Staudohar, Paul D. 1940-

views updated

Staudohar, Paul D. 1940-

PERSONAL:

Born December 3, 1940, in Duluth, MN; son of Matthew and Patricia Staudohar. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Minnesota—Duluth, B.A., 1962; University of Southern California, M.B.A., 1966, M.A., 1968, Ph.D., 1969. Politics: Independent. Religion: Episcopal. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening.

ADDRESSES:

Office—College of Business and Economics, California State University, Hayward, CA 94542.

CAREER:

United California Bank, Los Angeles, administrative officer, 1964-66; University of Southern California, Los Angeles, instructor in economics, 1967-69; California State University, Hayward, CA, assistant professor, 1969-71, associate professor, 1972-77, professor of business administration, 1978—. University of Hawaii at Manoa, visiting professor, 1971-72. Labor arbitrator for private industry and government, 1974—. Journal of Sports Economics, cofounder, 2000, and member of editorial board; also member of editorial board, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 1993-94, Journal of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector and Journal of Individual Employment Rights.

MEMBER:

International Association of Sports Economics (president, 1999-2002), National Academy of Arbitrators, American Economic Association, Labor and Employment Relations Association, Phi Alpha Theta, Omicron Delta Epsilon, Beta Gamma Sigma.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Distinguished service award, Omicron Delta Epsilon, 1981.

WRITINGS:

Public Employment Disputes and Dispute Settlement, Industrial Relations Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu, HI), 1972.

Grievance Arbitration in Public Employment, Center for Labor Research and Education, Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California (Berkeley, CA), 1977.

(With Dale Yoder) Personnel Management and Industrial Relations, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1982.

The Sports Industry and Collective Bargaining, ILR Press (Ithaca, NY), 1986.

(With Robert C. Berry and William B. Gould IV) Labor Relations in Professional Sports, Auburn House (Dover, MA), 1986.

Playing for Dollars: Labor Relations and the Sports Business, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1996.

Contributor to periodicals, including Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Journal of Individual Employment Rights, California Management Review, and Journal of Sport and Social Issues.

EDITOR

(With Clark Kerr) Economics of Labor in Industrial Society, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 1986.

(With Clark Kerr) Industrial Relations in a New Age: Economic, Social, and Managerial Perspectives, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 1986.

(With Holly E. Brown) Deindustrialization and Plant Closure, Lexington Books (Lexington, MA), 1987.

(With James L. Mangan) The Business of Professional Sports, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 1991.

(With Clark Kerr) Labor Economics and Industrial Relations: Markets and Institutions, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

Baseball's Best Short Stories, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 1995.

Golf's Best Short Stories, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 1997.

Football's Best Short Stories, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 1998.

Boxing's Best Short Stories, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 1999.

Fishing's Best Short Stories, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 2000.

Hunting's Best Short Stories, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 2000.

Diamond Mines: Baseball and Labor, Syracuse University Press (Syracuse, NY), 2000.

Sports Best Short Stories, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 2001.

More Sports Best Short Stories, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 2004.

The Best Dog Stories, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Paul D. Staudohar's interest in sports—both the sports themselves and the business side of the world of sports—has resulted in his numerous sports-related books. The Sports Industry and Collective Bargaining offers insight into, and discusses the concept of, collective bargaining and the role it plays in sports such as football, baseball, hockey, and basketball. Staudohar also gives a brief history of collective bargaining and examines the economic position of sports and how it is affected by attendance, television revenues, and public interest. Booklist reviewer Wes Lukowsky called the book "an enlightening and often enjoyable treatise" on collective bargaining in team sports. Choice reviewer H.G. Foster called the book "well crafted and written," but criticized the "sparse treatment of player agents." Foster felt that "more discussion of the content of collective bargaining agreements in sports" could have improved the volume.

Deindustrialization and Plant Closure, edited with Holly E. Brown, examines the effect of plant closings on the manufacturing sector over ten years, 1977-87. Twenty-six readings, divided into five parts, are gathered in the volume, including topics that examine how plant closings have displaced workers, and how management, the unions, and government have responded to the problems created. Staudohar also looks at topics such as the public policy debate, state and federal regulations, and the policies of European countries and Japan. Choice reviewer R.O. Werner stated, "The authors raise important questions and provide a variety of leading answers." Werner noted the "excellent" index and the "extensive and useful" bibliography. Robert L. Aronson wrote in Industrial and Labor Relations Review that, despite some redundancy and omissions, the book does "provide a useful overview" and offers "a balanced view of the issues."

The Business of Professional Sports is a collection of thirteen essays from experts in academia that examine various issues in the business of sports. As a Publishers Weekly critic noted: "The book aims to be comprehensive by adopting a multi-disciplinary focus that combines history, sociology, economics and law." Some of the issues the author discusses include salary discrimination within the National Basketball League between black and white players and the increasing trend of management making more money at the expense of the athletes. In one essay a sports agent observes that young athletes, just out of school and looking for a career as professional athletes, are pitted against an experienced multimillionaire during negotiations. Owners with consistently winning teams are accused of monopolizing fans at the expense of other teams who do not have enough fan support to make a profit. The role of unions in sports is also discussed.

Staudohar is also known for his series of short story collections involving different kinds of sports, including baseball, football, and even golf. For Baseball's Best Short Stories, the first title in the series, Staudohar selected classics, including works by authors Robert Penn Warren, James Thurber, and Garrison Keillor. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that Staudohar "demonstrates how thoroughly the game permeates American life." Another installment in the series, Football's Best Stories, boasts a collection of twenty-two stories that cover the complete history of football and showcase the works of many talented authors. The volume also features stories about the different formats of football, from amateur to professional players.

In Playing for Dollars: Labor Relations and the Sports Business, Staudohar discusses the role of unionization in four main sports: baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Background information on the history and economics of each sport is provided, and salary negotiation, labor dispute problems, and even the role of drugs, gambling, and violence and their effects on players and management are discussed. Choice reviewer H.F. Kenny, Jr., stated that "it will stimulate the professional sports fans to learn" the details about labor relations and collective bargaining in the sports industry. Kenny called the collection and recording of sources "exceptionally well done." Howard Stanger, reviewing the book in Labor Studies Journal, called Playing for Dollars "a readable and concise account of labor relations in the four major team sports."

Staudohar told CA: "For most of my academic life I've pursued research and writing in the fields of labor economics and industrial relations. The high point of this work was editing three books with Clark Kerr, legendary past president of the University of California and my role model as a scholar and arbitrator. Also of interest has been public employment relations, which exploded on the scene in the late 1960s while I was completing my doctorate at the University of Southern California and provided an opening for my career as a labor arbitrator.

"By the mid-1970s labor issues in the professional team sports of baseball, football, basketball, and hockey emerged as hot topics. I had played baseball early and was on the varsity hockey team for my first two years at the University of Minnesota—Duluth. Residing in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay area, a rollicking sports center, stimulated my writing on unions in sports, negotiations, player strikes, and the impact of television on leagues.

"In the early 1990s, after reading some baseball stories by Ring Lardner, I got hooked on sports short fiction. This led to an edited collection of baseball stories, then one on golf, followed by football, boxing, fishing, hunting, and two on various sports. These books have not only been fun to do, but they have been far more marketable than my academic output. I don't personally write excellent creative fiction, but I greatly admire those who do."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1986, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Sports Industry and Collective Bargaining, p. 1428; November 15, 1995, Wes Lukowsky, review of Baseball's Best Short Stories, p. 535.

Choice, December, 1986, H.G. Foster, review of The Sports Industry and Collective Bargaining, p. 664; May, 1987, R.O. Werner, review of Deindustrial-ization and Plant Closure, pp. 1441-1442; December, 1996, H.F. Kenny, Jr., review of Playing for Dollars: Labor Relations and the Sports Business, p. 650.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review, April, 1998, Robert L. Aronson, review of Deindustrialization and Plant Closure, p. 468.

Labor Studies Journal, winter, 1998, Howard Stanger, review of Playing for Dollars, pp. 94-96.

Publishers Weekly, September 6, 1991, review of The Business of Professional Sports, p. 99; October 9, 1995, review of Baseball's Best Short Stories, p. 77; August 18, 1997, review of Golf's Best Short Stories; September 20, 1999, review of Boxing's Best Short Stories, p. 74.

About this article

Staudohar, Paul D. 1940-

Updated About encyclopedia.com content Print Article