To every thing a season : Shibe Park and urban Philadelphia, 1909-1976 /

In the past few years the few remaining old baseball parks like Fenway in Boston and Wrigley in Chicago have become the objects of romantic nostalgia and some serious scholarly consideration of the role they played in the social life of their cities. But no park has received the careful and perceptive attention that Kuklick (University of Pennsylvania) gives to Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The book is both more and less than the subtitle promises. It is not a detailed look at either urban Philadelphia or at the unique situation of Shibe Park within the city. It is, however, a wide-ranging effort to show what baseball (and its setting in a park in North Philadelphia) meant to the fans, management, the players, and the tens of thousands of Philadelphians who may have thought they had no interest in baseball, but whose lives were affected deeply by what happened to the Athletics and the Phillies. Kuklick makes some perceptive comments on immigration (and what it meant to become Americanized), on the growth of corporate capitalism, on urban planning, and on local politics. His sections on racism and racial attitudes go far beyond the confines of either baseball or Philadelphia. An interesting story, told well. All levels. -C. P. Korr, University of Missouri--St. Louis

By telling the story of the now-demolished baseball stadium Shibe Park, Kuklick illuminates the history of Philadelphia and of urban America generally. Photos. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kuklick (humanities, Univ. of Pennsylvania, author of American Policy: The Division of Germany, LJ 6/1/72) has not written a standard baseball history. Rather, he has integrated two teams, a ballpark, and an urban area into a story that appeals at once to the baseball fan, historian, and sociologist. He examines the neighborhood in North Philadelphia that was the site of Shibe Park (later Connie Mack Stadium), home of the Philadelphia Athletics from 1909 until their departure for Kansas City in 1954, and the Phillies until their move to Veterans Stadium. Each chapter is packed with details concerning the eras, players, and impact of the stadium on its neighborhood. Of particular interest from a historical point of view are the depictions of changes in modes of transportation and the availability and types of jobs for residents. Sadly, most of these changes appear to have been for the worse. The A's are now in Oakland, the Phillies at Veterans Stadium, and Connie Mack has been dead since 1955, but the image of Shibe Park and its neighborhood lives on. Highly recommended for most sports collections as well as for social history collections.-- William O. Schee ren, Hempfield Area Senior H.S. Lib., Greensburg, Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.