birmingham and baseball: a case study

Birmingham(1919), Courtesy of Perry Castaneda Library

On Saturday, the students and I will travel with Dr. Richard Megraw of UA's American Studies Department to Birmingham's Rickwood Field. They should be prepared to think deeply about how Birmingham serves as a case study for analyzing baseball's role in emerging urban life. 

When and where do we see Americans entering ballparks? 

Yes, how does watching a baseball game help us find meaning in a changing world on and off the field during the nineteenth century? 

For historian Gunther Barth, baseball figures into emerging city culture between 1830 and 1910, give or take a decade. 

Is baseball just an athletic contest or does it have other lessons to teach us about competition in a modern world? 

How do referees seem to take the place of public officials and priests? 

And since people have been playing ball since antiquity, what's significant about what's happening by the middle of the nineteenth century? 

Is the Roman emperor really the same as baseball entrepreneurs? How does the story of baseball in Birmingham compare to baseball's emergence in, say, New York, St. Louis or Pittsburgh?

With all of things we've learned to date, among them topics addressing gender, race and ethnicity, I hope the students come prepared to ask and offer answers to these and other questions. 

Meanwhile, check out an interview with Dr. Megraw here.

Rickwood Field, circa 1920s