{"product_id":"why-baseball-matters-paperback","title":"Why Baseball Matters - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSusan Jacoby\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA best-selling author and passionate baseball fan takes a tough-minded look at America's most traditional game in our twenty-first-century culture of digital distraction\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Baseball, first dubbed the \"national pastime\" in print in 1856, is the country's most tradition-bound sport. Despite remaining popular and profitable into the twenty-first century, the game is losing young fans, among African Americans and women as well as white men. Furthermore, baseball's greatest charm--a clockless suspension of time--is also its greatest liability in a culture of digital distraction. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e These paradoxes are explored by the historian and passionate baseball fan Susan Jacoby in a book that is both a love letter to the game and a tough-minded analysis of the current challenges to its special position--in reality and myth--in American culture. The concise but wide-ranging analysis moves from the Civil War--when many soldiers played ball in northern and southern prisoner-of-war camps--to interviews with top baseball officials and young men who prefer playing online \"fantasy baseball\" to attending real games. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Revisiting her youthful days of watching televised baseball in her grandfather's bar, the author links her love of the game with the informal education she received in everything from baseball's history of racial segregation to pitch location. Jacoby argues forcefully that the major challenge to baseball today is a shortened attention span at odds with a long game in which great hitters fail two out of three times. Without sanitizing this basic problem, \u003ci\u003eWhy Baseball Matters \u003c\/i\u003eremind us that the game has retained its grip on our hearts precisely because it has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to reinvent itself in times of immense social change.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSusan Jacoby\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of eleven previous books, including the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e best-seller \u003ci\u003eThe Age of American Unreason\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Great Agnostic, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eAlger Hiss and the Battle for History\u003c\/i\u003e. She is a frequent contributor to national publications, including the \u003ci\u003eTimes\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 7.5 x 4.8 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 26, 2019\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42176904757383,"sku":"9780300244403","price":24.48,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/e112f85137ba2784f8e546d481e02897.webp?v=1733393492","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/why-baseball-matters-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}