The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2011-2012

Simons (history, State U. of New York-Oneonta) draws together 16 essays presented at the last two proceedings of the annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, which took place in June 2011 and May and June 2012. Contributed by baseball scholars from a variety of disciplines, the essays use the sport to examine broader topics: baseball history, myth, and its significance to the American past, including the effects of the 1919 Black Sox crisis on the 1926-1927 season, the 1926 World Series, the scrapbooks of Eleanor Gehrig about her husband's career, and minor league baseball in Oneonta; the 1960s as a decade of transition in the game and the nation; business aspects, with discussion of the financial records of six major league franchises, Yankee Stadium financing, and Jacobs Field in Cleveland; women umpires and players; theatrical and cinematic representations, such as in The Perfect Game, American Pastime, Sugar, Bleacher Bums The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, and Take Me Out; and statistical aspects related to the impact of racial and ethnic characteristics on sports memorabilia purchases and quality starts for pitchers. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

William M. Simons is professor of history at the State University of New York–Oneonta.