Fields of Play

Reviews / Votes

A fascinating study of the complex interplay of race, gender, politics and capitalism in our local sporting life. * Pittsburgh Magazine * Hayashi uncovers hidden pasts, half-forgotten histories, and new angles on sporting life. * 90.5 WESA * Part history, part memoir, and infused with the author's feelings of alienation, belonging and nostalgia, "Fields of Play" is informative, blunt and, at times, poignant. * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette * The book's most significant contribution to sport history is perhaps its examination of Asian American sporting experiences outside Hawaii and the West Coast, where the limited scholarship on that topic has been focused. * Journal of American History * Focused on Pittsburgh's vaunted athletic past, Fields of Play revisits the question Fitzgerald posed so well in The Great Gatsby: Who is included and who is excluded from the American Dream? With wry, devastating, and surprisingly tender insight, Robert T. Hayashi simultaneously breaks down the myths of the melting pot and the even playing field. Fields of Play is the perfect cure for our lazy hometown nostalgia. -- Stewart O'Nan, author of Everyday People and Emily, Alone This is an exceedingly bracing sports book. The history of Pittsburgh comes alive through Hayashi's sporting lens, and our sports world is enriched by seeing it through the eyes of Pittsburgh-all of Pittsburgh-itself. It's not just the history and engaging prose. It's the diversity of perspectives and hidden histories that set this book apart. I can only hope that because of Fields of Play, a thousand flowers will bloom, and more writers will aspire-and be inspired-to give the Hayashi treatment to their city as well. -- Dave Zirin, author of The Kaepernick Effect and sports editor, the Nation