Overview

Berra, Rizzuto, Lasorda, Torre, Conigliaro, Santo, Piazza. Casual baseball fans—in fact, even many nonfans—know these names, not as Italian Americans but as some of the most colorful figures in Major League Baseball. Ever since future Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri became a key part of the Yankees' Murderers' Row lineup of 1926, Italian Americans have been among the most prominent and intriguing players in the game. The first comprehensive study of the topic, Beyond DiMaggio is also a social history of baseball, tracing the evolution of American perceptions toward those of Italian descent as it chronicles the baseball exploits that influenced those perceptions. Lawrence Baldassaro tells the stories of Italian Americans' contributions to the game, from Joe DiMaggio, who transcended his ethnic identity to become an American icon, to A. Bartlett Giamatti, who served as commissioner of baseball, to Mike Piazza, considered the greatest hitting catcher ever. Baldassaro conducted more than fifty interviews with players, coaches, managers, and executives—some with careers dating back to the thirties—in order to put all these figures and their stories into the historical context of baseball, Italian Americans, and, finally, the culture of American sports.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lawrence Baldassaro ,  Dom DiMaggio
Publisher:   University of Nebraska Press
Imprint:   University of Nebraska Press
Edition:   0th edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.20cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.762kg
ISBN:  

9780803246201

ISBN 10:   080324620
Pages:   520
Publication Date:   01 April 2013
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

"Foreword by Dom DiMaggio      Preface     Acknowledgments   Introduction: At Home in America    Part 1: The Pioneers 1. Ed Abbaticchio: Forgotten Pioneer      2. The Boys from San Francisco      3. Where Are the Italians?    4. The Tony Lazzeri Era Part 2: Arrival 5. The Turning Point: 1930-1935  6. Viva Italia! 1936-1939  7. The First MVPs: Lombardi, Camilli, and Cavarretta     8. To War and Back      Part 3: Postwar Boom 9. Postwar New York: The Golden Age 10. The DiMaggio Brothers: Realizing the American Dream     11. Italian Yankees: Paesans in Pinstripes      12. Interborough Warfare: Dodgers versus Giants Part 4: Transitional Italians 13. The Last ""Italians"" 14. The 1970s and Beyond      15. From Labor to Management  16. Executive Suite     Notes Bibliography Source Acknowledgments      Index"

Reviews

Beyond DiMaggio is a well-written, long overdue tribute to the impact Italian Americans have made on major league baseball, which amazingly has been barely acknowledged given their overwhelming presence at every level of the sport. --Mark Concannon, Fox Sports Wisconsin --Mark Concannon Fox Sports Wisconsin (05/19/2011)

Author Information

Lawrence Baldassaro is a professor emeritus of Italian at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He is the editor of Ted Williams: Reflections on a Splendid Life and The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity. Dom DiMaggio, youngest brother of Joe and Vince DiMaggio, made his Major League debut on April 16, 1940, for the Boston Red Sox. He died in 2009 at the age of ninety-two.

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