The 19th Annual NINE Spring Training Conference on the Historical and Sociological Impact of Baseball
Wednesday, March 7 – Saturday, March 10, 2012
Fiesta Resort Conference Center
Tempe, Arizona
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7
Registration Welcome
Emcee: Steve Geitschier, Lindenwood University
Roundtable Discussion: Baseball and Pedagogy “What Works and What Doesn’t”
THURSDAY, MARCH 8
THE PETER GAMMONS SESSION
Chair: Kevin Quinn
James R. Walker, Robert V. Bellamy, and Lawrence A. Wenner, “Baseball, Cultural Citizenship, and Television”
Tanya Lovejoy, ‘”Was Anyone Out There Watching Last Night?’ Why New England Sports Network (NESN) Needed Roger Clemens: Sports Media Ownership and the Televised Sports Text”
Roberta Newman, “The MLB Fan Cave: Pitching to the ‘Bros’ in Hyper-reality”
THE MARGARET GISOLO SESSION
Chair: Jean Hastings Ardell
Mark P. Parillo, “Softball and the Redefinition of Gender: What Material Culture Suggests”
Dan Drane and Colin Penuel, “You Can Change the Name but Can You Remove the Concept of Dixie from Dixie Youth Baseball”
Bill Ressler, “Culture and Diversity in the Minor League Clubhouse: An Organizational Communication Perspective”
Kat Williams, “Isabel ‘Lefty’ Alvarez: The Rascal of El Cerro”
Ballgame: Royals vs. Rockies at Salt River Fields
THE CY SEYMOUR SESSION
Ila Borders, “A Conversation with Ila Borders”
Perry Barber, ‘Words and Music of the Diamond: Baseball in Song”
FRIDAY, MARCH 9
THE HILDA CHESTER SESSION
Chair: Roberta Newman
Steve Gietschier, “Slugging and Snubbing: Hugh Casey, Ernest Hemingway, and Jackie Robinson-A Baseball Mystery”
Raymond Doswell, “19 for 31: Jackie Robinson Steals Home and History”
Andy McCue, “Barrio, Bulldozers and Baseball: The Clearing of Chavez Ravine”
THE BRANCH RICKEY SESSION
Chair: Lee Lowenfish
Samuel Gale, ‘”It’s a Press Victory’: The Role of the African American Press in Desegregating Major League Baseball”
Mitchell Nathanson, “Race, Rickey, and’All Deliberate Speed'” Robert F. Garratt, “Horace Stoneham: The Neglected Pioneer”
John Sillito, ‘”Building the Pirates of Tomorrow’: Race, Mr. Rickey, and R. C. Stevens, 1952-55″
THE EDD ROUSH SESSION
Chair: Jim Odenkirk
Charles Alexander, “Pete Rose and Ty Cobb: A Dichotomy, Not an Analogy” Steve Steinberg, “The Day John McGraw Lost Control of His Team … and Quit”
Ed Edmonds, “Armando Marsans, the Major League’s First Cuban Star, and His Federal League-National League Fight”
THE CONNIE MACK SESSION
Chair: Geri Strecker
Kristin Anderson and Chris Kimball, “How (Not) to Build a Ballpark: Location, Finance, Construction, and the Courts in the 1880s”
Maureen Smith, “Constructing History and Heritage 21sLCentury Style: Major League Baseball and Statues”
Lee Lowenfish, “A Hall Grows in Lubbock” 4:45-5:00 p.m. Break
THE ICHIRO SUZUKI SESSION
Chair: Bill Ressler
Rebecca Alpert, “Bud Selig: The First Jewish Commissioner of Baseball”
Bill Staples Jr., “From Internment to Hope: Celebrating Japanese American Baseball in Arizona”
Steve Treder, “The Pioneer’s Pioneer: Masanori Murakami”
SATURDAY, MARCH 10
THE BILL JAMES SESSION
Chair: Ed Edmonds
Paul Bursik, Kevin Quinn, and Keith Sherony, “Buckner, Bartman, Bobby Thomson: The Folklore and Fact of Pivotal Plays”
Roberto D. Sirvent, “Baseball, Civic Identity, and the Just Society” Paul Brewer, “Sabermetrics and “The Age of Fracture'”
THE DIZZV DEAN SESSION
Chair: Trey Strecker
Scott D. Peterson,”‘ A Novelty in Baseball Literature’: Ella Black and the 1890 Pre Season”
Stuart Shea, “Major League Baseball Broadcasters: Local Heroes at the Mike”
Willie Steele, “Poetic Players: Baseball Poetry from Within the Game”
Ron Briley, “The Eighth Wonder of the World: Houston’s Astrodome as a Metaphor of Modernism and Alienation in Robert Altman’s Brewster McCloud (1970)”
Ballgame: Reds vs. A’s, Phoenix Municipal Stadium
THE BILL KIRWIN SESSION
The Society for American Baseball Research’s Seymour Medal Award Presentation: Glenn Stout, Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway’s Remarkable First Year
Keynote Speaker: Robert K. Fitts, “Murder, Espionage & Baseball: The 1934 All American Tour of Japan”