The Postwar New York Yankees: Baseball's Golden Age Revisited
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Description
The Yankees and New York baseball entered a golden age between 1949 and 1964, a period during which the city was represented in all but one World Series. While the Yankees dominated, however, the years were not so golden for the rest of baseball.
In The Postwar Yankees David George Surdam deconstructs this idyllic period to show that while the Yankees piled on pennants and World Series titles through the 1950s, overall Major League Baseball attendance consistently declined and gate-revenue disparity widened through the mid-1950s. Contrary to popular belief, the era was already experiencing many problems that fans of today’s game bemoan, including competitive imbalance and callous owners who ran the league like a cartel. Fans also found aging, decrepit stadiums ill equipped for the burgeoning automobile culture, while television and new forms of leisure competed for their attention.
Through an economist’s lens, Surdam brings together historical documents and off-the-field numbers to reconstruct the period and analyze the roots of the age’s enduring mythology, examining why the Yankees and other New York teams were consistently among baseball’s elite and how economic and social forces set in motion during this golden age shaped the sport into its modern incarnation. -- Provided by publisher
Keywords
New York Yankees (Baseball team) -- History -- 20th century; Sports & Recreation -- Baseball -- Essays & Writings; Sports & Recreation -- Baseball -- Statistics;
Document Type
Book
ISBN
9780803271784
Publication Date
2008
Publisher
University of Nebraska Press
City
Lincoln, NE
Department
Department of Economics
Object Description
ix, 425 pages ; 24 cm
Language
en
Recommended Citation
Surdam, David G., "The Postwar New York Yankees: Baseball's Golden Age Revisited" (2008). Faculty Book Gallery. 151.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/facbook/151
