Editing Baseball (section)

=== In popular culture ===
[[File:Honus wagner t206 baseball card.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|The [[American Tobacco Company]]'s line of baseball cards featured shortstop [[Honus Wagner]] of the [[Pittsburgh Pirates]] from 1909 to 1911. In 2007, [[T206 Honus Wagner|the card shown here]] sold for $2.8&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=3007893|title=Honus Wagner Card Sells for Record $2.8 Million|agency=Associated Press|publisher=ESPN|date=September 6, 2007|access-date=May 3, 2009}}</ref>]]

Baseball has had a broad impact on popular culture, both in the United States and elsewhere. Dozens of [[English language idioms derived from baseball|English-language idioms have been derived from baseball]]; in particular, the game is the source of a number of widely used [[Baseball metaphors for sex|sexual euphemisms]].<ref>Kte'pi (2009), p. 66.</ref> The first networked radio broadcasts in North America were of the [[1922 World Series]]: famed sportswriter [[Grantland Rice]] announced [[play-by-play]] from New York City's [[Polo Grounds]] on [[WABC (AM)#WJZ Newark (1921–1923)|WJZ]]–[[Newark, New Jersey]], which was connected by wire to [[WGY (AM)|WGY]]–[[Schenectady, New York]], and [[WBZ (AM)|WBZ]]–[[Springfield, Massachusetts]].<ref>Rudel (2008), pp. 145–146.</ref> The [[baseball cap]] has become a ubiquitous fashion item not only in the United States and Japan, but also in countries where the sport itself is not particularly popular, such as the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|author=Lam, Andrew|url=http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Too-much-self-esteem-spoils-your-child-2552521.php|title=Too Much Self Esteem Spoils Your Child|publisher=New America Media|date=July 6, 2007|access-date=May 2, 2009}} {{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3660333.stm|title=Happy 50th, Baseball Caps|work=BBC News|date=April 27, 2004|access-date=May 2, 2009}}</ref>

Baseball has inspired many works of art and entertainment. One of the first major examples, [[Ernest Thayer]]'s poem "[[Casey at the Bat]]", appeared in 1888. A wry description of the failure of a star player in what would now be called a "clutch situation", the poem became the source of [[vaudeville]] and other staged performances, audio recordings, film adaptations, and an opera, as well as a host of sequels and parodies in various media. There have been many [[baseball movie]]s, including the [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]]–winning ''[[The Pride of the Yankees]]'' (1942) and the Oscar nominees ''[[The Natural (film)|The Natural]]'' (1984) and ''[[Field of Dreams]]'' (1989). The [[American Film Institute]]'s selection of the ten best sports movies includes ''The Pride of the Yankees'' at number 3 and ''[[Bull Durham]]'' (1988) at number 5.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/10top10/sports.html|title=AFI 10 Top 10—Top 10 Sports|publisher=[[American Film Institute]]|date=June 17, 2008|access-date=May 2, 2009}}</ref> Baseball has provided thematic material for hits on both stage—the [[Richard Adler|Adler]]–[[Jerry Ross (composer)|Ross]] musical ''[[Damn Yankees]]''—and record—[[George J. Gaskin]]'s "Slide, Kelly, Slide", [[Simon and Garfunkel]]'s "[[Mrs. Robinson]]", and [[John Fogerty]]'s "[[Centerfield (song)|Centerfield]]".<ref>Zoss (2004), pp. 373–374.</ref> The baseball-inspired comedic sketch "[[Who's on First?]]", popularized by [[Abbott and Costello]] in 1938, quickly became famous. Six decades later, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' named it the best comedy routine of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,36533,00.html|title=The Best of the Century|magazine=Time|date=December 26, 1999|access-date=May 2, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504145236/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C36533%2C00.html|archive-date=May 4, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Literary works connected to the game include the short fiction of [[Ring Lardner]] and novels such as [[Bernard Malamud]]'s ''[[The Natural]]'' (the source for the movie), [[Robert Coover]]'s ''[[The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.]]'', [[John Grisham]]'s [[Calico Joe]] and [[W. P. Kinsella]]'s ''[[Shoeless Joe (novel)|Shoeless Joe]]'' (the source for ''Field of Dreams''). Baseball's literary canon also includes the beat reportage of [[Damon Runyon]]; the columns of Grantland Rice, [[Red Smith (sportswriter)|Red Smith]], [[Dick Young (sportswriter)|Dick Young]], and [[Peter Gammons]]; and the essays of [[Roger Angell]]. Among the celebrated nonfiction books in the field are [[Lawrence S. Ritter]]'s ''[[The Glory of Their Times]]'', [[Roger Kahn]]'s ''[[The Boys of Summer (book)|The Boys of Summer]]'', and [[Michael Lewis (author)|Michael Lewis]]'s ''[[Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game|Moneyball]]''. The 1970 publication of major league pitcher [[Jim Bouton]]'s tell-all chronicle ''[[Ball Four]]'' is considered a turning point in the reporting of professional sports.<ref>{{cite web|author=Neyer, Rob|author-link=Rob Neyer|url=http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/ballfour/neyer.html|title='Ball Four' Changed Sports ''and'' Books|work=ESPN.com|date=June 15, 2000|access-date=May 12, 2009}}</ref>

Baseball has also inspired the creation of new cultural forms. [[Baseball card]]s were introduced in the late 19th century as [[trade card]]s. A typical example featured an image of a baseball player on one side and advertising for a business on the other. In the early 1900s they were produced widely as promotional items by tobacco and confectionery companies. The 1930s saw the popularization of the modern style of baseball card, with a player photograph accompanied on the rear by statistics and biographical data. Baseball cards—many of which are now prized collectibles—are the source of the much broader [[trading card]] industry, involving similar products for different sports and non-sports-related fields.<ref>Zoss (2004), pp. 16–25.</ref>

Modern [[fantasy sports]] began in 1980 with the invention of [[Fantasy baseball#Rotisserie League Baseball|Rotisserie League Baseball]] by New York writer [[Daniel Okrent]] and several friends. Participants in a Rotisserie league draft notional teams from the list of active MLB players and play out an entire imaginary season with game outcomes based on the players' latest real-world statistics. Rotisserie-style play quickly became a phenomenon. Now known more generically as [[fantasy baseball]], it has inspired similar games based on an array of different sports.<ref>Zoss (2004), pp. 27–31.</ref> The field boomed with increasing Internet access and new fantasy sports-related websites. By 2008, 29.9 million people in the United States and Canada were playing fantasy sports, spending $800&nbsp;million on the hobby.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/07/prweb1084994.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503091523/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/07/prweb1084994.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 3, 2009|title=Fantasy Sports Industry Grows to an $800 Million Industry with 29.9 Million Players|work=PRWeb|date=July 10, 2008|access-date=October 25, 2011}}</ref> The burgeoning popularity of fantasy baseball is also credited with the increasing attention paid to sabermetrics—first among fans, only later among baseball professionals.<ref>Lewis (2003), pp. 86–88.</ref>