America's National Pastime: A Study of Race and Merit in Professional Baseball

(Hardback)

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This examiniation of America's national pastime explores the dichotomous relationship between race and merit in professional baseball. It critically evaluates the role that race and performance play in determining the extent to which the sport is representative of a culture that continues to harbor racist attitudes. The authors look specifically at several interrelated variables as they pertain to baseball and players salaries: (1) merit-performance statistics, (2) experience/qualifications-number of years of experience in the major leagues, (3) environment-metropolitan size/economic support, (4) race-various categories of race, and (5) salary requirements-salaries during earlier years of players' careers. Significantly, the authors find that, based upon the statistical evidence from the late 1980s and early 1990s, merit plays a greater role in salary determination in professional baseball than does the issue of race, despite the continuing charges in the press of racism underlying professional sports.

Author Bio

BRET L. BILLET is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Wartburg College in Iowa. He is the author of two books, including Modernization Theory and Economic Development (Praeger, 1993). LANCE J. FORMWALT is a law student at the University of Iowa.