Podcast appearances and mentions of david george surdam

Today we are joined by David George Surdam, co-author with Michael J. Haupert of the book The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). In this work, which blends a liberal mix of sports and economics, Surdam and Haupert provide a straightforward narrative that does not bog the reader down with too many numbers. The Age of Ruth and Landis provides plenty of stories about the 1920s’ two most dominant figures in major-league baseball, but also includes chapters about gambling, the teams’ financial ledgers, competitive balance, the running salary battles between players and owners, and the impact of the minor leagues. The book also touches on ethnic diversity and the Negro Leagues during the 1920s. Baseball numbers have always fascinated Surdam, who found a new edition of the MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia as a youth. “Sheer delight,” said Surdam, who is a professor of economics at Northern Iowa University. The authors use figures from a congressional investigation into baseball in 1951 to provide fascinating insights about what teams were making money. Babe Ruth changed the way baseball was played, and Kenesaw Mountain Landis changed the way the game was ruled. But economics after World War I dictated who the true winners and losers of baseball really were. Bob D’Angelo earned his master’s degree in history from Southern New Hampshire University in May 2018. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Florida and spent more than three decades as a sportswriter and sports copy editor, including 28 years on the sports copy desk at The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune. He can be reached at bdangelo57@gmail.com. For more information, visit Bob D’Angelo’s Books and Blogs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by David George Surdam, co-author with Michael J. Haupert of the book The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). In this work, which blends a liberal mix of sports and economics, Surdam and Haupert... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by David George Surdam, co-author with Michael J. Haupert of the book The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). In this work, which blends a liberal mix of sports and economics, Surdam and Haupert provide a straightforward narrative that does not bog the reader down with too many numbers. The Age of Ruth and Landis provides plenty of stories about the 1920s’ two most dominant figures in major-league baseball, but also includes chapters about gambling, the teams’ financial ledgers, competitive balance, the running salary battles between players and owners, and the impact of the minor leagues. The book also touches on ethnic diversity and the Negro Leagues during the 1920s. Baseball numbers have always fascinated Surdam, who found a new edition of the MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia as a youth. “Sheer delight,” said Surdam, who is a professor of economics at Northern Iowa University. The authors use figures from a congressional investigation into baseball in 1951 to provide fascinating insights about what teams were making money. Babe Ruth changed the way baseball was played, and Kenesaw Mountain Landis changed the way the game was ruled. But economics after World War I dictated who the true winners and losers of baseball really were. Bob D’Angelo earned his master’s degree in history from Southern New Hampshire University in May 2018. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Florida and spent more than three decades as a sportswriter and sports copy editor, including 28 years on the sports copy desk at The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune. He can be reached at bdangelo57@gmail.com. For more information, visit Bob D’Angelo’s Books and Blogs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by David George Surdam, co-author with Michael J. Haupert of the book The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). In this work, which blends a liberal mix of sports and economics, Surdam and Haupert provide a straightforward narrative that does not bog the reader down with too many numbers. The Age of Ruth and Landis provides plenty of stories about the 1920s’ two most dominant figures in major-league baseball, but also includes chapters about gambling, the teams’ financial ledgers, competitive balance, the running salary battles between players and owners, and the impact of the minor leagues. The book also touches on ethnic diversity and the Negro Leagues during the 1920s. Baseball numbers have always fascinated Surdam, who found a new edition of the MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia as a youth. “Sheer delight,” said Surdam, who is a professor of economics at Northern Iowa University. The authors use figures from a congressional investigation into baseball in 1951 to provide fascinating insights about what teams were making money. Babe Ruth changed the way baseball was played, and Kenesaw Mountain Landis changed the way the game was ruled. But economics after World War I dictated who the true winners and losers of baseball really were. Bob D’Angelo earned his master’s degree in history from Southern New Hampshire University in May 2018. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Florida and spent more than three decades as a sportswriter and sports copy editor, including 28 years on the sports copy desk at The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune. He can be reached at bdangelo57@gmail.com. For more information, visit Bob D’Angelo’s Books and Blogs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by David George Surdam, co-author with Michael J. Haupert of the book The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). In this work, which blends a liberal mix of sports and economics, Surdam and Haupert provide a straightforward narrative that does not bog the reader down with too many numbers. The Age of Ruth and Landis provides plenty of stories about the 1920s’ two most dominant figures in major-league baseball, but also includes chapters about gambling, the teams’ financial ledgers, competitive balance, the running salary battles between players and owners, and the impact of the minor leagues. The book also touches on ethnic diversity and the Negro Leagues during the 1920s. Baseball numbers have always fascinated Surdam, who found a new edition of the MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia as a youth. “Sheer delight,” said Surdam, who is a professor of economics at Northern Iowa University. The authors use figures from a congressional investigation into baseball in 1951 to provide fascinating insights about what teams were making money. Babe Ruth changed the way baseball was played, and Kenesaw Mountain Landis changed the way the game was ruled. But economics after World War I dictated who the true winners and losers of baseball really were. Bob D’Angelo earned his master’s degree in history from Southern New Hampshire University in May 2018. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Florida and spent more than three decades as a sportswriter and sports copy editor, including 28 years on the sports copy desk at The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune. He can be reached at bdangelo57@gmail.com. For more information, visit Bob D’Angelo’s Books and Blogs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This past October, David Stern announced that he would step down as commissioner of the National Basketball Association in February 2014. In Stern’s three decades at the helm, the NBA has seen its domestic fortunes rise and ebb. Television ratings for regular-season and playoff games have declined steadily since their... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This past October, David Stern announced that he would step down as commissioner of the National Basketball Association in February 2014. In Stern’s three decades at the helm, the NBA has seen its domestic fortunes rise and ebb. Television ratings for regular-season and playoff games have declined steadily since their peak in the late 1990s. In the present season, ten teams in the league are filling less than 80 per cent of seats in their home arenas, and average attendance in the league overall has dropped below that of the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer. But Stern has been successful in meeting one of his stated aims: expanding the international profile of the NBA. Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant have been global celebrities in a way that no American football or baseball player can imagine. Meanwhile, some 20 per cent of players on current NBA rosters are foreign-born. The league’s games are broadcast in 40 countries by various partner networks, and overseas sales of caps and jerseys account for more than a third of the league’s merchandising revenue. Stern has even spoken of a European division of the league beginning play in the next decade. The NBA’s international success is all the more striking when one considers that it the youngest of the major American sports leagues, and that it took some two decades to gain stable fan support and financial health. Founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America, the league competed in cities of the Northeast and Midwest. From the start, the BBA had rivals: the celebrated barnstorming team of African American players, known as the Harlem Globetrotters, and a second professional circuit, the National Basketball League, which played in smaller cities like Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Waterloo, Iowa. As David Surdam shows in his history of the NBA’s first 15 years, these were humble origins. Professional basketball’s early years were marked by cheap owners, empty arenas, and plenty of red ink. When the BAA and NBL merged in 1949, the combined league featured 17 teams. Ten years later, there were only eight. Dave’s book, The Rise of the National Basketball Association (University of Illinois Press, 2012), focuses on the economic history of the league’s early years. Told from this perspective, the NBA’s rise is a story of survival–and somewhat bewildering tenacity. But the league’s eventual stability can also be attributed to the innovations of its early leaders. The widened free-throw lane, the 24-second shot clock, and other rule changes were aimed at bringing fans to the arenas. The ultimate effect was to transform professional basketball from a game of defensive stalling and two-handed set shots to the fast-paced, high-scoring entertainment of today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This past October, David Stern announced that he would step down as commissioner of the National Basketball Association in February 2014. In Stern’s three decades at the helm, the NBA has seen its domestic fortunes rise and ebb. Television ratings for regular-season and playoff games have declined steadily since their peak in the late 1990s. In the present season, ten teams in the league are filling less than 80 per cent of seats in their home arenas, and average attendance in the league overall has dropped below that of the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer. But Stern has been successful in meeting one of his stated aims: expanding the international profile of the NBA. Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant have been global celebrities in a way that no American football or baseball player can imagine. Meanwhile, some 20 per cent of players on current NBA rosters are foreign-born. The league’s games are broadcast in 40 countries by various partner networks, and overseas sales of caps and jerseys account for more than a third of the league’s merchandising revenue. Stern has even spoken of a European division of the league beginning play in the next decade. The NBA’s international success is all the more striking when one considers that it the youngest of the major American sports leagues, and that it took some two decades to gain stable fan support and financial health. Founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America, the league competed in cities of the Northeast and Midwest. From the start, the BBA had rivals: the celebrated barnstorming team of African American players, known as the Harlem Globetrotters, and a second professional circuit, the National Basketball League, which played in smaller cities like Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Waterloo, Iowa. As David Surdam shows in his history of the NBA’s first 15 years, these were humble origins. Professional basketball’s early years were marked by cheap owners, empty arenas, and plenty of red ink. When the BAA and NBL merged in 1949, the combined league featured 17 teams. Ten years later, there were only eight. Dave’s book, The Rise of the National Basketball Association (University of Illinois Press, 2012), focuses on the economic history of the league’s early years. Told from this perspective, the NBA’s rise is a story of survival–and somewhat bewildering tenacity. But the league’s eventual stability can also be attributed to the innovations of its early leaders. The widened free-throw lane, the 24-second shot clock, and other rule changes were aimed at bringing fans to the arenas. The ultimate effect was to transform professional basketball from a game of defensive stalling and two-handed set shots to the fast-paced, high-scoring entertainment of today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This past October, David Stern announced that he would step down as commissioner of the National Basketball Association in February 2014. In Stern’s three decades at the helm, the NBA has seen its domestic fortunes rise and ebb. Television ratings for regular-season and playoff games have declined steadily since their peak in the late 1990s. In the present season, ten teams in the league are filling less than 80 per cent of seats in their home arenas, and average attendance in the league overall has dropped below that of the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer. But Stern has been successful in meeting one of his stated aims: expanding the international profile of the NBA. Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant have been global celebrities in a way that no American football or baseball player can imagine. Meanwhile, some 20 per cent of players on current NBA rosters are foreign-born. The league’s games are broadcast in 40 countries by various partner networks, and overseas sales of caps and jerseys account for more than a third of the league’s merchandising revenue. Stern has even spoken of a European division of the league beginning play in the next decade. The NBA’s international success is all the more striking when one considers that it the youngest of the major American sports leagues, and that it took some two decades to gain stable fan support and financial health. Founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America, the league competed in cities of the Northeast and Midwest. From the start, the BBA had rivals: the celebrated barnstorming team of African American players, known as the Harlem Globetrotters, and a second professional circuit, the National Basketball League, which played in smaller cities like Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Waterloo, Iowa. As David Surdam shows in his history of the NBA’s first 15 years, these were humble origins. Professional basketball’s early years were marked by cheap owners, empty arenas, and plenty of red ink. When the BAA and NBL merged in 1949, the combined league featured 17 teams. Ten years later, there were only eight. Dave’s book, The Rise of the National Basketball Association (University of Illinois Press, 2012), focuses on the economic history of the league’s early years. Told from this perspective, the NBA’s rise is a story of survival–and somewhat bewildering tenacity. But the league’s eventual stability can also be attributed to the innovations of its early leaders. The widened free-throw lane, the 24-second shot clock, and other rule changes were aimed at bringing fans to the arenas. The ultimate effect was to transform professional basketball from a game of defensive stalling and two-handed set shots to the fast-paced, high-scoring entertainment of today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices