Full Description
A televised baseball game from Puerto Rico, Japan, or even Cuba might look a lot like the North American game. Beneath the outward similarities, however—the uniforms and equipment and basic rules—there is usually a very different history and culture influencing the nuances of the sport. These differences are what interest the authors of Baseball without Borders, a book about America's national pastime going global and undergoing instructive, entertaining, and sometimes curious changes in the process. The contributors, leading authorities on baseball in the fourteen nations under consideration, look at how the game was imported—how it took hold and developed, how it is organized, played, and followed—and what these local and regional trends and features say about the sport's place in particular cultures. Organized by region—Asia, the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific—and written by journalists, historians, anthropologists, and English professors, these original essays reflect diverse perspectives and range across a refreshingly wide array of subjects: from high school baseball in Japan and Little League in Taiwan to fan behavior in Cuba and the politics of baseball in China and Korea.
Contents
Introduction: Around the Horn - George GmelchPart 1. Asia1. Japan: Changing of the Guard in High School Baseball - Dan Gordon; 2. Japan: The Hanshin Tigers and Japanese Professional Baseball - William W. Kelly; 3. China: Silk Gowns and Gold Gloves - Joseph A. Reaves; 4. Taiwan: Baseball, Colonialism, and Nationalism - Andrew Morris; 5. Korea: Straw Sandals and Strong Arms - Joseph A. ReavesPart 2. The Americas6. Dominican Republic: Forging an International Industry - Alan Klein; 7. Cuba: Behind the Curtain - Tim Wendel; 8. Cuba: Community, Fans, and Ballplayers - Thomas Carter; 9. Puerto Rico: A Major League Steppingstone - Thomas E. Van Hyning and Franklin Otto; 10. Nicaragua: In Search of Diamonds - Dan Gordon; 11. Brazil: Baseball Is Popular, and the Players Are Japanese! - Carlos Azzoni, Tales Azzoni, and Wayne Patterson; 12. Canada: Internationalizing America's National Pastime - Colin HowellPart 3. Europe13. Italy: No Hotdogs in the Bleachers - Peter Carino; 14. Holland: An American - Coaching Honkbal - Harvey Shapiro; 15. Great Britain: Baseball's Battle for Respect in the Land of Cricket, Rugby, and Soccer - Josh ChetwyndPart 4. The Pacific16. Australia: Baseball Down Under - Joseph ClarkAfterword: Is Baseball Really Global? - George Gmelch
