Baseball

"[Baseball] is a magnificent treatment of baseball, on and off the diamond, in the middle of the twentieth century."—Ed Edmonds, NINE

“Steven Gietschier knows that history is not merely a record of what happened long ago but also what it may portend for today’s game, fans, and nation. The Seymours’ scholarly history of baseball ended in 1930; this ambitious, sprawling volume tells us what has happened since and why—it is a splendid successor. If you take a serious interest in baseball, Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years must find a place on your shelf.”—John Thorn, official historian of Major League Baseball

“Baseball seemingly lurched from one crisis to the next during the middle decades of the twentieth century, as a host of new and newly urgent challenges threatened to overshadow the on-field product. In Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years, Steven Gietschier gives due consideration to both baseball’s triumphs and its blind spots, providing much-needed clarity about a troubled and misunderstood era. Highly recommended!”—Peter Morris, author of A Game of Inches: The Stories behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball

“Business, baseball, and politics make for a fascinating discussion about America during the mid-twentieth century. Good narrative stories are paired with analysis to offer a new look at turbulent time in American history. Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years is a must-read for fans of baseball and American history.”—Leslie Heaphy, associate professor of history at Kent State University at Stark

“Extremely well researched and ingeniously organized. Steven Gietschier has produced a work that I predict will stand the test of time. There is something of value to fans, baseball and cultural historians, and lovers of a good yarn on almost every page.”—Lee Lowenfish, author of the award-winning biography Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman

“‘Dunnie’s baby’—know his real name? What manager lived with ‘an entire retinue of shady characters’? Why did DiMaggio take a pay cut from $40,000 to $50 a month? Here are all the answers. What a stupendous book! All the tumult and shouting of organized baseball’s 150 years of messy, thrilling, hair-raising, and altogether unpredictably beautiful evolution.”—Dave Kindred, author of Leave Out the Tragic Parts: A Grandfather’s Search for a Boy Lost to Addiction