Baseball Officials Research Articles

Giving Everyone Permission? Sports Journalists Explain the Miami Marlins' Hiring of Kim Ng as Major League Baseball's First Female General Manager

Abstract: A textual analysis was conducted of coverage by sportswriters for major print, online, and broadcast outlets of the hiring in November 2020 by Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins of Kim Ng. Ng is the first woman in the four major sports to attain that position. The significance of the hiring was diminished by the tendency of sportswriters to cite those women who blazed a trail for Ng without detailing their activism or appropriately referencing its importance. Ng was not an activist—she worked hard, kept her head down, built on her encyclopedic knowledge of the game, and was a team player at every career stop. Coverage foregrounded the hope that Ng would become a trailblazer for others, that she would empower them to "use their voices and dream big while also creating more of an inclusive atmosphere" (Mackey, 2020). But that hope came without a push for transformational policy and culture change that would put an end to discrimination. Sportswriters lavished praise on Marlins President Derek Jeter for his foresight and bravery in hiring Ng. Major League Baseball officials were lauded for how far they had come. Typical signs of misogyny are nearly absent from the coverage, but so was the feminist impetus to eliminate discrimination. Ng's hiring was neither blessing nor curse; it was allowed in coverage to be operationalized by league officials to tout the still small number of women who had taken positions in baseball and to assist them in forestalling criticism of their dilatory handling of scandal.

Willie Stargell: A Life in Baseball by Frank Garland (review)

Reviewed by: Willie Stargell: A Life in Baseball by Frank Garland Dave Ogden Frank Garland. Willie Stargell: A Life in Baseball. Jefferson nc: McFarland, 2013. 263 pp. Paper, $29.95. This biography captures Stargell’s charisma and impact on a team that won its division six years during the 1970s, with World Series championships in 1971 and 1979. Garland provides rich detail and weaves quotes from fellow players and opponents, baseball officials, friends, and family (including an ex-wife) with anecdotes, to create an in-depth profile of Stargell’s life on the diamond. Garland follows Stargell’s career from Willie’s days as a baseball standout at Encinal High School in Alameda, California, to his last days as coach and consultant in the Pirates organization. Garland describes how baseball was the fiber of Stargell’s life, and there were clear signs of that when Stargell was [End Page 160] a youngster. Even before high school, Stargell was hinting at the mammoth power he would display in the major leagues. One high school teammate said Stargell was hitting a baseball more than four hundred feet by the time he was twelve years old. Garland describes Stargell’s evolution as a baseball player as seamless, with Stargell signing with the Pirates right out of high school. According to Garland, the biggest obstacles in Stargell’s career were the same ones with which society as a whole was grappling. First among those for Stargell was the blatant racism he and other black players faced in the 1960s and 1970s. Garland notes that Stargell found it particularly difficult to accept racial segregation among players, especially for dining and lodging. Garland wrote that Stargell’s upbringing in the racially mixed and open community of Alameda sheltered him to an extent from the harsh realities of racism. Stargell wasn’t prepared for the treatment he had to endure in the minor and major leagues. Garland claims that Stargell was able to rise above the prejudice as his leadership and athletic skills continued to blossom. In the 1970s, Stargell used those skills, Garland said, to bring a sense of calmness to the clubhouse and to transform a racially mixed Pirates team to a close-knit group of players. Thus, when manager Danny Murtaugh had an all-minority lineup in a September 1971 game against the Phillies, some Pirates players didn’t notice or give much thought to the major leagues’ first all-black starting nine. Al Oliver, for example, “was not even aware of the historic nature of the lineup until [Pirates third baseman Dave] Cash mentioned it to him in the third or fourth inning” (89). The 1979 team showcased Stargell’s leadership on the club, and Garland devotes an entire chapter to that team. Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” became the emblematic song for a team that won the World Series and helped to net Stargell the mvp award for the Series and the season (although Keith Hernandez was named co-mvp for that year). Stargell, in his later years, became outspoken about the lack of African Americans in leadership positions in the Major League Baseball, and Garland said that his impact was also felt off the field. Garland touts Stargell as a champion for social justice and awareness not only in baseball but also in the community and the nation. For example, Stargell began his own foundation to raise money and public awareness to combat sickle-cell anemia and kidney disease. While the foundation raised almost $160,000 after the Pirates’ 1979 World Series championship, it folded in 1982, partly because it spent too much on administrative costs. Garland said that Stargell remained committed to fighting sickle-cell anemia and became a spokesman for the National Association for Sickle Cell Disease. After Stargell retired in 1982 as a player, he worked for his former manager, [End Page 161] Chuck Tanner, as a coach and followed Tanner to the Braves after Pittsburgh let Tanner go. While Stargell’s coaching career is common knowledge, his career as a commercial pitchman and as an artist is less known, and Garland provides a detailed account of that period in his life. In 1983, Stargell embarked on...

Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961–1998 by Fran Zimniuch (review)

Reviewed by: Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961–1998 by Fran Zimniuch Matt Follett Fran Zimniuch. Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961–1998. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. 232 pp. Cloth, $19.99. Fran Zimniuch’s Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961–1998 traces how Major League Baseball’s fourteen expansion teams came into existence, from the California Angels and Washington Senators in 1961 through the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998. While pertinent players, managers, team statistics, and records are provided in detail, the book lacks a fluid narrative and needs more analysis on why expansion occurred, especially given its stark comparison with the emerging National Football League. Baseball’s New Frontier will appeal to the layman baseball fan, but voracious readers and scholars will be disappointed with the lack of footnotes, index, and interviews with high-ranking Major League Baseball officials involved in the expansion process. Zimniuch begins the book with background information on the first major geographical shift in Major League Baseball. In a unanimous decision by National League owners, Walter O’Malley’s Brooklyn Dodgers and Horace Stoneham’s New York Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco on May 28, 1957, respectively (19). O’Malley and Stoneham were presented with better stadium facilities and economic opportunities in Los Angeles and San Francisco than what was offered in Brooklyn and the Meadowlands. Chapter [End Page 158] 2, “The Continental League,” demonstrates how the fear of a third major league sparked expansion. After the Dodgers’ and Giants’ departure, New York City’s mayor, Robert Wagner, created the Mayor’s Baseball Committee to bring a major-league team back to New York. William Shea, a prominent New York attorney, led the commission, but Zimniuch argues it was Branch Rickey’s involvement as the potential Continental League commissioner that legitimized the rival league. With Rickey’s notoriety and the financial acumen of eight owners who committed $2.5 million and funded stadiums to hold 35,000 fans, the Continental League announced its plans for opening day on April 18, 1961 (33). Threatened by competition from a third major league, American League and National League owners offered four new teams to Los Angeles, Washington dc, Houston, and New York. As a result, the Continental League owners accepted the proposal and the league folded on August 2, 1960, before any games were played (36). Zimniuch then chronicles all of the expansion teams: California Angels and Washington Senators in 1961; Houston Colt .45s and New York Mets in 1962; Kansas City Royals, Seattle Pilots, San Diego Padres, and Montreal Expos in 1969; Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays in 1977; Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins in 1993; and Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998. The analysis on the expansion teams is disappointing and redundant. Each chapter details the finances of the expansion draft, the players selected, a history of each team’s struggle for respectability, and long quotes from a player involved on the team, concluding with team highlights and a list of best players. However, sandwiched between the encyclopedic listings is a chapter on the abolition of the reserve clause. Chapter 6, “The Pendulum of Power Swings to the Players,” is the most valuable portion of the book because it analyzes how Curt Flood’s lawsuit changed Major League Baseball. Zimniuch presents the plight of the players nicely by highlighting previous lawsuits like Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v. National League in 1922, Toolson v. New York Yankees in 1953, and Flood v. Kuhn in 1973. Curt Flood’s Supreme Court case resulted in arbitration for the players, and Zimniuch concludes his chapter by describing Andy Messersmith’s and Dave McNally’s fight on behalf of the players following Flood’s lawsuit. Messersmith and McNally, who pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Montreal Expos, played the 1975 season without a signed contract. After the season ended, a three-person Major League Baseball arbitration panel decreed that players were only tied to their teams one year after their contracts expired. Consequently, as Zimniuch notes, the “decision rendered the reserve clause ineffective, ending the enormous...

Miami Stadium’s Grand Opening Gala

It took nineteen years, but on April 4, 2012, the Marlins opened their own sparkling new stadium, appropriately named Marlins Park, to a chorus of rave reviews from baseball officials, the public, and the press. No longer tenants in Sun Life Stadium, a football stadium adapted for baseball, the Fish, as some like to call them, are proud of their new digs and rightfully so. Thousands of South Floridians are flocking to the state-of-the-art stadium and enjoying such niceties as the impressive retractable roof that provides protection from the elements, two 450-gallon aquariums built into the wall behind home plate, and the colorful home run celebration display in centerfield that is a show in and of itself when a hometown player hits one out of the park. Lost in all of the hype and hoopla many fans have forgotten that before Marlins Park there was another stadium that served as a home to professional baseball and that it was not that far from where the new stadium stands today. On the corner of Northwest 23rd Street and loth Avenue, less than three miles from its successor, another simply named ballpark, Stadium, opened its gates for the first time on August 31, 1949, to throngs of eager fans. Just like the new ballpark, the stadium's construction was followed by the local citizenry with great anticipation and excitement, and it too had amenities that were unique to its time. Major League Baseball was still forty-four years away from arriving in South Florida, but minor-league baseball was thriving. In fact, supported two ball clubs in the eight-team Florida International League. The Sun Sox played their games on Field, which was adjacent to where the Orange Bowl once stood, while across town in aptly named Flamingo Field, the Beach Flamingos played in the heart of South Beach at 15th Street and Michigan Avenue. The eight teams in the league represented Fort Lauderdale, Havana, Lakeland, Miami, Beach, St. Petersburg, Tampa, and West Palm Beach. Although the Florida International League was classified a Class-B League, it could be argued that the caliber of play was much higher. Forty players would make the jump to the big leagues or carry with them previous major-league experience. A few of the more notable names in the league were Joe Medwick (Miami Beach), Wes Ferrell (Tampa), Johnny Beazley (St. Petersburg), Sandy Consuegra (Havana), and Connie Marrero (Havana).(1) On a seasonably pleasant August evening, absent the familiar rains that have a tendency to come during the summer season, the large crowd ambled up to the turnstiles in anticipation of seeing the Sun Sox take on their archrivals, the front-running Havana Cubans. As they approached the new ballpark, anxious fans were greeted by what would become one of its signature characteristics, the twenty-foot red neon letters spelling out Miami Stadium on its facade. As they entered, fans were surprised to see potted palms and flowers judiciously placed throughout the stadium, accompanied by a large mural depicting various athletic endeavors adorning the stadium's entrance wall.' Walking up and through the ramparts and into the grandstand, all eyes were immediately drawn to the emerald grass, the modern electric scoreboard, and the palms trees swaying in the breeze just beyond the outfield fence. Onlookers were in awe of Stadium's most distinctive feature--its unique cantilever roof that arched over the majority of seats. This design, absent of sight-blocking steel girders, allowed for a clear, unobstructed view of the field from every seat. The uniquely curved overhead structure wrapped itself around the infield portion of the playing field from the first-base side to the third-base side providing umbrella-like protection from the wind, sun, and rain. Open-air bleacher seats were available along the left- and right-field areas at a lower price, but years later, most patrons would opt for the general admission and box seats. …

Pete Rose and Baseball’s Rule 21

There are 4,256 reasons to vote Pete Rose into baseball's Hall of Fame. There is one reason to keep him out. I want to examine that single reason in some detail and from several perspectives, and to argue that Rose should be admitted to the Hall. The National Baseball Hall of Fame has not Pete Rose. Indeed, the Hall's electors, specifically the eligible baseball writers of America, have never voted on Rose's candidacy. Major League Baseball (MLB), an enterprise separate from the Hall of Fame, has never deemed Rose ineligible for the Hall, nor does MLB have the authority to do so. Rose is commonly termed banned from the Hall, but the truth is he could have been voted in this past winter. The reason Rose has never stood for Hall election is because the Hall disallows election of anyone whose name appears on MLB's ineligible list. Rose appears on that list because he voluntarily accepted a permanent assignment to that list; in return, MLB promised to make no in relation to Rose's betting on the Cincinnati Reds when he was their manager in the 1980s. (1) The deal Pete Rose made with Major League Baseball can be plausibly analogized to the so-called plea bargain that is the routine disposition of cases in the American criminal justice system. Criminals who accept pleas typically exchange their admission of guilt for a certain measure of leniency in sentencing. They should not be heard after the fact to complain about their decision to plead guilty; nor should Pete Rose. A deal is a deal, and most certainly Rose knew that one prominent consequence of his name appearing on the permanently ineligible list would be exclusion from the Hall. Yet there are two sides to deals. In a plea arrangement, the prosecution takes on certain obligations, such as to recommend a sentence or to argue in favor of mitigation. Failure by the prosecution to fulfill its end of the bargain voids the plea bargain, allowing the criminal defendant to withdraw his plea and exercise his right to standtrial. By the same token, MLB undertook certain obligations when it elicited Rose's agreement consigning his name to ineligibility. Major League Baseball has not lived up to its end of the bargain. In exchange for his lifetime ban, Rose did not ask for much, only that MLB refrain from making any formal in relation to his betting on the Reds. It is not clear what exactly constitutes a finding. MLB is not constituted in any way similar to a court of law, which does make findings that are discernible and specific. It appears MLB, at least in its dealings with Rose, employed lawyer-like terms in reaching a settlement. (2) Thus the undefined phrase formal finding must be understood with some latitude. MLB has, with increasingly vehemence, both through its present officials and former employees, insisted in the public discourse that Rose was in fact guilty of the very thing of which he was accused: namely, of betting on the Cincinnati Reds during his tenure as manager. (3) Baseball's chief investigator in the Rose case, Special Counsel John Dowd, has himself made the point publicly more than once. His report, concluding unequivocally that Rose bet on baseball, has achieved wide public circulation. (4) MLB may argue that all these public statements fall short of the formal finding that MLB promised not to make. The better, more reasonable conclusion, however, is that it was official public statements of this sort that were exactly what Rose thought he was precluding in exchange for his capitulation. Is there any fan of baseball, even a devoted one, who hears the pronouncements of the commissioner, the investigator, and other involved baseball officials and thinks that these findings are in some sense informal and to be dismissed? The better conclusion is that MLB has reneged on its deal; Rose should fairly be permitted to withdraw his concession and stand afresh. Of course a new trial of the guilt of Pete Rose would be a waste of time. …

Baseball and Dissent: The Vietnam Experience

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Sporting News, speaking for the baseball establishment, editorialized that the sport would do its part the war effort, asserting that in all the history of baseball there never was a conscientious objector or a slacker the ranks. During the early 1950s, Commissioner of Baseball Ford Frick proclaimed that organized baseball would the ideological Cold War as well as the shooting war Korea. Frick insisted that the national pastime would indoctrinate youth on the virtues of democracy and a proud part of our ideal way of life. (1) Such patriotic rhetoric made the case for baseball's inclusion within the national consensus. In a similar fashion, professional baseball embraced the flag after the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Rallying to the refrain of support the the baseball establishment endorsed American military action Afghanistan and Iraq. Games often begin with salutes to the troops, and telecasts often include shots of soldiers the war zone watching their favorite teams. Baseball is portrayed as providing an essential morale function for the troops. Well-compensated professional baseball players are reluctant to challenge this nationalistic hegemony. First baseman Carlos Delgado, however, is a notable exception. During the 2004 season, sportswriters began to notice that Delgado, then playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, disappeared into the clubhouse when Irving Berlin's God Bless America was played. After 9/11, Berlin's tune replaced Take Me Out to the Ball Game many parks, especially Yankee Stadium. Delgado took exception to this practice, arguing that the song was being used to justify American military intervention Iraq rather than to honor the victims of 9/11. Terming the invasion of Iraq as the stupidest war ever, Delgado stuck to his principles, despite jeering and chants of U-S-A, U-S-A when he played Yankee Stadium. (2) Delgado's dissent, however, did not prevent him from signing a four-year, fifty-two million dollar contract with the Florida Marlins 2005. While some Florida complained about Delgado's politics, his new teammates welcomed the acquisition, which they hoped would lead to another World Series appearance for the franchise. The baseball establishment did not appear overly threatened by Delgado's lone dissent. The 1960s and the Vietnam War, however, were another time and place. With dissent permeating the culture, the sport was less tolerant of those who questioned authority or military policy. Baseball officials embraced the Vietnam War, but there was a considerable gap between their rhetoric and actions. Before addressing baseball and dissent during the Vietnam era, it is necessary to briefly examine how the sport responded to World Wars I and II, as well as the conflict Korea. The United States entered World War I the spring of 1917, but the conflict did not immediately impact the sport. Lacking the drama of a triggering event such as Pearl Harbor, ballplayers did not flock to the colors. It is often forgotten that there was considerable opposition to the war and conscription among working-class Americans. Baseball owners attempted to demonstrate their patriotism by raising funds to purchase athletic equipment for servicemen. But any expectation that the game might remain exempt from manpower needs was crushed May 1918 when the government issued a work or fight order. The order established July 1 as the deadline by which young men nonessential industries, such as baseball, would become eligible for the draft. To complete the season, baseball officials were able to get Secretary of War Newton Baker to extend the deadline until the first of September. Major League Baseball concluded its 1918 season on Labor Day, followed by the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. After the season, players either obtained jobs factories producing war-related products or joined the military. …

Baseball as Underdevelopment: The Political-Economy of Sport in the Dominican Republic

Baseball as Underdevelopment: The Political-Economy of Sport in the Dominican Republic

Government and the pursuit of rigorous drug testing in Major League Baseball: a study in political negotiation and reciprocity

Since June 2002, the point at which Sports Illustrated published a cover story about widespread steroid use in Major League Baseball, US legislators and baseball officials have sparred over the use of performance-enhancing drugs. This paper examines political negotiations that took place in 2005, focusing on how the threat of legislative acts, such as the Drug Free Sports Act (H.R.1862), the Professional Sports Integrity Act (H.R.2516), the Clean Sports Act (S.1114, H.R.2565) and the Professional Sports Integrity and Accountability Act (S.1334), may have led Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) to ratify a more rigorous drug-testing policy than both would have preferred. The article suggests that while professional baseball players may need to be more careful under the new joint drug agreement, reached in December 2005, more expensive substances, such as human growth hormone, will continue to be used.

Roly and the Alderman: A Small Boy and the Black Sox

In search of his 50th home run, Babe Ruth arrived in Chicago behind a fifty-piece brass band. (1) For three straight days in front of huge crowds, some of whom paid as much as $4 for scalped tickets, Ruth tried his best to get number 50. (2) On a 1-1 count in the third game, he got partial hold of an Eddie Cicotte pitch and lofted it far into the corner of right field. He had already rounded second base before the ball finally dropped at the foot of the Comiskey Park flagpole, several yards foul. (3) On the next pitch Cicotte struck out Ruth, and the Tarzan of the green diamond, as the newspapers were calling him, left town still in search of number 50. Babe Ruth's departure from Chicago meant fans had nothing to distract them now from daily allegations in the newspapers that baseball was crooked. For a year rumors of a 1919 World Series fix between the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians had been everywhere. Now fresh rumors had surfaced that a game between the Chicago Cubs and the Phillies had been fixed. The failure of baseball officials to investigate the allegations was irritating. Scandal talk has spread ... all over the country, Chicago newspapers reported. (4) The rumors placed baseball in a bad light. Fans everywhere were anxious, losing patience, and wondering if there [was] truth to the rumors. (5) Nobody was more upset than ten-year-old Gehre in the north Chicago suburb of Park Ridge. Born in 1910 into a German family of singers and musicians, was a small child but restless and willful. His father, who played piano for silent pictures, liked to bring little Roly with him into the dark theaters. But it was a struggle for his father to keep up with the melodramatic screen action of stagecoach robberies or swashbuckling pirates, and he often stopped playing so that he could just watch the action. Once, when the piano had fallen silent, Roly jumped to his feet and shouted in German Spiel, Papa! (6) Keep playing! Not yet three years old, the boy already wanted life to have some measure of entertainment and song to it. One day not long after, Roly spiked a fever, turned clammy, and could not find the energy to get out of bed. (7) None of his mother's home remedies had any effect. Finally, his mother summoned her brother Eugene Nusser, who was a handsome and influential Chicago alderman from the 34th ward. Tall and thin, with deep-set dark eyes, thirty-three-year-old Alderman Nusser was a staunch Republican who had once been a cigar maker in Wisconsin. He was never without a stogie smoldering in the V of his fingers, especially when he hosted huge political gatherings in the basement of his big house on North Avers. (8) His height, his good looks, and his cigar gave him the appearance and aroma of power and decisiveness. He would know exactly what to do now about little Roly's fever. POLIO By the time Uncle Eugene arrived, Roly was beset with convulsions. Uncle Eugene swept his nephew up in his arms and rushed him to the hospital. The diagnosis was polio. It was weeks before he could come home. Then there were months of treatment, during which the whole family took turns applying hot compresses and massaging Roly's limbs. Roly had to learn how to walk again. But the only lasting effect of the disease was one reedy leg, which made him limp slightly and limited his speed and agility. Meanwhile, with the eventual arrival of six siblings, the refrain among the Gehre and Nusser families became, Roland will haben! (9) Whatever wants, he gets! It wasn't just a reference to the entitlements of his handicap; it was an acknowledgement that the polio hadn't crippled the willfulness that had once made him cry out Papa! in a dark theater. For the Park Ridge neighborhood baseball games that Roly was soon a part of, his bad leg was only a small handicap. It was the democracy of the sandlot. Still it was clear that he did not have the future in baseball that others had, and with his father's encouragement he took up the saxophone. …

A Shelter in the Storm: Baseball Responds to September 11

In 2001 the Minor League baseball playoffs were canceled for the first time since World War II and Major League baseball games were postponed in the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attacks committed against the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11. (1) Throughout the United States, as the entire nation mourned, individuals from every walk of life put aside their differences and bonded together to draw strength from one another and cope with the tragic events. In the days immediately after the attacks, Americans struggled to regain a sense of normalcy, but with great difficulty. Because of the horrendous loss of life caused by the attacks, and out of respect for the victims and their families, most sporting and other entertainment events throughout the country were rescheduled or called off. In workplaces and communities across the country, people did what they could to help the survivors as well as their fellow Americans. BASEBALL PUT ON HOLD Major League teams and players also expressed their sympathy and did what they could to assist in rescue and relief efforts. In postponing games immediately after the attacks, the commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB), Bud Selig, issued the following statement: Given the continuing national horror and the many significant challenges faced by our government, our cities, and our citizens, I believe it is appropriate to postpone all Major League baseball games for Wednesday, September 12, 2001. (2) Although the regular season of Minor League baseball had been completed a week and a half before the attacks, the playoffs were still under way in many cities. Sharing the views of the other professional sports, Minor League Baseball officials felt that, after the attacks, it was more important for players to spend time with their families and to cope with their own sorrow. (3) At first Minor League Baseball postponed its games, following the lead of Major League Baseball. On the day of the attacks Minor League Baseball (National Associational of Professional Baseball Leagues) president Mike Moore stated: Out of respect to the families and friends of those people who lost their lives or were injured in today's tragic events, we have postponed all playoff games scheduled for tonight in the United States. (4) The following day, September 12, the organization announced that all games would be postponed until Friday, September 14, at which time the member leagues could make independent decisions whether to continue their playoffs. Minor League president Mike Moore echoed the words of U.S. president George W. Bush, who urged a return to normalcy. Mr. Moore stated: While our hearts and minds are still on the victims and their families, we believe it is important for our country to return to normal activity as soon as reasonably prudent. This is a strong and resilient country and while these despicable acts affect us all, we will not allow such acts to bring such a great country to a standstill. Based on local security and transportation issues, each league will make its own judgement regarding resumption of play beginning Friday. (5) The Minor League Baseball president also encouraged the leagues, teams, and fans to donate blood to their local American Red Cross offices, reiterating, Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. (6) Following this announcement by Minor League Baseball, all member leagues that had not already completed their playoffs decided to end the postseason, deciding who the league champions would be based on either the end-of-season standings or the results of the playoff games that had already been completed. (7) The International League declared the Louisville RiverBats, who had won the first game of the playoffs, to be the league champion. The New York-Penn League, which had not yet begun its playoff series, declared Brooklyn and Williamsport to be its cochampions. …

Crafting the National Pastime's Image: The History of Major League Baseball Public Relations

William Hulbort went: the door of his hotel room, locked it, put the key in his pocket, and explained his astonished guests that he wished to make it impossible for any of you go out until I have finished what I have say you.1 Hulbert, owner of the Chicago White Stockings, then outlined the owners of the other major clubs of professional baseball players how they could turn the game of baseball into a profitable business. As they formed the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (NL) on 2 February 1876, these owners established a method for organizing the business operations of Major League Baseball (MLB) that has lasted until today. Hulbert's partner Albert Spalding explained this system in the following manner: Like every other form of business enterprise, Base Ball depends for results upon two interdependent divisions, tho one have absolute control and direction of the system, and the other engage - always under the executive branch - in the actual work of production. Spalding argued that just because the players were the actual entertainment producers did not mean that they should actually manage the entertainment itself.2 When discussing MLB's business system, most historians focus on the industry's labor or political relations, or on individual MLB officials.3 Conversely, this study examined how MLB officials used provide this system with legitimacy. This analysis suggested that: 1) MLB officials used relations-type strategies decades before the term public relations was coined; 2) those strategies were designed promote baseball as the national pastime and advocate the team ownership business system; and 3) the industry's owners and their relationship with the sports media and the external environment had an impact on the institutionalization and use of the function. The study of MLB warrants scholarly review for several reasons. Few studies on in business history literature exist, and the histories of many industries and corporations are incomplete because their programs craft an image for their businesses have not been investigated or evaluated.4 Those studies that do examine the impact of on the corporate image often focus on managers of the function such as Arthur Page (ATT that is, constantly evolving toward a higher ideal of becoming a management function. Rather, a longitudinal study of MLB history shows the uneven maturation of the function within the industry, as well as how MLB officials consistently used the function as an image-building and image-maintenance device. The purpose behind the MLB industry's initial and continued use of was promote baseball as the national pastime and ensure and support for the owner-managed organizational system. This indicates that, in at least one industry, was developed not maintain mutually beneficial relationships,6 establish and mutual lines of communication,7 or serve both the organization and the interest8 as some commentators who have defined the field have suggested, but advance the corporate interest. Definition of Public Relations The standard, normative definition of as a function that builds and manages relationships with key publics fails fully explain how Major League Baseball officials used the function. …

Celebrating Jackie Robinson? Major League Baseball Sees the Limitations of Promotions

Major League Baseball officials coordinated a celebration in 1997 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the game' color barrier. Some sportswriters calling attention to the lack of minority executives in the game, however, tempered the goodwill this event should have generated. The lesson learned is to ensure the image the promotional campaign should generate or reinforce matches the reality of the organization' actions.

Saving the National Pastime's Image

This article examines a previously unstudied aspect of the 1919 Black Sox scandal: how Major League Baseball executives' desire to present the game as the national pastime, and the impact of the sporting press in helping to shape this image, influenced their crisis communications strategy, including appointing a commissioner and developing a press office. This study suggests the scandal's impact on baseball's image had more to do with the development of the baseball industry's first press office than did economic factors; that is, baseball officials implemented a press office for ideological rather than functional reasons. Although organizations often suggest they institute public relations to present the industry's voice in the marketplace of ideas, baseball industry leaders wanted to regain sports writer approval and acquiescence in order to maintain the game's status as the national pastime.

Full count: inside Cuban baseball

In his comprehensive and vibrant picture of baseball in Cuba, Milton H. Jamail explores the sport s relationship to U.S. baseball. Jamail, whose personal love of the game matches that of the Cubans, examines the roots and traditions of baseball on the island and explains why Cubans play such excellent baseball. His analysis of the development of Cuban baseball after the 1959 takeover by Fidel Castro includes a detailed description of the formation of the Cuban amateur baseball system that has dominated international competitions for more than three decades.Before 1961, when the U.S. government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and Castro abolished professional baseball, Cuba provided the bulk of the foreign players in the major leagues (more than one hundred since the color barrier was lifted in 1947). Major league interest in Cuban baseball remains high, Jamail notes, as he examines the changes necessary, both in the United States and Cuba, to return Cuban ballplayers to professional baseball in the United States. He discusses Cuban defectors, including Livan Hernandez, and describes the intrigue surrounding agent Joe Cubas s courting of Cuban players and his attempts to spirit them away when the Cuban national team plays outside the country.An academic trained in Latin American politics, Jamail has spent twelve years as a Spanish-speaking journalist writing about Latinos and baseball. To write this book, he conducted extensive interviews with baseball officials, journalists, players, and fans in Cuba, as well as Cuban players who have defected. He also talked to scouts and front office people from U.S. baseball organizations.