1978

Baseball and America in the Disco Era

David Krell (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

224 Seiten

2025
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
9781496239600 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

Americans struggled to find their footing in the late 1970s. The Vietnam War ended with more than fifty-eight thousand American soldiers’ deaths; the public’s trust in politicians plummeted amid the Watergate scandal. As deadly blizzards ripped through the Midwest and Northeast in early 1978 and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, Americans turned to baseball for the welcome distraction and promise of a new season.

From spring training to the World Series, 1978 gave baseball fans one of the sport’s greatest seasons, full of legendary moments like the battle between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the American League East pennant, Gaylord Perry’s three thousandth strikeout, Tom Seaver’s only career no-hitter, Willie McCovey’s five hundredth home run, and Pete Rose’s marathon forty-four-game hitting streak. The 1978 season played out against a backdrop of disco music, bell-bottom pants, and gas-guzzling cars, while Hollywood answered a desperate longing for a simpler time with nostalgic offerings such as Grease, The Buddy Holly Story, American Hot Wax, Animal House, and Superman. Robin Williams became a household name with a guest appearance on the popular TV show Happy Days, Atlantic City debuted its first casino, and Jill Clayburgh symbolized the emerging independence of women in An Unmarried Woman.

In a memorable end to the baseball season, Reggie Jackson and Bucky Dent led the Yankees to their second consecutive World Series over the Dodgers after losing the first two games, then winning four in a row. With a month-by-month approach, David Krell breaks down major events in both baseball and American culture at large in 1978, chronicling in novelistic detail the notable achievements of some of the greatest players of the era, along with some of the national pastime’s quirkiest moments, to capture an extraordinary year in baseball.

David Krell is the author of 1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK (Nebraska, 2021), Do You Believe in Magic? Baseball and America in the Groundbreaking Year of 1966, and The Fenway Effect: A Cultural History of the Boston Red Sox (Nebraska, 2024).

Acknowledgments
1. The Best Interests of Baseball: January
2. “A Chance to Be Absolutely Unbelievable”: February
3. Goodbye Dark, My Old Friend: March
4. Move Over, Baby Ruth, Here Comes Reggie: April
5. Kingman’s Performance and Lasorda’s Outrage: May
6. Louisiana Lightning and Greased Lightning: June
7. Melodrama in the Bronx: July
8. A Rose by Any Other Game: August
9. The Boston Massacre: September
10. The World Series: October
11. A Tale of Two Sparkys: November
12. It’s a Bird . . . It’s a Plane . . . It’s a Blockbuster: December
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	27.02.2025
Zusatzinfo	index
Verlagsort	Lincoln
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Ballsport
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-13	9781496239600 / 9781496239600
Zustand	Neuware