by Junwei Yu (2007)
"Despite the political instability characterizing twentieth-century Taiwan, the value of baseball in the lives of Taiwanese has been a constant since the game was introduced in 1895. The game first gained popularity on the island under the Japanese occupation, and that popularity continued after World War II despite the withdrawal of the Japanese and an official lack of support from the new state power, the Chinese Nationalist Party. The remarkable success of Taiwanese Little League teams in the 1970s and 1980s cemented Taiwan's relationship with the game." "Taiwanese native Junwei Yu's Playing in Isolation presents a comprehensive account of that relationship. While giving due credit to the great successes in Taiwanese baseball, Yu also addresses the scandals and controversies that have plagued the sport, including game fixing, improper recruitment practices, and the age-deception fiasco that tainted Taiwan's seventeen Little League World Series wins. In addition Yu draws attention to the influence traditional culture exerts on parental support of sports versus education and more sedentary occupations." "Drawing on detailed research and personal experience, Yu provides a rare, honest look at the reality of baseball in Taiwan and offers an insider's perspective on a unique part of baseball history."--BOOK JACKET.
Thomas Gilbert
Discusses some of the highlights in the game of professional baseball during the 1940s, including Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak, the series between the Yankees and the Dodgers, the effects of World War II on the game, and career of Jackie Robinson.
Gai Ingham Berlage
In 1974, when the Supreme Court forced Little League to change its charter and permit girls to play baseball on boys' teams, feminists cheered, heralding the decision as a significant victory. How short their memories were! Had investigators only looked to baseball history, they would have learned, much to their surprise, that women had been avidly playing baseball for over a hundred years - as far back as 1866. In 1928, one female Indiana player helped lead her team to the state championship and on to the national tournament in American League Junior Baseball. And during World War II, Wrigley started the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. In fact, not until 1952 was there a rule barring women from being professional players. Women in Baseball offers the details of this compelling, largely overlooked aspect of baseball history, introducing the reader to a whole new cast of little-known stars on men's teams: Lizzie Arlington, a pitcher in 1898; Alta Weiss, a pitcher for 15 years in the early 20th century; Lizzie Murphy, who played first base for the American All-Stars against the Boston Red Sox; Jackie Mitchell, who became a media sensation in 1931 when she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The author also reveals the stories of women's professional and amateur teams - Josie Caruso and her Eight Men, the Chicago Bloomer Girls, and the all-black Dolly Vardens of Philadelphia - and introduces women who distinguished themselves as players, umpires, and team owners. Women in Baseball explores the history of women in baseball from a socio-cultural perspective, analyzing how it was "forgotten" in the light of residual Victorian values that governed women's lives for so many decades.
David Cataneo
Here are the recollections of forty-five baseball fansordinary people who have had baseball as a part of their lives for as long as they can remember. From age seventeen to ninety-four, from Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Raytown, Missouri, to Seattle, Washington, their stories create as unique a portrait of baseball as you can imagine. Here is a blind technician who thrilled to the sound of Bob Murphy calling the Mets; a Cuban-American who reveled in his Mickey Mantle scrap-books; a nun who went to the Texas Rangers' fantasy camp; a Japanese-American who played ball in detainment camps during World War II. Completely entertaining, poignant, surprising, evocative, opinionated, these reminiscences are the truest form of baseball history - of America's history -that we could ever hope to read.
Milton J. Shapiro
Brief biographies stressing the major league careers of ten of baseball's great outfielders include six from the post-World War II era and four from the prewar era.