By any measure, major-league baseball in North America surely qualifies as big business. The national pastime is a vital component of today's urban political economy, and baseball teams resemble other high-prestige businesses in that cities must compete for the privilege of hosting them - whatever their true worth. A study analyzes the transfer of the Milwaukee Braves baseball franchise to Atlanta in 1965 as the outcome of "competitive boosterism" or the active participation of local elites in luring trade, industry, and investment from other cities for the purpose of economic development.