Mitchell Nathanson - God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legacy of Dick Allen

Selected Works

Sports/Biography

God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legacy of Dick Allen

Dick Allen is considered by some to be the best baseball player not in the Hall of Fame and by others to be the game’s most destructive and divisive force--ever. God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legacy of Dick Allen unveils the strange and maddening career of a man who fulfilled and frustrated expectations all at once.

Sports/Cultural History

A People's History of Baseball

Challenging the myths of America’s national pastime

The Fall of the 1977 Phillies: How a Baseball Team's Collapse Sank a City's Spirit

Examining one city’s century-long tortured relationship with its baseball team and, ultimately, itself.

Careers -- Law and the Workplace

The Happy Lawyer Handbook

A guide to achieving the personal and professional fulfillment the practice of law can offer, but does not guarantee.

Quick Links

Why Baseball Fans Stopped Rushing the Field

My piece in Slate about how, why, and when baseball fans stopped pouring over the fences to rush the field after big wins

God Almighty Hisself Included in Esquire's List of the 100 Best Baseball Books Ever Written

USA Today Article: My son was born on 9/11 — now he's graduating high school in a global pandemic

When my son was born on 09/11/01 I decided that each year on his birthday I would write him a letter summarizing the previous year's events. Little did I know that by the time he'd head off to college in the midst of the Pandemic the connections between the date of his birth and the date I dropped him off would be revealed.

A Deep Dive on the Meaning of Ball Four on the History of Literature Podcast

Why do we celebrate athletes? How do we view them when their athleticism fades? And what does it all mean? In this podcast I discuss male vulnerability, Bouton's groundbreaking book, and the criticism that trailed it, most notably by esteemed sportswriter Roger Kahn, who had a different understanding of what it meant for a man to be vulnerable.

God Almighty Hisself Included in Chicago Tribune's List of 20 Sports Books To Read Right Now

Some love for my Dick Allen biography, included in the Tribune's recommended reading list to help Chicago sports fans get their sports fix during the 2020 pandemic.

Casey @ The Bat: A Poem for Baseball in the Modern Era

My take on Mighty Casey in the era of social media, bat flips, and games that seemingly never end. Published in The Washington Post on October 1, 2019.

Jim Bouton's Dreams Were His Greatest Gift My New York Daily News piece on the on the enduring allure of Jim Bouton. Everybody focuses on the last line of "Ball Four" when attempting to crack that code, but in working on his biography these past few years I've come to understand that it's the first line of the book that holds the key to the castle: "I'm 30-years-old and I have these dreams."

A Modest Proposal to Save Baseball

My New York Daily News op-ed on how to reduce game times from over three hours to less than ten seconds.

Base Ball: The Philadelphia Game

Click here to view my documentary "webisode" on the birth of baseball in Philadelphia. narrated by Phillies legend Jimmy Rollins.

Constiutionally Questionable

My Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed on the legal and policy issues involved in the Washington Nationals' decision to prevent Phillies fans from purchasing Nats' tickets.

My scholarship website

Visit this site to view and download my articles

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