Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2011 Sporting Materiality: Commodification and Fan Agency in Collections, Memorabilia, Jerseys, and Dirt Stephen Patrick Andon Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION SPORTING MATERIALITY: COMMODIFICATION AND FAN AGENCY IN COLLECTIONS, MEMORABILIA, JERSEYS, AND DIRT By STEPHEN PATRICK ANDON A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2011 The members of the committee approve the dissertation of Stephen Andon defended on May 11, 2011. _______________________________________ Dr. Davis W. Houck Professor Directing Dissertation _______________________________________ Dr. Leigh H. Edwards University Representative _______________________________________ Dr. Jennifer Proffitt Committee Member _______________________________________ Dr. Arthur A. Raney Committee Member _______________________________________ Dr. Michael D. Giardina Committee Member Approved: _____________________________________ Dr. Steve McDowell, Chair, Department of Communication _____________________________________ Dr. Larry Dennis, Dean, School of Communication & Information The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii For you, better late than never iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Above all, I would like to thank Anabelle for, simply put, everything. In addition, I tremendously appreciate all the support, love, and encouragement from both the Reta and the Andon/Haven families as well as my close friends. A special thanks goes out to my mother and father, who always told me about the value of an education. I’m proud that you inspired the ultimate pursuit of that lesson. That being said, this dissertation heavily relied on the guidance and insight from my committee members, to whom I owe a great debt. I thank each of you for listening and responding to my ideas, helping me develop as a student and a scholar, and motivating me to produce to my utmost potential. Your approachability and your care have meant more to me than you’ll ever know. I also have to thank Florida State University and the Department of Communication for welcoming a yankee into their midst all the way back in 2004. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life until FSU presented me with the opportunity for graduate study. Without the support of fellowships and assistantships throughout the many years since, this dissertation could never have been written. I appreciate all the Department staff and faculty have done, not only to make me feel like part of the FSU family, but to inspire and guide the growth of my teaching and writing skills. This dissertation would also never have come together without the insightful help of the many contributors and interviewees that appear in its pages. I want to thank Carole Blair, Clyde Doepner and the Minnesota Twins, Rich Mueller, Jason Klein, Jason Alpert, Peter Capolino, and all of the uniform DIYers and members of UniWatchblog.com. And finally, I want to thank my most contemplative sounding board, my dog. You are much smarter than you look. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ viii 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................1 2. STADIUM MEMORABILIA: MOVING HISTORY TO HOME (PLATE) .......................16 2.1 From ‘Clyde the Collector’ to ‘Clyde the Curator’ .....................................................18 2.2 The Twins and Target Field’s Historical Consciousness .............................................25 2.3 Consuming Target Field: The Rhetoric of Target Field Displays ..............................28 2.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................47 3. AUTHENTICITY AT THE RIGHT PRICE: THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLICATIONS OF COMMODIFIED SPORTS MEMORABILIA ..................................49 3.1 Tracing the History of Commodification and Sport ....................................................51 3.2 Situating Game-Used Memorabilia in the Media/Sport Spectacle ..............................54 3.3 The Growth of Game-Used, Explosion of Fraud, and Solutions for Credibility .........56 3.4 Memorabilia Companies, Market Expansion, and Meaning .......................................61 3.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................69 4. ROOTING FOR CLOTHES: THE POWER OF UNIFORM AESTHETICS FROM STOCKINGS TO THROWBACKS .....................................................................................70 4.1 Material Rhetorics and Selling Nostalgic Style ...........................................................73 4.2 Sports Uniform History: From Wool to Throwbacks ..................................................78 4.3 Whose Dodgers? Materialized Memory in Sports Uniforms ......................................87 4.4 The Aesthetic, Moral, and Logical Ramifications of Throwback Jerseys ...................95 4.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................100 5. SEWING IT ALONE: UNIFORM DIYERS IN THE WORLD OF SPORTS FANDOM 103 5.1 Fandom as Resistance, Fandom as Neutrosemic .......................................................105 5.2 The Uniform DIYers ..................................................................................................111 5.2.1 Displays of Fandom .......................................................................................117 5.2.1 Gender Stereotypes and the DIY Movement .................................................125 5.3 Conclusion .................................................................................................................129 6. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................130 APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................136 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................138 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................157 v LIST OF TABLES A.1 List of professional sports teams with teal in their jersey and logo ....................................136 B.1 List of throwbacks by team, beginning year 2001 through 2011 ........................................137 vi LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Minneapolis’ Ford Building, located across the street from Target Field .............................23 2.2 Doepner reaches for an item in his now-cluttered attic .........................................................24 2.3 The baseball card wall stretches about 300 yards along Target Field’s outer façade ...........30 2.4 Joe Mauer rookie card outside the Twins’ stadium ...............................................................31 2.5 Kent Hrbek wall art in the Target Field bar that bears his name ...........................................32 2.6 The black and white Hrbek montage behind the bar .............................................................33 2.7 Kent Hrbek jerseys, beginning with his high school, in Hrbek’s bar ....................................33 2.8 The Kirby Puckett Atrium, pictured above, and the Carew Atrium both feature two-story laser-burned wood etchings of their namesake, in addition to memorabilia cases ........................35 2.9 An autographed Rod Carew batting trainer from 1973, located in the display case in the Carew Atrium .................................................................................................................................36 2.10 Post Grape-Nuts Flakes box in the 1961 display in the luxury box level .............................36 2.11 1961 packaging for Peters’ skinless wieners, located in the 1961 display in the luxury box level. ...............................................................................................................................................37 2.12 The view from the entrance of the Metropolitan Club recreates the old Met’s façade .........38 2.13 The picture of Nicollet Park, with portraits of Ted Williams and Willie Mays on the left ...39 2.14 Inside the Metropolitan Club, the Twins have recreated the colored panels from Metropolitan Stadium ....................................................................................................................40 2.15 The glass exterior of the Metropolitan Club overlooks the field of play ..............................40 2.16 A stadium seat, pennants, and the original colored bricks from the façade at Metropolitan Stadium ..........................................................................................................................................41