Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Ferguson Thesis All.pdf (1.85 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

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

Ferguson, Matthew R.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363301386

Abstract Details

2013, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, History.
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.
Rebecca Mancuso, PhD (Advisor)
Ruth Herndon, PhD (Committee Member)
110 p.
African Americans; Business Community; Business Costs; Demographics; Economics; Folklore; Gender; History; Journalism; Marketing; Minority and Ethnic Groups; 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

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ferguson, M. R. (2013). "Baseball as Community Identity: Cleveland, Ohio -- 1891-2012" [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363301386

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ferguson, Matthew. "Baseball as Community Identity: Cleveland, Ohio -- 1891-2012". 2013. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363301386.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ferguson, Matthew. ""Baseball as Community Identity: Cleveland, Ohio -- 1891-2012"." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363301386

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1363301386
869
© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.