The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties by David George Surdam and Michael J. Haupert

Reviewed by: The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties by David George Surdam and Michael J. Haupert Steven P. Gietschier David George Surdam and Michael J. Haupert. The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018. 405 pp. Cloth, $45.00. The universe of scholars dedicated to the economics of sport may be small, but David George Surdam shines as one of its brightest stars. In addition to studies of the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and sport and antitrust law, Surdam has published, prior to this work, two books on various aspects of the economics of baseball. Here he has teamed with Michael J. Haupert, an innovative researcher, to produce a readable and revealing analysis of the game's economics during the so-called "Golden Age of Sports." Most of the text is Surdam's, Haupert having written a chapter on [End Page 243] the Hilldale club and an appendix on the financial records of the New York Yankees, 1914–42, housed at Cooperstown. In the main, this is a topical study, not a chronological one. The first three chapters contextualize the rest. They set the stage for what is to come by reviewing the Federal League challenge, the disputes that led to replacing the National Commission with a commissioner, and baseball's gambling problem. Experienced readers might not benefit too much from some of this introductory material although it is instructive to read Surdam's take on the Black Sox scandal, the gift that, irresistibly, keeps on giving. Chapter 4, "The Financial Side of the Game," is perhaps the meatiest in the book. In sum, Surdam argues that Major League Baseball was "generally prosperous" (73) during the twenties, but that this prosperity was unevenly distributed. By way of comparison, he says that entrepreneurs in the burgeoning motion picture industry did much better financially than baseball's magnates. Economic analysis requires data, and Surdam indicates what a treasure trove of information emerged in 1951 when the Celler committee, more technically, the Subcommittee on Monopoly Power of the House of Representative's Committee on the Judiciary, held hearings on the business of baseball in July, August, and October. No legislation resulted from this investigation, nor was the reserve clause shredded, but clubs were required "to submit financial records for 1920–50, with detailed information for a handful of seasons." (73) The committee published over sixteen hundred pages of testimony and a summary report of more than two hundred pages that, frankly, baseball scholars have not come close to exploiting. Surdam's effort may prove to be a needed first step. Fortunately for those not schooled in the intricacies of the dismal science, the topical analyses that follow Surdam's financial overview are easily digestible, and the chapter titles are straightforward. "Getting Fans to the Ballpark," for example, covers baseball's public image coming out of the Black Sox scandal, attendance during the decade, scheduling, ticket prices, the economics of the World Series, Sunday baseball, and competition from other sports. Each of these sections is just a few pages long, and they are all jargon-free. In like manner, chapters that follow cover the ballpark experience, the style of play, trades (including, of course, the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees), competitive balance, players versus owners, salaries, Minor League Baseball, and the sport's ethnic mix. What's important to note is that readers can be study this book either cover-to-cover or dip into it, topic-by-topic. The chapter on the Minors is typical. It includes a short overview of "the minors' parlous existence" (237), a bit on Jack Dunn and his Baltimore Orioles, and extended sections on the draft and Branch Rickey's brainchild, the farm system. One can read any of these sections independently of anything else. [End Page 244] Haupert's chapter on the Hilldale Daisies, as they were sometimes called, deserves special mention. His work is based on a collection of materials called the William Cash-Lloyd Thompson archives deposited at Philadelphia's African American Museum, "the first institution built by a major...

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