Customer Reviews

Breaking Into Baseball

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jean Hastings Ardell has captured the essence of the connection between baseball and women in her well-written and thoroughly-researched chapters. Whether they are men or women, fans or players, readers will enjoy her fast-paced writing, her sense of perspective, her conscientious scholarship, and her sense of humor. Ms. Ardell's love for the game is evident on every page, and she taps into that connection for readers, enabling them to celebrate their own love for the game of baseball.

Just when you think anything and everything has been written about baseball, along comes this book. Ms. Ardell approaches the subject from all angles, including some I never thought of, and I've been around the game as a journalist for several years. Her research is particularly impressive, with details such as the first female umpire to sign a game scorecard. Professional baseball is one of the last bastions of male chauvinism, and Ms. Ardell reminds us that the national pastime isn't quite as national as we'd like to believe. Definitely worth a five-star rating; I'll be sending out this book as gifts to people in the business with the hope that it opens not just eyes but minds and hearts too.

I'm objective about this book, and I declare it a real winner.

Although it's about women "breaking into" the great national pastime,

men will find the historic aspects of interest, as well. The fact that the author quotes a "Washington Post" article of mine on the subject of the first Ladies Day Game played in the nation's capital does not influence my favorable opinion. It is a well researched and well credited book. I would hasten to recommend it.

This is a well-written and well-researched book about the ways in which women have related to baseball from its very beginnings. In some ways, this seems an odd approach to the topic of women and baseball, but it's certainly a legitimate approach, and the author does an excellent job of bringing the stories to life.

For those intrigued by the thought of different ways of relating to baseball, the seven ways are:

as Fans

as Baseball Annies

as Amateur Players

as Professional Players

as Umpires

As Club Owners and Executives

as Women in the Media

The author has left out at least one way in which women relate to baseball: as vendors and grounds crew. Women as well as men get jobs ushering, selling hot dogs and other concessions, and maintaining the baseball grounds just because they love baseball. I would have liked to have heard their stories.

Very worth reading.

This is a must read book for students of our National pastime. It is elegantly written and chronicles the history of women's involvement with baseball from the mid-nineteenth century through to the modern day. Ardell provides a thorough historical overview of women players, (amateur and professional), sports writers, umpires, club owners and executives. She includes a unique chapter on women fans, focusing on the "Baseball Annies" who follow men's teams around offering themselves to players for sexual dalliances. Ardell is a gifted writer who makes history come alive for readers. This book will appeal equally to academicians and the general public.