Gathering Crowds: Catching Baseball Fever in the New Era of Free Agency by Paul Hensler (review)

Every few years an author produces a work that sets a baseline for all future research on a subject. Gathering Crowds: Catching Baseball Fever in the New Era of Free Agency by Paul Hensler is that book on the socioeconomic issues surrounding Major League Baseball from 1977 to 1989.

Gathering Crowds is Hensler’s third work on baseball in the late twentieth century and the second that provides a sweeping review of the off-field issues that shaped the game. The work, which draws its name from the theme of the generational touchstone This Week in Baseball, begins in the earliest days of free agency in baseball when the California Angels and others would reshape the economics of the game with the signing of the first free agency mega deals and then proceeds to touch on every significant issue to grace the game during this period.

Hensler dedicates one chapter each to labor issues, the changing economic model of the game driven by the rise of cable television, and the money selling the game to providers’ earned owners. From there Hensler transitions to a discussion of the management styles and idiosyncrasies of Bowie Kuhn, Peter Ueberroth, and Fay Vincent, the three different commissioners of the period. This section is of particular note because it illustrates the changing nature of the commissioner’s office from a perceived position of autonomy from the owners to one that is clearly in place to serve the owners’ best interests. Hens-ler then covers the rise of recreational drugs in baseball in the 1980s. Once again this is an informative section, and it adroitly dispels the myth that baseball was a “clean game” in the periods before steroid use became prevalent in the 1990s and into the 2000s.

The second half of the book continues to be a successful primer of the game during the time in question. It opens with a discussion of how “the physical plant [stadiums] of the national pastime underwent a crucial transformation as the millennium approached” (189). This includes a discussion on the rise of the domed stadium, the luxury stadium that put a premium on providing a quality experience beyond baseball, and finally, the retro outdoor facility that provided modern amenities while being the antithesis of the domed and multipurpose concrete donuts of the seventies and early eighties. Perhaps most importantly Hensler successfully articulates how new stadiums (or the lack of them) helped fuel rumors of shifting franchises during the entire era. This discussion dovetails nicely with chapter 6 on how baseball moved into new markets during the era. Hensler then concludes with a discussion of team building in the era, a recap of marketing initiatives during the period, and an overview of the “societal issues” facing the game as the sport transitioned. This chapter again hits on information that other works do not include in studies of the game, and it is a welcome addition. It includes a reevaluation of race relations in the game, the challenges women face in a male-dominated industry, the influx (or lack thereof) of politically correct culture, and finally, the difficulties posed by being a different sexual orientation than one’s teammates or coworkers.

To this reviewer Hensler’s work is transformative. It is a must read for any baseball fan or historian looking to understand professional baseball in the late period of the twentieth century. For all the groundbreaking work that he provides, one chapter seems disjointed from the others, and while it does not detract from the work, it seems out of place. That is the chapter on team building.

Gathering Crowds is a book about off-the-field issues. Thus a chapter on team building seems a strange addition. That is not to say that the information that Hensler provides is not good to have. He certainly shows that people like Pat Gillick of Toronto, Whitey Herzog of St Louis, and John Schuerholz...