by its last game, on October 3, 1993, this nondescript, circular stadium sited midway between Dallas and Fort Worth accommodated 43,521 spectators. The park was efficient, but it was by no means one of baseball’s storied venues; it was no Fenway Park or Wrigley Field. In fact, judging from accounts
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Sports Sprawl: Arlington Stadium and the Rise of Suburban Baseball Venues
Brian M. Ingrassia
“Star Maker”: George Powles, McClymonds High School, and the Youth of West Oakland
David K. Wiggins
“I have never met a finer person. I owe so much to him it’s impossible to express,” legendary basketball player Bill Russell told Sports Illustrated in 1963 about George Powles (1910–1987). 1 Vada Pinson, the outstanding outfielder who played 18 years in Major League Baseball with five different
Rose-Colored Glasses: Competing Media Perceptions of the Pete Rose Betting Scandal
Craig Greenham
approached the star baseball player and pleaded with him, “It ain’t so, Joe, is it?” Fullerton wrote that Jackson’s reply was, “Yes, kid, I’m afraid it is.” Over time, the myth has evolved and the child’s query became a punchier, “Say it ain’t so, Joe.” It is widely accepted by baseball historians that
“Mike Trout When I’m Battin’ Boy”: Unpacking Baseball’s Translation Through Rap Lyrics
Travis R. Bell and Victor D. Kidd
Baseball and rap music are often not considered culturally or historically synonymous. This stems from baseball’s well-traced history of segregation and rap music’s connection to Black America. However, a shift appears underway as walk-up songs for Major League Baseball (MLB) players indicate a
Unrealistic Expectations and Future Status Coercion in Minor League Baseball Players’ Future-Oriented Labor
Christopher M. McLeod, Nola Agha, N. David Pifer, and Tarlan Chahardovali
Minor league baseball is the athlete development system for Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, which operates in the United States and the Dominican Republic. Minor league baseball players enter the system hoping to reach MLB, but they must play in and generate revenues for minor league franchises
Talking Baseball When There Is No Baseball: Reporters and Fans During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Alexander L. Curry and Tiara Good
On March 12, 2020, one day after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, Major League Baseball (MLB) canceled the remainder of its spring training games and postponed the start of its regular season. Two months later—at the time of this writing—MLB remains suspended
The Significance of Baseball Games Between South Korean Teams and US Army Teams Shortly After World War II
Moongi Cho
, characteristics, and meaning of baseball games held in South Korea in 1945 and 1946. Newspapers issued in Seoul were selected as the main source for this study based on the following two reasons. First, it is not an exaggeration to say that Seoul has been at the center stage of Korean history. 5 Second
What Gramsci Can Tell Sport Communication Scholars About How Civic Leaders Sell Sports to Their Communities: A Look at the Braves’ Move to Atlanta
Bill Anderson
Antonio Gramsci argued that ruling classes stayed in power as much through cultural hegemony as through economic hegemony or brute force. Gramsci maintained that the dominant class established and maintained this cultural hegemony through negotiation and persuasion. Gramsci’s theory offers much to sport communication scholars who try to ascertain why certain communities (especially their civic leaders) build stadiums to attract major-league sports teams and events despite mounting economic evidence that these ventures often fail to yield the financial benefits touted by their advocates. This paper uses Gramsci’s theory to examine how the civic leaders of Atlanta enticed the populace and sporting press to use public funds to build a new sports stadium in the mid-1960s. Atlanta’s leaders used the sports stadium not only to lure a Major League Baseball team to the city but also to persuade the city’s populace that this move made the metropolis “big league.”
Public Perceptions of Steroid Use in Sport: Contextualizing Communication Efforts
Amy B. Becker and Dietram A. Scheufele
Recently, the controversy surrounding the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by Olympic and professional athletes has captured the media spotlight, in part as a response to the very public and pervasive steroids scandal plaguing Major League Baseball (MLB). This article examines trends in Americans’ attitudes toward the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in Olympic and professional sport as a way to better understand the messaging challenges that policy makers, players, managers, coaches, and publicists face when trying to influence the media agenda. As the poll data presented suggest, Americans feel that the incidence of performanceenhancing- drug use in professional sport is significant, especially in MLB. Furthermore, Americans suggest that the leadership of various professional sports is not doing enough to combat the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by top competitors.
Wrestling With Jello: “Good Dads” and the Reproduction of Male Dominance in Children’s Baseball
Travers and Jennifer Berdahl
When Travers told their daughter—who was 11 at the time and had switched out of baseball to softball the prior year—that they were planning to conduct research to understand why girls were dropping out of children’s baseball, “K” impatiently asked, “Why are you researching something when you
