Synopses & Reviews
When Rube Foster was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, his rightful place alongside baseball's greatest black heroes was at last firmly established. A world-class pitcher, a formidable manager, and a brilliant administrator, Rube Foster was arguably more influential in breaking down the color barrier in major league baseball than the venerable Jackie Robinson.
Born in 1879, Rube Foster pitched for the legendary black baseball teamsthe Cuban X-Giants and the Philadelphia Giants before becoming player-manager of the Leland Giants and the Chicago American Giants. Long a central figure in black baseball, he founded baseball's first black leaguethe Negro National League in 1920. From its inception, the Negro League served as a vehicle through which many of the finest black players could showcase their considerable talents. Challenging racial discrimination and stereotypes, it ultimately set the stage for future efforts to contest Jim Crow. Despite the long-standing success of the Negro National League as an influential black institution, Rube Foster was deeply embittered by organized baseball's unmitigated refusal to lift the color barrier. He died a broken man in 1930.
The Best Pitcher in Baseball is the story of a man of unparalleled vision and organizational acumen whose passion for justice changed the face of baseball forever. It is a moving tribute to a man and his dream.
Review
"Cottrell's biography of Foster is a solid contribution to the literature on one of the unjustifiably dark corners of baseball history."-Elysian Fields Quarterly,
Review
"Robert Charles Cottrell's definitive biography of Rube Foster adds much to our knowledge of this commanding figure in the history of the old black baseball leagues."-Robert Peterson,author of Only the Ball Was White
Review
"Rube Foster ranks with Charles Comiskey, Connie Mack, and John McGraw as one of the founding giants of modern baseball. As player, manager, owner, and executive he set the standard for baseball in black America during the early twentieth century. The Best Pitcher In Baseball clearly establishes Foster's greatness and his extraordinary contributions to the national pastime."-Jules Tygiel,author of Past Time: Baseball As History
Review
"He deftly examines Foster's outstanding career on the diamond in the early 1900s...Cottrell effectively documents Foster's contributions to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981." -Choice,
Review
"An engaging and profound analysis of a central aspect of the human condition, for, as Flaherty shows, our experiences of the world around us affect how we experience time."-Qualitative Sociology,Vol. 24, No. 3, 2001
Review
"Flaherty invites us to the fascinating world of the phenomenology of time. Particularly sensitive to the inherent tension between the standard and the idiosyncratic, he offers a cross-situational, generic analysis of the circumstances when there is a considerable discrepancy between clock time and our subjective experience of duration such that we feel that time is either compressed ('flies') or protracted ('stands still'). . . . Clearly conceptualized and elegantly written, A Watched Pot is phenomenology at its best."-Eviatar Zerubavel,author of Hidden Rhythms and The Seven Day Circle
Review
"A highly original and colorful book, filled with compelling, real life and fictional examples."-Jack Katz,UCLA
Review
"Masterful. This is arguably the most comprehensive inquiry to date by a sociologist on the perception of time, its passage and duration."-Barry Glassner,University of Southern California
Synopsis
When Rube Foster was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, his rightful place alongside baseball's greatest black heroes was at last firmly established. A world-class pitcher, a formidable manager, and a brilliant administrator, Rube Foster was arguably more influential in breaking down the color barrier in major league baseball than the venerable Jackie Robinson.
Born in 1879, Rube Foster pitched for the legendary black baseball teamsthe Cuban X-Giants and the Philadelphia Giants before becoming player-manager of the Leland Giants and the Chicago American Giants. Long a central figure in black baseball, he founded baseball's first black leaguethe Negro National League in 1920. From its inception, the Negro League served as a vehicle through which many of the finest black players could showcase their considerable talents. Challenging racial discrimination and stereotypes, it ultimately set the stage for future efforts to contest Jim Crow. Despite the long-standing success of the Negro National League as an influential black institution, Rube Foster was deeply embittered by organized baseball's unmitigated refusal to lift the color barrier. He died a broken man in 1930.
The Best Pitcher in Baseball is the story of a man of unparalleled vision and organizational acumen whose passion for justice changed the face of baseball forever. It is a moving tribute to a man and his dream.
Synopsis
Time, it has been said, is the enemy. In an era of harried lives, time seems increasingly precious as hours and days telescope and our lives often seem to be flitting past. And yet, at other times, the minutes drag on, each tick of the clock excruciatingly drawn out. What explains this seeming paradox?
Based upon a full decade's empirical research, Michael G. Flaherty's new book offers remarkable insights on this most universal human experience. Flaherty surveys hundreds of individuals of all ages in an attempt to ascertain how such phenomena as suffering, violence, danger, boredom, exhilaration, concentration, shock, and novelty influence our perception of time. Their stories make for intriguing reading, by turns familiar and exotic, mundane and dramatic, horrific and funny.
A qualitative and quantitative tour de force, A Watched Pot presents what may well be the first fully integrated theory of time and will be of interest to scientists, humanists, social scientists and the educated public alike.
A Choice Outstanding Academic Book.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-224) and index.
About the Author
Robert Charles Cottrell is Professor of History and American Studies at California State University-Chico. His books include include Izzy: A Biography of I.F. Stone and Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union.