Few sports have as much power and magic as baseball, and few writers have addressed the history of the game as well as Jules Tygiel. In his role as a historian, Tygiel purposefully takes his eye off the ball and focuses on the broader cultural scene that surrounds the game: how developments in the game reflect American society and the ways in which our nation has changed over time. In doing so he captures a part of baseball that many have forgotten, a rich aspect of our American legacy.

In this collection of articles Tygiel illuminates significant events and issues in the history of baseball. He revisits the Jackie Robinson saga—his turbulent military service in World War II, the story behind his signing, and the evolution of his legacy. Tygiel examines the history of blacks in baseball—the Negro Leagues and baseball's Jim Crow era, race relations in baseball since 1947, and Roy Campanella's career and his life after the tragic automobile accident that left him paralyzed. Finally, Tygiel analyzes what baseball history has to offer—how it should be written, the intersection of television and baseball, and a reflection on the current state of the game.

Jules Tygiel is a professor of history at San Francisco State University. He is the author of Past Time: Baseball as History and Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy.

"Jules Tygiel's Extra Bases: Reflections on Jackie Robinson, Race, and Baseball History fills out and occasionally challenges the Robinson legend. . . . [Tygiel] is perhaps the leading expert on baseball and integration. . . . He stitches Robinson into the tapestry of his time. . . . and presents arresting and satisfying anecdotes with his tempered analysis."—Alan Schwarz, The New York Times Book Review

"Among the highlights are a review of Robinson's tumultuous military career, an examination of the game during the Jim Crow era of racial discrimination, and a critique of Ken Burns' 18-hour documentary Baseball. . . . There is also a fascinating article examining the relatively recent phenomenon of televised sport and how it has altered our perceptions, to say nothing of the wealth it has created for participants."—Booklist

"[T]he essays about Jackie Robinson and Jim Crow baseball, Tygiel's specialities, are small gems that are worth the price of this relatively inexpensive paperback."—Library Journal

"Especially useful. . . . is a review of 'Baseball History in the 1980s,' which provides an excellent guide to the baseball literature of that decade."—The Virginia Quarterly Review

"Compelling. . . . A splendid job"—Mark Brazaitis, Aethlon