Creating the National Pastime Baseball Transforms Itself 1903-1953

by G. Edward White

At a time when many baseball fans wish for the game to return to a purer past, G. Edward White shows how seemingly irrational business decisions, inspired in part by the self-interest of the owners but also by their nostalgia for the game, transformed baseball into the national pastime. 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 owner's efforts, often supported by the legal system, to preserve this image.


Baseball grew up in the midst of urban industrialization during the Progressive Era, and the emerging steel and concrete baseball parks encapsulated feelings of neighborliness and associations with the rural leisure of bygone times. According to White, these nostalgic themes, together with personal financial concerns, guided owners toward practices that in retrospect appear unfair to players and detrimental to the progress of the game. Reserve clauses, blacklisting, and limiting franchise territories, for example, were meant to keep a consistent roster of players on a team, build fan loyalty, and maintain the game's local flavor. These practices also violated anti-trust laws and significantly restricted the economic power of the players. Owners vigorously fought against innovations, ranging from the night games and radio broadcasts to the inclusion of African-American players. Nonetheless, the image of baseball as a spirited civic endeavor persisted, even in the face of outright corruption, as witnessed in the courts' leniency toward the participants in the Black Sox scandal of 1919.


White's story of baseball is intertwined with changes in technology and business in America and with changing attitudes toward race and ethnicity. The time is fast approaching, he concludes, when we must consider whether baseball is still regarded as the national pastime and whether protecting its image is worth the effort.

Genres: Baseball, History, Sports

364 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

G. Edward White is the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1983.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creating the National Pastime explores how baseball became identified as America’s “national pastime” in the first half of the 20th century. What was unique about baseball that set it apart from other sports and made it, to use White’s term, a “cultural icon”? White argues that baseball’s uniqueness was inherent in the game itself, but its status as the national pastime was also the intentional result of actions undertaken by the men who controlled the major leagues.

Organized baseball, White says, reflected the Progressive Era in which its modern structure was established. “Baseball grew up with America’s cities, its teams becoming a focus of civic pride and energy. At the same time baseball’s fields and parks, the leisurely pace of the game, and it’s being an outdoor, daytime spectacle invoked rural and pastoral associations that were particularly evocative to a generation of Americans confronting an increasingly urbanizing and industrializing environment.”

For 50 years, beginning with the National Agreement between the National and American Leagues in 1903, the club owners and league presidents did all they could to keep the structure of their enterprise frozen in time. They did this by adhering to, and defending when necessary, three fundamental rules: (1) the territorial autonomy of established major league franchises, (2) the buyers’ monopoly on players’ services enjoyed by the teams, and (3) the reserve clause in player contracts that kept players attached to a team at the pleasure of the team. The tradition-bound owners even resisted technological advances such as night baseball and radio broadcasting, which greatly increased their revenues once they were eventually implemented.

The book focuses on the baseball “enterprise” more than the game itself. Topics include the stadiums, the impact of gambling on early baseball and the creation of the commissioner’s office, the Negro Leagues, the minor leagues, night baseball, baseball journalists, radio broadcasting, ethnicity in baseball, and more. The book is quite detailed. It’s maybe a bit dense in parts, especially those parts that focus on legal issues (the author is a law professor). But I learned a lot, and I’d recommend it as a worthwhile read for any serious student of baseball history.

[Darlis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book, however, you must enjoy the baseball that is not played on the diamond. I really enjoyed the history of ballparkss, territoriality, broadcast rights, reserve clause, civic pride, electricity, Negro Leagues, integration, and the other legal aspects of the game. Each chapter is a story of its own. Great research. I learned a lot from this book.

[Jonathan D Kopplin · Rating 3 out of 5]

White's book still stands up after 25 years due to the subject matter. A good history of the early years of "organized baseball". I felt the writing bogged down in the later chapters, but still worth reading.

[David W · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is definitely a solid history of baseball in the early half of the 20th Century. It’s definitely very detailed and well researched but there are areas where he could expanded and shortened. However, it was written 24 years ago so I would love to see perhaps a new edition with a new analysis that compares to his conclusion at the end. A good read for a fan of the history of baseball

[Chip Rickard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an excellent book. It focuses on the history of baseball in the first half of the century. It isn't a history of individual players and their achievements with a few exceptions. The author is/was a law professor and the book reads somewhat like a textbook but it isn't dry at all. There's a lot of great information in the book.

[Jason S · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good concise case of how baseball changed with the country from the turn of the century to post WW2.

[W. Nikola-Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite frankly, I didn't read this book cover to cover. But that's not a critique of the book per se. Often with nonfiction, esp. a book organized fairly loosely around a theme, I'll pick and choose chapters to read to suit my current interests. Although this was a very thorough treatment of how major league baseball transformed itself between 1903 and 1953 (the pre-modern era), I particularly liked how it dug beneath the scenes treating baseball as much as a business as it is a sport. Some chapters could have been--and are--books in and of themselves: the rise of the baseball commissioner, the Negro leagues, night baseball, etc. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to go a bit deeper into the cultural history of the game.