Full Description
Many of the most powerful trends in baseball today have their roots in the 1970s. Baseball entered that decade seriously behind the times in race relations, attitudes toward conformity versus individuality, and the manager-player relationship. In a sense, much of the wrenching change that American society as a whole experienced in the 1960s was played out in baseball in the following decade. Additionally, the game itself was rapidly evolving, with the inauguration of the designated hitter rule in the American League, the evolution of the closer, the development of the five-man starting rotation, the acceptance of strikeout lions like Dave Kingman and Bobby Bonds and the proliferation of stolen bases.
This book opens with a discussion of the challenges that faced baseball's movers and shakers when they gathered in Bal Harbour, Florida, for the annual winter meetings on December 2, 1969. Their worst nightmares would be realized in the coming years. For many and often contradictory reasons the 1970s game evolved into a war of competing ideologies--escalating salaries, an acrimonious strike, Sesame Street-style team mascots, and the breaking of the time-honored tradition that all players, including the pitcher, must play on offense as well as defense--that would ultimately spell doom for the majority of attendees.
Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction: December 2, 1969
1. Curt Flood, the Man Who Fought the Law
2. From the Literary Corner, Ball Four
3. The Coming of the Sterile Ashtrays
4. The Man Who Gave His Body to Baseball
5. The Angry Men
6. The End of the Age of Innocence
7. The Pride of Westchester High
8. Charlie Finley's Big Happy Family
9. On the Origins of the DH Rule
10. Bobby Bonds and the Ghost of Baseball Future
11. Henry Aaron, Race, and the Record
12. The Ten-Cent Beer Fiasco
13. The End of the Fireballer Epoch
14. Steve Carlton's Sounds of Silence
15. Messersmith and McNally: The Guys Who Fought the Law and Won
16. The Potential Immortality of Marvin Miller
17. The Big Red Machine and the End of an Era
18. Pete Rose in Full Bloom
19. The Rotation Revolution
20. Consistency and Wit in the Shadows
21. The Evolution of the Bullpen
22. The Aborted Sale of Vida Blue
23. A Paradox in Action
24. The Commissioner
25. The Bird
26. George Steinbrenner's New Economics
27. Rod Carew and Ted Williams—Style Greatness
28. Contending on the Cheap
29. Bill Veeck's South-Side Wreck
30. Vern Rapp and Management 101
31. Steve Garvey and the Essence of Fame
32. Being Without a Chair When the Music Stops
33. The Stolen Base Revival
34. Dave Kingman: Master of the Homer and the Big Breeze
35. Power to the Umpires
36. The Roman Umpire
37. Willie Stargell and the Evolution of the African American Player
Epilogue: August 9, 1979
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
