Peter Morris who has authored several books on the history of baseball and has been named “Baseball Historian of the Year” will present “Is Baseball Passé or the National Pastime” at a meeting of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing, 7 p.m., Thursday April 19 at the downtown branch of the Capital Area District Library.
Morris who lives in Haslett Michigan is the author of “A Game of Inches”, “Catcher”, “Level Playing Fields” and “Baseball Fever”. Most recently he authored an e-book “Don’t Kill the Umpire” about violence in baseball. He will make the case that baseball is still the national pastime and it permeates American culture like no other sport.
“Baseball culture is imbedded in everything from our language (“level playing field”, “fair and square” and “not coming out of left field”) to political showcases (every president since William Howard Taft has thrown out a first pitch.)” Morris who spends time each year in Cooperstown, New York at the Baseball Hall of Fame researching topics said “Baseball has taken on the mantel of the national pastime and the American character.”
The event is sponsored by the Historical Society of Greater Lansing and is funded in part by Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
