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Baseball in the Progressive Era
A Tip To Teddy
By Grantland Rice
That’s the only job for you, take your tip now, Theodore,
Think of how your pulse will leap when you hear the angry roar. ...
A poem about Theodore Roosevelt, from Baseball Prose, Poems and Songs
Baseball is an American legacy, sometimes referred to as the “American Pastime”. Baseball has mimicked the American society for centuries, with roots beginning as early as 1839. One important era of influence on the sport was the Progressive Era. ... Edward White expresses this by saying, “Baseball was launched as a national sport, and cultural icon, in the Progressive Era. Its internal legal and economic structure, its business expectations, its conception of city ballparks, its attitudes on race and ethnicity, its myths, its aspirations, and its idealized image of itself as a sport and “pastime” for its followers were characteristic of the era” (6-7). ...
Prior to the beginning of the Progressive Era, baseball had to face the depression of the 1890s. ...
Much like the push of discrimination of immigrants in the workforce, baseball fans had ideas of what led to the corruption in the game. Rossi says, “Many baseball writer’s blamed baseball’s problems in the 1890s on the influence of Irish American players (57). ... They were intolerant of the smaller leagues (or businesses) taking away their limelight with the baseball fans. ... White also addresses this by saying, “For an industry that seemed to be driven by economic motives as any of its counterparts in the world of American business, organized baseball maintained some policies, and engaged in some practices that appeared to be inefficient or counterproductive on their face (4-5). ...
In the meantime, Baseball began to change shape. ... This led to the first court battle in major league baseball history, Philadelphia Ball Club v. ... This feared many National League owners because resorting to the law may cause the courts to look more closely at major league baseball’s contractual agreements.
Approximate Word count = 1539
Approximate Pages = 6.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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