Rooting for the Home Team examines how various American communities create and maintain a sense of collective identity through sports. Looking at large cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, and Los Angeles as well as small rural towns, suburbs, and college towns, the contributors consider the idea that rooting for local athletes and home teams often symbolizes a community's preferred understanding of itself, and that doing so is an expression of connectedness, public pride and pleasure, and personal identity. Some of the wide-ranging essays point out that financial interests also play a significant role in encouraging fan bases, and modern media have made every seasonal sport into yearlong obsessions. Celebrities show up for big games, politicians throw out first pitches, and taxpayers pay plenty for new stadiums and arenas. The essays in Rooting for the Home Team cover a range of professional and amateur athletics, including teams in basketball, football, baseball, and even the phenomenon of no-glove softball. Contributors are Amy Bass, Susan Cahn, Mark Dyreson, Michael Ezra, Elliott J. Gorn, Christopher Lamberti, Allison Lauterbach, Catherine M. Lewis, Shelley Lucas, Daniel A. Nathan, Michael Oriard, Carlo Rotella, Jaime Schultz, Mike Tanier, David K. Wiggins, and David W. Zang.
| Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Sport, Community, and Identity Daniel A. Nathan 1. Basketball and Magic in "Middletown": Locating Sport and Culture in American Social Science Mark Dyerson 2. the Biggest "Classic" of Them All: The Howard University and Lincoln University Thanksgiving Day Footbal Games, 1919-1929 David K. Wiggins 3. Bobby Jones, Southern Identity, and the Preservation of Privilege Catherine M. Lewis 4. Football Town under Friday Night Lights: High School Football and American Dreams Michael Oriard 5. Girls' Six-Player Basketball: "The Essence of Small-Town Life in Iowa" Jaime Schultz and Shelley Lucas 6. Chicago's Game Christopher Lamberti 7. The Baltimore Blues: The Colts and Civic Identity Daniel A. Nathan 8 The Voice of Los Angeles Elliott J. Gorn and Allison Lauterbach 9. We Believe: The Anatomy of Red Sox Nation Amy Bass 10. American Brigadoon: Joe Paterno's Happy Valley David W. Zang 11. Jayhawk Pride Michael Ezra 12. Finding My Place: A Sports Odyssey Susan Cahn 13. A Philadelphia Nocturne Mike Tanier 14. The Cult of Micky Ward in Massachusette Carlo Rotella Afterword Daniel A. Nathan Contributors Index | Co-winner, North American Society for Sport History Book Award, Anthology, 2014. — North American Society for Sport History Book Award
| Daniel A. Nathan is an associate professor and chair of American studies at Skidmore College and the author of the award-winning Saying It's So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal.