When Baseball Isn’t White, Straight and Male: The Media and Difference in the National Pastime by Lisa D. Alexander (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: When Baseball Isn’t White, Straight and Male: The Media and Difference in the National Pastime by Lisa D. Alexander Jennifer J. Asenas and Kevin A. Johnson Lisa D. Alexander. When Baseball Isn’t White, Straight and Male: The Media and Difference in the National Pastime. Jefferson nc: McFarland, 2013. 194 pp. Paperback, $39.95. Lisa Doris Alexander examines the way members of the media frame identities in their coverage of Major League Baseball (mlb). Specifically, Alexander is concerned with “what mlb conveys about power relations along the lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality” (7). Chapter one examines “how the salience of race/ethnicity and nationality became visible through the controlling images, or stereotypes, that were created and/or exploited during the 1998 McGwire/Sosa home-run chase” (2). Chapter two “analyzes how race and nationality influenced the different ways in which issues of sexual identity were discussed for Mike Piazza and Kazuhiro Tadano” (3). Alexander argues that “Piazza’s status as an elite white male, combined with the homophobia present in society at large, and sports culture more specifically, allowed questions surrounding his sexual orientation [End Page 146] to turn into a media spectacle” and that “race-and gender-based stereotypes regarding Asian masculinity dampened discussions about Tadano” (32). In chapter three, Alexander argues that “issues of race, nationality, class, and objectification became salient when Alex Rodriguez” signed his contract with the Rangers (3). Alexander contextualizes Rodriguez’s contract by noting that, “Race enters the picture because mlb’s power structure is organized with white owners (with one exception: Angels owner Arte Moreno), controlling a labor force comprised largely of black and Latin labor” (51). Chapter four considers how “society’s very definitions of race came into play when Effa Manley became the first woman inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2005” (3). Alexander argues, “Manley’s history, and the way that history was framed during her induction, highlights how the intersection of race and gender functioned during the World War II period” (71). Chapter five examines Barry Bonds’ record-breaking seasons and his “complicated relationship with sportswriters, the specter of performance-enhancing drugs, and his age as well as his race” and the way each “combined to influence how Bonds’s achievements are framed” (3). Alexander argues that “sportswriters adopted a guilty-until-proven-innocent posture toward Bonds where performance-enhancing drugs are concerned, when some other (white) athletes were perceived to be innocent until proven guilty” (85). Chapter six discusses “how issues of race, nationality, and reputation intersected during [mlb’s] continuing efforts to purge performance-enhancing drugs from the sport” (3). Alexander examines the cases of Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Alex Rodriguez and notes that “Media representatives have responded to these steroid allegations with disbelief, anger, and indifference” (118). She asks, “With such a range in responses, … what accounts for the different ways suspected steroid users have been treated by sportswriters? Does race and/or ethnicity help explain the different responses” (118)? Chapter seven examines the “ways mlb honors Jackie Robinson, and brings up questions surrounding how we view history and how race influences the narratives we tell about baseball’s past, present, and future” (3). Alexander argues that mlb “is comfortable with a certain version of Jackie Robinson: mlb prefers the quiet version of Robinson, the version that turned the other cheek and did not speak out against the verbal and physical abuse he encountered” (153). Scholars and fans alike can appreciate this book. Alexander makes astute observations about troubling instances of racism in mlb. For example, Alexander points out how some baseball writers have used a phonetic style when quoting players or managers who speak English as a second language. For [End Page 147] example, one sportswriter quoted Ozzie Guillén as saying, “If I was black, could jew be sayeeing these theengs? An beside, Spaneesh ees groweeng so fas een thees country. Why no writers lur Spaneesh” (18)? Alexander also provides compelling evidence of racial tensions in the Bonds steroid saga by citing one member of the baseball media who stated, “If [Bonds used steroids], hang him. Now I’m not saying hang...