Mitchell J. Nathanson

Professor of Law
Director of Professional Skills

Biography

Mitchell Nathanson received his JD from the Georgetown University Law Center and his BA from Tulane University.  He currently teaches Negotiations and Scholarly Topics in Sports Law.  In 2026 he was appointed to the position of Director of Professional Skills, where he supervises the litigation concentration program and students and is responsible for overseeing the skills curriculum, including evaluating the content, offerings, consistency and overall strength of skills offerings.

His scholarship focuses primarily on the intersection of sports, law and society.  He has written numerous articles examining the interplay between, most notably, baseball and American culture. His article, "The Irrelevance of Baseball's Antitrust Exemption: A Historical Review," won the 2006 McFarland-SABR Award which is presented in recognition of the best historical or biographical baseball articles of the year. His 2008 book, The Fall of the 1977 Phillies: How a Baseball Team’s Collapse Sank a City’s Spirit (McFarland), is a social history of 20th century Philadelphia as told through the relationship between the city and its baseball teams – the Athletics and the Phillies. In 2009 he was the co-producer and writer of "Base Ball: The Philadelphia Game," a documentary "webisode" on the 19th century development of the game within the city that was part of a larger documentary project, "Philadelphia: The Great Experiment," to which he was a contributing scholar. In addition, he was a scholarly advisor to the 2011 HBO production, "The Curious Case of Curt Flood."

In the United States, he has lectured at, among other venues, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and since 2011 has been a Guest Professor in the International Sports Law Program at the Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economia in Madrid, Spain. In 2012 he published, A People’s History of Baseball (University of Illinois Press), and in 2015 co-authored the textbook: Understanding Baseball (McFarland).  In 2013 his article, "Who Exempted Baseball, Anyway?: The Curious Development of the Antitrust Exemption that Never Was," was published in the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and won the 2013 McFarland-SABR award. 

His biography of the mercurial slugger Dick Allen, “God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legacy of Dick Allen,” was published in March 2016 by the University of Pennsylvania Press and was a finalist for the 2017 Seymour Medal, which honors the best baseball biographies of the year.  In 2022 God Almighty Hisself was named one of “The 100 Best Baseball Books Ever Written,” by Esquire Magazine. His next book, “Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original,” was released in 2020 and was a New York Times Summer Reading selection.  Like God Almighty Hisself, it was a Seymour Medal finalist.  In addition, it was a silver medalist for the 2021 CASEY Award, honoring the best baseball books of the year. 

In 2024 his book: “Under Jackie’s Shadow: Voices of Black Minor Leaguers Baseball Left Behind” uncovered, in their own words, the histories of the African American men who played minor league ball in the post-Jackie Robinson era (1958-1972).  It was awarded the 2025 Sporting News-SABR Research Award Prize, which “honors those whose outstanding research projects completed during the preceding calendar year have significantly expanded our knowledge or understanding of baseball.”  His next book, “The Bobo Newsom Memorial Society: How the Sportswriting Counterculture of the ‘60s Broke the Rules and Created Modern Sports Media,” will be published in 2027.

His op-eds have appeared in, among other outlets, The Washington Post, New York Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, and USA Today.  He was a 2020 recipient of the Diane E. Ambler ’78 Faculty Scholarship Impact Award, an annual Villanova Law School award given to recognize faculty whose work has had a significant impact.

Practice Experience

• ACE USA (formerly CIGNA Property and Casualty Cos.). Philadelphia, PA. Environmental Coverage Specialist, August 1994-August 2001 
  
• White and Williams LLP, Philadelphia, PA. Litigation Associate-Healthcare Group, September 1991-August 1994.
  
• Joined the faculty in 2001.

Recent Publications

Recent Presentations