Title

Baseball Meets the Law: Stories of the Intersection of America's Two National Pastimes (Jerome Hall Law Library Book Talk)

Document Type

Event

Publication Date

8-28-2017

Abstract

On Monday, August 28, 2017, Frank Houdek and Ed Edmonds, emeritus law professors at their respective institutions, Southern Illinois University School of Law and University of Notre Dame Law School, discussed their new book, Baseball Meets the Law: A Chronology of Decisions, Statutes and Other Legal Events, at a book talk in the Maurer School of Law. The talk, part of the Jerome Hall Law Library’s annual Welcome Week activities, was held at noon in the Law School's Moot Court Room (Rm. 123.).

The book describes the longstanding relationship between what could be termed America’s two national pastimes—baseball and law—by recounting more than 400 stories, some involving people, teams, and events known to even the most casual of fans (Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Black Sox) and others that might test the knowledge of devoted Society for American Baseball Research members (William Wheaton, John Montgomery Ward, John Tener). What they have in common is the confluence of law and baseball, and what they show, when considered together, is the profound effect that law in its many forms has had, and continues to have, on the sport. Using some of the stories from their book, many of them with an Indiana connection, Houdek and Edmonds described the various ways in which baseball and law have continually intersected since the very beginnings of the sport in America—a 1791 ordinance prohibited ball playing near the Pittsfield, Mass., town meeting house—down to the present day in which court hearings, labor-management agreements, and the like are common fodder for the sports media. They will show how this intersection has influenced the game’s development, suggesting that a deeper understanding of the sport, both on and off the field, demands at least some knowledge of when and how baseball and law have come together.

Comments

This event was the inaugural Jerome Hall Law Library Annual Book Talk.

A DVD of this lecture is available at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Jerome Hall Law Library. In addition, the book may also be found in the library, KF 3989.2 E36 2017.

Copies of the book may be purchased from the publisher by clicking here.

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