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This chapter examines the history of the Columbia Broadcasting System's (CBS) deal for the renovation of the Yankee Stadium during the 1970s. New York Yankees President Michael Burke made known his concerns about the condition of the stadium to New York City Mayor John Lindsay. These concerns included inadequate parking and traffic congestion. In mid-1972, Lindsay had devised a plan for the city to purchase the stadium, renovate it to address Burke's concerns and lease it to the Yankees.

This chapter examines the history of the New York Yankees baseball team and their Yankee Stadium in New York City. The Yankees started their history as the bankrupt remnants of an old National League powerhouse, the Baltimore Orioles. When the team moved to New York in 1930 it was renamed the New York Highlanders with the Hilltop Park as its home stadium. In January 1915, the team was sold to Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston. The team's dynasty started with the inaugural season of Babe Ruth in 1920, winning its first pennant in the 1921 season. The planning, design and acquisition of a property for the construction of the stadium started in January 1921.

This chapter examines the history of the New York Yankees under the leadership of Jacob Ruppert. Under Ruppert's tenure, the Yankees became an important part of New York life, something that is more than an engaging amusement. The team developed its mystique, part of which centered on the baseball, politics, and entertainment that assumed new importance in the 1920s. Its star player Babe Ruth rose to national prominence and became the first star of the newsreel era.

This chapter examines the history of the New York Yankee's search for a new stadium during the 1990s. In 1993, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner considered several sites for the stadium including Van Cortland Park, Street and 11th Avenue on Manhattan's West Side, Coney Island in Brooklyn, the Meadowlands in New Jersey, Staten Island, three locations in Queens, and the Yonkers Raceway. Though the plan never materialized, the city council voted to spend $76 million to build a minor league ballpark in Staten Island for a Yankee farm team in 1999.

This chapter examines the history of Columbia Broadcasting System's (CBS) sale of the New York Yankees franchise to the twelve-member syndicate headed by Mike Burke and George Steinbrenner for $10 million in cash in January 1973. Though the sale was about $4 million lower than the price when CBS purchased the franchise in 1964, analyst Red Smith explained that CBS broke even on the deal. The opening of the renovated stadium on April 15, 1976 signalled the resurgence of the Yankees to a championship team.

This chapter examines Jacob Ruppert's sale of the New York Yankees and the Yankee Stadium. On January 25, 1945, Del Webb and Dan Topping, together with Larry McPhail purchased the Yankees and the stadium for $2.8 million. McPhail was bought in 1947. The new owners experienced some of the same problems encountered by Ruppert. The Webb and Topping era covered a time when the World War I generation of stadiums were largely abandoned as obsolete. In 1964, they sold the franchise to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

This chapter examines the role of the race factor in the renewed popularity of baseball in the U.S. in 1946. It suggests that the racial integration of baseball was not only an important step in America's fitful pursuit of social justice, but also an important long-term stimulant for the popularity of the sport. The elimination of the color barrier increased the availability to great players to improve the quality of the major league game. Some of these African American players included Jackie Robinson, Monte Irvin and Willie Mays. During this year the New York Yankees had its first two-million fan season.

This chapter examines the history of the opening of the Yankee Stadium in New York City on April 18, 1923. The opening game featured the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, where Babe Ruth scored a home run in the third inning. The pre-game festivities included a grand military display. Most commentators during this period considered the stadium as the first true baseball stadium, with its structure intended to accommodate massive crowds and make a progressive and confident statement about baseball's future.

This chapter examines the crowd cheering for the New York Yankees baseball team at the Yankee Stadium in New York City during the 1920s. It suggests that the commercial success of the stadium and the team can be attributed to the transformation of the Bronx itself from a bucolic region north of New York City to a middle-class borough that defined modern urban living. Its population increased more than three-fold from 1900 to 1920 and it experienced revolutions in mass transportation, housing, and public works. Both the team's star Babe Ruth and the fans that cheered for him beat long odds to climb out of poverty.

This chapter traces the history of alcohol use in Major League Baseball (MLB) and considers the sudden urge, amid an atmosphere of partisan culture war that clouded the 1990s, to celebrate the era that Mickey Mantle so vividly symbolized—the golden days of his sport and the men who played it. It shows how Mantle,who was ravaged by liver cancer due to a lifelong battle with alcoholism, was used by some as a diversion from baseball's mounting troubles. It also discusses the “Drink Hard, Play Hard” ethic in MLB and how alcoholism relates to masculinity in the league. Finally, it examines alcohol problems among teams such as the New York Yankees and players like Ryne Duren, Sam McDowell, and Don Newcombe.

This chapter focuses on the origins of baseball's so-called “antitrust exemption.” It first examines the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the 1922 case Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v. National League, in which it decided that the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 did not apply to professional baseball on the ground that baseball was not a form of interstate commerce. It then looks at other Supreme Court cases that tested baseball's immunity from federal antitrust law, including the Toolson v. New York Yankees (1953), the antitrust suit filed against a group of vaudeville theaters, and baseball player Danny Gardella's antitrust suit against organized baseball stemming from his decision to play in the Mexican League.

This chapter examines the issue of franchise relocation. Legislators had two main concerns throughout the series of hearings: to procure teams for their constituents while avoiding losing teams via relocation. The legislators' concerns were imbued with an element of reality, at least. Cities with multiple Major League Baseball (MLB) teams usually had one team that was struggling, and legislators held a different attitude to such teams relocating than they would with regard to later relocations of prosperous teams. This chapter first considers three options for acquiring a big-league team: purchase an existing team, hope for an expansion team in an established league, or enter a team into a new league. It then discusses the economics of franchise relocations, along with the early histories of franchise turnovers in professional sports leagues, including the National Football League (NFL) and its predecessor, the American Professional Football Association. It also looks at Columbia Broadcasting System's (CBS) purchase of the New York Yankees during the 1964 season that sparked fears of an unfair alliance.

This chapter focuses on baseball's so-called “antitrust exemption” that makes it unique among all sports in America, including football, hockey, boxing, and basketball. It first examines the Supreme Court's decision in the 1953 case Toolson v. New York Yankees and its implications for team sports as well as the Department of Justice. It then turns to the antitrust suit filed by the government in 1952 against the International Boxing Club and its owners, James D. Norris and Arthur Wirtz, for alleged violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. It also considers the case filed by Bill Radovich, a lineman for the Detroit Lions who was blacklisted by the National Football League (NFL) for jumping to the All America Football Conference, against the NFL.

This chapter focuses on the Congressional hearings of 1989 that addressed the issue of cable television's sports telecasts. For many years, Congress aided and abetted over-the-air television's dominance via antisiphoning regulations that restricted cable and pay-television access to many sporting events that were being telecast over-the-air for free. The intent of the regulations was to prevent programs from switching from free over-the-air to pay-television delivery. Home Box Office (HBO) filed suit over the antisiphoning rules and eventually won in court, thereby ending the antisiphoning regulation. The courts found that there was no evidence to suggest that cable television companies were going to usurp free television. With these developments, cable television was ready to compete with the networks and independent television stations. This chapter examines the 1989 hearings that revolved primarily around the New York Yankees' deal with the Madison Square Garden Network to show all the team's games on the cable channel. It also discusses the legal and economic aspects of whether cable telecasts of sporting events violated antitrust law.

The chapter begins with a discussion of the cognitive creative process of sep-con articulation and the meaning of the term articulation as a way to view creativity and scientific investigation as the operation of how natural or artistic elements join. This exploration is coupled with the concept of “everyday” creativity—new and valuable workday productions—as illustrated by the creative catching style of the New York Yankee, Joe DiMaggio. His ballplaying style, both new and valuable, made fielding the ball an organic process, one in which he seemed to join the ball to himself in a continuous trajectory of motion that nevertheless was composed of clearly identifiable and separate parts. This is similar to the more complex and prolonged sep-con articulation creative process responsible for artistic and scientific creations.

This chapter collects, mosaic-style, a number of personality traits and quirks that Hodges was known to possess, and describes his various pastimes, so that the reader can get a sense of who the man was apart from his music. As others have noted, he was an avid gambler who claimed to have much success, but on the other hand he insisted on being paid with cash and carried money in a roll with a large-denomination bill on the outside, so it would have been easy for him to exaggerate his luck. He spent much of his life on the road and he grew tired of it, but he learned to accommodate himself to travel in various minor ways. Some of his arrangements for caring for his pet monkey are detailed.