Baseball bus trip a USM class Students eye cultural impact of game

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – Every year for the past 10 years, 40 baseball fans climb aboard a bus in Gorham for their ultimate fantasy trek – 10 baseball stadiums in 10 nights, plus stops at the Hall of Fame and maybe the home of the Little League World Series or the White House or a couple of meetings with former major leaguers or Hall of Famers. Sounds like a dream, huh?

Except this trip is different. Led by two professors at the University of Southern Maine, there are no easy nights on this trip. This is a course at USM that many of the “fans” – USM students, really – take for credit. And it’s more than a few nights out at the ballpark or hobnobbing sessions with former greats.

It’s the backbone of “COR 142J” – otherwise known as “Baseball and American Society: A Journey.” And even those who don’t take the course for its three credits are bound to learn something about the cultural impact of baseball.

The course is taught by USM athletic director Al Bean and professor of adult education Mike Brady. About 40 people listened to Brady give an overview of the course during a session of the 17th Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture Wednesday afternoon at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The course is open to all USM students and the public (ages 15 and over) and costs $1,525. The fee includes most expenses except for food, books, and personal expenses.

Graham Nye, a former Augusta superintendent of schools now living in Cranston, R.I., gave himself the trip as a retirement present in 1999.

“There’s not a moment that you spend not thinking about baseball or talking about baseball,” said Nye, who also worked in Calais and Gray-New Gloucester schools.

The cost includes tickets to all 10 games, but participants are expected to do much more than just watch. The critical element to finding the links between baseball and society, Brady said, is observation of the happenings off the field, such as the behavior and appearance of fans at a game or how a team is marketed.

“We want them to pay attention to the game [on the field],” he said. “But how did this evening at the ballpark reflect something about America culture and the culture of the game?”

This year’s trip starts July 20 with a Red Sox game at Fenway Park in Boston and concludes with a game at Yankee Stadium in New York. In between, the course will wind its way to Oneonta, N.Y., Pittsburgh, Pa., Louisville, Ky., St. Louis, Mo., Dyarsville, Iowa, Chicago, Ill., South Bend, Ind., Akron, Ohio, and Williamsport, Pa.

The itinerary includes major-league and minor-league games, visits to the Hall of Fame, the Louisville Slugger Museum, the “Field of Dreams” in Iowa, a seminar at the National Little League Headquarters and a panel discussion with players from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Brady also tries to link up with some of the authors on the course reading list and maybe even a professional player or two – in past years the group has met with Hall of Famers Bob Feller and Larry Doby.

The idea for the course and trip first came to Brady when he took a packaged ballpark tour with his father, Edward Brady, in 1991. Mike Brady found out about the class from his membership in the Society of American Baseball Researchers.

While the trip itself was exciting, Brady felt there was something missing.

“There was no sense of the whole spirit and tradition and history of the minor leagues,” he said. “… And we had experiences all over the place but we didn’t process the experiences. So the learning was fairly shallow, incidental. I thought there might be some promise in taking a bus trip and doing it as an educator.”

Brady and Frank Carner, an academic humanist at USM, spent two years developing the course. The school approved the course and the first bus left Gorham in 1996.

Brady said the school relies on its connections to get the class into certain places. A connection helped the group get into the White House in 2001 to hear from President George W. Bush’s senior staff about a proposed T-ball program.

“Talk about baseball and society,” Brady said. “There’s a central institution right there.”

Another connection through Aramark, a food services company contracted by USM, got the group onto the field at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Aramark also services the Orioles’ stadium.

The difference between the USM course and other ballpark tours is, of course, the academic portion. And for students taking the class for credit, there is a lot of work to do.

With the exception of the pre- and post-trip work – everyone going on the trip must read three or four required texts plus one additional book chosen from a list of suggested readings – the trip is the whole course.

Most of the time, the bus serves as the classroom. Students review the day’s speakers, rehash games, share anecdotes they’ve picked up from the stands, give oral presentations based on that additional book they’ve had to read – Bangor native Ed Rice’s book about Indian Island legend Louis Sockalexis is one of the optional readings – watch movies about baseball and plan the next day’s events.

“The bus is a very dynamic place,” Brady said. “You don’t go to the back of the bus and sleep.”

Most of the work is on an honor system for the students not taking the course for credit, except for the 200-word screening essay everyone must write before being accepted for the trip. Those taking the course for credit also write an essay on each of the core readings, keep a journal, and write a final essay about some aspect of baseball and American society.

The group gets more out of the trip than baseball, Brady emphasized. The trip is about peer teaching and learning, turning an avocation into a vocation, as Brady put it, and finding links with people from all walks of life.

“We separate ages in this culture and this game brings them together,” said Brady, who is a gerontologist (someone who studies the process of aging and the problems of aging people).

“To have a 16-year-old sit next to a 76-year-old on the bus to share stories, usually those ages are far apart in the rest of the culture. But we bring them together in a marvelous way.”