Contributors
- Contributors
John Harney is assistant professor of Asian history at Centre College. His research focuses on popular sport and modernity in East Asia, Western religion in East Asia, and the development of modern East Asian popular culture. He is author of the upcoming Sporting Communities in Fractured Societies, a study of the role of baseball and Gaelic Games in Taiwan and Ireland during the twentieth century.
George Gmelch is professor of anthropology at the University of San Francisco and Roger Stone Professor of Anthropology at Union College. He is the author of a dozen books, including several on baseball—In the Ballpark, Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball, and Baseball without Borders—and he is the recipient of the Minor League Baseball Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his writings on baseball. He has also written for a general audience in such places as the New York Times, Washington Post, Psychology Today, and Natural History.
Jesse Goldberg-Strassler is the author of The Baseball Thesaurus (August Publications, 2012) and helms the radio broadcasts and media relations department for the Class a Lansing Lugnuts. A native of Greenbelt, Maryland, he graduated from Ithaca College in 2004.
Kenneth A. Jacobsen is a professor of law, an attorney, and a businessman who co-owns successful businesses in the sports and entertainment industries. Among Jacobsen’s businesses is his partnership interest in the Wilmington Blue Rocks Professional Baseball Club, a Class a affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. Through his law office and sports marketing companies, Sports Concepts, Inc., and Jacobsen Sports Advisors, Jacobsen provides legal advisory and consulting services to professional athletes on promotions, product endorsements, appearances, and other marketing activities. Among Jacobsen’s [End Page 181] clients are former Red Sox outfielder Shane Victorino, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, basketball legend and icon Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and other notable present and former professional athletes. Jacobsen is active in many civic and athletic organizations in his local community.
Chris Lamb is a professor of journalism at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis where he teaches courses in sports journalism. He is the author of six books, including Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Campaign to Desegregate Baseball (2012) and Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinsons First Spring Training (2004). His articles have appeared in Sports Illustrated, New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, and Los Angeles Times. He is currently working on his third book on race, baseball, and the press.
Bill Meissner’s novel, Spirits in the Grass, about a ballplayer who discovers the remains of an ancient Native American burial ground on a baseball field, is available in print and e-book from the University of Notre Dame Press. His baseball short story collection, Hitting into the Wind (Random House), is now available as an e-book. Meissner plays baseball occasionally with a ragtag group called the Catch ‘n Release Baseball Club.
Joe Niese is a librarian and member of the Society for American Baseball Research. His first book, Burleigh Grimes: Baseball’s Last Legal Spitballer, was published in 2013 by McFarland. He lives in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
Ian Rebhan graduated in 2012 with a degree in sport media from Ithaca College, where he also pitched for the varsity baseball team. He received his master’s degree from Ithaca in 2013. He currently works for the Tri-City Valley-Cats, the Class a New York-Penn League affiliate of the Houston Astros.
William Harris Ressler is a professor of strategic communication and a cause marketing consultant. His research focuses on community service, cause promotion, and cultural diversity among athletes, particularly minor-league baseball players.
Larry Ruttman is the author of American Jews and America’s Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball (University of Nebraska Press), an oral history in which Jewish players and people in and close to Major League Baseball, past and present, tell of growing up Jewish in America to find success in this field. The foreword is by mlb Commissioner Bud Selig, whose story is also told in [End Page 182] the book, as is that of Dr. Martin Abramowitz, who wrote the introduction. A lifelong resident of Brookline, Massachusetts, Ruttman has been attending ballgames at...
