of insider knowledge, which his contemporaries reject in favor of a conventional wisdom that privileges investment in
power pitching and hitting home runs.
Moneyball is a David and Goliath story which appeals to the audiences support for the underdog. In 2001, the Oakland As won 102 games in the regular
season before falling to the New York Yankees in the playoffs. Yet, the Yankee payroll was $126 million, while the As were limited to spending $40 million. And the gap between these two representative large- and small-market
clubs seemed destined to grow even greater when after the 2001 season the As
lost three of their best players to free agency: relief pitcher Jason Isringhausen, center fielder Johnny Damon, and first baseman Jason Giambi. In fact,
Giambi signed with the Yankees for $120 million. It would seem impossible
for the As to compete with the Yankees, but Beane finds a way. And perhaps it
is not surprising that film audiences in 2011 identified with the Oakland club.
In the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the
Yankees embody the values of Wall Street, earning large bonuses while most
people are simply struggling to survive. Billy Beane represents Main Street
values against the entrenched power and money of the Wall Street Yankees.
To compete with the large-market club, Beane is convinced that teams with
smaller budgets must change their approach. Rather than rely upon his traditional scouts, a roomful of white-haired men dependent upon their accumulated years of baseball knowledge and conventional wisdom, Beane chooses to
follow the advice of Peter Brand, a young economist from Yale, who seeks to
introduce empirical evaluation based upon past player performance. Brand is
a composite figure of the young economists whom Beane brought to Oakland,
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most notably Paul DePodesta, who became assistant general manager but did
not want his name used in the film. The Brand character is essential to the film.
Jonah Hill, whose previous credits include sex-obsessed young men in Superbad (2007) and Knocked Up (2007), plays Brand as a quiet, unassuming young
intellectual, who initially shows up to work every day in a suit and tie, but
after hanging with Beane jettisons the tie and dons a windbreaker. Although
he initially appears to be a comical sidekick, a Sancho Panza for Beane who is
tilting at windmills and attempting to dream the impossible dream of beating
the Yankees, there is considerable strength to the Brand character as played by
Hill. At first, Brand is somewhat intimidated when confronting the scouts and
players; he has never played the game, but he has the strength of his convictions and is even able to hand an athlete his unconditional release. Brand is an
everyman, suggesting to intelligent audience members that they could also run
a major-league ball club based upon sound scientific principles.
Moneyball is also successful as a film because it does not confuse audiences
by attempting to introduce too many members of the As 2002 roster. The film
concentrates upon three players, David Justice (Stephen Bishop), Chad Bradford (Casey Bond), and Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt). Justice, who is sometimes best remembered for being married to Halle Berry, is in the twilight of
his career, but Brand and Beane like him because he draws walks and the Yankees are willing to pay part of their former players guaranteed contract. Bradford is a middle-relief pitcher whom few wanted because of his low velocity,
yet with his extreme submarine delivery, Bradford is able to fool hitters by
getting his eighty-four mile per hour fastball to move in the strike zone. Hatteberg was a catcher with the Boston Red Sox whose career was thought to be
over due to an elbow injury. But Brand and Beane propose transforming him
into a first baseman, as defense plays second fiddle to offense, and Hatteberg
is a master at working the count and getting on base.
The Beane and Brand experiment, however, is undermined by As Manager
Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who insists upon playing rookie Carlos
Pena at first base rather than Hatteberg. Beane deals with this insubordination
by trading Pena to the Detroit Tigers, and he fails to give Howe more than a
one-year extension on his contract. Hoffman, a personal friend of the director, is an interesting choice as he seems to fit the stereotypical image of an oldschool baseball manager. While the real Howe was a tall, thin man, Hoffman
is more heavyset and his stomach tends to hang over the belt on his uniform.
After Howe begins to play Hatteberg and makes better use of Bradford out
of the bullpen, the As begin to rise in the standings, reeling off twenty straight
victories to establish an American League record for consecutive wins. The
twentieth game of this stretch is the only game which director Miller develops
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in any detail. Most of the action in the film takes place off the playing field,
and Miller often relies upon archival footage of As games. But the contest of
September 4, 2002, was different. After attaining nineteen consecutive wins,
the As led the Kansas City Royals 110 in the fourth inning. The As, however, began to commit errors, and Bradford gave up a three-run home run. In
the top of the ninth, the Royals tied the game, and the As and their fans were
stunned. During the bottom half of the inning, Howe sent Hatteberg in to
pinch hit, and in true Hollywood fashion he hit a home run to win the game.
Reality provided the filmmakers with a perfect ending, and Miller can be forgiven a little slow-motion imitation of Scott Hatteberg as Roy Hobbs.
In 2002, the As who appeared decimated by their free-agent losses actually won 103 games, one more than the previous year. Yet they again lost in the
first round of the playoffs; this time to the Minnesota Twins, another smallmarket team. Critics, such as broadcaster and Hall of Famer Joe Morgan,
asserted that the tactics of Moneyball were inappropriate to the playoffs where
the bunt and stolen base were essential to manufacturing runs. The film concludes with Beane mulling an offer to employ his strategy on a larger canvas
as general manager of the Boston Red Sox. Beane, however, elects to stay with
the As, but the film concludes with the caption that in 2006 the Red Sox were
able to win their first World Series since World War I and the trading of Babe
Ruth by implementing Beanes Moneyball strategies. The film suggests that
Moneyball concepts now dominate Major League Baseball due to the visionary Billy Beane. While baseball enthusiasts continue to argue over the merits
of Moneyball and sabermetrics, more casual fans and filmgoers will be drawn
to Beanes story, which is in many ways more interesting than the deciphering
of baseball statistics.
In the film, Beane remains a rather enigmatic figure. We learn that scouts
depicted him as a cant miss prospect with power, speed, an excellent throwing arm, and the proper look. But for whatever reason, Beane did not reach his
potential as a player, often displaying irrational outbursts of anger that appear
out of character with his emphasis upon empirical evidence as a general manager. Beane regrets that he signed with the New York Mets rather than accept
a scholarship to attend Stanford. He asserts that he will never make another
decision based entirely upon financial considerations. While on the surface
he is laid back and relaxed, Brad Pitts Beane is actually a bundle of nervous
energy; pacing around the room, dipping snuff, exercising and working out
during games as he is afraid that he will jinx the team by watching them play,
and driving endlessly to destinations that are not always clear. Beanes only
passion outside of baseball seems to be his daughter Casey (Kerris Dorsey),
and although the film fails to consider the reasons for his divorce from wife
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Sharon (Robin Wright), one can surmise that Beane may have focused more
on his job than his marriage. The Beane presented on the screen seems to
have no interests or friends beyond the Oakland Coliseum and his daughter.
He is driven by one desire: to prove that the scientific principles of Moneyball
are sound. In the final analysis, Beane rejects the Boston offer so that he may
stay near his daughter, pursuing his vision from his California home.
Moneyball emphasizes the role of statistics, but the films personal insight
into Beanes character makes Moneyball of interest to the moviegoer and
casual baseball fan. As for the principles of Moneyball, there is still some
debate. From 2007 to 2011, Beanes teams did not make the playoffs, although
the general managers defenders point out that it is more challenging for
Beane now as other clubs emulate his approach to the game.
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In Trouble with the Curve, Clint Eastwood is again speaking to an empty chair,
but rather than addressing an absent President Barack Obama, Eastwoods
target is Billy Beane and Moneyball. Sabermetricians and fans of Moneyball
may be uncomfortable with a film which has little use for computers and new
modes of statistical analysis. Instead, Trouble with the Curve places its faith
in the traditional baseball scout who relies upon experience with the sport to
evaluate talentthe older baseball organization men whom Beane fires early
in Moneyball.
Trouble with the Curve is also an old-fashioned feel-good movie. Written by Randy Brown and directed by Eastwoods friend Robert Lorenz in his
directorial debut, Trouble with the Curve is dominated by the eighty-two-yearold Eastwood, who portrays aging baseball scout Gus Lobel, struggling with
his prostate, hearing, and eyesight. In many ways, Gus is similar to Eastwoods
grumpy old man in Gran Torino (2008), but Trouble with the Curve does not
explore the darker regions of this character.
The film begins when executives from the Atlanta Braves, such as Phillip
Sanderson (Matthew Lillard), seek to dismiss Gus and rely more upon computers and statistical analysis, which should also save the ball club money.
Pete Klein (John Goodman), director of scouting for the Braves, defends
his old friend and arranges for Gus to scout a new slugging phenomenon,
Bo Gentry (Joe Massengill). Nevertheless, Pete has some reservations regarding Gus and urges the scouts daughter, Mickey (Amy Adams)and all baseball fans should know that she is, of course, named after Mickey Mantleto
accompany her father on his scouting mission to North Carolina. Although
Mickey is an attorney working on a major case and seeking to attain a partnership in her law firm, she accepts the responsibility of monitoring Gus, who
is opposed to her joining him on the road.
186
Film Review
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The core of the film concerns the estranged relationship between father
and daughter. The stoic Gus finds it difficult to talk with his daughter, and
she wonders why her father continues to push her away. As the story unfolds,
we learn that following the death of her mother, Mickey accompanied Gus
on his scouting trips. When she is nearly molested, Gus decides that he cannot properly care for his daughter, dispatching her to live with relatives and
attend boarding school. Yet Gus fails to explain the reasons for his actions,
and Mickey feels rejected by her father and unable to pursue her passion for
baseball. Gus grudgingly admits that Mickey is helpful to him as he struggles
with failing eyesight, and the father and daughter reconcile.
Meanwhile, Mickey finds a love interest in Johnny Flanagan (Jason Timberlake), a scout for the Boston Red Sox, who was originally signed by Gus.
Flanagan was traded by the Braves to the Red Sox, and his career ended prematurely due to arm troubles. Thus, he is considerably younger than the other
scouts with whom Gus associates, making him an appropriate romantic partner for Mickey. Flanagan is also scouting Bo Gentry, and the Red Sox and
Braves have the top picks in the baseball draft.
Gentry is an egotistical home-run hitter who seems destined to be the
number-one pick in the draft. Gus, however, is convinced that Gentry is a
prospect who will require considerable development. Eschewing computer
and statistical models, Gus is able to discern by the crack of the bat and examining his swing that Gentry has a serious problem with the curve ball. His
home-run statistics are inflated by metal bats, and Gus instructs the Braves to
not draft the prospect. He also convinces Flanagan and the Red Sox to pass on
Gentry, but Flanagan feels betrayed when the Braves select Gentry with their
first draft pick. The Braves rejected the scouting report submitted by Gus, and
his career appears over.
Trouble with the Curve, however, is hardly a tragedy. Redemption comes
in the form of a left-handed pitcher discovered by Mickey after Gus departs
to Atlanta for a confrontation with Braves management. Mickey is packing
to leave a motor lodge when she observes Rigo Sanchez (Jay Galloway), the
son of the Latina woman operating the motel, playing catch with his younger
brother. She grabs a catchers mitt and has Sanchez throw to her. Impressed
with both his fastball and curve, Mickey insists that the young man and his
family accompany her to Atlanta. Mickey arrives at Turner Field just in time
to prevent Gus from being released by the Braves. Employing her feminine
charms as well as litigation skills, Mickey convinces the Braves to give Sanchez a tryout. In a perfect example of an only-in-the-movies coincidence,
Bo Gentry is taking batting practice. The first-round draft pick, however, is
unable to put a bat on Sanchezs curve ball.
187
nine vol. 21.2
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In a classic happy ending, Philip Sanderson is fired rather than Gus, and
Pete Kleins confidence in Gus is rewarded when the aging scout is offered a
new contract by Braves management. Atlanta also extends a contract to Sanchez, who will be represented by his agent, Mickey. In fact, Mickey is considering abandoning her legal firm to pursue a career as a sports agent. To complete
this all-too-convenient happy ending, romance triumphs as Mickey is reunited
with Flanagan. The couple walks off arm-in-arm, while Gus grabs a bus, finally
acknowledging that he should abandon driving. He cannot see the road signs
anymore, but he is certainly able to judge trouble with the curve ball.
Trouble with the Curve is a sappy movie which has, nevertheless, proven
entertaining to audiences interested in light romantic-comedy fare. Clint
Eastwood is his crusty old self, while Amy Adams is charming as Mickey.
Justin Timberlake is certainly a pleasant romantic interest for Adams, but he
never touches a baseball during the film, so viewers do not have to evaluate
his athletic abilities.
For baseball fans, Trouble with the Curve is primarily of interest as a rejoinder to Moneyball. For those less enamored with Bill James, Billy Beane, and
technology, Trouble with the Curve suggests the primacy of the individual in
the evaluation of talent. Although baseball has finally embraced many of the
innovations associated with technology and the analytical tools of Bill James
and his disciples, it is well within the human spirit to hope that there will
always be room for a Gus Lobel in the game. It would be a shame if the empty
chair in the future proves to be the professional baseball scout who has dedicated his life to baseball. Trouble with the Curve may be light fare, but it does
raise some serious questions regarding the future of Major League Baseball.
188
Contributors
Pr
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Joseph W. Anderson is a full-time lecturer at California State University

Long Beach.
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Stephen Andon received his PhD from Florida State University in 2011 after
writing a dissertation on sports fans and the materiality of sports memorabilia. His research interests involve a wide array of topics dealing with sport
and media, sport and nostalgia, fan cultures, and material rhetoric. Currently,
he teaches speech, debate, and rhetoric classes at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.
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Ron Briley is a long-suffering fan of the Houston Astros. He has taught history and film studies at Sandia Prep School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for
over thirty years. He is the author of five books and numerous articles on cinema and baseball history. His teaching has been recognized by organizations
such as the National Council for History Education, Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, Society for History Education, and the Golden Apple of New Mexico.
20
Kenneth R. Fenster is professor of history at Georgia Perimeter College in

Clarkston, Georgia. He co-edited The National Pastime: Baseball in the Peach
State, and he has published in NINE, The Baseball Research Journal, The
National Pastime, The New Georgia Encyclopedia, and The African American
National Biography. He is a previous winner of the McFarland-SABR prize and
a Yoseloff-SABR grant.
Paul Hensler (MA, Trinity College, Hartford CT) has served as an instructor at Trinitys Lifelong Learning Academy and Manchester (CT) Community
Colleges Non-Credit Program, and is a member of the Society for American
Baseball Research, which has published several of his essays. He is the author
of The American League in Transition, 19651975: How Competition Thrived
When the Yankees Didnt.
nine vol. 21.2
Kevin A. Johnson (PhD, 2007, Communication Studies, University of Texas at

Austin) is an associate chair and assistant professor of communication studies, and serves as the director of research for the Center for First Amendment
Studies at California State UniversityLong Beach. His relationship with baseball is complicated.
Robert A. Moss is research professor and Louis P. Hammett professor of

chemistry emeritus at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His
baseball memories begin with the 1947 Dodgers, who set a standard seldom
equaled and never surpassed.
eb
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David Nemec is a baseball historian and novelist. Like the The Beer & Whisky
League, a history of the American Associations ten-year sojourn as a rebel
major league, most of his recent baseball books focus on the nineteenth century. Apart from Early Dreams, a tale set in the tumultuous 1884 season, his
eight published novels are marked departures from his baseball works.
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Franklin Otto was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He worked for thirty years
as a teacher and administrator in the field of bilingual education both in the
US Virgin Islands and at the New York State Education Department. He has
previously published in NINE. He lives in Slingerlands, New York.
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William Harris Ressler is assistant professor of strategic communication at

Ithaca College. His areas of research include athletes perspectives on culture, community service, and cause promotion. The author wishes to express
his profound gratitude to Professor Mary Lou Kish, whose sagacity and eloquence shaped this paper, to Sarah Upperman and Caitlin Hamryszak for
their dedication and contributions to the data analysis, and to the players, for
their insight, candor, and graciousness. This research was supported in part
by a series of James B. Pendleton Faculty Research Grants from the Ithaca
College School of Communication.
190

Rooting For Clothes - The Los Angeles Dodgers

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9

Editor: Trey Strecker

Ball State University

Published by the University of Nebraska Press

Book reviews are by invitation only.

If ordering by mail, please make checks

ceptance. The editor will attempt to have all

Jean Hastings Ardell, Corona Del Mar, California

Robert K. Barney, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario

Robert Bellamy, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

James E. Brunson III, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois

Adrian Burgos Jr., University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

Peter Carino, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana

Richard C. Crepeau, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida

Gerald Early, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri

Larry Gerlach, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

Steven P. Gietschier, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri

George Gmelch, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California;

Union College, Schenectady, New York

Chris Lamb, Indiana UniversityPurdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana

David Mills, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta

James Odenkirk, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

NINE Spring 2013, Vol. 21, No. 2

Earl Mann Beats the Klan: Jackie Robinson and the

Rooting for the Clothes: The Materialization of

Rhetorical Constructions of Anger Management, Emotions, and

Baseball Players, Organizational Communication, and

Patriotic Industry: Baseballs Reluctant Sacrifice in World War I

Leagues of Their Own Design

Baseballs Other Expansion Team of 1962: Fifty Years of

Legal Decisions That Shaped Modern Baseball

Packaging Baseball: How Marketing Embellishes the Cultural Experience

Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the

Jimmy Collins: A Baseball Biography

Arlie Latham: A Baseball Biography of the Freshest Man on Earth

The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League

Deacon Bill McKechnie: A Baseball Biography

Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes

Two Pioneers: How Hank Greenberg and Jackie Robinson

The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America:

Ebbets Field: Essays and Memories of Brooklyns

If You Were Only White: The Life of Leroy Satchel Paige

The Might Have Been: A Novel

Drawing Card: A Baseball Novel

The Barnstorming Hawaiian Travelers: A Multiethnic

Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life

Moneyball and Trouble with the Curve

JSM is a response to the

JSM features scholarly

Edited by Mary Lou Sheffer

JSM is available online at

The only thing dumber than a pitcher is two pitchers.

Our pitching staff is a conspiracy of ifs.

If a man can beat you, walk him.

The Setting: Atlanta in 1949

nine vol. 21.2

of thousands of workers and had an economic impact in the tens of millions

Fenster: Earl Mann Beats the Klan

nine vol. 21.2

Fenster: Earl Mann Beats the Klan

nine vol. 21.2

Fenster: Earl Mann Beats the Klan