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July's Subject of the Month
Baseball
Selector: Maria Nuccilli
"A hot dog at the game beats roast beef at the Ritz." — Humphrey Bogart
Featured Digital Collection
Virtual Motor City
As part of the collections at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Virtual Motor City contains images from the Detroit News Photograph Collection, a premier photojournalistic resource that primarily documents the city of Detroit, its people, places and events from the late 19th century through the 1980s (bulk 1900-1980). To request permission to use any of the photos below, please follow the instructions on the Reuther Permissions Request form.
America's Pastime
The Presidents and the Pastime by ISBN: 9780803288096Publication Date: 2018-06-01The Presidents and the Pastime draws on Curt Smith's extensive background as a former White House presidential speechwriter to chronicle the historic relationship between baseball, the "most American" sport, and the U.S. presidency.
One Nation under Baseball by ISBN: 9780803286900Publication Date: 2017-04-01One Nation Under Baseball highlights the intersection between American society and America's pastime during the 1960s, when the hallmarks of the sport--fairness, competition, and mythology--came under scrutiny.
Baseball Rebels by ISBN: 9781496217776Publication Date: 2022-04-01Since baseball emerged in the mid-1800s to become America's pastime, the nation's battles over race, gender, and sexuality have been reflected on the playing field, in the executive suites, in the press box, and in the community. Some of baseball's rebels are widely recognized, but most of them are either little known or known primarily for their baseball achievements--not their political views and activism. Baseball Rebels tells stories of baseball's reformers and radicals who were influenced by, and in turn influenced, America's broader political and social protest movements, making the game--and society--better along the way.
Stolen Dreams: The 1955 Cannon Street All-Stars and Little League Baseball's Civil War by ISBN: 9781496219459Publication Date: 2022-04-01When the eleven- and twelve-year-olds on the Cannon Street YMCA All-Star team registered for a baseball tournament in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 1955, it put the team and the forces of integration on a collision course with segregation, bigotry, and the southern way of life. White teams refused to take the field with the Cannon Street All-Stars, the first Black Little League team in South Carolina. Stolen Dreams is the story of the Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars and of the early civil rights movement.
Breaking Babe Ruth by ISBN: 9780826274090Publication Date: 2018-05-31Rather than as a Falstaffian figure of limited intellect, Edmund Wehrle reveals Babe Ruth as an ambitious, independent operator, one not afraid to challenge baseball's draconian labor system. To the baseball establishment, Ruth's immense popularity represented opportunity, but his rebelliousness and potential to overturn the status quo presented a threat. After a decades-long campaign waged by baseball to contain and discredit him, the Babe, frustrated and struggling with injuries and illness, grew more acquiescent, but the image of Ruth that baseball perpetuated still informs how many people remember Babe Ruth to this day.
A People's History of Baseball by ISBN: 9780252036804Publication Date: 2012-02-23Baseball is much more than the national pastime. It has become an emblem of America itself. From its initial popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, the game has reflected national values and beliefs and promoted what it means to be an American. Stories abound that illustrate baseball's significance in eradicating racial barriers, bringing neighborhoods together, building civic pride, and creating on the field of play an instructive civics lesson for immigrants on the national character.
Remembering Willie Mays:
May 6, 1931 — June 18, 2024
Credit: The New York Times
Above: Willie Mays signing autographs at the Polo Grounds on Sept. 29, 1957, the day of the Giants’ last game before leaving New York for San Francisco.
Willie Mays, Baseball’s Electrifying Player of Power and Grace, Is Dead at 93
African Americans in Baseball
24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid by ISBN: 1250230438Publication Date: 2020-05-12Widely regarded as the greatest all-around player in history because of his unparalleled hitting, defense, and baserunning, the beloved Hall of Famer Willie Mays recounts his lifetime of experience meeting challenges with positivity, integrity, and triumph.
Pretend the Ball Is Named Jim Crow by ISBN: 0813198909Publication Date: 2024-02-06At the height of his career, the trailblazing athlete Joshua "Josh" Gibson suffered physical ailments, lost his wife in childbirth, and endured of Jim Crow-era segregation and discrimination--all the while breaking records. Dorian Hairston's debut poetry collection explores the Black American experience through the lens of Gibson's life and seventeen-year career.
Under Jackie's Shadow by ISBN: 9781496239150Publication Date: 2024-04-01Based on Mitchell Nathanson's interviews, Under Jackie's Shadow uses the players' own words to tell the unvarnished story of what it was like to be a Black baseball player navigating the wilds of professional baseball's Minor Leagues following the integration of the Major Leagues.
Black Baseball, Black Business by ISBN: 9781617039546Publication Date: 2014-03-03This book examines how the relationship between black baseball and black businesses functioned, particularly in urban areas with significant African American populations--Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, and more.
When Baseball Went White by ISBN: 0803255187Publication Date: 2014-06-01The story of Jackie Robinson valiantly breaking baseball's color barrier in 1947 is one that most Americans know. Less recognized is the fact that some seventy years earlier, baseball was tenuously biracial and had the potential for a truly open game. How did the game become so firmly segregated that it required a trailblazer like Robinson?
Popularized in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, more than 600 women played during the 12 seasons of the All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBL), which was founded in 1943.
Above: The 1953 AAGBL Grand Rapid Chicks. BL-2618.96 Credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.
More on the history of women in baseball from the Baseball Hall of Fame
Women in Baseball
The All-American Girls after the AAGPBL by ISBN: 9780786472352Publication Date: 2017-03-31The hit 1992 film "A League of Their Own" made the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League famous. But the players' stories remain largely untold. Their experiences in the league led many to education and careers they never imagined. Many continued to be involved in athletics, supporting the efforts leading to Title IX and the women's sports revolution.
Isabel Lefty Alvarez by ISBN: 9781496221674Publication Date: 2020-05-01Kat D. Williams traces Isabel "Lefty" Alvarez's life from her childhood in Cuba, where she played baseball with the boys on the streets of El Cerro, to her reinvention as a professional baseball player with the AAGPBL and American citizen.
Curveball by ISBN: 1569766703Publication Date: 2010-06-01Documenting multiple challenges at every turn--as a target for racism from society at large and sexism both inside and outside of the Negro League--this is the unique story of the first woman to play professional baseball on a men's team, breaking barriers in sports while believing, "There's got to be a first in everything. Maybe it will be me."
A Game of Their Own by ISBN: 9780803244801Publication Date: 2015-04-01In 2010 twenty American women were selected to represent Team USA in the fourth Women's Baseball World Cup in Caracas, Venezuela; most Americans, however, had no idea such a team even existed. This book chronicles the largely invisible history of women in baseball and offers an account of the 2010 Women's World Cup tournament.
Making My Pitch by ISBN: 0803285302Publication Date: 2017-04-01This book tells the story of Ila Jane Borders, who despite formidable obstacles became a Little League prodigy, MVP of her otherwise all-male middle school and high school teams, the first woman awarded a baseball scholarship, and the first to pitch and win a complete men's collegiate game. After Mike Veeck signed Borders in May 1997 to pitch for his St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League, she accomplished what no woman had done since the Negro Leagues era: play men's professional baseball.
Anderson Comás, a minor leaguer in the Chicago White Sox organization, revealed that he is gay in 2023. He was the second active player affiliated with a major league team to ever make such a public announcement.
Credit: Zachary Lucy/Four Seam Images, via Associated Press in the New York Times.
LGBT Players in Baseball
When Baseball Isn't White, Straight and Male by ISBN: 1283805707Publication Date: 2012-01-01This book analyzes how sportswriters discuss issues of race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual identity, age, and class within professional baseball from 1998 to 2012.
Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Sport by ISBN: 9781315114996Publication Date: 2018-12-07Vikki Krane and a team of leading sport scholars critically assess what we know about sex, gender, and sexuality in sport; expose areas in need of further inquiry; and offer new avenues for theory, research, and practice.
Queer Voices from the Locker Room by ISBN: 1681239116Publication Date: 2018This book is a collection of autobiographical short stories of LGBT+ athletes and their experiences in sports and athletics, some who are publicly out and some who are not.
Root, Root, Root for the Home Team
September 12, 2024 is Wayne State University Day at Comerica Park!
Credit: Wayne State Events. PAWS and W pose together with last year's giveaway item for Wayne State University Night. According to a YouGov poll, PAWS is the most popular MLB Mascot.
In the 1930s, Hamtramck Stadium was home to the Detroit Stars and Detroit Wolves of the Major Negro Leagues. The site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, and in 2022, the historic grandstand reopened after a $3 million rehabilitation.
Credit: Allison Farrand / The Athletic
- At Detroit’s Hamtramck Stadium, volunteer crew revives Negro Leagues history
- Hamtramck Stadium, and those who played in it, celebrated in rededication
- Saving Hamtramck Stadium: A Negro League ballpark, a changing community and a fight to reclaim history
NPR's Don Gonyea talks with Gary Gillette, Chair Of The Board Of Directors at Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium.
Detroit Tigers
Above: Marvin Gaye sings "The Star-Spangled Banner" prior to Game 4 of the World Series at Tiger Stadium in 1968
Detroit Tigers Gone Wild by ISBN: 9781439669259Publication Date: 2020-03-02The Detroit Tigers came out of the womb scratching and snarling. Ex-Tigers have done time for crimes ranging from armed robbery to racketeering-and worse. One tried to burn and dismember a group of men after they kidnapped his mother. Another threatened to blow up a cruise ship unless he was paid a sizeable ransom. And Detroit legend Ty Cobb ran afoul of the law several times during his brilliant, tumultuous and often mischaracterized career. Join Detroit News writer George Hunter on a foray into the darkest, unruliest and sometimes funniest moments in Tigers history.
The Detroit Tigers: A Pictorial Celebration of the Greatest Players and Moments in Tigers History by ISBN: 9780814341575Publication Date: 2016-01-31In this revised pictorial history of the Detroit Tigers, William M. Anderson highlights the greatest players and moments in Tiger history. The Detroit Tigers begins with the team's membership in the National League and covers its history through the 1998 season. Containing over 440 photographs. Published by Wayne State University Press
The Glory Years of the Detroit Tigers by ISBN: 0814335926Publication Date: 2012-06-01In the three decades between 1920 and 1950, the Detroit Tigers won four American League pennants, the first world championship in team history in 1935, and a second world crown ten years later. Tigers fans and anyone interested in local sports culture will enjoy this comprehensive and compelling look into the glory years of Tigers history.
Trammell: Detroit's Iconic Shortstop by ISBN: 9781476666600Publication Date: 2016-12-09For nearly two decades Alan Trammell displayed an all-around game as a fielder, hitter, and base runner that was rare for shortstops of his era. Trammell was a World Series hero and a central figure in one of the greatest pennant races in American League history. He joined Ty Cobb and Al Kaline as the only players to spend 20 seasons in Detroit
A Place for Summer: A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium by ISBN: 0814325122Publication Date: 1998-06-30A companion to the narrative history, almost two hundred rare photographs capture the spirit of 140 years of baseball in Detroit. A Place for Summer furnishes a sense of the relationship between the community, its teams, and the various fields, parks, and stadiums that have served as common ground for generations of Detroiters. Published by Wayne State University Press
The Detroit Tigers: Club and Community, 1945-1995 by ISBN: 9780802079039Publication Date: 1997-03-06This study of the Detroit Tigers over a half-century demonstrates how baseball has reflected the fortunes of America's postwar urban society. Patrick Harrigan shows that the declining fortunes of this franchise have been inextricably linked with those of its city and surrounding community. Harrigan examines the development of baseball's modern institutional and economic structure; the role of major-league teams in large urban centres; the influence of radio and television on the popularity of the game; racial integration; unionization and free agency; and stadium renovation or rebuilding, and the financing of such projects.
Ernie Harwell by ISBN: 1572434511Publication Date: 2002-04-01For many fans, their lifetime of experience with the Detroit Tigers ensured them that when their team roared, it would be Ernie Harwell's smooth southern voice that would be heard above the din. After 42 years as the "Voice of the Detroit Tigers," the 2002 retirement of Harwell signaled the end of an era. The only play-by-play broadcaster to cover games across seven decades, Harwell saw (and accumulated accompanying stories about) everyone from Babe Ruth to Ichiro Suzuki, many of which are shared in this entertaining biography.
After dying in a tragic plane accident on his way to volunteer in Nicaragua, Puerto Rican-born star Roberto Clemente was the first Latino player ever inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1973. His 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates cemented him as one of the best defensive and offensive players to ever compete in the game.
From Cuba To Cooperstown: The History Of Latinos In Baseball
Credit: Getty via UPROXX
More about Latinos in Baseball:
International Pastime
Baseball Beyond Our Borders by ISBN: 9780803276826Publication Date: 2017-03-01Covering nineteen countries and a U.S. territory, the contributors show how each country imported baseball, how baseball took hold and developed, how it is organized, played, and followed, and what local and regional traits tell us about the sport's place in each culture.
Pitching Democracy by ISBN: 9781477326763Publication Date: 2023-03-14From Juan Marichal and Pedro Martínez to Albert Pujols and Juan Soto, Dominicans have long been among Major League Baseball's best. How did this small Caribbean nation become a hothouse of baseball talent? To many fans, the answer is both obvious and disconcerting: pro teams use their riches to develop talent abroad, creating opportunities for superhuman athletes and corrupt officials, while the rest of the population sees little benefit. Yet this interpretation of history is incomplete. April Yoder traces how baseball has empowered Dominicans in their struggles for democracy and social justice.
The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball by ISBN: 0195349172Publication Date: 2001-01-01From the first amateur leagues of the 1860s to the exploits of Livan and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, here is the definitive history of baseball in Cuba. Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria expertly traces the arc of the game, intertwining its heroes and their stories with the politics, music, dance, and literature of the Cuban people.
Issei Baseball by ISBN: 1496213483Publication Date: 2020-04-01Issei Baseball is the story of the pioneers of Japanese American baseball, Harry Saisho, Ken Kitsuse, Tom Uyeda, Tozan Masko, Kiichi Suzuki, and others--young men who came to the United States to start a new life but found bigotry and discrimination. In 1905 they formed a baseball club in Los Angeles and began playing local amateur teams. Inspired by the Waseda University baseball team's 1905 visit to the West Coast, they became the first Japanese professional baseball club on either side of the Pacific and barnstormed across the American Midwest in 1906 and 1911. Baseball became a bridge between the two cultures, bringing Japanese and Americans together through the shared love of the game.
The Sportsworld of the Hanshin Tigers by ISBN: 0520971140Publication Date: 2018-11-13Baseball has been Japan's most popular sport for over a century. The Sportsworld of the Hanshin Tigers analyzes Japanese baseball ethnographically by focusing on a single professional team, the Hanshin Tigers. For over fifty years, the Tigers have been the one of the country's most watched and talked-about professional baseball teams, second only to their powerful rivals, the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants.
Baseball in Europe by ISBN: 9781476679129Publication Date: 2019-10-18With the success of The Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic, baseball in Europe has begun to receive more attention. But few realize just how far back the sport's history stretches on the continent. Baseball has been played in Europe since the 1870s.
Empire of Infields by ISBN: 9781496215352Publication Date: 2019-07-01When the Empire of Japan defeated the Chinese Qing Dynasty in 1895 and won its first colony, Taiwan, it worked to establish it as a model colony. The Japanese brought Taiwan not only education and economic reform but also a new pastime made popular in Japan by American influence: baseball. But unlike in many other models, the introduction of baseball to Taiwan didn't lead to imperial indoctrination or nationalist resistance. Taiwan instead stands as a fascinating counterexample to an otherwise seemingly established norm in the cultural politics of modern imperialism. Taiwan's baseball culture evolved as a cultural hybrid between American, Japanese, and later Chinese influences.
"Once upon a time, the ball cap was merely a humble sun shield for baseball players, protecting their eyes from scorching rays. But over time, the baseball cap has emerged as America’s crowning achievement (see what I did there) in the realm of accessories, evolving from a uniform into a universally ubiquitous facet of our everyday wardrobe." Read more from Heddles
Credit: (Left) Ice Cube via oneblockdown.it (Right) Spike Lee via the Guardian.