The Baseball Film : : A Cultural and Transmedia History / / Aaron Baker.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE Arts 2022
• VerfasserIn: Baker, Aaron,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Screening Sports
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (206 p.) :; 12 b-w images

Baseball has long been viewed as the Great American Pastime, so it is no surprise that the sport has inspired many Hollywood films and television series. But how do these works depict the game, its players, fans, and place in American society? This study offers an extensive look at nearly one hundred years of baseball-themed movies, documentaries, and TV shows. Film and sports scholar Aaron Baker examines works like A League of their Own (1992) and Sugar (2008), which dramatize the underrepresented contributions of female and immigrant players, alongside classic baseball movies like The Natural that are full of nostalgia for a time when native-born white men could use the game to achieve the American dream. He further explores how biopics have both mythologized and demystified such legendary figures as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson and Fernando Valenzuela. The Baseball Film charts the variety of ways that Hollywood presents the game as integral to American life, whether showing little league as a site of parent-child bonding or depicting fans’ lifelong love affairs with their home teams. Covering everything from Bull Durham (1988) to The Bad News Bears (1976), this book offers an essential look at one of the most cinematic of all sports.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: The Baseball Film—Nostalgia and Innovation -- 1. Hollywood Baseball Films: Nostalgic White Masculinity or the National Pastime? -- 2. The Business of Baseball -- 3. Screening Who Gets to Play -- 4. The Glocalized Game -- 5. Fanball -- 6. Learning the Game -- Conclusion: The Show for the Thinking Fan and Going Online -- List of Baseball Films and Television Shows -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author