The meaning of sports (2004)

In ‘The Meaning of Sports’, Michael Mandelbaum examines America’s century-long love affair with baseball, football, and basketball. He shows how each of these games experienced a golden age when the values that it embodies were most prized by the culture. He demonstrates how sports respond to deep human needs; describes the ways in which baseball, football, and basketball became national institutions and how they reached their present forms; and covers the evolution of rules, the rise and fall of the most successful teams, and the historical significance of the most famous and influential figures such as Babe Ruth, George Steinbrenner, Red Grange, Vince Lombardi, Bill Russell, and Michael Jordan.