"Baseball as Community Identity: Cleveland, Ohio -- 1891-2012"

Matt Ferguson argues in "Baseball as Community Identity: Cleveland, Ohio --1891-2012," that through studying key flashpoints in Cleveland baseball history by focusing on the history of League Park, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and Jacobs/Progressive Field, the positive memories of Cleveland Indians fans, circulated among generations of the team's boosters, have functioned as a shared myth that conceals the negative realities of professional baseball as big business. Fans past and present have created a story of the stadium as a place of civic worship, the team members as familiar neighbors, and the game as an event where gender and race cease to divide. Fans have passed on their characterization of baseball as the great social leveler, providing an emotional glue to secure succeeding generations of loyal supporters, thus effectively disguising the hard and unromantic business of sport and community identity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor dc:publisher

Bowling Green State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Ferguson, Matthew R.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mancuso, Rebecca

• Business Costs
• Business Community
• Demographics
• Economics
• Folklore
• History
• Journalism
• Marketing
• Minority and Ethnic Groups
• African Americans
• Gender
• Museums
• Regional Studies
• Religion
• Rhetoric
• Sociology
• Sports Management
• Urban Planning
• Local History
• Myth
• Professional Baseball
• Nostalgia
• Business
• Local Politics
• Community Identity
• Cleveland Indians
• League Park
• Cleveland Municipal Stadium
• Jacobs Field
• Progressive Field

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363301386

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:bgsu1363301386