Much More Than a Game: Players, Owners, and American Baseball since 1921 - Softcover

Burk, Robert F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807849081 ISBN 13: 9780807849088

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001

Synopsis

To most Americans, baseball is just a sport; but to those who own baseball teams--and those who play on them--our national pastime is much more than a game. In this book, Robert Burk traces the turbulent labor history of American baseball since 1921. His comprehensive, readable account details the many battles between owners and players that irrevocably altered the business of baseball.

During what Burk calls baseball's "paternalistic era," from 1921 to the early 1960s, the sport's management rigidly maintained a system of racial segregation, established a network of southern-based farm teams that served as a captive source of cheap replacement labor, and crushed any attempts by players to create collective bargaining institutions. In the 1960s, however, the paternal order crumbled, eroded in part by the civil rights movement and the competition of television. As a consequence, in the "inflationary era" that followed, both players and umpires established effective unions that successfully pressed for higher pay, pensions, and greater occupational mobility--and then fought increasingly bitter struggles to hold on to these hard-won gains.

About this title

Book Description

"Burk's study of the struggles between players and management over access to job opportunities, rights of workers, and the administration of the industry has resulted in an excellent, detailed historical analysis."-- Business History Review

From the Inside Flap

In this book, Burk traces the turbulent labor history of American baseball since 1921: from rigidly maintained racial segregation and players' crushed attempts to unionize; through the civil rights movement and the arrival of television; to the establishment of unions for players and umpires, who fought increasingly bitter struggles to acquire and keep higher pay, pensions, and occupational mobility.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0807849081
• ISBN 13: 9780807849088
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384