Vaudeville on the Diamond (eBook)

Minor League Baseball in Today's Entertainment World

David M. Sutera (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2014
184 Seiten
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Verlag)
978-0-8108-9178-4 (ISBN)

Infos

From 1993 to 2010, minor league baseball has, in aggregate, shown a steady increase in attendance, reaching as high as nearly fifty-two million spectators in 2008. With all the high tech, live streaming, fast-paced entertainment now available to modern consumers, what is it about minor league baseball that still holds appeal with today’s audiences? In Vaudeville on the Diamond, David Sutera takes a close look at how minor league baseball has survived and thrived in today’s competitive world of entertainment. He argues that the key to survival lies in the creation of on-and-off field attractions which invoke the traditions of vaudeville with their unique and quirky forms of spectacle. From Star Wars theme nights to monkeys riding border collies, teams have created a multifaceted form of entertainment that includes and goes well beyond the game of baseball itself. Throughout the book, Sutera shares his own travels to several minor league stadiums across the U.S., including rich participant observation and interviews with the fans themselves. A light-hearted and engaging look at minor league baseball, Vaudeville on the Diamond will appeal to all fans of baseball and minor league sports.

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Over the last couple of decades, minor league baseball games have shown substantial attendance figures, with more than forty-one million spectators in both 2010 and 2011. With all the high-tech, live-streaming, fast-paced entertainment available to consumers, what is it about minor league baseball that still holds appeal with today's audiences? With access to major league games broadcast on countless cable networks, what draws fans to small stadiums to watch obscure players struggle to make the big time? Sports historian David M. Sutera set out to answer these questions by visiting fourteen minor league baseball parks around the country.In Vaudeville on the Diamond, Sutera discusses the lure of minor league baseball with fans, players, and team representatives, examining how teams have survived and thrived in today's competitive entertainment world. Combining interviews with game-day observations, Sutera argues that minor league baseball's key to survival lies in the creation of on- and off-field attractions that invoke the traditions of vaudeville with their unique and quirky spectacle. From inviting fans to participate in dizzy bat competitions and races against the mascot to featuring Star Wars theme nights and monkeys riding border collies, teams have created a multifaceted form of entertainment that transcends the game itself. Part study and part travelogue, Vaudeville on the Diamond features numerous photographs of on-field entertainment, showcasing the vaudevillian side of minor league baseball. A light-hearted and engaging look at the minor leagues, this book will appeal not only to scholars and students of popular culture, sports and leisure studies, and sports management but to all fans of baseball and minor league sports.

Autor

David M. Sutera is a film, media, and sports studies scholar and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of Sports Fans 2.0: How Fans Are Using Social Media to Get Closer to the Game (2013) and coeditor of Gender and Genre in Sports Documentaries (2013) and Identity and Myth in Sports Documentaries (2013), all published by Scarecrow Press.

Inhalt

PrefaceIntroductionChapter 1: The Omaha Royals Chapter 2: The Salt Lake BeesChapter 3: The Modesto NutsChapter 4: The Lancaster (California) Jet Hawks Chapter 5: The Albuquerque IsotopesChapter 6: The Tulsa DrillersChapter 7: The Birmingham BaronsChapter 8: The Savannah Sand GnatsChapter 9: The Asheville TouristsChapter 10: The New Jersey Jackals and The British PerspectiveChapter 11: The Quad City (Davenport, Iowa) River BanditsChapter 12: The Kansas City T-BonesConclusionBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.1.2014
• Zusatzinfo: 28 Illustrations including: - 27 Halftones, Black & White including Black & White Photographs; - 1 Maps.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Ballsport
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
• Schlagworte: Minor League Baseball
• ISBN-10: 0-8108-9178-6 / 0810891786
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-9178-4 / 9780810891784