The theater of sport
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The theater of sport
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995
- pbk.
Available at 13 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
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  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
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  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Why is it more fun to watch a baseball game at Fenway than at Three Rivers? Why is football more exciting at Notre Dame or Alabama than in Ames, Iowa? Arguing that there is such a thing as the "perfect" place to watch or participate in a sporting event, Karl Raitz and his co-authors explain that it's not whether you win or lose, but where you play the game that counts. As sport evolved from "pure play" to "performance" to "entertainment," they explain, the places where sport took place evolved as well-becoming more complex, adding more elements with which a spectator or participant could interact. But at the same time, such innovations as the multipurpose stadium ("Hey, is that Cincinnati or Pittsburgh?") tended to separate the place from the event, rendering the event "placeless" and devoid of enriching character. The authors aim to show why the new baseball stadiums in Baltimore, Cleveland and Arlington "work" better than the concrete doughnuts of the 1960s and 1970s. They explain why cricket is best enjoyed in an English village green, against the backdrop of a church tower (preferably with clock), half-timbered pub, haystacks and elm trees.
They analyze the ways in which the infield and grandstand form an essential part of the ambience at Churchill Downs - and how tailgate parties do the same at the Talladega stock car races. And they show how the intimate sights and sounds of spectator sports are as crucial to experiencing the event as the event itself (a truth television producers acknowledge when they place microphones on basketball backboards or cameras in race car cockpits). Including discussions of baseball, cricket, soccer, tennis, basketball, football, golf, stock-car racing, rodeo, thoroughbred racing, fox hunting and rock climbing, this is a book for sports fans, students of American culture and general readers alike.
by "Nielsen BookData"