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On the 50th anniversary of the ISSA and IRSS, key foundational scholar in the sociology of sport John Loy assesses the development of the field by focusing on larger questions of theory and methodological tactics. Loy characterizes key stages of development in reflecting on the trajectory of the field. He considers the "universals and particulars" in considering the sociology of sport's station within the social sciences and humanities. In assessing the challenges of the field, Loy focuses on the fundamental features of sport in a societal context and draws on Raymond Williams to articulate the "long residuals" that undergird inquiry in the sociology of sport. In looking to the future of the field, Loy, drawing on Berger and Mills, encourages scholars to engage sociology of sport as a "form of consciousness" in ways that debunk myth and reveal power relations.

This study identified 100 North American based authors who have contributed 658 publications to the sociology of sport literature during the past decade. An analysis of the productivity patterns of these authors produced a perfect Bradford Distribution comprising ten core authors having fifteen or more publications each and accounting for over forty percent of all published work surveyed. In conclusion, findings of this study: 1. Provide insight into the emergence and development of sport sociology in North America, and raise several implications regarding its future growth, especially with respect to the problem of adequate critical mass. 2. Suggest that the literature related to the sociology of sport in North America provides an adequate data set for testing Brookes' formulation of Bradford's Law relating to journal distribution and author productivity. 3. Suggest the need, rationale and method for conducting comparative studies of the productivity patterns of authors and periodicals in the speciality of sport sociology in other areas of the world and, 4. Demonstrates the importance of identifying key authors and publications in the sociology of sport for purposes of comprehensive bibliographical searches.

The relationship between positional placement and team captaincy was examined for a population of 27 New Zealand provincial rugby teams for the years 1984, 1988, and 1992 (N = 76 player captains). Results revealed that the two most spatially central positions (i.e., No. 8 and halfback) accounted for 35.5% of the captains (n = 27), whereas, the three most peripheral spatial positions (i.e., center, wing and fullback) did not yield a single captain. The overrepresentation of captains among the No. 8 and halfback positions was explained in terms of a set of distinctive positional properties and personal attributes held to be associated with these two positions.

The results of previous studies of "stacking" by race in U.S. professional baseball are juxtaposed. The findings give several replications of the results recently reported for a more modest data base by Medoff (1977) in this Review. The comparative find ings show: (a) that there has consistently been a "stacking" pattern, of an under- representation of Blacks at central playing positions and an over-representation of whites at these positions, regardless of the time period studied since 1956; and, (b) that there has been an increase in the proportions of Blacks (to whites) within nearly all types of positions through time. However, when the proportionate distributions of Blacks across types of positions are looked at for different time periods the findings suggest that, if anything, Blacks' rates of attainment of central infield positions have declined somewhat. Medoff's argument that "an economic hypothesis" is the most plausible interpretation of recent trends in recruitment of Blacks is rejected for rea sons of evidence limitations and methodological problems in his research design.

Data from major league professional baseball teams in Japan, for the period 1950 to 1975, were employed to test the generality of findings on managerial succession and team effectiveness from the North American case. The results show little support for the most common pattern from North American studies, that there is a negative relationship between managerial succession and team effectiveness. The strongest pattern in the results was that of a regression to the mean for team performance over time. The finding of no significant relationship between managerial succession and team effectiveness is discussed in terms of possible cross-cultural differences in performance criteria.