NW Missouri Times

Dr. Richard Black, a professor of English at Northwest Missouri State University, recently joined academics and researchers from across the country to present at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. As one of 51 presentations, Black presented his paper titled “‘St. Peter got your name in the book’: August Wilson’s ‘Fences’ and Turkin and Thompson’s ‘The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball’” during a session focused on baseball poetry and literature.

In his analysis of Wilson’s play and the baseball encyclopedia, Black noted Major League Baseball’s recent decision to include the statistics of Negro League players in its official records. He argued, “The pairing of these texts — the play and the encyclopedia — informs the circumstances, context, and sources of the play’s composition and its relation to the analytics revolution while also recovering and exposing the origins of the early, restrictive, and discriminatory narrative that is the official historical and statistical record.”

The annual symposium took place from May 29-31 and serves as a platform for presenting and discussing various topics concerning baseball's relation to culture and society. Co-sponsored by the State University of New York College at Oneonta and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, it examines baseball's impacts from inter- and multi-disciplinary perspectives.

Dr. Richard Black teaches courses on American literature and culture. He earned his doctoral degree in English language and literature at the University of Tulsa; he holds a master’s degree from Texas State University at San Marcos, along with a bachelor’s degree from St. Edward’s University.