In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961-1998 by Fran Zimniuch
  • Dain TePoel
Zimniuch, Fran. Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961-1998. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. Pp. xix+ 209. Foreword, tables, and sources. $19.95 pb.

In Baseball’s New Frontier, Zimniuch aims to contribute to a rich base of popular and scholarly historical literature on the business of organized baseball. Sport historians have thoroughly interrogated the turbulent labor relations between professional ballplayers and club owners since the nineteenth century; however, the author uniquely focuses on the expansion of Major League Baseball (MLB) in his analysis. His overarching purpose is to examine how MLB’s growth from sixteen to thirty franchises between the late 1950s and 1990s both triggered and reflected cultural, economic, and political alterations in the business of baseball and in the wider U.S. society.

This text addresses additional themes such as franchise relocation, stadium funding, MLB’s antitrust exemption, and the heated political gesturing among civic leaders and investors to obtain and sustain ownership of clubs. The early chapters offer a cursory consideration of how postwar changes in consumerism, demographics, technology, and transportation led to the relocation of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants in California in 1958. Several middle chapters elaborate upon the key individuals and events that led to the procurement of each expansion franchise, plus statistics covering each club’s early years, most notable players, and team achievements. Zimniuch’s style is colloquial throughout, and he concludes with four reflective (but erratic) chapters that explore miscellany such as memorable characters, trivia tidbits, and the records of original clubs against expansion teams. The final pages address topics tangential to expansion such as the designated hitter, All-Star Game, current playoff format, and performance-enhancing drugs, before concluding with a few remarks on the potential for expansion outside of North America.

Chapter 2, which focuses specifically on the failed Continental League (CL), contains the book’s strongest claim. Zimniuch asserts that the mere threat of the upstart CL, backed by the credibility of Rickey and leadership of New York lawyer William Shea, forced reluctant MLB owners and officials to expand. His subsequently argues that MLB’s expansion over the next thirty-five years was flawed and driven by the potential for proposed antitrust legislation from legislators and politicians in cities thwarted by franchise relocation. He further suggests that expansion worked because “the country’s love of the game … made this great experiment a success” (p. 162). His argument places the fate of baseball expansion in the hands of Rickey and the CL, while overlooking a wider historical analysis of the sociopolitical factors and economic processes of the 1950s and 1960s that forced MLB’s hand in broadening the leagues.

Zimniuch’s most repeated refrain heralds Rickey as the “greatest innovator and the most influential person in the history of America’s game” (p. xix). His slant is revealed in the acknowledgments and supported in a foreword by Rickey’s grandson, Branch Rickey III. Quotations from Justice George Nicholson, identified as a friend of Rickey III, state [End Page 376] that Rickey “filled the previously discordant notes in the Declaration of Independence and Gettysburg Address” (p. 198) by bringing Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers. Zimniuch’s assessments and evaluations are further supported by anecdotal evidence collected from interviews with former players, baseball executives, and journalists. He also frequently employs long quotations from popular secondary sources that serve jointly as evidence and analysis.

Ostensibly about the history of MLB’s expansion, the book lacks an operational definition of this central term and requires a more erudite analysis over the course of the selected time frame. A full conceptualization of baseball’s “new frontier” is also absent. Many of the locations that received expansion teams had previously hosted MLB clubs. Often, franchise relocation brought Major League Baseball to cities in the South and Midwest. Baseball enthusiasts may also take issue with some inaccuracies, including claims that Trevor Hoffman is the career saves leader (not Mariano Rivera), and that seven (not eight) “Black Sox” were banned from baseball. He also does not account for the transfer of...

pdf

Share