Title/Author:
“The Age
of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties” by David
George Surdam and Michael J. Haupert
Tags:
Baseball,
professional, business, management
Publish
date:
June 1,
2018
Length:
420 pages
Rating:
5 of 5
stars (outstanding)
Review:
When the
decade of the 1920’s started, baseball was in turmoil. The game’s championship
event had just endured a scandal in which the World Series was thrown by the
Chicago White Sox due to gambling. The game had been considered secondary to
many other sports such as boxing and college football. Gambling was a big
problem, not only because of the 1919 World Series, but also had players such
as Hal Chase involved in gambling as well.
However,
that decade was a smashing success for the overall business health of the sport
and that success is discussed in this book by economic professors David George
Surdam and Michael J. Haupert. The two main people responsible for this are
mentioned in the title. Babe Ruth, who
was sold from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees as the decade began,
became a larger-than-life figure as he not only was a star player, he became
the game’s ambassador and crowds followed him wherever he went.
The other
man in the title, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, became the first commissioner
of the game and took immediate action on the White Sox players who conspired
with gamblers to throw the World Series. He set out on a mission to rid the
game of gambling and other negative influences.
He did this with an iron fist and also was one of the many officials who
kept the game free of black players.
That was the large stain on his otherwise worthy contributions to the
economic state of the game.
While the
authors are economists, there is certainly more than just business talk in the
book. Every aspect of the game in the 1920’s is covered – the style of play on
the field (thanks to Ruth, the home run became popular), competitive balance,
player salaries, ticket prices and so much more. Of course the business aspects are covered in
more detail, but there is something about everything in the game at that time.
This is
not the first book that I have read about baseball in earlier times in which I
had this thought, but it especially struck me that so many issues that the game
has today were present at that time as well. Think the designated hitter has
only been in vogue since 1973? It was
proposed during that decade. Labor
strife? That was present during that
time as well. Revenue concerns? Yup,
there were plenty in the 1920’s. Something
that I thought was very interesting, and it is true today, that even the best
paid players were considered by some to be “underpaid” when considering the
revenue that the player brings in. When
the authors made this point about Babe Ruth, I thought of modern players like
Aaron Judge and Mike Trout who are extremely popular and handsomely paid, but
their salaries are only a small portion of the revenues they bring to the
sport.
The last interesting
aspect of this book I will mention are the tables of various figures such as
attendance, ticket prices and even the books of the New York Yankees in the
decade. While this was only one team,
those painted a decent picture of the overall health of the sport and the other
tables were very informative. I normally
don’t bother referring to them while reading the book, but I did that
frequently with this book.
Readers
who like books on the economics or business of baseball will enjoy this book
very much. It isn’t too dry for those who usually shy away from the business
side of the sport, so it is one that those readers might enjoy as well. Highly recommended.
I wish to
thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange
for an honest review.
Book
Format Read:
Hardcover
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