Left of Baseball

Our historian-in-residence Adrian Burgos, Jr. reports back from this winter's Era Committee Meetings, which saw six players including Buck O'Neil and Minnie Miñoso voted into Cooperstown. Adrian shares his unique perspective on his work as a committee member during this process as well as his past experience on the 2006 Special Committee on the Negro Leagues. We ponder voting structures and motivations in between our transparent and mostly unfruitful attempts to elicit the hottest gossip from behind the scenes. 

Former mayor of San Francisco Art Agnos shares stories from his life in baseball and politics. We hear about his brush with Felipe Alou, the 1989 World Series earthquake, why he thinks cities should stay involved with ballparks, the importance of Greek diners in the electoral process, and how only one baseball glove has lasted him this whole time. 

Our guests Elissa Laitin and Jean-Marc Favreau weigh in on collective bargaining negotiations. Their experience working in the labor movement fuels an informative conversation, ranging from petty tactics (MLB's) to dreams of unionizing the minor leagues (ours). We welcome the respite from MLB's spin factory and marvel at how solidarity brought them together from opposite sides of the 2004 ALCS. 

MLB's sudden embrace of legalized sports gambling is one of its ugliest attempts to extract growing revenue from a shrinking fanbase. From our irritation at the gamification of television broadcasts to our fear of a lingering threat to competitive integrity, we flag the pitfalls of this cynical course.

Geraldo Cadava, professor of history at Northwestern, joins us to talk baseball from the perspective of his research on Latino politics — and his own experience playing the game. We speculate how the themes of Cadava's recent book The Hispanic Republican might play out in major league clubhouses and share stories of how the sport continues to link our families and communities. 

Chesa Boudin, District Attorney of San Francisco, joins the show. From his one game as a ponytailed Cubs batboy to MLB's uncertain response to the social movements of today, we analyze how race, class, and immigration shape MLB's power structure. Thinking through baseball, we start to see how these same dynamics connect to the problems Chesa confronts through his progressive, decarceral approach to the justice system.

Baseball writer Shakeia Taylor joins the Left of Baseball crew this week to discuss her award-winning work on the history and present (and future?) of the game. She speaks on the experiences of Black women in the industry and urges us to find ways to keep the fun in the sport. We heartily agree before delving into our shared cynicism of MLB's "investment" in Black baseball. You can find Shakeia's writing in Baseball Prospectus, SBNation, The Hardball Times, FiveThirtyEight, and elsewhere. 

Adrian, Craig, Lincoln, and Tova begin a new season of Left of Baseball in conversation with Dr. Melissa R. Michelson, Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Menlo College. Her work applies insights on how voters form and act on their sense of identity to pressing issues in Latinx and LGBTQ politics. We can't resist the opportunity to think about this extends to fan identities and the effects of these attachments within and beyond baseball.