History 448 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Spring 2007

History 448 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Fall 2012

BASEBALL IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Lectures: MW 11:00-12:15, Holton Hall 180 Instructor: Professor Neal Pease Office Hours: Holton Hall 314, MW 10:00-10:45, T 9:30-12:00 Phone: 229-5205 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail Classlist: [email protected] Graduate Teaching Assistant: Maura Coonan ([email protected]), Holton Hall 375, phone 229-6700

Purpose of Course

To examine the place of the sport of baseball as a significant element in American history, both in its own right as the traditional “national pastime “ and for its value as a tool for examining aspects of American society and civilization. The course will focus on the origins and development of baseball as a game and an industry, as well as its pervasive influence in American life. Along the way, students will consider such topics as the rise of spectator sport and leisure patterns, urbanization, population shifts, race, labor relations, the place of baseball in national culture, and mass media.

Requirements

1. Regular attendance and completion of reading assignments.

2. Two short papers, roughly 8-10 pp., on one of the suggested essay topics handed out two weeks before the due date, or a review of any book listed as “suggested reading” in the syllabus (not required course readings, and reference works). The first paper is due M Oct 8, the second paper M Nov 19.

Papers turned in late will be penalized in grading unless the student asks for, and receives, an extension in advance of the due date. Extensions will be granted only for good reason.

3. A final examination. This will be a take home exam, made up of essay questions handed out no later than W Dec 5. Deadline for submission, Tuesday, Dec 18, 12:00 noon. All coursework must be completed to pass the course.

For purposes of grading, the final examination will count roughly 1/3 of the total, with the two papers counting for 1/3 apiece. If they wish, students may submit one extra credit paper, either a book report or essay on a topic approved by the instructor, expected length 5 pages An extra credit paper, if judged worthy of credit, will raise a student’s final grade by one half step (for instance, from B- to B). Extra credit papers must be handed in no later than the last day of class, W Dec 12. Extra credit papers will not be accepted as substitutes for missed assignments or the final exam.

Graduate Credit Requirements

Graduate students wishing to receive graduate credit for the course must complete all above requirements, with the following modification in #2: graduate students must submit three short papers (8-10 pp.), or one longer paper (25-30 pp., roughly), on topics approved by the instructor. It is expected that graduate students will consult regularly with the instructor on the progress of their paper(s). For purposes of grading graduate students, the paper(s) will count roughly 75% of the total with the final exam counting for 25%.

Attendance Policy

Attendance is not mandatory. However, students should be aware that the final exam will be based largely on lectures, with the readings serving as backup material illustrating or expanding on lecture themes. Practically speaking, regular attendance is essential to do well in the course.

E-mail Classlist

The classlist allows you to send an e-mail message to all members of the class at once, or to receive one from any member of the class, including the instructor. The instructor will use the classlist to post announcements and messages concerning the course. Students should pay close attention to such posts, and it will be their responsibility to monitor these posts and carry out any instructions they might include. Failure to notice such messages will not be accepted as an excuse. The address is: [email protected]. Any message intended only for the instructor should be sent to his e-mail: [email protected]. Please note: the classlist includes only UWM addresses. It is your responsibility to activate your UWM e-mail. Please do not ask the instructor to add your non-UWM e-mail address to the classlist.

2 Disabled Students

If you have a disability, feel free to contact me concerning any special arrangements you might need.

History Major/Minor

All L&S students have to declare and complete an academic major to graduate. If you have earned in excess of 45 credits and have not yet declared a major, you are encouraged to do so. You must have declared and completed the requirements of a major in order to graduate. If you either are interested in declaring a major (or minor) in History or require academic advising in History, please visit the Department of History undergraduate program web page at http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/history/undergrad/ for information on how to proceed.

Academic integrity at UWM

UWM and I expect each student to be honest in academic performance. Failure to do so may result in discipline under rules published by the Board of Regents (UWS 14). The penalties for academic misconduct such as cheating or plagiarism can include a grade of "F" for the course and expulsion from the University.

UWM policies on course-related matters: See the website of the Secretary of the University, at: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/SyllabusLinks.pdf

Readings

The following books are required and may be purchased at Neebo, 3132 N. Downer Av. (former Panther Books). Copies of all readings are on electronic reserve at Golda Meir Library.

Bruce Kuklick, To Everything a Season (Princeton, 1993) Robert Peterson, Only the Ball was White (Oxford, 1992) Benjamin G. Rader, Baseball (Illinois, 2002) Lawrence S. Ritter, The Glory of Their Times (Perennial, 2002) Jules Tygiel, Past Time (Oxford, 2000)

The following two titles are not required course readings, but are collections of documents relating to the history of baseball that you may find useful for papers or individual research, so they have been placed on two hour reserve at the Library.

3 Dean Sullivan, ed., Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball 1825-1908 (1995) Dean Sullivan, ed., Middle Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball 1900-1948 (1998)

Course Outline

What follows is an outline of lectures, exams, due dates, and readings. All titles listed as “Suggested Reading” are held by Golda Meir Library.

W Sept 5 Opening Day

Reading: Rader, Intro

M Sept 10 Origins of Baseball W Sept 12 From Gentleman’s Pastime to Professional Sport

Reading: Rader, ch. 1-4; Tygiel, ch. 1-2

Suggested: David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game (2005); George Kirsch, The Creation of American Team Sports: Baseball & Cricket, 1838-1872 (1989); Tom Melville, Early Baseball and the Rise of the National League (2001); Harold Peterson, The Man Who Invented Baseball [Alexander Cartwright] (1973); Albert G. Spalding, America’s National Game (1992)

M Sept 17 The 19th Century and the Creation of the Modern Game W Sept 19 The Deadball Era/First paper topics handed out

Reading: Kuklick, Intro-ch. 2; Rader, ch. 5-7; Ritter, ch. 1-6; Tygiel, ch. 3

Suggested: Adrian Anson, A Ballplayer’s Career (1903); Marty Appel, Slide, Kelly, Slide!, The Wild Life and Times of Mike “King” Kelly, Baseball’s First Superstar (1999); Ty Cobb, My Life in Baseball (1961); Arthur Hittner, Honus Wagner (1996); Peter Levine, A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball (1985); Steven Riess, Touching Base: Professional Baseball and American Culture in the Progressive Era (1980); Al Stump, Cobb (1994); David Zang, Fleet Walker’s Divided Heart, the Life of Baseball’s First Black Major Leaguer (1995)

M Sept 24 Team: Matty, McGraw, and the Giants W Sept 26 Pennant Race: National League, 1908

4 Reading: Ritter, ch. 7-15

Suggested: Charles C. Alexander, John McGraw (1988); Eric Rolfe Greenberg, The Celebrant (1993); John McGraw, My Thirty Years in Baseball (1923); Christy Mathewson, Pitching in a Pinch (1994); Cait Murphy, Crazy ’08 (2007)

M Oct 1 The Black Sox/Film: excerpt from Ken Burns, Baseball, pt. 3--”The Faith of Fifty Million People” W Oct 3 Slugfest: Baseball in the ‘20s

Reading: Kuklick, ch. 3; Rader, ch. 8; Ritter, ch. 16-26; Tygiel, ch. 4

Suggested: Leverett T. Smith, The American Dream and the National Game (1975)

M Oct 8 Babe Ruth: The One and Only/Paper #1 due W Oct 10 Depression and War

Reading: Kuklick, ch. 4-6; Rader, ch. 9-10; Tygiel, ch. 5

Suggested: Charles Alexander, Breaking the Slump, Baseball in the Depression Era (2002); Lawrence Baldassaro, ed., The Ted Williams Reader (1991); Robert Creamer, Babe (1974); Robert Creamer, Baseball in ’41 (1992); Nicholas Dawidoff, The Catcher Was a Spy, The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (1994); Jonathan Eig, Luckiest Man, The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (2005); Leigh Montville, The Big Bam, The Life and Times of Babe Ruth (2006)

M Oct 15 Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Genius W Oct 17 The Bushes: The Minor Leagues

Suggested: Lee Lowenfish, Branch Rickey (2007); Robert Obojski, Bush League: A History of Minor League Baseball (1975); Branch Rickey, The American Diamond: A Documentary of the Game of Baseball (1965); Marshall Wright, The American Association (1997)

M Oct 22 Sideshow: Barnstormers, Sandlotters, Women /Second paper topics handed out W Oct 24 Blackball: Rise of the Negro Leagues

Reading: Peterson, ch. 1-8; Tygiel, ch. 6

5 Suggested: Gai Berlage, Women in Baseball (1994); William Brashler, Josh Gibson (2000); Phil Dixon and Patrick J. Hannigan, The Negro Baseball Leagues, 1867-1955, A Photographic History (1992); Barbara Gregorich, Women at Play (1993); Lawrence D. Hogan, Shades of Glory, the Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American Baseball (2006); Mark Ribowsky, Complete History of the Negro Leagues, 1884 to 1955 (1995); Sol White, History of Colored Baseball, 1886-1936 (1995)

M Oct 29 Flowering and Fading of the Negro Leagues W Oct 31 Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball/Film: excerpt from Ken Burns, Baseball, pt. 6--”The National Pastime, 1940-1950"

Reading: Peterson, ch. 9-Epilogue; Rader, ch. 11

Suggested: Bruce Adelson, Brushing Back Jim Crow, the Integration of Minor League Baseball in the American South (1999); Richard Bak, Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars (1994); James Bankes, The Pittsburgh Crawfords (1991); Jonathan Eig, Opening Day, the Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season (2007); David Falkner, Great Time Coming, the Life of Jackie Robinson (1995); John Holway, Josh and Satch, the Life and Times of Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige (1991); John Holway, Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues (1992); Buck O’Neil, I Was Right on Time (1996); Satchel Paige, Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever (1993); Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson (1997); Jackie Robinson, I Never Had it Made (1972); Scott Simon, Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball (2007); Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (1997); Jules Tygiel, ed., The Jackie Robinson Reader (1997)

M Nov 5 Willie, Mickey, and the Duke: the ‘50s W Nov 7 Bums: Brooklyn and the Dodgers

Reading: Kuklick, ch. 7-10; Rader, ch. 12-13

Suggested: Red Barber, Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat (1997); Robert Creamer, Stengel (1984); Peter Golenbock, Dynasty (1975); Doris Kearns Goodwin, Wait Till Next Year (1997); David Halberstam, Summer of ‘49 (1989); Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer (1972); Neil Sullivan, The Dodgers Move West (1987)

M Nov 12 The Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff: The Greatest Game Ever?/Film: “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” W Nov 14 Bushville: Baseball in Milwaukee and Wisconsin

Reading: Tygiel, ch. 7-8

Suggested: Howard Bryant, Last Hero, A Life of Henry Aaron (2010); Don DeLillo, Underworld (1997); Harold Kaese, The Milwaukee Braves (1954); Daniel Okrent, Nine Innings (2000); Neal Pease, “Big Game on the South Side: A Milwaukee Baseball

6 Mystery Decoded,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 88/3 (2005); Neal Pease, “The Kosciuszko Reds, 1909-1919: Kings of the Milwaukee Sandlots,” Polish American Studies LXI/1 (2004); Jerry Poling, A Summer Up North, Henry Aaron and the Legend of Eau Claire Baseball (2002); Joshua Prager, The Echoing Green, The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca, and the Shot Heard Round the World (2006); Bill Veeck, Veeck, As in Wreck (1962)

M Nov 19 Who Plays the Game/Paper #2 due

Suggested: Lawrence Baldassaro, Beyond DiMaggio, Italian Americans in Baseball (2011); Lawrence Baldassaro and Richard A. Johnson, ed., The American Game, Baseball and Ethnicity (2002); Peter Levine, Ellis Island to Ebbets Field, Sport and the American-Jewish Experience (1992); Jeffrey Powers-Beck, The American Indian Integration of Baseball (2004)

M Nov 26 Ballparks W Nov 28 Baseball in American Culture

Reading: Kuklick, ch. 11-Epilogue

Suggested: Richard Bak, Place for Summer, A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium (1998); Robert Coover, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, prop. (1968); Hal Erickson, Baseball in the Movies (1992); Michael Gershman, Diamonds (1993); Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding (2011); Mark Harris, Bang the Drum Slowly (1956); Mark Harris, The Southpaw (1953); W. P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe (1982); Ring Lardner, You Know Me Al (1925); Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals (1992); Bernard Malamud, The Natural (1952); Jim Moore and Natalie Vermilyea, Ernest Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat” (1994); Eugene C. Murdock, Mighty Casey, All American (1984); John Tunis, The Kid from Tomkinsville (1940)

M Dec 3 Baseball Abroad W Dec 5 The Expansion Era /Final Exam Questions handed out

Suggested: Roger Angell, The Summer Game (1972); Peter C. Bjarkman, Baseball with a Latin Beat (1994); Jim Bouton, Ball Four (1970); Roberto Gonzalez Echeverria, The Pride of Havana (1999); David Halberstam, October 1964 (1994); Colin Howell, Northern Sandlots, a Social History of Maritime Baseball [Canada] (1995); David Maraniss, Clemente (2006); Samuel Regalado, Viva Baseball, Latin Major Leaguers and their Special Hunger (1998)

M Dec 10 Strike Zone: The Labor Wars W Dec 12 Last Ups: The ‘Roid Rage and After

7 Reading: Rader, ch. 14-17; Tygiel, ch. 9

Suggested: Roger Angell, Five Seasons (1977); James Dworkin, Owners vs. Players: Baseball and Collective Bargaining (1981); David Falkner, The Last Yankee: The Turbulent Life of Billy Martin (1992); A. Bartlett Giamatti, Take Time for Paradise (1989); John Helyar, Lords of the Realm (1994); Bill James, Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (1988); Kenneth Jennings, Balls and Strikes: The Money Game in Professional Baseball (1990); Charles P. Korr, End of Baseball As We Knew It, the Players Union 1960-1981 (2002); Bowie Kuhn, Hardball (1987); Lee Lowenfish and Tony Lupien, The Imperfect Diamond: The Story of Baseball’s Reserve System (1980); Marvin Miller, A Whole Different Ballgame (1991); Harold Parrott, The Lords of Baseball (1976); Red Smith, Red Smith on Baseball (2000); Brad Snyder, A Well-Paid Slave : Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports (2007); John Thorn and Pete Palmer, The Hidden Game of Baseball: A Revolutionary Approach to Baseball and its Statistics (1984); George Will, Men at Work (1990); Andrew Zimbalist, In the Best Interests of Baseball, The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig (2006); Andrew Zimbalist, May the Best Team Win, Baseball Economics and Public Policy (2003)

T Dec 18 FINAL EXAM. Composed of essay questions announced in advance. Exam will cover entire course. Deadline for turn in: 12:00 noon.

Additional Holdings in Golda Meir Library

Reference Works

Baseball Encyclopedia [Macmillan], 7th ed. (1988) Dick Clark and Larry Lester, ed., The Negro Leagues Book (1994) Jonathan Fraser Light, The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball (1997) Official Encyclopedia of Baseball, 10th ed. (1979) James A. Riley, ed., Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (1994)

General Works

Charles C. Alexander, Our Game, An American Baseball History (1991) Robert F. Burk, Never Just a Game, Players, Owners, and American Baseball to 1920 (1994) Robert F. Burk, Much More Than a Game, Players, Owners, and American Baseball since 1920 (2001) Daniel Okrent and Harris Lewine, ed., The Ultimate Baseball Book (1988) John P. Rossi, The National Game, Baseball and American Culture (2000) Harold Seymour, Baseball (1960- ) v. 1: The Early Years

8 v. 2: The Golden Years v. 3: The People’s Game Robert Smith, Baseball (1970) David Voigt, American Baseball: From Gentleman’s Sport to the Commissioner System (1966) Geoffrey C. Ward, Baseball: An Illustrated History (1994)

Archival Resources

The UWM Library Archives house several collections of papers and unpublished materials that deal in large part with the history of baseball in Milwaukee. These include the papers of Albert Rainovic (1948-1987), a longtime sports cartoonist for the Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel, and the records of the law firm Stafford, Rosenbaum, Risser, and Hanson relating to the 1966 court case State of Wisconsin v. Milwaukee Braves, which sought to prevent the transfer of the club to Atlanta. The Forgotten Champs: The 1944 Milwaukee Chicks Oral History Project pertains to the local team that won the All American Girls Baseball League championship in its only year of existence. In addition, the papers of Walter Henry Bender (1913-1966) and longtime congressman Henry Reuss (1939-1982) contain items relating to the Braves. The holdings also include documents relating to the formation of the American League in Milwaukee in 1900 and the “Black Sox” scandal. The archives also possess several hard-to-find published items on aspects of baseball in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. The Roman B. Kwasniewski Photographic Collection includes terrific pictures of early-20th-century local baseball played on Milwaukee’s South Side.

Further Suggestions

The holdings of the UWM Library concerning baseball and its history are incomplete, at best, and do not include many of the most important titles. The serious student may well wish to look beyond what is available on campus. The collection of the Milwaukee Public Library is better. The Rader text appends an informative bibliography which will give you a good start.

The most current standard reference volume for historians of the sport is the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, 5th ed. (2005). This hefty item supplements compilations of statistics and records by assembling articles and chapters by leading scholars of the game. You’ll find all the stats you could want, too, reflecting the approach of the recent “Sabermetric” school of baseball statistical analysis.

The very word “Sabermetric” is a testimony to the influence of the Society for American Baseball Research, or SABR, which has greatly advanced the study of baseball and its history over the past three decades. SABR (www.sabr.org) and its leading lights are known for their groundbreaking statistical analyses and for many valuable publications.

9 Membership is open to all, as are the meetings of the local Ken Keltner Badger State chapter.

The outstanding film history of the sport is Ken Burns’ massive, well known, and recently updated “Baseball” (1994), which is readily available on video. While the series has flaws--some installments are better than others, Burns shows an intense East coast bias that pretty much ignores anything happening west of New York, and some scholars have criticized him for inaccuracies—in all his film is a considerable achievement.

A multitude of resources are floating around cyberspace, as well. John Skilton’s Baseball Links (www.baseball-links.com) serves as an online clearing house for information on all facets of baseball. Baseball Almanac (www.baseball-almanac.com), Baseball Library (www.baseballlibrary.com), and Baseball Reference (www.baseball-reference.com) all are useful in different ways. SABR’s Baseball Index (www.baseballindex.org) provides a handy guide to published baseball literature. Other notable organizations and institutions have Web pages also, such as the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y (www.baseballhall.org). While it is not their main focus, the official sites of both Major League Baseball (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/) and Minor League Baseball (http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/history/) include historical material, as do the sites of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (http://www.nlbm.com/) and the Negro League Baseball Players association (http://www.nlbpa.com/index.html). You can access the periodical Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture online at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nin/.