The 10th Man

by Dewey, Donald

• ISBN13: 9780786713615
• ISBN10: 0786713615
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-03-14
• Publisher: Da Capo Pr

Summary

The 26th Player is the long-awaited account of the most colorful population within America's pastime, the fans: Season-ticket holders and impulse ticket buyers, gamblers and groupies, the radio audience of Red Barber and Vin Scully, obsessive collectors, even some of the executives and players themselves. All have invested their dollars and passions in a sport that has sometimes repaid them in spades and at other times broken their hearts. The interplay among owners, teams, individual players, and the folks in the seats is laid out in vivid and highly entertaining detail. Its charactersfrom Brooklyn's Hilda Chester with her clanging cowbell to Margo Adams with her palimony suitsit everywhere from the center field bleachers to the luxury boxes behind home plate. Its plot reveals how the game's entrepreneurs have repeatedly done their utmost to sabotage their own industry while the fan response has been consistently inconsistent. The fan reaction to the Black Sox scandal, America's adoration of Babe Ruth, white baseball's reception of Jackie Robinson, the 1981 players' strike, and the internationalization of the game all are part of this rich and varied history that every fan of baseball has had a hand in creating.

Author Biography

DONALD DEWEY has published some seventeen books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Biographical History of Baseball, The Ball Clubs, and James Stewart: A Biography. He is a past winner of the Nelson Algren Prize and lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION	ix
GENESIS TALES	1	(40)
The First Fans
No Fun and Games
Attendance Must Be Paid
Pros and Cons
War Games
The Enclosure Movement
The Betting Game
THE PROFESSIONAL GAME	41	(32)
Smartening Up
Guilt by Association
Krank Cases
Territorial Rites
Blue Collars
Stars and Idols
PATRONAGE AND PATRONIZATION	73	(42)
Cultural Stability
Krank Cases: The Deadball Era
Sex in the Grandstand
At the Ballpark
For the Good of the Fans
God and Country
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS	115	(42)
The Star System
The Sultan and the Child
Eyes and Ears
All the Stars
Gashouse Days
Night Shifts
Krank Cases: Between the Wars
MINORITY IMAGES	157	(40)
Home Fronts
The Disappeared
The New New York Game
The Stuntman
Goodbye to All That
Broadcast News
MARKET LURES	197	(30)
Bum Steers
Liquid Capitals
The New Breeds
Box Office Hits
Going to Market
FANS AND PHANATICS	227	(38)
Winning Ways
On the Page
Reserve Causes
Battling the Blues
Free Agency
Krank Cases: The Late Century
THE NEW COMPULSIVENESS	265	(52)
Getting Involved
Seeing Rose
Hexes and Complexes
Gambling Fantasies
By the Numbers
Noise! Noise! Noise!
Weather or Not
Krank Cases: Today's Game
CONTRACTION PAINS	317	(36)
Calling All Cals
Neighborhood Plays
Contractions
Bonding Necessities
Foreign Affairs
EPILOGUE	353	(8)
ENDNOTES	361	(16)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	377	(2)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR	379	(2)
INDEX	381