BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
PRODID:iCalendar-Ruby
BEGIN:VEVENT
CATEGORIES:Lecture
DESCRIPTION:More and More is Less and Less:  How Our Games Got Away from Us
 \, and What We Can Do to Get Them Back.\nLike so much else in American life
  today\, our sports seem hopelessly out of balance.  There are more games\,
  in more sports\, than ever before\, yet access to them has become more and
  more limited and expensive.  Sports venues are easily the most spectacular
  works of architecture to be found on the American urban landscape today\, 
 dazzling\, immense\, and grandiose—and heavily subsidized by enormous publi
 c grants and tax breaks.  And yet\, they seat fewer people than ever\, havi
 ng evolved into one more\, luxury destination for the very rich.  Even as t
 eams build their vertical monopolies with their own viewing channels\, they
  spin off games to endless streaming services\, forcing still more fees out
  of their biggest fans.  Somehow\, to take one out to the ballpark is to ta
 ke one out beyond the law\, to a place where your U.S. legal tender is no g
 ood\, you are bombarded constantly by ads at decibel levels that would be t
 olerated nowhere else\, and where clubs even run their own\, private lotter
 ies.  All this\, while owners and players alike rake in monies that are bey
 ond our comprehension.\nHow did we let this happen?  Why do we put up with 
 it?  How do the games we watch reflect the general misery of American life 
 just now\, and what can we do about it? \n\n \n\nKevin Baker\, Author and V
 isiting Lecterur in American Studies \n\nKevin Baker is the author\, most r
 ecently\, of The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City\, now i
 n its eighth printing\, and his third New York Times notable book of the ye
 ar. He has written six novels\, including the Times bestseller\, Paradise A
 lley\, and is the author or co-author of five histories and a Reggie Jackso
 n memoir. He was a writer and researcher on the Ken Burns documentary\, The
  U.S. and the Holocaust\, and is a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine
 . He is currently at work on a sequel to The New York Game\, which will be 
 out in 2027\, and a political and cultural history of the United States bet
 ween the world wars\, for which he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He liv
 es in New York City\, with his wife\, the playwright\, Ellen Abrams\, and t
 heir cat\, Natasha.\n\nBaker is delighted to be a “Visiting Professor of th
 e Practice” at Cornell\, for the American Studies course\, “Sports and Poli
 tics in American History.”
DTEND:20251119T230000Z
DTSTAMP:20260306T175647Z
DTSTART:20251119T220000Z
GEO:42.449047;-76.483597
LOCATION:Goldwin Smith Hall\, 132
SEQUENCE:0
SUMMARY:Seymour Lecture in Sports History - More and More is Less and Less:
   How Our Games Got Away from Us\, and What We Can Do to Get Them Back
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_50842477231346
URL:https://events.cornell.edu/event/seymor-lecture-in-sports-history-more-
 and-more-is-less-and-less-how-our-games-got-away-from-us-and-what-we-can-do
 -to-get-them-back
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR