fair play, and teamwork; essential values in athletics. Arlene Gorton, conference chair of Fair Play or Foul Ball, and international symposium directed at sports ethics and held at Brown University, holds the opinion that “sports play a major role in teaching society social values which the nation believes are important. Values taught by sports involving ethics are much more than following the rules”. (Gorton,…
Scientifically, it seems humanly impossible to hit a 95 mile-per-hour straight fastball, but we see the professionals do it all the time! Your brain only has 125 milliseconds to decide whether or not to swing at the pitch, let alone making healthy contact with the ball (Griesmer). And remember, it is not always a straight fastball shooting out of the pitcher’s hand. Sometimes pitchers hurl in an off-speed pitch with movement to throw the hitters off their own balance. Yes, movement as in, certain rotations on the baseball decide whether it will drop down, slide to the right or left, or just float right up into the strike-zone, all still traveling faster than you would drive down the freeway. The physics behind different pitches is astounding! To narrow this down to two drastically different pitches, the four-seam fastball and the curve ball will be magnified. They are merely impossible to hit due to their velocity, movement, and the change in velocity when thrown back to back.…
It’s the 1940’s; 1944 to be exact. You’ve been drifting in and out of a variety of camps, struggling to stay as alive and hopeful as possible. The days and nights are starting to blend together into a gray smudge, and your will to live is beginning to dissipate. This was the constant struggle of the Jewish people during the second World War. Every waking moment was spent in constant fear and misery, Now, does that compare to being taken from your home and having to pursue your own entertainment? Two children, Elie and Shorty, survived these trials and lived to tell the tale. In “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, and “Baseball Saved Us”, by Ken Mochizuki, both of the main characters experienced things that changed the way they viewed a variety of subjects.…
Baseball was invented in the late 1840’s. “Popularity was spread during the Civil War and baseball was played in Union Camps all over America” (Stewart 4). Baseball first gained popularity all over America, in about 1880 when people learned the full game and started playing it for the first time. Baseball has changed greatly over time in many positive ways because of changes in rules, popularity, and strategies.…
(Gmelch, 2002) From the beginning of history baseball’s virtues were inextricably tied to American male. Rise of the sport in 1870s was centered on a belief that it was one that could be enjoyed by everyone. This was important to promote equality in gender. Needless to say, in the mythology of baseball civil religion baseball was trained young American boys virtues of hard work and perseverance.…
“Baseball. It's just a game-as simple as a ball and a bat. Yet as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. It's a sport, business-and sometimes even religion.” Ernie Harwell’s quote from his 1955 poem, “The Game for All America” displays how baseball is a part of America’s roots. The game of baseball is as complex and changing as America itself. In the 1920s many things were evolving and Babe Ruth progressed baseball and society with his popularity, greatness, and love for the game that firmly established the game of baseball for generations to come.…
For well over a century, baseball has been hailed as America’s National Past Time. Baseball is uniquely American. In the 1989 baseball film, Field of Dreams, one of the main characters remarks on the importance of baseball for America. “Baseball,” he says, is “the one constant through all the years.” Baseball connects Americans to their past. “This field, this game,” he continues, “reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again.” This week, the tradition of Opening Day ushered in the 2015 baseball season—the 146th season of professional baseball in America.…
After several decades and countless games, people tired of the slow, grind it out pace that baseball had to offer. As the technological boom continued to explode across the map in the early 1990s, the pace of life on our planet was speeding up by the day. Information was readily accessible at our fingertips, people could be reached on the go via cellphone, the list goes on. As people began to experience a greater deal of excitement, baseball did not change with the times. The strike shortened season of 1994, which saw the World Series and approximately 50 regular season games get cancelled, was seemingly the nail in baseball’s popularity coffin. People were fed up, and they wanted their game back. When play resumed in the spring of 1995, people did not care for the results. Since the last full season in 1994, ticket prices had dropped by 13 percent league wide to accommodate for the drop in attendance, which remained at a 9% decrease even after the price reduction (ESPN). However, things took a turn in 1996.…
For baseball players it is essential to stay healthy. One of the many reasons is that if a player is hurt for too long a period, he may lose his starting position. Though this is always in the forefront of a players mind, the first thing he should think about is healing his body so that he might continue his career. The most common injury to baseball players is tennis elbow and tennis elbow is only treated by having Tommy John’s surgery, which takes months of recovery. Baseball players also have to deal with the problem of dislocated joints and broken bones. Though baseball may seem like a less injury prone sport than soccer or football in can have just as big of an impact on the players life.…
Have you ever wondered why baseball became a sport? The wonderful experience about baseball is that it is in a enjoyable environment. Baseball players experience the marvelous outdoors. They experience the magnificent outdoors when you go to see or play a baseball game. Baseball players also experienced social skills. They experienced social skills by working with their teammates to succeed. They also experienced social skills by interacting with their coach. Players interact with their coaches in an attempt to learn new strategies. Another reason why baseball is a physical sport is because it helps young people to get off the couch and get active. It helps them get active by running the fields and playing a legendary game with friends. This…
I believe that America’s pastime has a major influence on a person’s character. Whether you are on the field, in the stands, or even on the couch, the game of baseball seems to always have an effect on you. Baseball and life can be synonymous, and I believe that the lessons learned by playing the game can play a huge part in the way you live your life.…
When people analyze and evaluate the history of sports from a technology aspect, the game has tremendously been influenced where gathering content is attainable expeditiously with the click of a mouse. The ability to gather information so rapidly in today’s sports market is something that was unheard of about 15-20 years ago. Furthermore, technology just doesn’t influence sports; it has an impact on everything in society. For example, music has been recorded for over centuries when technology was an afterthought. There were no computers, digital mixing systems or the latest technological equipment available to past musicians during the 1920’s or 1930’s. In addition, the quality of movies that were produced from the beginning of the 20th Century until today has drastically evolved with graphics and special effects enhancements. Lastly, I remember the era when people had beepers and would use a pay phone or go back upstairs to return the page received. Looking no further than our own pockets, the majority of…
This is probably the part where you see someone put a cliché quote that inspires them, but I’m going to jump right into this. The value of failure is something you should learn in life, because failure can teach you a new mentality to do things, like working hard and trying to get better or quitting because someone can’t deal with failure.…
Have you ever thought about the history of baseball and how the game got started? Well, I have because it is my favorite sport. It is also the favorite sport of millions of people around the world.…
From Henry’s continual analysis of what exactly caused the baseball error that broke Owen’s zygomatic arch, Henry puts himself into more errors: missing even more shots and overthinking nearly every throw. Eventually, because of this over analysis of his shortstop position, Henry becomes such a terrible player that his team members do not even want him to play: “We talked it over at practice today, and we think that Henry should sit out tomorrow” (298). Once Henry quits the team, and “his mind finally quiets” (323), the Harpooners go on a multiple game winning streak and makes it to the national tournament, which reinforces Henry’s thought of not being ‘worthy’ enough to be on a college baseball team or beyond to the major and minor…