Now available in paperback with a new preface.
In their innovative book, National Pastime, Stefan Szymanski and Andrew Zimbalist compare the histories and institutional structures of baseball—the U.S. national pastime—and soccer—the major sport in the rest of the world. Their indepth, cross-cultural assessment of these huge mega-businesses, particularly Major League Baseball and the English Premier League, examines what makes each sport successful and details how administrators in each can learn from the other.
Since National Pastime was first published, Malcolm Glazer, the owner of an American football team, took over one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world; Major League Baseball staged the World Baseball Classic in imitation of the soccer World Cup; and the leading soccer clubs in Europe have threatened to form an independent league modeled after the U.S. major leagues. The updated paperback edition contains a new preface, which provides new insight into the ongoing globalization of these great national pastimes.
Media coverage for National Pastime:
"'Pastime' reveals story of two sports," by John Haydon, The Washington Times, September 24, 2005.
"Interview: Economist Andrew Zimbalist," Sports Letter, Amateur Athletic Foundation, July 2005.
Book review by Phil Miller, The Sports Economist, June 4, 2005.
"How does a stadium help the economy?" by Andrew Zimbalist, The Washington Examiner, May 26, 2005; Page 17.
"Fever Pitch," Sports Illustrated Scorecard, May 30, 2005. (login required)
"British Soccer Fans, Kicked Again," by Stefan Szymanski and Andrew Zimbalist, Washington Post, May 22, 2005; Page B02.
"American team owners tend to profit by suppressing, to some extent, their individualism, points out Stefan Szymanski, co-author of 'National Pastime', a superb new book that compares the economics of the sport business in different countries."
—"Red devil," The Economist print edition, May 19, 2005. (login required)
"Bat and Ball," The Economist print edition, April 28, 2005. (login required)
"Why the Rest of the World Plays Soccer," Talk of the Nation interview, NPR, April 5, 2005.