Podcast appearances and mentions of seymour medal

Our guest this week is Arthur D. Hittner, author of "Honus Wagner, The Life of Baseball's Flying Dutchman," Revised Edition (McFarland, 2024). Originally published in 1996, Hittner's book won the prestigious Seymour Medal for best  baseball historical or biographical book in 1997. Wagner led the National League in batting 8 times and hit .324 in his storied career and still over 100 years after hi last Major League game, The Flying Dutchman is still considered by many to be the greatest shortstop who ever played. Hittner's revised edition brings Wagner to life for a new generation of fans.Arthur D. Hittner's Website: www.hittnerbooks.com/-->Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/tT8d3pVUsN-->You can support Hooks & Runs by purchasing books, including the books featured in this episode, through our store at Bookshop.org. Here's the link. https://bookshop.org/shop/hooksandruns Hooks & Runs - www.hooksandruns.com Email: hooksandruns@protonmail.com Hooks & Runs on TwitterCraig on BlueskyRex (Krazy Karl's Music Emporium) on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/people/Krazy-Karlz-Music-Emporium/100063801500293/ Hosts Emeritus:Andrew Eckhoff on Tik TokEric on FacebookMusic: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (via Premium Beat)     This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2024.      

Baseball and BBQ Episode #153 Features Intentional Balk Authors, Daniel Levitt and Mark Armour, and Queen of the Grill, Paula Stachyra, Author of Wing Crush   Daniel R. Levitt joins us to discuss Mark's and his newest book, Intentional Balk:  Baseball's Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating.  Dan is the author of several award-winning books, including Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way (2003 with Mark Armour); Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees' First Dynasty; The Battle That Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy; and In Pursuit of Pennants: Baseball Operations from Deadball to Moneyball (2015, with Armour).  In 2015, he was selected as the recipient of the Bob Davids Award, the Society for American Baseball Research's (SABR) highest honor.  Dan currently serves as treasurer of SABR and is the co-chair of SABR's Business of Baseball committee.  Go to https://sabr.org/authors/daniel-r-levitt/ and http://daniel-levitt.com/ for more information.    Mark Armour joins us to discuss Daniel's and his newest book, Intentional Balk:  Baseball's Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating.  Mark was elected as the President of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Board of Directors in 2019. He is the founder and longtime (2002-2016) director of SABR's Baseball Biography Project. He was the recipient of SABR's highest honor, the Bob Davids Award, in 2008 and the Henry Chadwick Award, honoring baseball's greatest researchers, in 2014. His book Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball was a finalist for the prestigious Seymour Medal in 2011, as was In Pursuit of Pennants, which he co-wrote with Dan Levitt in 2015. Mark has written or co-written several other books and many articles.  Go to https://sabr.org/authors/mark-armour/ and http://www.mark-armour.net/ for more information.   Paula Stachyra is a barbecue enthusiast, recipe developer, and creator of the popular Instagram account, Queen of the Grill, which is beloved for its weekly #WingCrushWednesday posts.  She also co-hosts the very entertaining podcast, All Up In My Grills, with her friend, Lauren Nagel.  Paula's latest project is the cookbook, Wing Crush:  100 Epic Recipes For Your Grill or Smoker.  Her wing recipes are like fingerprints; no two are alike and that gives any lover of wings 100 unique ways to enjoy them.  Paula is extremely humbled by the rave reviews her book has received.  Bagel favorites?  Yes, we discussed that too.  Go to https://www.instagram.com/queenofthegrill/?hl=en for more information. Jeff and Leonard talk a little about their road trip to the newly opened, Ray's Roadside Kitchen, which will be featured in an upcoming episode. We recommend you go to BBQ Buddha, https://bbqbuddha.com/ for rubs and award-winning sauces, Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, the Pandemic Baseball Book Club, https://www.pbbclub.com  to find many of the wonderful books we have featured as well as some additional swag, Magnechef, https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, and Cutting Edge Firewood https://www.cuttingedgefirewood.com/ for high-quality firewood and cooking wood. We conclude the show with the song, "Baseball Always Brings You Home" by the musician, Dave Dresser, and the poet, Shel Krakofsky. We truly appreciate our listeners and hope that all of you are staying safe. If you would like to contact the show, we would love to hear from you.   Call the show:  (516) 855-8214 Email:  baseballandbbq@gmail.comTwitter:  @baseballandbbqInstagram:  baseballandbarbecueYouTube:  baseball and bbqWebsite:  https//baseballandbbq.weebly.com Facebook:  baseball and bbq

In conversation with John M. Cooper Historian Neil Lanctot is the author of Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella and Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution, a ''prodigiously researched'' and ''enormously important historical corrective to feel-good versions of baseball integration'' (The New York Times). The recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research, he has published articles in Smithsonian magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Baltimore Sun, among other periodicals. In The Approaching Storm, Lanctot details the early-20th century rift between three of the U.S.'s most important progressives as the country struggled to respond to the global consequences to World War I.    John M. Cooper's many historical works include Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920; The Vanity of Power: American Isolationism and the First World War, 1914-1917; and Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, which was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. The recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and a Fulbright professorship in Moscow, Russia, he is professor-emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (recorded 3/29/2022)

You're listening to the Westerly Sun's podcast, where we talk about the best local events, new job postings, obituaries, and more. First, a bit of Rhode Island trivia. Today's trivia is brought to you by Perennial. Perennial's new plant-based drink “Daily Gut & Brain” is a blend of easily digestible nutrients crafted for gut and brain health. A convenient mini-meal, Daily Gut & Brain” is available now at the CVS Pharmacy in Wakefield. Now for some trivia. Did you know that Rhode Island native and academic, Neil Lanctot is one of the foremost scholars on African American baseball leagues? He won the Seymour Medal 2005 from the Society for American Baseball Research for his book entitled “Negro League Baseball - The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution”. The book was also featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. Next, a reopening that you should know about. The Historic Hale House has reopened in Matunuck. Take your family and see how life was lived by American author and clergyman, Reverend Dr. Edward Everett Hale and his family of artists and writers. Visit Halehouseri.org for more. See you there this summer! Looking for a new role? We're here to help. Today's Job posting comes from Body Mechanix Physical Therapy in Wakefield. They're looking for a part-time or full-time medical receptionist. One year of experience and a high school degree are preferred. Pay starts at $13.00 per hour and must be great with customers. Benefits include health insurance, a 401k, and dental. ,If you'd like to learn more or apply, you can do so by using the link in our episode description.  https://www.indeed.com/l-Westerly,-RI-jobs.html?vjk=c488c3fe4e01bbbb&advn=11341438340280433 Today we're remembering the life of John Thomas Dufficy of Richmond who died peacefully on surrounded by his loving family. He was the beloved husband of Barbara. Born in Hamilton, OH on August 4, 1934 he was an Insurance Agent for Prudential Life Insurance for many years before retiring. He was also very active in many civic organizations throughout the Chariho Community. Besides his loving and devoted wife of 65 years, he will be sadly missed by his sister, his 6 children, 19 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren. Thank you for taking a moment today to remember and celebrate John's life. That's it for today, we'll be back next time with more! Also, remember to check out our sponsor Perennial, Daily Gut & Brain, available at the CVS on Main St. in Wakefield! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bushball welcomes baseball author and historian Dennis Snelling  who talks about the Golden Era of PCL, his most recent book subject Lefty O'Doul and our Team of the Week the Hollywood Stars.Snelling is a three-time finalist for the Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year--for "The Greatest Minor League" in 2011, "Johnny Evers: A Baseball Life" in 2014, and for "Lefty O'Doul: Baseball's Forgotten Ambassador" in 2017. In addition, "Johnny Evers" was a 2015 Seymour Medal finalist. Snelling was a senior writer for "Helmar Baseball History & Art Magazine" and writes a column for "Minor Trips Digest" and reviews sports books for the New York Journal of Books. He is in his 46th season as public address announcer for Downey High School sports teams, particularly football, in Modesto, California, and works as an Associate Superintendent for a school district in Roseville, California.Dennis' Book https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MDSFSB3/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1

Today we are joined by David Block, author of Pastime Lost: The Humble, Original and Now Completely Forgotten Game of English Baseball (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Block is a baseball historian whose research has focused on the origins of the game. Pastime Lost was a finalist for the 2020 Seymour Medal, awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research to the best book of baseball history or biography published the preceding year. His previous book, Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game, won the 2006 Seymour Medal as well as the 2006 North American Society for Sport History book award. It is considered the definitive study of baseball's origins. In Pastime Lost, Block painstakingly recovers the origins of baseball games through a close reading of a wide variety of 18th-century sources including newspaper clippings, novels, and diaries. He also does a statistical analysis of those sources. He discovers that English baseball was a popular folk sport for more than two hundred years, predominantly in the home counties, but also being played as widely as Scotland and Wales. The game enjoyed widespread acceptance among men and women, elites such as Frederick, the Prince of Wales, and ordinary people, especially in the countryside. By the middle of the 19th century, English baseball faded under increased challenges from other ball games including rounders, bat and ball, and cricket. By the first half of the twentieth century, English baseball largely vanished and is now almost completely forgotten. Nevertheless, it is the likely parent of many popular ball games today – even as Block argues, American baseball. Block’s Pastime Lost, which mixed rich historical investigation with Bill Bryson-esque rollicks across the English countryside, will appeal to readers interested in the long history of bat and ball games. Keith Rathbone is a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, Agency, and Everyday Life, examines physical culture in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by David Block, author of Pastime Lost: The Humble, Original and Now Completely Forgotten Game of English Baseball (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Block is a baseball historian whose research has focused on the origins of the game. Pastime Lost was a finalist for the 2020 Seymour Medal, awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research to the best book of baseball history or biography published the preceding year. His previous book, Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game, won the 2006 Seymour Medal as well as the 2006 North American Society for Sport History book award. It is considered the definitive study of baseball's origins. In Pastime Lost, Block painstakingly recovers the origins of baseball games through a close reading of a wide variety of 18th-century sources including newspaper clippings, novels, and diaries. He also does a statistical analysis of those sources. He discovers that English baseball was a popular folk sport for more than two hundred years, predominantly in the home counties, but also being played as widely as Scotland and Wales. The game enjoyed widespread acceptance among men and women, elites such as Frederick, the Prince of Wales, and ordinary people, especially in the countryside. By the middle of the 19th century, English baseball faded under increased challenges from other ball games including rounders, bat and ball, and cricket. By the first half of the twentieth century, English baseball largely vanished and is now almost completely forgotten. Nevertheless, it is the likely parent of many popular ball games today – even as Block argues, American baseball. Block’s Pastime Lost, which mixed rich historical investigation with Bill Bryson-esque rollicks across the English countryside, will appeal to readers interested in the long history of bat and ball games. Keith Rathbone is a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, Agency, and Everyday Life, examines physical culture in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by David Block, author of Pastime Lost: The Humble, Original and Now Completely Forgotten Game of English Baseball (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Block is a baseball historian whose research has focused on the origins of the game. Pastime Lost was a finalist for the 2020 Seymour Medal, awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research to the best book of baseball history or biography published the preceding year. His previous book, Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game, won the 2006 Seymour Medal as well as the 2006 North American Society for Sport History book award. It is considered the definitive study of baseball's origins. In Pastime Lost, Block painstakingly recovers the origins of baseball games through a close reading of a wide variety of 18th-century sources including newspaper clippings, novels, and diaries. He also does a statistical analysis of those sources. He discovers that English baseball was a popular folk sport for more than two hundred years, predominantly in the home counties, but also being played as widely as Scotland and Wales. The game enjoyed widespread acceptance among men and women, elites such as Frederick, the Prince of Wales, and ordinary people, especially in the countryside. By the middle of the 19th century, English baseball faded under increased challenges from other ball games including rounders, bat and ball, and cricket. By the first half of the twentieth century, English baseball largely vanished and is now almost completely forgotten. Nevertheless, it is the likely parent of many popular ball games today – even as Block argues, American baseball. Block’s Pastime Lost, which mixed rich historical investigation with Bill Bryson-esque rollicks across the English countryside, will appeal to readers interested in the long history of bat and ball games. Keith Rathbone is a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, Agency, and Everyday Life, examines physical culture in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by David Block, author of Pastime Lost: The Humble, Original and Now Completely Forgotten Game of English Baseball (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Block is a baseball historian whose research has focused on the origins of the game. Pastime Lost was a finalist for the 2020 Seymour Medal, awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research to the best book of baseball history or biography published the preceding year. His previous book, Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game, won the 2006 Seymour Medal as well as the 2006 North American Society for Sport History book award. It is considered the definitive study of baseball's origins. In Pastime Lost, Block painstakingly recovers the origins of baseball games through a close reading of a wide variety of 18th-century sources including newspaper clippings, novels, and diaries. He also does a statistical analysis of those sources. He discovers that English baseball was a popular folk sport for more than two hundred years, predominantly in the home counties, but also being played as widely as Scotland and Wales. The game enjoyed widespread acceptance among men and women, elites such as Frederick, the Prince of Wales, and ordinary people, especially in the countryside. By the middle of the 19th century, English baseball faded under increased challenges from other ball games including rounders, bat and ball, and cricket. By the first half of the twentieth century, English baseball largely vanished and is now almost completely forgotten. Nevertheless, it is the likely parent of many popular ball games today – even as Block argues, American baseball. Block’s Pastime Lost, which mixed rich historical investigation with Bill Bryson-esque rollicks across the English countryside, will appeal to readers interested in the long history of bat and ball games. Keith Rathbone is a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, Agency, and Everyday Life, examines physical culture in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by David Block, author of Pastime Lost: The Humble, Original and Now Completely Forgotten Game of English Baseball (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Block is a baseball historian whose research has focused on the origins of the game. Pastime Lost was a finalist for the 2020 Seymour Medal, awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research to the best book of baseball history or biography published the preceding year. His previous book, Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game, won the 2006 Seymour Medal as well as the 2006 North American Society for Sport History book award. It is considered the definitive study of baseball's origins. In Pastime Lost, Block painstakingly recovers the origins of baseball games through a close reading of a wide variety of 18th-century sources including newspaper clippings, novels, and diaries. He also does a statistical analysis of those sources. He discovers that English baseball was a popular folk sport for more than two hundred years, predominantly in the home counties, but also being played as widely as Scotland and Wales. The game enjoyed widespread acceptance among men and women, elites such as Frederick, the Prince of Wales, and ordinary people, especially in the countryside. By the middle of the 19th century, English baseball faded under increased challenges from other ball games including rounders, bat and ball, and cricket. By the first half of the twentieth century, English baseball largely vanished and is now almost completely forgotten. Nevertheless, it is the likely parent of many popular ball games today – even as Block argues, American baseball. Block’s Pastime Lost, which mixed rich historical investigation with Bill Bryson-esque rollicks across the English countryside, will appeal to readers interested in the long history of bat and ball games. Keith Rathbone is a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, Agency, and Everyday Life, examines physical culture in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The name Oscar Charleston is not familiar to many. An absolute star in baseball’s Negro Leagues, Charleston’s best years came before there was much structure in the Negro Leagues. His prodigious power, spectacular defense and winning ways came before the more popular names of Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Buck O’Neill took the field. Oscar played for the likes of the Indianapolis ABC’s, Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords and even though he never played in Major League Baseball, he still drew comparisons to such legends as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker. So, who was Oscar Charleston? Jeremy Beer recently released an incredible biography on Oscar titled, “Oscar Charleston, The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Hero.” This bio, which won the Seymour Medal, which is awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research – SABR – for the best baseball history or biography published in the preceding year, covers so much of Oscar’s life, from his childhood, through his stints in the military, and of course his career. Jeremy shares much of Oscar’s life on this episode of SFH. We discuss such topics as the early days of the Negro Leagues, who the movers and shakers were in the Negro Leagues, Oscar’s forays to the Cuban League, the Hotel League, and how he fared on the diamond when he did get the chance to face Major League pitching. And, by the way, no matter who Oscar faced, he took them deep. The stories of Oscar’s power are legendary, his ability to track down balls and leap over walls to haul them back in are still celebrated today and the stories of his uncanny ability to come up with clutch hits will make you wonder why such a fabulous ball player is so unknown. After listening to Jeremy on this episode of SFH will certainly help you discover one of the greatest ball players ever and help you to understand why, in 1976, Oscar Charleston was elected into baseball’s Hall of Fame and leave you scratching your head as to why it took so long. Links: Sports' Forgotten Heroes website Sports' Forgotten Heroes Patreon Page Sports' Forgotten Heroes twitter © 2020 Sports' Forgotten Heroes

In this episode, our host and B'nai B'rith International CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin is joined by sports writer Jane Leavy, an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of biographies of baseball legends Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax. Those books are titled The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood and Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy. Leavy also wrote the comic novel Squeeze Play, described by Entertainment Weekly as “the best novel ever written about baseball.” Leavy's latest book The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created explores Babe Ruth’s life as America’s first modern celebrity. The Big Fella has been awarded the Seymour Medal, presented annually by the Society for American Baseball Research for the best baseball book of the year. The book has also been nominated for the National Book Critics Award in biography as well as the Pen-Faulkner award for literary sports writing. The Big Fella includes details never previously reported about the baseball legend’s life. Leavy and Mariaschin discuss all this and more during the episode.

It rose against the Texas sun in all its architectural audacity: a domed stadium big enough to cover a baseball field. When it opened in 1965, the Houston Astrodome defied engineering precedent and forever changed professional sports. Today, its legacy today is complicated, and its future remains uncertain. Robert Trumpbour and Kenneth Womack tell the story of this groundbreaking building in The Eighth Wonder of the World The Life of Houston's Iconic Astrodome (University of Nebraska Press, 2016). The book won the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research in 2017. Trumpbour is professor of communications at Penn State University. He is also the author of The New Cathedrals: Politics and Media in the History of Stadium Construction (Syracuse Univ. Press, 2006). Womack is a dean and professor of English at Monmouth University, and the author of several books, including Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles (Bloomsbury, 2007). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It rose against the Texas sun in all its architectural audacity: a domed stadium big enough to cover a baseball field. When it opened in 1965, the Houston Astrodome defied engineering precedent and forever changed professional sports. Today, its legacy today is complicated, and its future remains uncertain. Robert Trumpbour and Kenneth Womack tell the story of this groundbreaking building in The Eighth Wonder of the World The Life of Houston's Iconic Astrodome (University of Nebraska Press, 2016). The book won the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research in 2017. Trumpbour is professor of communications at Penn State University. He is also the author of The New Cathedrals: Politics and Media in the History of Stadium Construction (Syracuse Univ. Press, 2006). Womack is a dean and professor of English at Monmouth University, and the author of several books, including Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles (Bloomsbury, 2007). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It rose against the Texas sun in all its architectural audacity: a domed stadium big enough to cover a baseball field. When it opened in 1965, the Houston Astrodome defied engineering precedent and forever changed professional sports. Today, its legacy today is complicated, and its future remains uncertain. Robert Trumpbour and Kenneth Womack tell the story of this groundbreaking building in The Eighth Wonder of the World The Life of Houston's Iconic Astrodome (University of Nebraska Press, 2016). The book won the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research in 2017. Trumpbour is professor of communications at Penn State University. He is also the author of The New Cathedrals: Politics and Media in the History of Stadium Construction (Syracuse Univ. Press, 2006). Womack is a dean and professor of English at Monmouth University, and the author of several books, including Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles (Bloomsbury, 2007). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It rose against the Texas sun in all its architectural audacity: a domed stadium big enough to cover a baseball field. When it opened in 1965, the Houston Astrodome defied engineering precedent and forever changed professional sports. Today, its legacy today is complicated, and its future remains uncertain. Robert Trumpbour and Kenneth Womack tell the story of this groundbreaking building in The Eighth Wonder of the World The Life of Houston's Iconic Astrodome (University of Nebraska Press, 2016). The book won the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research in 2017. Trumpbour is professor of communications at Penn State University. He is also the author of The New Cathedrals: Politics and Media in the History of Stadium Construction (Syracuse Univ. Press, 2006). Womack is a dean and professor of English at Monmouth University, and the author of several books, including Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles (Bloomsbury, 2007). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It rose against the Texas sun in all its architectural audacity: a domed stadium big enough to cover a baseball field. When it opened in 1965, the Houston Astrodome defied engineering precedent and forever changed professional sports. Today, its legacy today is complicated, and its future remains uncertain. Robert Trumpbour and Kenneth Womack tell the story of this groundbreaking building in The Eighth Wonder of the World The Life of Houston's Iconic Astrodome (University of Nebraska Press, 2016). The book won the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research in 2017. Trumpbour is professor of communications at Penn State University. He is also the author of The New Cathedrals: Politics and Media in the History of Stadium Construction (Syracuse Univ. Press, 2006). Womack is a dean and professor of English at Monmouth University, and the author of several books, including Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles (Bloomsbury, 2007). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neil Lanctot teaches modern American history at the University of Delaware. Recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research, he is the author of Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution. His new book, Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella, is the first biography of the Dodger great in decades and the most authoritative ever published. Campanella played eight years in the Negro Leagues with the Washington (later Baltimore) Elite Giants. When he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, he became the first African-American catcher in the 20th century in the major leagues. Campy was a mainstay of the great Dodger teams of the late 1940s and 1950s and was a three-time MVP. Following an automobile accident in 1958 which left him paralyzed below the neck, Roy Campanella became another sort of pioneer, learning new physical therapy techniques and becoming an inspiration to other athletes and physically handicapped people.Award-winning historian Rob Ruck teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh andThe Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic. His documentary work includes the Emmy Award-winning Kings on the Hill: Baseball's Forgotten Men. In his new book, Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latino Game, Ruck shows how the colliding histories of black and Latin ballplayers ran the gamut from early collaboration in civil rights protests to simmering intraracial tensions. Integration of the major leagues was painful: it gutted the once vibrant Negro Leagues and often subjected Latin players to Jim Crow racism. From 27% of all major leaguers in 1975, African Americcans now make up less than one-tenth; the number of Latin Americans by contrast has grown to more than a quarter of all major leaguers. Ruck's research reveals a stunning truth: baseball has never been stronger as a business. never weaker as a game. Recorded On: Sunday, November 6, 2011