Baseball and Early Electoacoustic Technology

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Baseball and Early Electoacoustic Technology

• SABR 39
• Research Presentation

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Alexander Cartwright

• 1846 at Elysian Fields- fining James Whyte Davis
  6 cents for inappropriate language

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Casey at the Bat (1899 film)

• Produced by Thomas Edison
• Based on Ernest Lawrence Thayers 1888 poem
• Popularized by vaudeville actor DeWolf Hopper

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The Brush Rule (N.L.)

• Example of league efforts to
• control problematic sound
• Any player found guilty of
• using villainously filthy
• language could be banned
• for life
• Rescinded shortly after
• implementation, without anyone
• ever being punished

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John McGraw

• No single figure better exemplified the league
  efforts to rein in problematic sounds

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McGraw as Star

• McGraw appearing on vaudeville stage and in
  movies
• - Highest paid vaudeville performer in the
  country (3,000/week)
• - 1913- signed by Edison Kinetophone Co. to star
  in experimental talking film
• -2 silent features- Right off the Bat (1915) and
  One Touch of Nature (1917)

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• Illustration from NY Tribune review featuring
  McGraw and Rube Marquard (Oct. 27, 1912)

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2nd title card from One Touch of Nature (1917)
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Rhetoric of democracy/ Ability to control sounds

• New sound technologies offering ability to
  control elements of soundscape without alienating
  fans
• Radio making baseball accessible to anyone who
  would listen
• PA Systems- way to control sounds within the
  stadium itself and provide fans with game
  information

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Conclusion

• New sound technology creating discourse which
  emphasized BOTH the benefits for fans and the
  ability to control any problematic sounds
• Helping to create a modernized soundscape
  considered suitable for all listeners making
  national pastime even more democratic