The National Pastime at 150: Not Your Father’s Game
Course |
Mick Chantler
The National Pastime at 150: Not Your Father’s Game
Like everything else, the world of sports evolves constantly. Football today looks quite different from the days that Red Grange ran wild on the gridiron. Basketball scarcely resembles the game of 1960 when Wilt Chamberlain was averaging 50 points a game. And baseball is no exception. In the last twenty-five years the sport has undergone a dizzying series of changes that have left some fans scratching their heads in wonderment: “bullpenning,” “the pitch clock,” “the Ghost Runner” are terms that didn’t exist just a decade ago. And yet, the fundamental appeal of the game remains the same to its millions of fans. In this course we will examine the theme of “change and continuity” in the Grand Old Game.
Mick Chantler
Mick Chantler, MA, concluded his 36 year career in teaching at Sonoma Valley High School and currently teaches courses in the OLLI programs at Dominican University of California, Sonoma State University and UC Berkeley. As a lifelong student of the Civil War era, he is a member of the Lincoln Forum and was pleased to organize the Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration for the City of Sonoma in 2009. In 2010 he coordinated the American History Series at the Sonoma Valley Library. Mick’s other interests include the history of baseball and he is a long-standing member of the Society for American Baseball Research.