Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years

by Steven P. Gietschier

The Turbulent Midcentury Years explores the history of organized baseball during the middle of the twentieth century, examining the sport on and off the field and contextualizing its development as both sport and business within the broader contours of American history. Steven P. Gietschier begins with the Great Depression, looking at how those years of economic turmoil shaped the sport and how baseball responded. Gietschier covers a then-burgeoning group of owners, players, and key figures—among them Branch Rickey, Larry MacPhail, Hank Greenberg, Ford Frick, and several others—whose stories figure prominently in baseball’s past and some of whom are still prominent in its collective consciousness.

Combining narrative and analysis, Gietschier tells the game’s history across more than three decades while simultaneously exploring its politics and economics, including, for example, how the game confronted and barely survived the United States’ entry into World War II; how owners controlled their labor supply—the players; and how the business of baseball interacted with the federal government. He reveals how baseball handled the return to peacetime and the defining postwar decade, including the integration of the game, the demise of the Negro Leagues, the emergence of television, and the first efforts to move franchises and expand into new markets. Gietschier considers much of the work done by biographers, scholars, and baseball researchers to inform a new and current history of baseball in one of its more important and transformational periods.
 

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, History

624 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2023

Reviews

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years by Steven P Gietschier is an ideal read for those sports enthusiasts who like to understand the relationship between our sports and our society at large.

Sports, and for a long time in the United States baseball in particular, has reflected what has been happening in society. Sometimes it reflects the bad back to us, sometimes the good, and always what is current. Of course, what is current may be coming into or out of what passes for normal, so at various times baseball may be on the leading edge and sometimes on the trailing edge. The period covered in this book includes major change in both baseball and US society. Watching how the two informed and influenced each other is fascinating.

While scholarly, the writing is very accessible to anyone with an interest in the period. And for those of us who remember living through some of these times there is a lot of nostalgia included. If you were following baseball in the 1960s, and I was (including a stint in the late 60s as a batboy), you also heard and read a lot about "how it has always been." My preferred magazine at the time was Sport, not SI, mainly because Sport focused on the "big four" sports. And any article about what was currently happening included at least some mention of how it had been previously, so it seems like I remember things that I couldn't. But being close in time and reading so much about it, I recall it vividly.

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in baseball, or sports in general, in relation to the society within which it is being played. Sports historians, cultural historians, and those in area studies that might touch on baseball will find a lot here to appreciate. If you're really mostly a fan of baseball, there is still a lot here for you, and you may be surprised at how interesting you will find the periphery information.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Book.Mountain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baseball

The Turbulent Midcentury Years

by Steven P. Gietschier

Release date: July 1, 2023


A thouroughly researched, well written history of baseball in 20th century. While reading this I was constantly reminded of Ken Burns fantastic documentary series on baseball; though this book encompasses a compacted scope from the lead up to the great depression through World War 2 and baseballs boom and expansion thereafter rather than the history of the entire sport start to present day.

As a fan and follower of the sport of baseball for my entire life, some of the material I'm familiar with but there was also plenty of fresh material covered here. I particularly enjoyed the author going into the lighting of stadiums and how night baseball was introduced and became the norm; the advent of radio/television and how that relationship developed through baseball. This book also devotes a good portion to baseball's minor leagues and their interaction with the big leagues. The latter portion of the book includes major league baseball's move westward into California as well as the expansion of new teams. The book was full of fascinating information and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. I would highly recommend it to those who enjoy baseball, history in general, and especially those who enjoy both. Thank you to the publisher University of Nebraska Press and netgalley for access to an advance copy of the book.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book about the history of the game and some of the main players. I found the section about Landis the first commissioner interesting as he went more into his life He does go over more of the bigger things that happened in the game and with the players. There were some areas I would have liked him to have touched on more but that is just me overall a good and a lot of research went into this book. I received this book from Netgalley.com

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book and it did not disappoint. Steven P. Gietschier has provided baseball/history aficionados like me with an extensively researched, well written look at baseball from the 1930s through the 1950s. Most interesting to me is that the book provides detailed looks behind the scenes of the business of baseball, including MLB’s relationship with minor league towns and teams as well as the forces that drove the first wave of expansion in 1961 and 1962.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent look at the midlife of baseball and how expansion of the late fifties thought the mid to late sixties changed the face of the game. This book really spared my interest in getting back into baseball study. As a life long fan I had become apathetic about the game. Well worth the read by baseball fans everywhere.

[John Schorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were to teach a course on baseball, this would be a perfect volume to include in the curriculum. While the writing style won't remind you of Roger Angell, the author covers a wide variety of subjects in a concise way.

[Adam J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book covering far more than on-field actions.

[Tim K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars…rounding up. The breadth of material covered is tremendous! From the mid 1900 - 1960 covering topics:
-Early club ownership
-Formation of AL and NL
-Early governance and need for a commissioner
-Branch Rickey and formation of minors
-Depression years
-WW2 impacts
-Reserve clause impact on players
-various attempts at a third major league
-success of PCL league
-negro league impacts to game
-impacts of radio and TV

and much much more! If you geek out on baseball this is your book.