Baseball as America: seeing ourselves through our national game

Foreword / Jane Forbes Clark

Introduction / Jules Tygiel

Our National Spirit

From God's Country and Mine, 1954 / Jacques Barzun

Baseball is our game, 1888 / Walt Whitman

To the Patriotic Lovers of America's Game, 1913

Spalding's Commission / Tom Shieber and Ted Spencer

Baseball in Japan: The National Pastime Beyond National Character / William Kelly

Rise of the World Series / Neil Harris

Letter from Military Prison, 1864 / Albert D. Richardson

Green Light Letter, 1942 / Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Front Lines to the Backyard / Tom Brokaw

Baseball in a Time of Crisis / Allan H. (Bud) Selig

Ideals and Injustices

From History of Colored Baseball, 1907 / Sol White

This Morning, 1939 / Shirley Povich

Letter of Invitation, 1945 / F. H. LaGuardia

It Didn't Happen Overnight / Buck O'Neil

Baseball and Ethnicity / Steven Riess

From My Baseball Years, 1973 / Philip Roth

Induction Speech, 1966 / Ted Williams

World Series Speech, 1972 / Jackie Robinson

Roberto Clemente: Activist and Pioneer / Bruce Markusen

Baseball Migrants: Dreaming in Dominican / Milton Jamail

Enjoying It Hugely, 1866 / Annie Glidden

Diamonds for Girls, 1974 / C. C. Johnson Spink

Muscle in the Bud / Barbara Gregorich

Rooting for the Team

From The Natural, 1952 / Bernard Malamud

Obituary of Elizabeth Dooley, 2000 / Dan Shaughnessy

Music of the Sphere / Tim Wiles

Fathers Eating Hot Dogs with Sons / Molly O'Neill

Leave the Plate at Home / Charles Camp

Gift, 1991 / Michael Chabon

Why the Minnesota Twins Have Such Big Heads / Karal Ann Marling

From Raising Demons, 1953 / Shirley Jackson

Growing up with the Game / John Grisham

Our National Pastime, 1996 / Dave Barry

Minors: Touching the American Heart / David Lamb

We Never Called Them Bums / Roger Kahn

Language of Numbers / Bill James

You, Too, Can Be a General Manager! / Daniel Okrent

Enterprise and Opportunity

Never Far from the Counting House / Warren Jay Goldstein

Ball, a Bat, and a Bet / Eliot Asinof

Peculiar Business of Baseball / Andrew Zimbalist

Leveling the Playing Field / Gary S. Becker

From Standing the Gaff, 1935 / Harry "Steamboat" Johnson

Umpires and Rules / Larry Gerlach

Can of Beer, a Slice of Cake - and Thou, Eddie Gaedel from Veeck as in Wreck, 1962 / Bill Veeck and Ed Linn

Beyond the Bleachers: Enhancing the Fan Experience / David Rockwell

Baubles, Bangles, and Bubble Gum: Baseball Collectibles / Richard Merkin and Lawrence S. Ritter

Fighting the Reserve Clause, 1969 / Curt Flood and Bowie Kuhn

Sharing a Common Culture

Casey at the Bat / Ernest L. Thayer

Big Show on the Big Screen / Joshua Siegel

Reflections on The Natural / Barry Levinson and Joshua Siegel

League of Our Own / Penny Marshall, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel

Baseball as Art: The American Vernacular / Shelly Mehlman Dinhofer

Charlie Brown: American Baseball Icon / John Odell

On the Air / Curt Smith

Invention and Ingenuity

About Second Basemen, 1890 / Bid McPhee

Pitching and Hitting Curveballs / Robert K. Adair

Home Run / George Plimpton

What Wood You Rather Use? / Craig V. Vogel

Communicating Baseball / Neil Harris

Weaving Myths

From Shoeless Joe, 1982 / W. P. Kinsella

American Diamonds / Gerald Early

Farewell, 1964 / Roger Angell

There Used to Be a Ballpark, 1973 / Joe Raposo

Silent Superstar, 1999 / Paul Simon

Nobody Will Ever Play Baseball, 1960 / Bob Newhart

Mythopoetics of Place and Memory / Charles F. Springwood

From Shoeless Joe, 1982 / W. P. Kinsella

Selections from the Collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Baseball As American Sponsor Statement.