A01=Seth S. Tannenbaum
Accessibility
American citizenship
Astrodome
Atlanta
Atlanta Braves
Author_Seth S. Tannenbaum
Brooklyn
Camden Yards
Category=JHBS
Category=NHK
Category=SCX
Category=SFC
Charles Stoneham
Democratic space
Desegregation
Division
Dodger Stadium
downtown
Ebbets Field
Ed Barrow
Egalitarian
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
eq_sports-fitness
Exclusion
Fan experience
Freddie Gray
Gender
Harborplace
Harry M. Stevens
Hot dogs
Houston Astros inclusion
inclusive spaces
Jacob Ruppert
Janet Marie Smith
John T. Brush
Larry MacPhail
Los Angeles
Los Angeles Dodgers
Major League Baseball
New York Giants
New York Yankees
Nostalgia
People of color
Polo Grounds
Profits
race
racial
Roy Hofheinz
skyboxes
Social hierarchies
Socioeconomic classes
Stratification
Suburbanization
Sunday baseball
tiers
Truist Park
Turner Field
Urban decline
Urban space
Walter O'Malley
Women
Yankee Stadium
Product details
- ISBN 9780252089251
- Weight: 513g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 31 Mar 2026
- Publisher: University of Illinois Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Celebrated as a democratic space for all Americans, the major league ballpark in fact privileged the middle- and upper-class white male fan while tacitly marginalizing poor urban residents and people of color. Seth S. Tannenbaum examines how the game's economically and socially stratified system reflected changing understandings of urban space, inclusion, and the body politic.
Major League Baseball owners and executives masked exclusion and division by touting the game's accessibility and instituting few overtly discriminatory policies. Affluent white males enjoyed a comfortable, safe space that reinforced their status as the prototypical American citizen. At the same time, ballparks relocated in response to how these favored fans felt about cities. Tannenbaum traces this journey from the urban locales of the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium through the suburban-oriented Dodger Stadium and Houston Astrodome to the cloistered fantasy of city life offered by Camden Yards. As he shows, owners' pursuit of greater profits incorporated existing barriers that helped shape the structure of modern parks.
A revealing social history, Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites revises the persistent myth of the ballpark as an egalitarian melting pot.
Major League Baseball owners and executives masked exclusion and division by touting the game's accessibility and instituting few overtly discriminatory policies. Affluent white males enjoyed a comfortable, safe space that reinforced their status as the prototypical American citizen. At the same time, ballparks relocated in response to how these favored fans felt about cities. Tannenbaum traces this journey from the urban locales of the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium through the suburban-oriented Dodger Stadium and Houston Astrodome to the cloistered fantasy of city life offered by Camden Yards. As he shows, owners' pursuit of greater profits incorporated existing barriers that helped shape the structure of modern parks.
A revealing social history, Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites revises the persistent myth of the ballpark as an egalitarian melting pot.
Seth S. Tannenbaum is an assistant professor of sport studies at Manhattanville University.
