How baseball explains America

Examining the connection between baseball and our country's history, How Baseball Explains America is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind journey through the sport known as America's pastime. Longtime USA Today baseball columnist Hal Bodley explores just how essential baseball is to understanding the American experience. He takes readers into the Oval Office with George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton as the former presidents share their thoughts on the game, he contrasts the highs and lows of Pete Rose's journey with the ethical challenges that Americans face, and he looks at baseball's struggle with performance enhancing drugs alongside America's war on drugs. An unabashedly celebratory explanation of America's love affair with baseball and the men who make it possible, this work sheds light on topics such as the role Jackie Robinson's signing with the Dodgers played in the civil rights movement, how baseball's westward expansion mirrored the growth of our national economy, and the military lineage of such legends as Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. It is a must read for anyone interested in more fully understanding not only the game but also the nation in which it thrives.

Front Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Foreword by George F. Will; 1. The Greatest Decade; 2. Drugs on the Street, Drugs on the Diamond; 3. Owning a Team: How Hard Could It Be?; 4. Bill Clinton and the Strike of '94; 5. A Family Game; 6. Baseball Chatter; 7. George Steinbrenner's American Dream; 8. Cox, La Russa, Torre-End of an Era; 9. The Legacy of Jackie Robinson; 10. The Dream Is Alive in Oakland; 11. A Kid's Game; 12. Mr. President; 13. Take Me Out to the Ball Game; 14. The American Dream (Cuban Edition); 15. Change Is Good?; 16. The Big Job.

17. There Used to Be a BallparkAcknowledgments; Sources; About the Author.