Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television

ISBN-13: 9780803248250 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 402 str.

James R. Walker; JR. Robert V. Bellamy

Opis

In Baseball Weekly s list of things that most affected baseball in the twentieth century, television ranked second behind only the signing of Jackie Robinson. The new medium of television exposed baseball to a genuinely national audience; altered the financial picture for teams, owners, and players; and changed the way Americans followed the game. Center Field Shot explores these changes all even more prominent in the first few years of the twenty-first century and makes sense of their meaning for America s pastime. Center Field Shot traces a sometimes contentious but mutually beneficial relationship from the first televised game in 1939 to the new era of Internet broadcasts, satellite radio, and high-definition TV, considered from the perspective of businessmen collecting merchandising fees and advertising rights, franchise owners with ever more money to spend on talent, and broadcasters trying to present a game long considered unfriendly to television. Ultimately the association of baseball with television emerges as a reflection of perhaps even a central feature of American culture at large."