Tumultuous Times in America's Game

In Tumultuous Times in America's Game: From Jackie Robinson's Breakthrough to the War over Free Agency, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte provides a comprehensive examination of major developments and key figures in Major League Baseball from the integration of Jackie Robinson in 1947 to the owners-instigated catastrophic players' strike of 1994-95. While many fans will recall those decades with fond remembrances of the baseball stars who played then-from Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays to Roberto Clemente, Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson, and Cal Ripken-they were also a time of substantial challenges that upended more than half a century of tradition that was the backbone of the major leagues. Tumultuous Times in America's Game includes histories of each of the major league franchises, presented alongside Soderholm-Difatte's detailed examination of the controversies, developments, and innovations from these significant decades in professional baseball. Recaps of several of baseball's most exciting pennant races round out the narrative, making this book a valuable read for fans and historians of the national pastime.

Bryan Soderholm-Difatte is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and a regular contributor to The Baseball Research Journal. He is the author of The Golden Era of Major League Baseball: A Time of Transition and Integration, America's Game: A History of Major League Baseball through World War II, Tumultuous Times in America's Game: From Jackie Robinson's Breakthrough to the War over Free Agency, and The Reshaping of America's Game: Major League Baseball after the Players' Strike,all published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Preface
PART I: BASEBALL'S INTEGRATION AND EXPANSIONIST IMPERATIVE
1: Baseball's Postwar Landscape: The "Race Question" and "Player Relationships"
2: The Yankees' Dynastic Momentum Returns
3: Brooklyn's Glorious Decade of Baseball
4: Relocation (Braves), Relocation (Browns), Relocation (Athletics)
5: Integration's Incremental Progress
6: Baseball's Manifest Destiny: The Road to Expansion
7: The First Latin Wave
PART II: THE LAST OF THE OLD-FASHIONED PENNANT RACES
8: West Coast Rivalry
9: The Perils of Genius: Explaining the '64 Phillies' Epic Collapse
10: The (Temporary) End of the Yankees' Forever Dynasty
11: Waiting in the Wings When the Yanks Went Down
12: Baseball's Last Great Pennant Race and the Impossible Dream Team
13: Expansion Decade
14: Let's Go, Mets: Durocher on the Other Side of a Miracle
PART III: SHIFTING BALANCES IN THE GAME AND THE BUSINESS OF BASEBALL
15: Race, War, Cultural Upheaval, and Baseball in America
16: From Pitchers Rule to the DH Rule
17: O's and A's and Their Winning Ways
18: The Rise of the Big Red Machine and the Return of Dodger Blue
19: Sparky's Hook: Anticipating the Quality Start
20: Marvin Miller Time: Not the (Presumed) End of Baseball History
21: A New Boss Reboots the Yankee Dynasty
22: Pennsylvania Has Its Say in the NL East
PART IV: BASEBALL'S (ALMOST) "ALL IN IT TO WIN IT" DECADE
23: 1980s AL East: Taking Advantage of Yankees Dysfunction
24: Squandered Greatness: The Rise and Demise of a Mets Dynasty
25: Red Sox, Cubs, and the Weight of History
26: How the '80s AL West Was Won
27: Musical Chairs in the NL West
28: Failure to Launch: Where Winning Was a Losing Proposition
PART V: BASEBALL AT THE BRINK
29: The Pete Rose Affair, the A's 'Roid Age, and the Integrity of the Game
30: Redefining the End Game: Paradigm Shifts in the Role of Relief Ace
31: The Consolidation of Integration and the Importance of Cito Gaston
32: Baseball's Great Divide
33: From Collusion to Bud Selig's Coup (and the Eve of Destruction)
34: The Day the Music Stopped
Bibliography
Index
About the Author