Synopses & Reviews
In Baseball Weeklyand#8217;s list of things that most affected baseball in the twentieth century, television ranked secondand#8212;behind only the signing of Jackie Robinson. The new medium of television exposed baseball to a genuinely national audience; altered the financial picture for teams, owners, and players; and changed the way Americans followed the game. Center Field Shot explores these changesand#8212;all even more prominent in the first few years of the twenty-first centuryand#8212;and makes sense of their meaning for Americaand#8217;s pastime.and#160;Center Field Shot traces a sometimes contentious but mutually beneficial relationship from the first televised game in 1939 to the new era of Internet broadcasts, satellite radio, and high-definition TV, considered from the perspective of businessmen collecting merchandising fees and advertising rights, franchise owners with ever more money to spend on talent, and broadcasters trying to present a game long considered and#8220;unfriendlyand#8221; to television. Ultimately the association of baseball with television emerges as a reflection ofand#8212;perhaps even a central feature ofand#8212;American culture at large.
Review
and#8220;Center Field Shot is a winner. Itand#8217;s smart, crisply written, and packed with eye-opening research and analysis. I learned something new on every page. Turn off the TV and start reading. I guarantee youand#8217;ll be glad you did.and#8221;and#8212;Jonathan Eig, best-selling author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinsonand#8217;s First Season
Review
“Center Field Shot is a winner. Its smart, crisply written, and packed with eye-opening research and analysis. I learned something new on every page. Turn off the TV and start reading. I guarantee youll be glad you did.”Jonathan Eig, best-selling author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinsons First Season
Review
"Center Field Shot not only pitches a complete game but goes extra innings to assess what it will take for baseball to succeed in the new media environment."-Lawrence A. Wenner, editor of MediaSport and Media, Sports, and Society(Lawrence Wenner, Aug 23 2007 )
Review
"Center Field Shot is a winner. It's smart, crisply written, and packed with eye-opening research and analysis. I learned something new on every page. Turn off the TV and start reading. I guarantee you'll be glad you did."-Jonathan Eig, best-selling author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
Review
and#8220;At last an intensive analysis of this complicated and fascinating phenomenon has been produced. . . . Center Field Shot is at once a fun, engaging read that can be enjoyed in random five-minute snippets, and a serious full-length work of scholarship. Like the very best of television, it informs as it entertains.and#8221;and#8212;Steve Treder, The Hardball Times
Review
"Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television successfully tells the story of how the sport made a huge breakthrough arriving in people's homes. . . . Walker and Bellamy provide perhaps the definitive history of the evolution of baseball on television without ever getting too scholarly or slipping into fanciful nostalgia."and#8212;Josh Marks, Variety
Review
"A well-told story of owners and networks, businessmen and merchandizing. The best part of this history of baseball on television is its revelation of how broadcasters learned a new craft, a new art form." S. Gittleman, Choice
Review
“Walker and Bellamy have provided a lucid, comprehensive, and penetrating analysis of the historical evolution of the relationship between professional baseball and television. There is no better way to anticipate how the relationship will morph in the future than by understanding its past.”—Andrew Zimbalist, author of In the Best Interests of Baseball? The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig Jonathan Eig
Review
"More than just baseball history shot through a video lens, Center Field Shot is also a history of television shot through the lens of the national pastime."and#8212;Roberta Newman, NINE
Review
"Bellamy and Walker offer a cogent and sophisticated analysis of the consequences of television for baseball, both positive and negative. Their work contains much new information and synthesizes the old with the new in meaningful ways. . . . Center Field Shot is a must for anyone interested in the impact of television on American culture, and on baseball, an American sporting institution that once carried the designation of National Pastime."and#8212;Richard C. Crepeau, American Studies
About the Author
James R. Walker is professor of communication and chair of the Department of Communications at Saint Xavier University. Robert V. Bellamy Jr. is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Multimedia Arts at Duquesne University.