EMOTIONALITY IN THE STANDS AND IN THE FIELD: EXPRESSING SELF THROUGH BASEBALL

Abstract

This article discusses two field studies that examined how people enacted their emotions and expressed their identities at the closing of two major league ballparks: Old Comiskey Park, former home of the Chicago White Sox, and Arlington Stadium, former home of the Texas Rangers. The authors conducted observations of and informal interviews with those in attendance (fans at Comiskey, fans and employees at Arlington) at the final series at each ballpark. Despite the differences in the ballparks, the cities, and the types of individuals observed and interviewed, the people studied enacted and expressed similar feelings and emotions about the importance of baseball in their lives and of the places where it is played. In this article, the authors examine several dimensions of ballpark culture and show how the people studied define themselves through baseball. The authors conclude the article with two autobiographical accounts that reveal how we as researchers also define ourselves through baseball in general and through our ballpark ethnographies in particular.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adler, P. A. , & Adler, P. (1987). Membership roles in field research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Anderson, D. F. , & Stone, G. P. (1981). Sport: A search for community. In S. L. Greendorfer & A. Yiannakis (Eds.), Sociology of sport: Diverse perspectives (pp. 160-175). West Point, NY: Leisure.

Angell, R. (1987). The interior stadium. In J. Thorn (Ed.), The armchair book of baseball, II (pp. 17-25). New York: Scribner.

Bauman, R. (1986). Story, performance, event: Contextual studies of oral narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Beisser, A. (1976). The madness in sports. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Burke, K. (1973). The rhetorical situation. In L. Thayer (Ed.), Communication: Ethical and moral issues (pp. 263-275). London: Gordon & Breach.

Chatman, S. (1978). Story and discourse: Narrative structure in fiction and film. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Clifford, J. (1988). The predicament of culture: Twentieth century ethnography, literature, and art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Clifford, J. , & Marcus, G. E. (Eds.). (1986). Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press.

10.

Coakley, J. (1982). Sport in society: Issues and controversies (2nd ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.

11.

Duncan, M. C. (1983). The symbolic dimensions of spectator sport. Quest, 35, 29-36.

12.

Geertz, C. (1988). Works and lives: The anthropologist as author. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

13.

Giamatti, A. B. (1989). Take time for paradise. New York: Summit.

14.

Gmelch, G. (1971, June). Baseball magic. Transaction, pp. 39-41, 54.

15.

Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis. New York: Harper & Row.

16.

Goodall, H. L. (1989). Casing a promised land: The autobiography of an organizational detective as cultural ethnographer. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

17.

Grella, G. (1985). Baseball and the American dream. In D. L. Vanderwerken & S. K. Wertz (Eds.), Sport: Inside out (pp. 267-279). Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press.

18.

Hall, D. (1985). Fathers playing catch with sons. New York: Laurel.

19.

Hargreaves, J. (1982). Sport and hegemony: Some theoretical problems. In H. Cantelon & R. Gruneau (Eds.), Sport, culture, and the modern state (pp. 103-135). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

20.

Hoffman, S. J. (1992). Sport and religion. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

21.

Jhally, S. (1989). Cultural studies and the sports/media complex. In L. A. Wenner (Ed.), Media, sports, and society (pp. 70-93). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

22.

Lipsky, R. (1981). How we play the game: Why sports dominate American life. Boston: Beacon.

23.

Novak, M. (1988). The joy of sports: End zones, bases, baskets, balls, and the consecration of the American spirit. Lanham, MD: Hamilton.

24.

Peters, T. J. , & Waterman, R. H. (1982). In search of excellence. New York: Harper & Row.

25.

Prebish, C. S. (1983). “Heavenly Father, divine goalie”: Sport and religion. In D. S. Eitzen (Ed.), Sport in contemporary society: An anthology (3rd ed., pp. 283-293). New York: St. Martin's.

26.

Sage, G. S. (1981). Sport and religion. In G.R.F. Luschen & G. S. Sage (Eds.), Handbook of social science of sport (pp. 135-156). Champaign, IL: Stipes.

27.

Shaffir, W. B. , & Stebbins, R. A. (Eds.). (1991). Experiencing fieldwork: An inside view of qualitative research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

28.

Trujillo, N. (1991).Hegemonic masculinity on the mound: Media representations of Nolan Ryan and American sports culture. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 8, 290-308.

29.

Turner, V. (1974). Dramas, fields, and metaphors: Symbolic action in human society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

30.

Van Maanen, J. (1988). Tales of the field: On writing ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

31.

Voigt, D. Q. (1983). America through baseball, Vol. 3: From postwar expansion to the electronic age. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.

32.

Wenner, L. A. (1990). Therapeutic engagement in mediated sports. In G. Gumpert & S. L. Fish (Eds.), Talking to strangers (pp. 223-244). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

33.

White, H. (1981). The value of narrativity in the representation of reality. In W.T.J. Mitchell (Ed.), On narrative (pp. 1-23). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

34.

Whyte, W. F. (1984). Learning from the field. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.