History 448 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Spring 2017
BASEBALL IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Lectures: TR3:30-4:45, Bolton HallB46
Instructor: Professor Neal Pease
Office Hours: Holton Hall 314, TR1:00-3:00
E-mail:
Graduate Teaching Assistant:Jessica McGillivray, Holton Hall 402, . Office hours M 2:00-4:00pm and T 5:00-7:00pm and by appointment
E-mail classlist:
Purpose of Course
To examine the place of the sport of baseball as a significant element in American history, both in its own right as the traditional “national pastime” and for its value as a tool for examining aspects of American society and civilization. The course will focus on the origins and development of baseball as a game and an industry, as well as its pervasive influence in American life. Along the way, students will consider such topics as the rise of spectator sport and leisure patterns, urbanization, population shifts, race, labor relations, the place of baseball in national culture, and mass media.
Requirements
1. Regular attendance and completion of reading assignments.
2. Two short papers, roughly 8-10 pp., on one of the suggested essay topics handed out two weeks before the due date. The first paper is due TFeb 28, the second paper T Apr 11.
Papers turned in late will be penalized in grading unless the student asks for, and receives, an extension in advance of the due date. Extensions will be granted only for good reason.
3. A final examination. This will be a take home exam, made up of essay questions handed out no later than R Apr 27. Deadline for submission, F May 19, 2:30 pm.
All coursework must be completed to pass the course.
For purposes of grading, the final examination will count roughly 1/3 of the total, with the two papers counting for 1/3 apiece. If they wish, students may submit one extra credit paper, either a book report on any book listed as “suggested reading” in the syllabus, or another book approved by the instructor, or essay on a topic approved by the instructor, expected length 5 pages. An extra credit paper, if judged worthy of credit, will raise a student’s final grade by one half step (for instance, from B- to B). Extra credit papers must be handed in no later than the last day of class, R May 11. Extra credit papers will not be accepted as substitutes for missed assignments or the final exam.
Graduate Credit Requirements
Graduate students wishing to receive graduate credit for the course must complete all above requirements, with the following modification in #2: graduate students must submit three short papers (8-10 pp.), or one longer paper (25-30 pp., roughly), on topics approved by the instructor. It is expected that graduate students will consult regularly with the instructor on the progress of their paper(s). For purposes of grading graduate students, the paper(s) will count roughly 75% of the total with the final exam counting for 25%.
Attendance Policy
Attendance is not mandatory. However, students should be aware that the final exam will be based largely on lectures, with the readings serving as backup material illustrating or expanding on lecture themes. Practically speaking, regular attendance is essential to do well in the course.
Course E-mail notifications
The instructor will use e-mail to post announcements and messages concerning the course. Students should pay close attention to such posts, and it will be their responsibility to monitor these posts and carry out any instructions they might include. Failure to notice such messages will not be accepted as an excuse. The classlist address is:
Disabled Students
If you have a disability, feel free to contact me concerning any special arrangements you might need.
History Major/Minor
All L&S students have to declare and complete an academic major to graduate. If you have earned in excess of 45 credits and have not yet declared a major, you are encouraged to do so. You must have declared and completed the requirements of a major in order to graduate.
If you either are interested in declaring a major (or minor) in History or require academic
advising in History, please visit the Department of History undergraduate program web page at for information on how to proceed.
Academic integrity at UWM
UWM and I expect each student to be honest in academic performance. Failure to do so may result in discipline under rules published by the Board of Regents (UWS 14). The penalties foracademic misconduct such as cheating or plagiarism can include a grade of
"F" for the course and expulsion from the University.
UWM policies on course-related matters: See the website of the Secretaryof the University, at:
Readings
The following books are required and may be purchased through theUWM Bookstore through its online ordering service, Copies of all readings are on 2-hour reserve at Golda Meir Library.
Bruce Kuklick, To Everything a Season (Princeton, 1993)
Robert Peterson, Only the Ball was White (Oxford, 1992)
Jerry Poling, A Summer Up North, Henry Aaronand the Legend of Eau Claire Baseball (Wisconsin, 2002)
Lawrence S. Ritter, The Glory of Their Times (Perennial, 2002)
Jules Tygiel, Past Time (Oxford, 2000)
Course Outline
What follows is an outline of lectures, exams, due dates, and readings. All titles listed as “Suggested Reading” are held by Golda Meir Library.
T Jan 24 Opening Day
R Jan 26 Baseball: The Weird American Pastime
T Jan 31 Origins of Baseball
R Feb 2 From Gentleman’s Pastime to Professional Sport
Reading: Tygiel, ch. 1-2
Suggested: David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game (2005); George Kirsch, The Creation of American Team Sports: Baseball & Cricket, 1838-1872 (1989); Tom Melville, Early Baseball and the Rise of the National League (2001); Harold Peterson, The Man Who Invented Baseball [Alexander Cartwright] (1973); Albert G. Spalding, America’s National Game (1992)
T Feb 7 The 19th Century and the Creation of the Modern Game
R Feb 9 The Deadball Era/First paper topics handed out
Reading: Kuklick, Intro-ch. 2; Ritter, ch. 1-6; Tygiel, ch. 3
Suggested: Adrian Anson, A Ballplayer’s Career (1903); Marty Appel, Slide, Kelly, Slide!, The Wild Life and Times of Mike “King” Kelly, Baseball’s First Superstar (1999); Ty Cobb, My Life in Baseball (1961); Arthur Hittner, Honus Wagner (1996); Peter Levine, A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball (1985); Steven Riess, Touching Base: Professional Baseball and American Culture in the Progressive Era (1980); Al Stump, Cobb (1994); DavidZang, Fleet Walker’s Divided Heart, the Life of Baseball’s First Black Major Leaguer (1995)
T Feb 14 Team: Matty, McGraw, and the Giants
R Feb 16 Pennant Race: National League, 1908
Reading: Ritter, ch.7-15
Suggested: Charles C. Alexander, John McGraw (1988); Eric Rolfe Greenberg, The Celebrant (1993); John McGraw, My Thirty Years in Baseball (1923); Christy Mathewson, Pitching in a Pinch (1994); Cait Murphy, Crazy ’08 (2007)
T Feb 21 The Black Sox
R Feb 23 Babe Ruth: The One and Only
Reading: Kuklick, ch. 3; Ritter, ch. 16-26; Tygiel, ch. 4
Suggested: Robert Creamer, Babe (1974); Leigh Montville, The Big Bam, The Life and Times of Babe Ruth (2006);Leverett T. Smith, The American Dream and the National Game (1975)
T Feb 28 Depression and War/Paper #1 due
R Mar 2 Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Genius
Reading: Kuklick, ch. 4-6; Tygiel, ch. 5
Suggested: Charles Alexander, Breaking the Slump, Baseball in the Depression Era (2002); LawrenceBaldassaro, ed., The Ted Williams Reader (1991); Robert Creamer, Baseball in ’41 (1992);Nicholas Dawidoff, The Catcher Was a Spy, The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (1994);Jonathan Eig, Luckiest Man, The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (2005); Lee Lowenfish, Branch Rickey (2007); Branch Rickey, The American Diamond: A Documentary of the Game of Baseball (1965)
T Mar 7 The Bushes: The Minor Leagues
R Mar 9 Sideshow: Women and other Outsiders/Second paper topics handed out
Suggested: GaiBerlage, Women in Baseball (1994); Barbara Gregorich, Women at Play (1993); Roger Kahn, Good Enough to Dream(1985); RobertObojski, Bush League: A History of Minor League Baseball (1975);Marshall Wright, The American Association (1997)
T Mar 14 Blackball: Rise of the Negro Leagues
R Mar 16 Flowering and Fading of the Negro Leagues
Reading: Peterson, ch. 1-13; Tygiel, ch. 6
Suggested: Richard Bak, Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars (1994); James Bankes, The Pittsburgh Crawfords (1991); William Brashler, Josh Gibson (2000); Phil Dixon and Patrick J. Hannigan, The Negro Baseball Leagues, 1867-1955, A Photographic History (1992); Lawrence D. Hogan, Shades of Glory, the Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American Baseball (2006); John Holway, Josh and Satch, the Life and Times of Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige (1991); John Holway, Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues (1992); Buck O’Neil, I Was Right on Time (1996); Satchel Paige, Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever (1993); Mark Ribowsky, Complete History of the Negro Leagues, 1884 to 1955 (1995); Sol White, History of Colored Baseball, 1886-1936 (1995)
Mar 19-26 Spring Break
T Mar 28 Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball/Film: excerpt from Ken Burns, Baseball, pt. 6--”The National Pastime, 1940-1950"
R Mar 30 Willie, Mickey, and the Duke: the ‘50s
Reading: Kuklick, ch. 7-10; Peterson, ch.14-Epilogue;
Suggested: Bruce Adelson, Brushing Back Jim Crow, the Integration of Minor League Baseball in the American South (1999); Howard Bryant, Shut Out, A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston (2002);Robert Creamer, Stengel (1984); Peter Golenbock, Dynasty (1975); Jonathan Eig, Opening Day, the Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season (2007); David Falkner, Great Time Coming, the Life of Jackie Robinson (1995); David Halberstam, Summer of ‘49 (1989); Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson (1997); Jackie Robinson, I Never Had it Made (1972); Scott Simon, Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball (2007); Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (1997); Jules Tygiel, ed., The Jackie Robinson Reader (1997)
T Apr 4 Bums: Brooklyn and the Dodgers
R Apr 6 The Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff: The Greatest Game Ever?/Film: “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”
Reading: Tygiel, ch. 7
Suggested: Red Barber, Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat (1997); Don DeLillo, “Pafko at the Wall,” Harper’s Magazine (1992) Doris Kearns Goodwin, Wait Till Next Year (1997); Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer (1972); Joshua Prager, The Echoing Green, The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca, and the Shot Heard Round the World (2006); Neil Sullivan, The Dodgers Move West (1987)
T Apr 11 Bushville: Baseball in Milwaukee and Wisconsin/Paper #2 due
R Apr 12 More Bushville
Reading: Tygiel, ch.8; Poling
Suggested: Howard Bryant, Last Hero, A Life of Henry Aaron (2010); Harold Kaese, The Milwaukee Braves (1954); Daniel Okrent, Nine Innings (2000); Neal Pease, “Big Game on the South Side: A Milwaukee Baseball Mystery Decoded,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 88/3 (2005); Neal Pease, “The Kosciuszko Reds, 1909-1919: Kings of the Milwaukee Sandlots,” Polish American Studies LXI/1 (2004); Bill Veeck, Veeck, As in Wreck (1962)
T Apr 18 Who Plays (or Has Played) the Game
R Apr 20 Ballparks
Reading: Kuklick, ch. 11-Epilogue
Suggested: Richard Bak, Place for Summer, A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium (1998);Lawrence Baldassaro, Beyond DiMaggio,Italian Americans in Baseball (2011); Lawrence Baldassaro and Richard A. Johnson, ed., The American Game, Baseball and Ethnicity (2002; Michael Gershman, Diamonds (1993); Peter Levine, Ellis Island to Ebbets Field, Sport and the American-Jewish Experience (1992); Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals (1992);Jeffrey Powers-Beck, The American Indian Integration of Baseball (2004)
T Apr 25 Baseball in American Culture
R Apr 27 Baseball Abroad/Final Exam Questions handed out
Suggested: Peter C. Bjarkman, Baseball with a Latin Beat (1994); Robert Coover, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, prop. (1968); Roberto Gonzalez Echeverria, The Pride of Havana (1999); Hal Erickson, Baseball in the Movies (1992); Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding (2011); Mark Harris, Bang the Drum Slowly (1956); Mark Harris, The Southpaw (1953); Colin Howell, Northern Sandlots, a Social History of Maritime Baseball [Canada] (1995); W. P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe (1982); Ring Lardner, You Know Me Al (1925); Bernard Malamud, The Natural (1952); David Maraniss, Clemente (2006); Jim Moore and Natalie Vermilyea, Ernest Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat” (1994); Eugene C. Murdock, Mighty Casey, All American (1984); Samuel Regalado, Viva Baseball, Latin Major Leaguers and their Special Hunger (1998); John Tunis, The Kid from Tomkinsville (1940)
T May 2 The Expansion Era
R May 4 Strike Zone: the Baseball Labor Wars
Reading: Tygiel, ch. 9
Suggested: Roger Angell, Five Seasons (1977); Roger Angell, The Summer Game (1972); Jim Bouton, Ball Four (1970); James Dworkin, Owners vs. Players: Baseball and Collective Bargaining (1981); David Falkner, The Last Yankee: The Turbulent Life of Billy Martin (1992); A. Bartlett Giamatti, Take Time for Paradise (1989); David Halberstam, October 1964 (1994); John Helyar, Lords of the Realm (1994); Bill James, Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (1988); Kenneth Jennings, Balls and Strikes: The Money Game in Professional Baseball (1990); Charles P. Korr, End of Baseball As We Knew It, the Players Union 1960-1981 (2002); Bowie Kuhn, Hardball(1987); Michael Lewis, Moneyball (2004);Lee Lowenfish and Tony Lupien, The Imperfect Diamond: The Story of Baseball’s Reserve System (1980); Marvin Miller, A Whole Different Ballgame (1991);Harold Parrott, The Lords of Baseball (1976); Red Smith, Red Smith on Baseball (2000); Brad Snyder, A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports (2007);John Thorn and Pete Palmer, The Hidden Game of Baseball: A Revolutionary Approach to Baseball and its Statistics (1984); George Will, Men at Work (1990); Andrew Zimbalist, In the Best Interests of Baseball, The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig (2006); Andrew Zimbalist, May the Best Team Win, Baseball Economics and Public Policy (2003)
T May 9 ‘Roids Rage
R May 11 Last Ups
F May 19 FINAL EXAM. Composed of essay questions announced in advance. Exam will cover entire course. Deadline for turn in: 2:30 pm.
Additional Holdings in Golda Meir Library
Reference Works
Baseball Encyclopedia [Macmillan], 7th ed. (1988)
Dick Clark and Larry Lester, ed., The Negro Leagues Book (1994)
Jonathan Fraser Light, The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball (1997)
Official Encyclopedia of Baseball, 10th ed. (1979)
James A. Riley, ed., Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (1994)
General Works
Charles C. Alexander, Our Game, An American Baseball History (1991)
Robert F. Burk, Never Just a Game, Players, Owners, and American Baseball to 1920 (1994)
Robert F. Burk, Much More Than a Game, Players, Owners, and American Baseball since 1920 (2001)
Daniel Okrent and Harris Lewine, ed., The Ultimate Baseball Book (1988)
Benjamin G. Rader, Baseball (1992)
John P. Rossi, The National Game, Baseball and American Culture (2000)
Harold Seymour, Baseball (1960- )
v. 1: The Early Years
v. 2: The Golden Years
v. 3: The People’s Game
Robert Smith, Baseball (1970)
Dean Sullivan, ed., Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball 1825-1908 (1995)
Dean Sullivan, ed., Middle Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball 1900-1948 (1998)
David Voigt, American Baseball: From Gentleman’s Sport to the Commissioner System (1966)
Geoffrey C. Ward, Baseball: An Illustrated History (1994)
Archival Resources
The UWM Library Archives house several collections of papers and unpublished materials that deal in large part with the history of baseball in Milwaukee. These include the papers of Albert Rainovic (1948-1987), a longtime sports cartoonist for the Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel, and the records of the law firm Stafford, Rosenbaum, Risser, and Hanson relating to the 1966 court case State of Wisconsin v. Milwaukee Braves, which sought to prevent the transfer of the club to Atlanta. The Forgotten Champs: The 1944 Milwaukee Chicks Oral History Project pertains to the local team that won the All American Girls Baseball League championship in its only year of existence. In addition, the papers of Walter Henry Bender (1913-1966) and longtime congressman Henry Reuss (1939-1982) contain items relating to the Braves. The holdings also include documents relating to the formation of the American League in Milwaukee in 1900 and the “Black Sox” scandal. The archives also possess several hard-to-find published items on aspects of baseball in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. The Roman B. Kwasniewski Photographic Collection includes terrific pictures of early-20th-century local baseball played on Milwaukee’s South Side.
Further Suggestions
The holdings of the UWM Library concerning baseball and its history are incomplete, at best, and do not include many of the most important titles. The serious student may well wish to look beyond what is available on campus. The collection of the Milwaukee Public Library is better.
The very word “Sabermetric” is a testimony to the influence of the Society for American Baseball Research, or SABR, which has greatly advanced the study of baseball and its history over the past three decades. SABR ( and its leading lights are known for their groundbreaking statistical analyses and for many valuable publications. Membership is open to all, as are the meetings of the local Ken Keltner Badger State chapter.
The outstanding film history of the sport is Ken Burns’ massive, well known, and recently updated “Baseball” (1994), which is readily available on video. While the series has flaws--some installments are better than others, Burns shows an intense East coast bias that pretty much ignores anything happening west of New York, and some scholars have criticized him for inaccuracies—in all his film is a considerable achievement.
A multitude of resources are floating around cyberspace, as well. Baseball Reference ( is probably the best all purpose site for the sort of reference and statistical information once served by print encyclopedias of the sport.
John Skilton’s Baseball Links ( as an online clearing house for information on all facets of baseball. Baseball Almanac ( the Library of Congress “Historic Baseball Resources” ( useful in different ways. Other notable organizations and institutions have Web pages also, such as the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y ( While it is not their main focus, the official sites of both Major League Baseball ( and Minor League Baseball ( include historical material, as do the sites of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum ( the Negro League Baseball Players association ( and the All American Girls Professional Baseball League ( You can access the periodical Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture online at
1