Failure in Sport

That failure, its threat and its occurrence, is endemic to social organization and social life is a truism about which both sociologists and laymen alike can concur. Yet, as a socially problematic phenomenon it is one to which sociologists themselves, as in the case of sport generally, have given relatively scant attention or consideration. Thus, the following will address itself to some of the relationships between the two: (1) the occurrence of failure in sport and reactions to it, and (2) the social organization of sport; specifically professional sport, and particularly baseball and to a lesser degree, football, as such variable organization conditions failurereactions in these contexts.