Creating the National Pastime: Baseball Transforms Itself, 1903-1953 (Revised)

Not simply a professional sport, baseball has been treated as a focus of childhood rituals and an emblem of American individuality and fair play throughout much of the twentieth century. It started out, however, as a marginal urban sport associated with drinking and gambling. White describes its progression to an almost mythic status as an idyllic game, popular among people of all ages and classes. He then recounts the owners' concerted efforts, often supported by the legal system, to preserve this image".Mr. White, an affectionate but agreeably dry-eyed student of the game ... is unfailingly interesting about the influence of Hank Greenberg and Joe DiMaggio on American attitudes about ethnicity, on the business culture of an industry in which competitors are also partners, on the evolution of the relationship between major league teams, and the journalists who cover them".--George F. Will, The New York Times Book Review "This book should provide real insight into [baseball's] glorious past, and why it is no accident that we remember that past as glorious".