‘Chasing the Elusive Pill’: YMCA Men,the Paris Baseball League and Making Baseball French, 1919–1925

American Baseball was introduced in France in the late nineteenth century, to little appeal. During the First World War, American soldiers immediately began playing the sport for recreation in France, but it was YMCA men in the new Foyers du Soldat, rest and relaxation huts, who truly re-introduced baseball to the French. After the war, Americans in Paris created an amateur league that perpetuated baseball, but the sport still did not resonate with but a minority ofthe French, despite great efforts. It was only in 1924, in the wake of the Olympics, that the French took organisational control of baseball, winning government recognition and establishing firm roots for the sport by making baseball nominally French.     

中国棒球运动与亚洲职业棒球发展差距的研究

棒球在日本、韩国和中国的台湾省有着悠久的历史和很高的竞技水平,与其职业棒球的发展有着紧密的联系。中国棒球联赛称不上真正意义的中国职棒联赛,只是看到了中国职棒的雏形,成为真正意义的职棒联赛,还需要有一定的时间进行棒球市场的培育与开发,只有队伍规模的壮大,球员水平的提高和拥有一定数量的球迷,真正气候的职业棒球才会实现,竞技水平才能赶超日本、韩国和中国台湾。     

A Bitter Partnership: The Black Press’ Contentious Relationship with the Negro Leagues in the Struggle to Integrate Major League Baseball

In the 30-year campaign to integrate Major League Baseball, the relationships between African-American newspapers and the Negro Leagues developed in three distinct phases. What began as a harmonious partnership where the two institutions worked together to publicize and improve the quality of the Negro Leagues gave way to bitterness and resentment, as each questioned the other’s role in integrating the sport. By the early 1950s, however, some black sportswriters attempted to revitalize the Negro Leagues after recognizing that the integration of the sport had damaged this distinctly African-American social and economic institution. Analysing the contradictory and complicated attitudes and actions of black journalists as they worked with and later disassociated from the Negro Leagues demonstrates the black press’ shifting relationship with the Negro Leagues and illustrates the conflict among African-American journalists over how to transition from a segregated environment to an integrated one.     

Secular trend: morphology and performance

In a context of morphological expansion of the general population, how do athletes follow such a pattern of anthropometric growth? Is there any relation to performance? Biometric data including mass, height, body mass index (BMI) and age were collected for 50,376 American athletes representing 249,336 annual performers playing in professional baseball, football, ice hockey and basketball. Distributions by mass in National Football League (NFL) players are described by periods. Field goals have been studied in relation to players’ height in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Between 1871 and 2011, athletes from the four sports have increased significantly in mass, height and BMI, following a multi-exponential function series. Consequently, biometric differences between athletes and the general population are increasing gradually. Changes in the mass distribution within the NFL show the emergence of a biometrical specificity in relation to the field position. At the professional level, performance remains structured around precise biometric values. In the NBA, a height-attractor at 201.3 ± 6.3 cm for the best scorers is invariant, regardless of the level of play. These results suggest that laws of growth and biometrics drive high-level sport and organise performance around the specific constraint of each field position. Discrepancies between some mass and height developments question the (disproportionate) large mass increase (relative to the height increase) during the 1980s and 1990s.     

The Chinese Government and the Globalization of Table Tennis: A Case Study in Local Responses to the Globalization of Sport

This study aims to explore the relationship between the Chinese government and the globalization of sport. The analysis looks at how the Chinese government has developed and managed its national sport, table tennis, as the sport became more and more globalized. This research developed a theoretical framework and an analytical tool based on Houlihan's model for analyzing ‘global reach and local response in sport’ and adopted a qualitative approach of content analysis and semi-structured interviews. A total of 16 interviewees contributed to this study, consisting of officials from Chinese sports administrations and Chinese scholars specializing in sports studies. This study found that the Chinese government has responded to the challenges associated with the globalization of table tennis in the dimensions of ‘participating in international organizations’ and ‘commercialization’ in two and five different ways, respectively. As this case study of China shows, a country's response to the globalization of sport is not limited to just one of the three types of responses described by Houlihan: passive, participative, or conflictual. In fact, a combination of two types is also possible. In China's case, the response has been both participativeand conflictual, but never passive. This study concludes that since the Chinese government habitually prioritizes the interests of the state ahead of everything else, it has never loosened its grip on the development of table tennis. It has so far demonstrated its ability to control resources when dealing with the impacts associated with the globalization of table tennis. China's socialist market economy model, which features a ‘dual-track system’ and ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, has generated a unique set of values that serves to rationalize whatever conflicts arise between capitalism and socialism. Although the Chinese government currently handles its relationship with globalization effectively and flexibly, the reform and opening up policies in China are expanding and may expose conflicts of interest between the Communist regime, enterprises, and professional players in the foreseeable future.     

Schooling Taiwan's aboriginal baseball players for the nation

One of the major challenges that faces nation-builders in postcolonial societies is the incorporation of subaltern groups, particularly aboriginal peoples, into a collective national project. One vehicle for addressing this challenge is sport with schools being amongst the most important venues. This article offers an empirical study of the role of aboriginal players in Taiwanese baseball. By examining the schooling and historic achievements of aboriginal players in the Nenggao and Hongye teams and the role of aboriginal players during the more recent post-martial law period, the study challenges some commonly held views concerning the relationship between baseball and Taiwanese national identity. In particular, the article analyzes the role of the state in its use of baseball to support the co-option of aboriginal players for the nation-building project. The study concludes that the state, regardless of which ruling elite is in power, has consistently manipulated Taiwan's indigenous peoples, not least through the education system, in order to achieve certain political objectives, specifically in relation to nation-building. Furthermore, although baseball remains an important avenue for the social and economic advancement of individual aborigines, recurrent scandals linked to exploitation have been consistent characteristics of state policy.     

我国普通高校棒球人才培养机制研究

我国普通高校棒垒球协成立已经9年了,但我国普通高校棒球运动发展速度较慢,我国普通高校棒球联赛水平与想象相差甚远。通过对出席2012年7月＂全国棒垒球联赛＂开幕式领导的访谈、及对参加全国棒垒球联赛所有普通高校教练员及运动员调研。经过整理、分析问卷,找出我国普通高校棒球人才培养的途径,提出相应的解决对策。在现实训练、比赛及我国普通高校棒球运动的发展中具有重要意义。     

From Marin County's Seventies Clunker to the Durango World Championship 1990: A History of Mountain Biking in the USA

Between the 1970s, during which several enthusiastic cyclists rode off-road, and the 1990s, during which the first Union Cycliste Internationale World Championship took place in Durango (Colorado), different steps contributed to the success of mountain bike in the US. Inventions took place throughout the period from Gary Fisher's mechanical improvements in 1975 to Joe Breeze's first specialized frames made in 1977. In the same fashion, the ‘Stumpjumper’ was sold on a large scale in 1982, making it the first industrially-produced mountain bike, which led to a new stage in terms of commercialization. The mountain bike opened a new market in the cycling industry and certainly became more financially accessible to a large number of people. This sport, which began in the US, became a worldwide outdoor sport in the last decade of the twentieth century when the Olympics welcomed it with open arms at the Atlanta Olympic Games.     

Glocalisation of Sport: The NBA's Diffusion in China

This paper aims to examine the process of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) glocalisation in China. By analysing its two contextualising phases: the reach – globalising the American basketball commodities in Chinese territory, and the response – reinventing tradition and reconstructing modernity of Chinese sport, the authors argue that the presence of the NBA in China has greatly remoulded the previous norms of Chinese basketball and sport culture. However, the NBA has not resulted in homogenisation of Chinese basketball, as local resistance from the Chinese Basketball Association has correspondently risen.     

Sport and the Italian American Quest for Whiteness

More than 4,000,000 Italians migrated to the United States in search of better opportunities; but their poverty, lack of education, Catholic religion and ethnic lifestyles denied them full inclusion in the mainstream American society dominated by middle class, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants. This study examines the Italians' development of an Italian national identity in the United States, the transition to an American identity and the Italians' quest for inclusion within the mainstream society. Disdainful of education as contrary to the peasant familial value system, the Italian reliance on physicality marked a particular working-class habitus that transferred well to the labour gangs that built the American infrastructure, but their physical prowess allowed for greater recognition as Italian youth adopted American sport forms. Physical prominence led to university athletic scholarships and participation on US Olympic teams; while others pursued fame and fortune as professional boxers and in the American national game of baseball. In the inter-war years sport provided a primary vehicle for assimilation, acceptance and recognition as athletes such as Joe DiMaggio and Rocky Marciano became American icons of popular culture and fostered a golden age for Italian assimilation in the 1950s. A third generation, however, experienced a resurgence of ethnicity that resulted in a segmented assimilation in which Italians selectively adopted to the mainstream culture while retaining particular ancestral values and practices. Stereotypical depictions of Italians as gangsters and an adherence to past lifestyles suggest that full assimilation is not yet complete.     

Long-term trends in home advantage in professional team sports in North America and England (1876 – 2003)

Home advantage is quantitatively defined and calculated for each season since the start of the main professional sports in North America and England. Over 400,000 games are analysed. The leagues represented are the National League (1876?–?2002) and American League (1901?–?2002) for baseball, the National Hockey League (1917?–?2003) for ice hockey, the National Football League (1933?–?2002) for American football, the National Basketball Association (1946?–?2003) for basketball, and the four levels of professional football, formerly called the Football League, in England (1888?–?2003). Problems caused by unbalanced playing schedules are considered. The results are presented graphically to show long-term trends and sudden changes. The highest levels of home advantage for all sports were in their early years of existence. Home advantage in ice hockey, basketball and football in England has declined over the last two decades. In baseball there has been very little change over the last 100 years, with home advantage consistently lower than in other sports. There was a large drop in home advantage in football in England following the 7-year suspension of the league during the Second World War. The trends and changes provide some evidence that travel and familiarity contribute to home advantage, but little in support of crowd effects.     

美国棒球电影发展的文化省思

"库伯镇"(传说中的棒球发源地)与"好莱坞"(电影工业重镇)有着非常密切的关系.一百多年来,棒球作为美国的"国家消遣",始终都是好莱坞电影制片最热衷取材的对象,为电影角色、剧情与背景提供丰富的银幕元素.从孩童联盟到大联盟,好莱坞曾出品各式各样类型电影,分从不同面向描绘美国社会中的棒球运动,这些电影也被称为"棒球电影".本文企图透过对于"棒球电影"的考察,揭示棒球、电影与美国文化之间的细腻互动关系.我们将会看到,从19世纪后期开始,棒球与电影便在美国社会中扮演凝聚美国移民社会分歧认同的重要力量,作为二股力量结合代表的"棒球电影",也运用其丰富银幕再现不断复制并传播美国社会中的主流价值,成为其典型的代表例证.透过回顾并整理美国"棒球电影"的发展历程,以及其在不同阶段中所展现出来的重要类型与主题.本文将致力于解释棒球不断结合电影的主要因为,以及二者相互结合的互动模式,让我们能更进一步理解棒球对于美国文化的影响.     

National Sporting Pastimes,Spectacles of Sporting Otherness and American Imaginings, 1880–1920

This discussion focuses on how the rise of America's national sporting pastimes, during the period 1880–1920, was inextricably tied to the ambitions and outpourings of American print capitalism and a concomitant congealing of a sense of modern American nationhood. In examining this thematic, we explicate the manner in which American national sporting audiences during the period 1880–1920 were variously constituted through discourses of national and ethnic sporting difference or Otherness. Hence, we examine the popular representation of turn of the century rodeo practices (as narrated through the spectacle of the western showman William Frederick ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody's Wild West show productions), the position of early-twentieth-century American baseball in relation to other sporting cultures (graphically depicted by Albert Goodwill, or A.G., Spalding's promotional publications, specifically the 1911 America's National Game) and the national and ethnic differences discerned within the global sporting landscape more generally (explicated within the 1919 National Geographic article ‘The Geography of Games’). These performances and representations of ethnic and national sporting Otherness played an important role in re-inscribing and legitimating the (White European American) normative core of American sport culture (as manifest within and through the dominant practices of playing and/or spectating of football, baseball and basketball).     

The hongye legend in taiwanese baseball: Separating myth from reality

This paper examines the legend and reality behind Hongye youth baseball. Friendly games against Japan in 1968 created an impact that has a unique place within Taiwanese history. Established both by the government and the media, Hongye was not only hailed as the genesis of Taiwan's baseball, but also as part of a Chinese nation-building project that was acceptable within society. As a result, myths were added to those facts that had become part of the people's collective memory. Such myths still linger today. The truth behind Hongye, as argued here, is that the innovation was actually a tragedy in disguise, both for young players and Taiwanese baseball as a whole [1 [1] This essay employs the Pinyin romanization system, which is used in mainland China and also is internationally recognized, since the systems used in Taiwan are quite confusing. Except for Taipei, and references that are originally written in original fashion, all are in Pinyin style. For example, US-based players Tsao Chin-hui and Chen Chin-feng are written as Cao Jinhui and Chen Jinfeng respectively. ].     

Using a discrete choice experiment to estimate spectators’ willingness to pay for professional baseball park sportscape

The physical environment of sport facilities, referred to as the sportscape, has a substantial influence on the extent to which sport fans attend sporting events and revisit the facilities. Accordingly, professional franchises make efforts to construct new stadiums with different sportscape elements, which serve as important factors that determine spectators’ levels of attendance satisfaction. With a sample of South Korean baseball fans, the authors examine which sportscape components of professional ballparks are considered most important by spectators, as well as how baseball attendees indicate their willingness to pay for particular sportscape attributes. Based on a discrete choice experimental approach, results indicate that spectators place the greatest importance on fast access to ballparks largely dependent upon the location. Results also suggest that respondents are willing to pay KR₩4102 for one more subway line. Different strategies for developing successful sportscape components are discussed.     

Transformation of Women's Mass Sport in the Process of Urbanisation in Contemporary China

Since the 1980s, China has initiated a new era of urbanisation. Urbanisation, like a social engine, has driven a dramatic change in the way that people take part in sport. The particular focus of this article is to explore the impact of urban development on the systematic transformation of women's sport at the grass-roots level. Based on Riess's perspective of the relationship between cities and sport, and socialist feminist's points of view concerning female sport, this research applied a qualitative research paradigm using an in-depth interview method to examine the major social forces which stimulated the rise of women's mass sport in urban China. It is argued that urban development has provided Chinese women with a governmental guarantee, comparatively free individual choices and diversified opportunities to pursue their own interests and fulfilment in and through sport. Generally speaking, Chinese women's mass sport has improved. However, there are still limitations within the institutional structure, physical structure and value systems of the urban society, as well as its sport subsystem to support the sustainable development of women's mass sport. Ideas concerning women's inferiority and gender inequality still remain during this transformation.     

美国大学公共体育课的演变对我国的启示

通过对上世纪中叶以来美国学者研究数据、资料的整理和分析,描述美国大学公共体育必修课比例和课程目标、内容的历史沿革,揭示导致其变化的原因,探寻二者之间可能存在的关系,并提出了为我国大学公共体育课的发展思路。     

A night at Delmonico's: The Spalding baseball tour and the imagination of Empire

This article casts the Spalding world baseball tour of 1888–1889 in a context of the campaign to construct a national identity during the late 19th century. In doing so, it intends to show how baseball magnate Albert Spalding and fellow sporting missionaries used cultural perspectives promoted on the tour to assert baseball's national purpose and, through the sport, stake America's claim in the Anglo-Saxon imperium of the times. Spalding initiated the mission with a remarkable tourist venture that spanned the globe, from Chicago across the Pacific and through Europe before returning from overseas. In New York, at a famous reception at Delmonico's restaurant, the tourists and commentators imbued the sport with the rhetoric of nationalism so critical to constructing empire ten years later. The banquet serves as the window in which to look on parts of the tour, particularly the contrasting results of the visits to Australia and Britain.     

美国棒球与板球发展消长之谜

多年以来,运动史学家都在争论,何以棒球能在曾为大英帝国殖民属地的美国取得凌驾于板球的发展。板球在美国的迅速式微,无论对于棒球或板球研究来说,都堪称最令人困惑的问题之一。及至今日,棒球与板球关系背后仍然存在许多难解的问题。既有文献指出,板球在美国的发展不仅可以上溯至17世纪,直到1860年代,板球也仍为美国非常普及的运动;但吊诡的是,就在内战之后,当美国社会进入"镀金时代"之后,板球却逐渐式微,甚至沦为美国边缘运动。透过检视美国棒球与板球发展的历史,本文企图指出主流理论的问题,尝试针对美国棒球与板球发展消长的关系提供不同的解释。     

Playing baseball/playing ‘house’: the reproduction and naturalization of ‘separate spheres’ in Japanese high school baseball

Although Japanese schools are generally considered to be one of the most gender-equitable social institutions in Japan, they play an important role in helping to reproduce and naturalize the notion of sex-based separate spheres, through endorsing the maintenance of such separate spheres in extracurricular sports clubs, such as baseball, where female student ‘managers’ act as surrogate mothers to the male team members: cooking, cleaning and engaging in other support work. Furthermore, the Japan High School Baseball Federation (JHBF)'s rule prohibiting female teammates from participating in official games (due to the ‘danger’ of injury to smaller, weaker females) discourages more athletically capable females from joining baseball teams in the first place, so that female students who do join high school baseball teams as players tend to be less likely to be athletically competitive. This both reinforces the image of smaller, weaker females and justifies the JHBF's policy, further strengthening the notion of the appropriateness of separate spheres. Moreover, the mass media encourage this, both by applauding the efforts of the female managers, and by giving details on the physiques of female teammates, thus subtly supporting the argument that females cannot and should not compete with males in baseball (or, by implication, in other male-dominated fields). Thus, these practices help to normalize the idea of sex-based separate spheres at a very real experiential level for high school students, as well as at a symbolic/ideological level for society as a whole.