Why is it more fun to watch a baseball game at Fenway than at Three Rivers? Why is football more exciting at Notre Dame or Alabama than in Ames, Iowa? Arguing that there is such a thing as the "perfect" place to watch or participate in a sporting event, Karl Raitz and his coauthors explain that it's not whether you win or lose, but where you play the game that counts.

The authors show precisely why the new baseball stadiums in Baltimore, Cleveland, and Arlington "work" better than the concrete doughnuts of the 1960s and 70s. They explain why cricket is best enjoyed in an English village green, against the backdrop of a church tower (preferably with clock), half-timbered pub, haystacks, and elm trees.

They analyze the ways in which the infield and grandstand form an essential part of the ambience at Churchill Downs - and how tailgate parties do the same at the Talladega stock car races. And they show how the intimate sights and sounds of spectator sports are as crucial to experiencing the event as the event itself (a truth television producers acknowledge when they place microphones on basketball backboards or cameras in race car cockpits).

1. Including detailed discussions of baseball, cricket, soccer, tennis, basketball, football, golf, stock car racing, rodeo, thoroughbred racing, fox hunting, and rock climbing, The Theater of Sport is a book for sports fans, students of American culture, and general readers alike.