Retro Ball Parks--Instant History, Baseball, and the New American History.Retro Ball Parks--Instant History, Baseball, and the New American History Daniel Rosensweig U. of Tennessee Press Knoxville, TN 37996-4108 www.utpress.org ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1572333510 $29.95 210+xii pp. A work in the publisher's series Sport and Popular Culture, "Retro Ball Parks" looks at the urban phenomenon of the building of new, state-of-the-art, baseball stadiums to try to bring back this sport as it is viewed nostalgically nos·tal·gi·a n. 1. A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past. 2. The condition of being homesick; homesickness. . These are the stadiums built in cities around the country usually with some public funds See Fund, 3. See also: Public and big tax breaks and other economic favors to the team owners. They are characterized by costly suites for corporate and well-to-do fans, rising ticket prices for all levels of regular seats from boxes to bleachers, moveable roofs and other features to provide comfort for the fans, and corporate logos lining the walls of the playing fields. Rosensweig is interested not only in how these stadiums promising revivals of urban centers come to be out of aspects of contemporary culture and political and economic interests; and also in the peculiar, particularly postmodern post·mod·ern adj. Of or relating to art, architecture, or literature that reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing traditional or classical elements of style or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes: , notion of authenticity regarding baseball such stadiums are supposed to revive To renew. For example, revival is the act of renewing the legal force of a contract or debt, either by acknowledging it or by giving a new promise, when the contract or debt is no longer a sufficient foundation for a lawsuit because it is barred by the running of the Statute . In many cases, new businesses have sprung up around the new stadiums attempting to replicate rep·li·cate v. 1. To duplicate, copy, reproduce, or repeat. 2. To reproduce or make an exact copy or copies of genetic material, a cell, or an organism. n. A repetition of an experiment or a procedure. neighborhoods that have been torn down to make way for them. Rosenweig's feelings on this phenomenon he covers are seen in the title of his introduction--"Cheap Grace." The author did most of his research in Cleveland, where the Cleveland Indian's Jacobs Field • • [ was built as the anchor of the Gateway Developmental District. "The Gateway serves as a fascinating case study of the cultural shifts enacted by the transformation of a city's economic base from local commerce and manufacturing to recreational tourism." Stadiums in other cities are brought in as well, notably the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards, the major urban stadium project giving rise to the others. Rosenweig is a professor of Inter-Disciplinary Studies at the U. of Virginia. |
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