americasgame-blog1

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Final Baseball Reflection

This class really helped me to see all the aspects of baseball not just the game itself. The fact that such a simple game for me can be so complex to other people made me appreciate the relationship I have with the game itself. I also saw aspects of the game that I did not enjoy.

When we read the Ricketsville reading, I realized how the game I used to play for fun is more of a business in today's world. The fact that professional baseball teams who have a lot of money can ask for money from the government and receive a lot of it is astonishing to me. The way these teams can trick the system and say they can provide the city with more jobs is something that is overused. The jobs they create are minimum wage jobs that are only seasonal. This doesn’t help the city enough that they should help with funding renovations. And then we see the way teams treat their minor league baseball players, and makes you think how they will treat all the local businesses around the stadium. The other reading I enjoyed was an article I read for my research paper that revolved around the limitations for inner city kids and baseball. The fact that the baseball system is suited for wealthy people is a big reason why there is a decline in black baseball players. It’s difficult to see this when you see one kid get a scholarship and then realize the other twelve teammates do not get recruited. From personal experience, I know that getting recruited is one of the toughest things when you don’t have the money to get exposed to schools.

I think the escape from reality theme was something that I could connect to a lot during the course. I played baseball in high school to be able to get away from my problems. Once you begin practice or a game, your mind doesn’t think about anything else but the game. Just catching with someone else when I was younger helped with dealing with the small problems in life. The other theme I enjoyed was the father and son relationship with baseball. This is something that I could connect to another personal level. I grew up watching baseball with my dad and had my dad as a baseball coach for my little league career. I always enjoyed being able to spend my weekends traveling and playing while making my dad proud. The other thing I related to was the one reading in which it mentioned the expectations of an immigrant dad. I related to that as well as any at bat that didn’t end with me being on base was bad. I always felt that I needed to hit the ball no matter what, and I can count with two hands the amount of little league strikeouts I had.

One of the things I learned through baseball writing was the fact that you can take a topic that is not serious and learn important life lessons with it. The fact that you can learn a lot about society and who you are as a person is something you would not think could happen with baseball. The fact that someone can write a fictional story using baseball to get deep messages through is something I can use for future writing assignments.

One of the things I improved on when it came to writing was being able to write formally yet in a personal manner. I have always struggled with writing between those lines as either I write too formal or write too casual. This class has allowed me to blend both of those and given me a foundation on how to do it.

Overall, this class has really made me look at baseball in such different ways. The most important one is the fact that baseball in a way represents America today. It is the sport for the rich and only a few people have the circumstances to succeed. 

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Story telling

The first story I enjoyed reading was “ Billy Gardners Groundout” by Floyd Skloot. The story described the authors memory and how he kept remembering a groundout from Billy Gardner. He is confused as in why he remembers such a simple play that was meaningless in so many ways. I think his use of pathos makes the story a lot more interesting. The way he mentions how Gardner was emotionless after grounding out was something impactful. He says it since his immigrant parents have these high expectations that don't allow him to accept failure as an option. It comes as an irony that his dad was into the game of baseball, which is the game of failure. To the author, the fact that Gardner was content with grounding out made him think about his situation. The fact that he would never be able to do that in his life gives him this sense of jealousy. He could only wish to be able to do that as the fear of not reaching expectation is always on his mind. The author also includes a bit of ethos when he gives us a first person view in the situations. The fact that he gives us certain details like the fact that Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson would make sense to remember makes us trust him in that sense. The situation is sad as his only memories are all gone and the people that could help him aren't there. The other story I enjoyed reading was “Chicago: City on the Make” by Nelson Algren. This story is interesting as it was confusing for me at first, as I didn't get all the references. The ethos was interesting as he mentions a lot of players and seemed to understand a lot of it. I also feel there are a lot of war references in this story. It takes place in 1919, a year after the end of WWl. This can be seen when he references how the people that make decisions never take action within them. I feel like that's a shot at the politicians who started the war. The story also mentions how he feels they went to work too young while everyone references themselves as someone else. This loss of identity is key since after the war, the ‘lost generation’ was forgotten and never remembered. I'm guessing, the new names would get them attention. This story also goes in on the situation of children in the workplace as at the time, there was a problem with young children working at such a young age. This sense of greed is also portrayed as he mentions everyone is out for the buck and not the best interests of the people

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Baseball Fiction

The first story that I wanted to discuss was Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth. This story was the most interesting by far as it had a lot of details that some may overlook. Like many fictional stories, it uses a lot of pathos. The fact that there is so much love for the game. But this love for the game displayed a lot of details that made the story funny in a way. He mentioned the fact that he wasn't good at baseball, but now he was extremely good at softball. This was funny as he even said he took some strikes just for fun. This also relates to the fact that he is talking to a therapist as he probably has to be there for that same reason as he seems to lie or something like that. The other interesting thing about this story as I feel that he references baseball as a way of escaping reality. He seems to live a life that is rushed and he could not have any control of his life. In his baseball world, he is the centerfielder who controls the game and even mentions the clock tower. Besides that, he repeats the fact that it’s a slow game which is something that he feels he wants in real life. 

The other story I found interesting was Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff. This story was really weird. The character is very odd as he seems to disrespect the women infant of him even though they agree with him. I think the main part of his character is that he is extremely arrogant. This is why this story uses a lot of pathos as well. A reader does not like Anders as he seems to only care about himself. He always corrects people. The author tries to humanize him at one point, but I feel that it does not help since at the end he chooses to think about baseball instead of his daughter. The other part of this story that is interesting is some of the actions by Anders. I am not sure if this is logos since it is the complete opposite of logical for someone to do, but the fact that he kept laughing when the gunman had a gun to his head made me not feel any sympathy since he didn't take it serious. 

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Baseball, Women, and Religion

The first article that I am going to discuss is the article by Thomas D. Senor that discussed the way one can compare rooting for a baseball team to being a follower of a religion. This was interesting since I did not fully get the point of the article at first. After the discussion I understood why someone can make the comparison. It is pretty clear that in both there is a sense of responsibility and faith that they will do what you want. The fact that one must put faith in both is what makes them so relatable. The fact that people oppose your view and you are given so many options while there are so many obstacles with each. People will always oppose someones option as they always feel that one is better than the other. All this is done through the use of logos as it all seems to be logical when you think about it. The main part of the argument for me that is extremely logical is that our team/faith is basically picked for us when we are born. Our team is determined a lot by where we are born while our faith has a lot to do with family. 

The second article we read this week was the article written by Betsy Morais that described the life of Jessica Mendoza. This article was extremely interesting as it made you think about this as more than baseball. This was done when the writer used pathos. I feel that the author tried to relate Jessica in order for people to see her struggle from her eyes. I feel that the fact that it mentioned that she was a mother made people feel a sense of sympathy as no one would want their own mother to go through this. The other interesting part was the fact that she mentioned that Curt Schilling had to do so many bad things in order to give Jessica an opportunity makes you wonder how unfair the workplace is for women and how much gender plays an influence in baseball. The structure of the article was extremely effective as it allowed the reader to feel a scenery and feel understanding of who Jessica is. The article met its goals as it informed the audience of these struggles Jessica is going through in 2018 while it introduces the exploration of women in sports and in the work field. 

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Week 4- Baseball as a Business

The first article I will discuss is the article titled “ RIP Wrigleyville, Welcome to Ricketsville.” This article is unique in its own way as it discusses a lot of politics we see today and compares it to baseball. It uses a lot of analogies to shape the argument. This article definitely used a lot of pathos in my mind. The writer tends to touch things on a personal level as he mentions the fact that the Ricketts are all against the public from getting assistance from the government, but they can be completely fine with the team getting government assistance in a large sum to renovate Wrigley Field. This is one of the most important parts of the article as it makes think about things outside of baseball itself. The idea that people who don't support assistance to the poor but can easily take money to help themselves is interesting. Makes you think how this neoliberalism concept of the economy/free market only helps the rich and keeps the poor at the bottom. It also uses pathos when it discusses how the Cubs are marketing to younger and wealthier people as the approach is not really something for a working class family as he mentioned the making of a Starbucks reserved. The article uses a lot of logos as wells as it gives a lot of data and facts when it comes to the amount of money that is being put into the renovations and the amount of money that the Rickets contributed to the campaign of Donald Trump. 

The other article I liked from the readings was the article titled,  “Minor League Baseball Players Make Poverty-Level Wages.” The article discussed the way minor league players get paid less than minimum wage and how bad their living conditions are. The main thing about the article was the use ethos. The fact that he brings up the story of a minor leaguer who had a large signing bonus but knew the struggles of the minor league life gives it a strong credibility. It allows the reader to see a perspective that might not be seen as valuable as someone who received a smaller signing bonus. The writer also combines this sense of ethos with logos. As he used a chart that had a few distinct statistics when it comes to baseball and money. The chart was interesting as it shows the array of salaries and other things from the lowest to some of the highest paid players. It even shows how much money an umpire gets compared to a player for food, which is almost double. It makes you see how under appreciated the minor leaguers are and how much they don't care about them. 

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Week 3- Too Fast Yet Too Slow

The first article that I completely had an engagement to was the article written by Will Leitch. His main argument involved the fact that trying to speed up the game of baseball with clocks would only worsen the level of play and amount of action. He uses a lot of testimonies when it comes to supporting his argument, but he really emphasizes on the example of Rick Ankiel. He emphasizes the mental problems that he dealt with giving a reader the sense of the importance of the mental aspect of the game. Some people tend to overlook the time between pitches, and it is something that is really important for both involved as the pitcher has to think of how he is going to fool the batter. Although a pitcher forgetting how to throw a baseball is rare, Ankiel would become a really good defensive outfielder later on in his career, it doesn't hurt to take a look at how much mental work goes into a baseball game, which really makes it so unique and appealing to some. The other thing the writer does is to compare the sport of baseball to other sports to show the level of seriousness with these topics. He mentions how a time clock would make a pitcher feel like a quarterback who is being rushed consistently, which is not fair and would only cause bad things to happen for the pitcher. You also see a lot of ethos with the writer as the language used is strong with opposing these changes as he calls out the commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred, with his ‘full-on crusade’ of implementing ways of speeding up the pace of the game. 

The second article that I enjoyed would have to be the article written by Jon Terbush which discusses how the game being boring is what makes it great. The one thing about the article is that I feel like he did not write it to convince people and persuade but more of just informing. This is an article I feel that people who enjoy baseball would enjoy reading. He does not use a lot of logos which is why I feel he does not want to really convince people, but he used one that was interesting. He mentions that football has around 11 minutes of action per game while baseball has 18. This is something that is interesting as no-one would think that as people seem to always suggest that there is action in football at all times. I also feel that he wants to emphasize the fact that the game is made up of failures, which is something people do not understand. That is something that people tend to overlook when they discuss baseball. I think you can definitely see some pathos at the end when he mentions that the sheer possibility of something happen is what makes it great, and that is something that sounded like it came from his personal view. 

In my opinion, baseball is a game that tends to use a lot of thought and skill. There is a reason why we see a lot of baseball players that don't look like athletes, Bartolo Colon and Prince Fielder. These players are smart and know what they have to do to be successful and it is something that people don't see. Colon is a prime example as he wasn't the fastest thrower but he would outsmart the batter and giving him the edge. 

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Week 2- Fun Police

The first article that intrigued me was, “ A Major League Pitcher’s Guide To Baseball’s Bullshit Unwritten Rules” by Dirk Hayhurst. The reason why this piece is so unique due to its ethos with the writer being a former professional baseball player. The writer has the experience of playing at the highest level, making his opinion a lot more valid than other writers in my opinion. The way he explains the rules for different teams as its the norm to think that most of the unwritten rules apply to every team, but that does not seem to be true for him. He experienced different things for different teams and it’s quite the funny thing to think about. Just think about it, teams get mad at other teams for made up rules that only apply to them. As a reader, I definitely felt that he put a lot of pathos into his article when he mentions that there is a lot of hypocrisy within the rules. The discussion of Big Papi getting a pass on celebrating is pretty interesting since he broke the rules all the time during his career. I don't think a veteran should get a pass but a youngster gets scrutinized. It would mean more for a young guy than a veteran who would just be padding up his stats. 

The other article I enjoyed was “Down With Baseball’s Police” by Barry Petchesky. This article is all about pathos. Even the title makes it seem that this is something that the reader feels strong about. The one interesting thing he discussed was how he feels that good shit talk and friendly rivalries would make the game a lot more fun. He made it clear why younger people would don’t want to be professional baseball players as it has the same boring humor a 9-5 has. And it is completely true. Why would anyone want to do something that doesn't let you show any emotion? Since when did showing emotion have such a bad connotation. One of the interesting things he said was that in baseball you're supposed to put your head down and jog, yet we see pitchers fist pumping after a strikeout that ends an inning. it seems to me that baseballs unwritten rules favor the pitcher more with no bat flips and no running over the mound. The rules are just held too sacred in the mind of Petchesky as we seem to think they are more important than the laws of society. 

in my opinion, I find it funny that the ones that get offended when it comes to the rules are the ones that get hit off or are losing. If you don't want someone bat flipping, strike them out. There is no reason why a team shouldn't bunt when they have a large lead or you shouldn't bunt when the opponent is throwing a no hitter. Baseballs norms are just stuck in the past, and it won't change anytime soon.