The Story of the Sensational Baseball Song, by Amy Whorf McGuiggan. University of Nebraska Press, 2009.
This slim volume would seem to be the companion for last year’s Baseball Greatest Hit. While the latter was almost a who’s who, what;’s what and where’s where of the game’s unofficial anthem, McGuiggan’s slim volume concentrates more on the music industry of the early 20th century than baseball.
To be honest, I found the baseball aspects almost an after thought, as if the author wanted to write about the seminal contribution of Messers Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer. After a brief history of the game to that point, mention of the sport is generally absent for the next several chapters. McGuiggan discusses the importance of music (the sale of sheet music in particular), in a society before television, movies, and even radio.
She also gives a fair amount of ink to the role of women in America and in sports: the Gibson Girl, more independent than her mother, more apt to enjoy an afternoon out at the game.
Not that there’s anything wrong with the manner in which she tells her story, save for a little disappointment on the part of this reader, given the nature of the topic.
The biography of the tune is nicely illustrated, not unlike a century-old photo album,
is available on Amazon.com,
Comments on this entry are closed.