Thesis (B.A.)--Whitman College, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-174). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (B.A.)--Whitman College, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-174).

Thesis--Cornell University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis, PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation is a history of the change in form and location of ballparks that explains why that change happened, when it did, and what this tells us about broader society, about hopes and fears, and about tastes and prejudices. It uses case studies of five important and trend-setting ballparks to understand what it meant to go to a major league game in the twentieth century. I examine the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium in the first half of the twentieth century, what I call the classic ballpark era, Dodger Stadium and the Astrodome from the 1950s through the 1980s, what I call the multi-use ballpark era, and Camden Yards in the retro-chic ballpark era—the 1990s and beyond. I treat baseball as a reflection of larger American culture that sometimes also shaped that culture. I argue that baseball games were a purportedly inclusive space that was actually exclusive and divided, but that the exclusion and division was masked by rhetoric about the game and the relative lack of explicit policies barring anyone. Instead, owners built a system that was economically and socially stratified and increasingly physically removed from lower-class and non-white city residents. Ballparks’ tiers allowed owners to give wealthier fans the option of sitting in the seats closest to home plate where they would not have to interact with poorer fans who owners pushed to the cheaper seats further from the action. That masked exclusion gave middle- and upper-class fans a space that was comfortable and safe because it was anything but truly accessible to all Americans. I also argue that owners had to change the image of the ballpark and tinker with the exclusion there as fans’ tastes and their visions of what a city should look and feel like changed. / History

The National Alliance for Youth Sports compared field reports released in 1995 to those in 2000, illustrating a 5% to 15% increase in adults that have gotten out of line at youth events (Carlozo, 2000). The purpose of this study was to assess the nature and frequency of adult comments at Little League baseball games for children ages 9 to 12. In addition, adults were surveyed in order to evaluate their personal opinions of crowd conduct.The participants in this study consisted of adults attending Little League baseball games in rural Indiana from May 30, 2001 to June 26, 2001. To address the purpose of the study, the researcher recorded adult comments using an adaptation of the Parent Observation Instrument for Sports Events (Kidman et al., 1999). An additional sample of 65 adults attending the last game of the season was purposefully selected to complete the survey portion of the study.The researcher tried to determine if there were significant differences between the nature of the adult comments (positive or negative), the frequency of adult comments by team play (offense or defense), by gender of the adult, by team status (winning or losing), or by competitive level (major league or minor league). Additionally, the researcher tried to determine whether there were qualitative differences between actual comments and adult opinions of comments.A chi square analysis was calculated for hypotheses 1 - 5 (p < .05) and the last hypothesis compared a chi square calculation to the frequency counts on a survey of adults. The results showed a significant difference in the frequency of comments based on the nature of the comment (positive/negative), gender, and competitive level (major league/minor league). There was no significant difference between team status (winning/losing) and frequency of comments made. There was consistency between adults' opinions of comments and actual observations. Observation results showed higher frequencies of positive comments than negative comments. Through survey data analysis, it was determined that adults believed more positive comments were made at the games. / School of Physical Education