Politics 316
LAW, POLITICS &
THE NATIONAL PASTIME:
Baseball & the
American Dream
(Spring 2003)
University
of San Francisco
Professor Robert Elias
Cowell
327 MW
9:30-10:45 am
Scratch an
intellectual and you'll find a baseball fan
- Roger Kahn
Baseball has been
far more than merely a game, or even a sport, in American life and history. It
has permeated our culture, and reflected our society. The more one peels away
the layers of baseball's history, makeup, and impact, the more one finds:
Baseball emerges as a barometer of American culture. Whether as a folk game, an
organized sport, a sandlot pastime, a commercial business, or an entertainment
spectacle, baseball has been one of our most enduring institutions. For better
or worse, it has mirrored and engendered social, economic, and political change
in America.
Through baseball,
we can see the clash of American values, and the struggle over which values will
direct the American future. It's a conflict between cooperation and competition,
community and individualism, intellect and anti-intellectualism, heroes and
anti-heroes, the work ethic and exploitation, the secular and the sacred,
nostalgia and modernity, the urban and the pastoral, freedom and bondage, peace
and war, the home and the road, work and family, spirituality and materialism,
internationalism and xenophobia. These conflicts play out within baseball,
historically; but baseball also influences how we confront these conflicts more
broadly in American society. (To illustrate these conflicts, we’ll focus on a
series of legal debates in the course)
Baseball also
reflects the ideals, the limits and possibilities, and the rise and fall, of the
American dream. (The status and evolution of that dream will be the course's
central foundation.) Few endeavors lend themselves more readily to dreams. But
baseball provides more than idle fantasies: it supplies heroes to inspire us, it
holds out the lure of social mobility, it helps us envision a more ideal world.
Yet these dreams are plagued by dangers and illusions, much like the American
dream itself. For better or worse, baseball dreams have mirrored American
dreams. In our cynical age, baseball--for all its own trials and
tribulations—has often been one of our few refuges, where all seems right in the
world after all. But this might not last: the green grass of Camden Yards or
Pacific Bell (or the other new, old-fashioned parks now sweeping the nation)
might be no match against the fears many have about the emerging conditions of
twenty-first century America.
Baseball has been
America's "national pastime." But what is a "national pastime?" The phrase
almost seems to have been invented to conceptualize baseball's impact on
American culture. Yet does baseball remain the national “pastime,” or merely the
national “past tense,” reflecting only a bygone era? What has been key to
baseball's appeal? Has it been the rural qualities of the sport, its vaunted
status as the "country game?" Or has it been the "city game," the popular
cultural phenomenon that paralleled the rapid rise of cities in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries? Has it been a welcome respite from work and
routine or a replication of just those work values industrial America considered
vital? Has the sport been an escalator of social mobility for immigrant
populations or rather reflected the ethnic and racial prejudices of the times?
Have baseball's mechanical rhythms fascinated an America in love with machines?
Did the quasi-military aspects of the early game's organization bring a tear to
veterans misty with memories of the Civil War? Has it been the quintessential
expression of social democracy, with the ball as the great equalizer on the
field, and a seat in the stands as the great leveler off the field? Has baseball
supplied American males a sublimated psychosexual drama of phallic potency with
the bat, and of sexual conquest by scoring on the basepaths? And what should we
make of the game's various mythic explanations: that it is a modern ritual
repeating the old quest and Grail myths, a reenactment of the culture-hero myth,
the warrior slaying the beast to give civilization a start and reprieve, an
escape from temporal reality and a promise of spatial expansiveness?
Baseball reflects
our society, it illuminates our history, and it may have insights for our
future. As we begin a new century, baseball may be an effective balm for our
cynicism. What Walt Whitman observed about baseball a hundred years ago, might
also apply today: it might provide "the snap, go, and fling of a new American
atmosphere."
REQUIRED BOOKS
(All Books at USF
Bookstore)
Eric Rolfe
Greenberg, The Celebrant: A Novel
Geoffrey Ward &
Ken Burns, Baseball: An Illustrated History
Roger Abrams,
Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law
Gai Berlage,
Women in Baseball: The Forgotten History
Lawrence
Baldassaro & Richard Johnson, The American Game: Baseball & Ethnicity
Jules Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson & His Legacy
Robert Elias,
Baseball and the American Dream
LIBRARY RESERVE
(At Gleeson
Library for Reference ONLY)
Donald Dewey &
Nicholas Acocella, The Biographical History of Baseball
READER, The
American Dream
COMMUNICATIONS
Office: 529
University Center
Office Hours: M
3-4 p.m., Th 11-12 a.m., & by Appointment
Phone: x6349
Email:
eliasr@usfca.edu (best way to contact me)
COURSE OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION: WHERE MEMORY GATHERS
(27,29 January)
(A) The American
Dream: Assessing the American Promise
(B) Sport and
Society
(C) Baseball in
American Life
(D) Using Our
Sociopolitical Imaginations
(E)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: Political Freedom?
READINGS:
Hochschild, “What Is the American Dream?” (Handout)
Elias, Baseball
and the American Dream, Introduction
Ward & Burns,
Baseball, Preface
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Spence (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDY:
The American Dream—Pros and Cons
REQUIRED VIDEO:
Roger & Me (27 January)
THE PEOPLE'S GAME,
BEGINNINGS TO 1869
(3,5 February)
(A) History
Creation Tales
The Fraternity and
Its Game
Gentlemen's Era,
Victorian Ladies
Race, Class and
the Precarious House of Baseball
From Amateurs to
Professionals
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: The Opportunity Society?
READINGS:
Ward & Burns, Baseball, Introduction
Abrams, Legal
Bases, Introduction
Baldassaro &
Johnson, The American Game, ch. 1,2
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Schwarz (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDY:
Baseball Business: From Amateur to Professional
REQUIRED VIDEO:
Field of Dreams (3 February)
OPTIONAL VIDEO:
Baseball (Ken Burns), Parts 1&2
THE PROFESSIONAL
GAME, 1869-1900
(10,12 February)
(A) History
The Golden
Eighties
America's New
Heroes
Creeping
Commercialism
The Player's
Revolt: Brotherhood of Prof. Baseball Players
The Wayward
Nineties: Monopoly & the Reserve Clause
Women Pioneers
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: Equality for All?
READINGS:
Ward & Burns, Baseball, 1st Inning
Abrams, Legal
Bases, ch. 1
Baldassaro &
Johnson, The American Game, ch. 3,4
Berlage, Women
in Baseball, Intro., ch. 1-3
Elias, Baseball
and the American Dream, Prologue, ch. 19
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Parenti (OPTIONAL)
THE PROFESSIONAL
GAME, 1869-1900
(10,12 February)(continued)
CASE STUDY:
Reserve Clause: From John Montgomery Ward to Curt Flood
REQUIRED VIDEO:
The Natural (10 February)
OPTIONAL VIDEO:
Baseball (Ken Burns), Parts 3,4
SOMETHING LIKE A
WAR, 1900-1910
(19,24 February)
(A) History
Coming of Age
League Wars:
National vs. American Leagues
Baseball Barons
Patriotism and
Empire
(B) Baseball
Fiction: The Great American Novel
(C)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: Everything For Sale?
READINGS:
Ward & Burns, Baseball, 2nd Inning
Greenberg, The
Celebrant (complete)
Abrams, Legal
Bases, ch. 2
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Wallis (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDY:
Baseball Heroes—From Christy Mathewson to Barry Bonds
REQUIRED VIDEO:
Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? (24 February)
OPTIONAL VIDEO:
Baseball (Ken Burns), Parts 5,6
ASSIGNMENT:
Take-Home Essay I Due (Monday, 3 March)
THE FAITH OF THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE: 1910-1930
(26 February, 3,5 March)
(A) History
The Last
Challenge: Federal League
Trust &
Anti-Trust: Pastime as Monopoly
War and Democracy:
A Superior Civilization?
Time of Troubles:
Black Sox Scandal
Law and Order:
From Umpires to Commissioners
Rescuing the Game:
The "Sultan of Swat"
Big Bang Era:
Farewell to the Dead Ball
Emerging Women
Stars
The Church of
Baseball
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: Religion vs. Spirituality
READINGS:
Ward & Burns, Baseball, 3rd, 4th Innings
Elias, Baseball
and the American Dream, ch. 11
Abrams, Legal
Bases, pps. 153-165
Berlage, Women
in Baseball, ch. 4,5
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Lerner (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDY:
Gambling—From Joe Jackson to Pete Rose
REQUIRED VIDEO:
Eight Men Out (3 March)
OPTIONAL VIDEO:
Baseball (Ken Burns), Parts 7,8
ONLY THE BALL WAS WHITE: THE NEGRO LEAGUES
(10,12 March)
(A) History
Jim Crow Comes to
Baseball
Shadow Ball: The
World That Negro Baseball Made
Invisible Men
The Latin
Connection
Barnstorming at
Home and Abroad
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: A Color-Blind Society?
READINGS:
Ward & Burns, Baseball, pp. 197-207,219-231,244-249
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment, ch. 1-3
Baldassaro &
Johnson, The American Game, ch. 5,9
Berlage, Women
in Baseball, ch. 7
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Hudson (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDY:
Race Barriers—From Jim Crow to John Rocker (Hate Speech)
REQUIRED VIDEO:
Soul of the Game (10 March)
OPTIONAL VIDEO:
Baseball (Ken Burns), Parts 9,10
SPRING BREAK
(17,19 March)
COMMUNITY IN HARD
TIMES, 1930-1940
(24,26 March)(COMBINE WITH 1940s??)
(A) History
Great Depression:
Pulling Together
Baseball as Ethnic
Melting Pot?
Birth of Farm
System
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: The Myth of Middle Class?
READINGS:
Ward & Burns, Baseball, pp.207-219,231-243,249-263
Baldassaro &
Johnson, The American Game, ch. 6,7,8
Abrams, Legal
Bases, ch. 5
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Newman (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDY:
Assimilation—Joe DiMaggio vs. Hank Greenberg
REQUIRED VIDEO:
Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (24 March)
OPTIONAL VIDEO:
Baseball (Ken Burns), Parts 11,12
CRISIS AND
TRIUMPH, 1940-1950
(31 March, 2 April)
(A) History
Surviving the War
Years
Keeping the Game
Going: Yankee Clippers & Gashouse Gangs
Behind
Barbed-Wire: Japanese-American Baseball
The Mexican
Revolution
The Great
Experiment
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: A Winner-Take-All Society?
READINGS:
Ward & Burns, Baseball, 6th Inning
Tygiel,
Baseball’s Great Experiment, ch. 4-17, Afterword
Elias, Baseball
and the American Dream, ch. 2,8
Baldassaro &
Johnson, The American Game, ch. 10
CRISIS AND
TRIUMPH, 1940-1950
(31 March, 2 April)(continued)
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Sklar (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDY:
Racial Barriers—From Jackie Robinson to Al Campanis (Hiring)
REQUIRED VIDEO:
Bull Durham (31 March)
AMBIVALENCE: WOMEN
IN BASEBALL
(7,9 April)
(A) History
From Victorian
Ladies to Modern Professionals
All American
Girls' Professional Baseball League
Baseball “Rosies”:
Post-World War II Rollback
Barnstorming:
Allington's World Champions
Ambiguity:
Integration vs. A New League of Their Own
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: Sexism vs. Feminism
READINGS:
Berlage, Women in Baseball, ch. 6,8-10, Epilogue
Elias, Baseball
and the American Dream, ch. 19-22
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Thomas (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDIES:
Gender Barriers—From Pam Postema to Ila Borders
REQUIRED VIDEO:
League of Their Own (7 April)
OPTIONAL VIDEO:
Baseball (Ken Burns),Parts 13,14
TRANSITIONS AND
EXPANSION , 1950-1970
(14,16,21 April)
(A) History
Postwar
Prosperity: Dominance of New York
The Flight West:
The Absolutely Unthinkable
Pacific Coast:
Demise of the Third Major League
Cold Wars & Hot
Wars: Reds, Whites and Blacks
Children of the
Sixties: Social Revolutions
Electronic
Baseball: From Radio to Television
A New Latin Beat
False Springs:
Minor Leagues
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: The Empire Strikes Out?
READINGS:
Ward & Burns, Baseball, 7th, 8th Innings
Elias, Baseball
and the American Dream, ch. 3-5,13,14
Ruck, “Baseball in
the Caribbean” (handout)
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Parenti (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDY:
Franchise Moves—From Brooklyn to Milwaukee to Tampa Bay
REQUIRED VIDEO:
Tale of Two Cities (14 April)
Clemente (21
April)
OPTIONAL VIDEO:
Baseball (Ken Burns), Parts 15,16
A WHOLE NEW BALL
GAME, 1970-1990
(23,28,30 April)
(A) History
Not A Piece of
Property
Anti-Trust: The
Baseball Exemption
Free Agency &
Salary Arbitration
Commercialism: You
Did "What" with My Baseball Cards?
Political
Ideology: Artificial Turf, Designated Hitters
You Gotta Have Wa?
Americans Abroad
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: Individual vs. Community?
READINGS:
Ward & Burns, Baseball, 9th Inning
Abrams, Legal
Bases, ch. 3,4,6,7
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Kohn (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDIES:
Free Agency—From Andy Messerschmidt to Alex Rodriquez
Collusion—From Carlton Fisk to Greg
Maddux
REQUIRED VIDEOS:
Diamonds in the Rough/Rising Sons (28 April)
OPTIONAL VIDEO:
Baseball (Ken Burns), Parts 17,18
THE FOOLS WHO RUN
IT? 1990-PRESENT
(5,7,12 May)
(A) History
Enriching the
Owners: Baseball and Billions
, Strikes,
Lockouts & Collusion
Role Models: From
Heroes to Anti-Heroes
From Plastic to
Nostalgic Age: Throwback Ballparks
Make-Believe:
Fantasy Tours and Fantasy Games
Lingering Problems
of Race & Gender
Loyalty: Players
vs. Owners
The Fans: Lining
Up or Fed Up?
The International
Sport?
Grassroots
Baseball: What’s Left?
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: Overworked Americans?
READINGS:
Abrams, Legal Bases, pps., 165-171, ch. 9, Conclusion
Elias, Baseball
and the American Dream, ch. 6,17,18
Reserve Reader,
The American Dream, Schor (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDIES:
Drugs--From Darryl Strawberry to Ken Caminiti
Ballparks—Public vs. Private Financing
REQUIRED VIDEO:
The American Game (5 May)
CONCLUSION: A
SOCIETY WORTHY OF BASEBALL
(14 May)
(A) American
Culture
Whither Goes
Baseball: The Field of Dreams?
The Vanishing
American Dream?
A New American
Dream?
(B)
Cross-Examining the American Dream: The Poverty of Affluence?
READINGS:
Reserve Reader, The American Dream, Wachtel (OPTIONAL)
CASE STUDY:
Ball Feuds: Future of American Baseball Dream?
REQUIRED VIDEO:
Affluenza (12 May)
ASSIGNMENT:
Term Paper Due (Friday, 15 May)
ASSIGNMENT:
Take Home Essays (OPTIONAL Term Paper) Due (Friday, 22 May)
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
(1) To use
sports, and particularly the national pastime (baseball), as a reflection of
American culture and history
(2) To use
sports/baseball as a vehicle for examining and cross-examining the American
dream—its values, its meaning, its desirability and its availability
(3) To use
sports/baseball to illustrate developments in areas such as assimilation, race
and
gender
relations, labor-management relations, economic class and development, the rule
of law, globalization and foreign policy
(4) To explore a
series of legal case studies of baseball controversies that reflect on-going
conflicts in broader American society—controversies over gambling, drug use,
collusion, anti-trust, free agency (and the free market), hate crimes, corporate
flight, and so forth
(5) To analyze the
interdisciplinary literature on sports and society, emphasizing political
questions and social science methods and theories
(6) Employ social
science knowledge to explore questions of economic & social justice (e.g.,
access to sports, fair compensation), with an appreciation and respect for human
diversity
(7) To use
sports/baseball as a barometer of the health of American society
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
(Please Read Very
Carefully)
The course
reading is challenging but it explores a provocative and engaging subject
matter: First, what is the American dream, and do most Americans benefit from
it? And second, how can the national pastime help us understand the history of
that dream, and of American values, culture and society, more broadly? The
readings often provide a critical perspective about both baseball and American
society. They will provoke you with a variety of images, viewpoints and
unconventional ideas. The readings do not emphasize facts and figures (and we
want to avoid, in particular, getting bogged down in baseball trivia), but
rather a series of major themes. The readings should be completed with this in
mind. There will be no “blind” examinations to grill you on your grasp of the
“details,” and thus you should read to understand the broad issues.
Nevertheless, assignments (readings and videos) must be completed
in a timely manner, and used to generate comments and questions during class.
Some of the readings will be reviewed in my class presentations but much of it
will not: you are nevertheless responsible for all of it. Besides completing the
readings, the course requirements are as follows:
(1)
Class Participation 15% (Attendance; Oral/Written
Comments; Discussions)
(2)
Video Participation 10% (Attendance; 5 Reports)
(3)
Take-Home Essays I 15% (Due 3 March)(One 5-page Essay)
(4)
Take-Home Essays II 60% (Due 22 May)(Four 5-page
Essays)**
------
100%
** For Two (2) of
these essays, students may SUBSTITUTE a 10-page Term Paper based on the
completion of one additional BOOK (Due 22 May)
CLASS
PARTICIPATION
(A) Class
Attendance - Students are REQUIRED to attend EACH class.
Before class, you should read and think about the assignments so you can
contribute during class time. We’ll try to create a setting where participation
is informal and non-threatening. There are no “right” answers, so don’t be
afraid to speak out. I’d like to talk privately to anyone who feels
uncomfortable participating; perhaps your fears can be alleviated (as mine
needed to be when I was an undergraduate).
(B) Written
Comments - To stimulate participation, and to reflect your preparation for
class, students should WRITE down 5 (FIVE) observations, evaluations or
questions you have about the course readings, discussions or videos for that
class. Use them, if possible, in class, and then TURN THEM IN at the end
of EACH class. If you don't participate orally in class as much as you’d
like, then this will give you another opportunity to let me know you're keeping
up with the course.
(C) Case Study
Discussions – We’ll have weekly case-study discussions on the themes listed
above on the course outline. All students should come prepared to discuss these
themes. To help divide up responsibility for analyzing these issues, each
student will be assigned three (3) of these themes, in particular, for which it
will be expected that you make a special effort to contribute to those
discussions.
VIDEO SERIES
(A) Attendance
- Alongside the course, a weekly Video Series will run. Attendance at these
videos is REQUIRED, and the material they contain should be used to help
you answer the Take-Home Essay Questions (see below).
(B) Reports
– For at least five (5) of the videos, students must complete 1-page reports (on
forms I’ll provide). One of those reports MUST be on the Roger & Me
video.
(C) Optional
Videos – The Ken Burns 18-Volume PBS Video Series, Baseball, will be
available for you to view at Instructional Media. While OPTIONAL, these videos
are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as a supplement to the required Ward and Burns book,
Baseball: An Illustrated History
TAKE-HOME
ESSAYS
(A) There will be
two Take-Home Essay assignments. On the first, you’ll be asked to answer one (1)
question. On the second, you’ll be asked to answer four (4) questions.** Each
question will focus on the course’s broad themes. For EACH question you
answer, you’ll be expected to provide a well-written essay (good writing
counts, along with good content) of five (5) pages, based on the relevant
course readings/videos (which you MUST SPECIFICALLY use in your
answers) and discussions, and on your own ideas. OUTSIDE SOURCES ARE
UNNECESSARY. You’ll be given at least a couple of weeks to complete each
assignment, which must be turned in ON TIME, as follows:
(1)
Take-Home Essay I – One (1) Essay of 5 typed pages.DUE:
3 March
(2)
Take-Home Essays II** – Four (4) Essays of 5 typed pgs
EACH. DUE: 22 May
** For Two (2) of
these essays, students may SUBSTITUTE a 10-page TERM PAPER based on the
completion of one additional BOOK (see below)
OPTIONAL TERM PAPER
As a SUBSTITUTE for two (2) of the essays on Take-Home Essays II, students may
complete a Term Paper:
(A) Book – Each student will be expected to do research to more
specifically explore some aspect of the course. That research should be done by
completing one (1) book from the wide list of choices I will provide (see
Baseball Bibliography). Students must make their choice IN WRITING on the form I
provide and submit it ASAP.
(B) Paper – Based on the book you choose, each student must submit a
well-written and ANALYTICAL (not merely descriptive) paper of ten (10) typed
pages, which will be due on with the other two (2) Take Home Essays II on 22
May.
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES
There are thousands of baseball websites. For the best links, go to:
www.baseball-links.com or consult either: Rob Edelman, Baseball on the
Web or Bob Temple, E-Baseball.
In addition, for two sites (produced at Northwestern University) that
specifically link baseball to law (the Supreme Court) and politics (the
Presidency), go to: baseball.oyez.org or www.prezbaseball.org
OPTIONAL FIELD TRIPS
We’ll explore the possibility of two OPTIONAL fieldtrips: one to a Giants game
at Pacific Bell Park and one to the Lefty O’Doul’s baseball restaurant, near
Union Square.
We should view this course as a joint responsibility. I'm very happy to have you
in the class; I look forward to working with you throughout the semester. I'll
contribute as much as I can to making this both a thought-provoking and
stimulating subject matter. This will work best if you fulfill your own
responsibility to take the course seriously, and contribute as much as you can.
Take advantage of this opportunity; be "active" learners.
NOTICES:
INCOMPLETES
ARE STRONGLY DISCOURAGED
PLAGIARISM
IS A SERIOUS ACADEMIC OFFENSE, WHICH IS EASILY DETECTED
PLEASE DON’T
JEOPARDIZE YOUR GRADE
IT’S INAPPROPRIATE TO SUBMIT THE SAME OR SIMILAR PAPERS FOR MORE
THAN ONE COURSE. CHOOSE YOUR TOPICS SO THEY DO NOT OVERLAP
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