Tumultuous Times in America's Game: From Jackie Robinson's Breakthrough to the War Over Free Agency

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.

Table of Contents:
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

About the Author :
Bryan Soderholm-Difatte is a former senior analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Counterterrorism Center. He 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 (2015) and America’s Game: A History of Major League Baseball through World War II (2017), both published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Review :
A highly interesting chronicle of Major League Baseball, from the time of Jackie Robinson’s entry as the first African American player in 1947 to the rise of free agency and the players’ strike of 1994–95. . . The brisk pace of Soderholm-Difatte’s narrative will surely capture the attention and imagination of fans who lived through this era, as well as informing those who want to recognize the issues that made the times “tumultuous”! Highly Recommended. The maturity of Major League Baseball fell between Jackie Robinson and Marvin Miller. It wasn't always smooth, and Bryan Soderholm-Difatte sorts it all out in this engaging journey through the detours and triumphs. Bryan Soderholm-Difatte has achieved the nearly impossible: boiling down a half-century of dramatic baseball history into one highly readable, wonderfully informative book. Bryan Soderholm-Difatte did his homework. Chronicling half a century of baseball’s troubles and triumphs, Tumultuous Times in America’s Game is a comprehensive, issue-centric reflection that leaves you better informed about the game. The author is equally at ease reporting on pennant races or signs of the times, from closing to collusion to relocation, but is at his best guiding the reader through the complexities of the national pastime’s integration period.