Baseball and the American Character
The three essays on baseball, by Allen Guttman, Murray Ross and Michael Mandelbaum, are all well written and supply unique opinions and ideas about baseball and America that are interesting but quite different. In this paper the writer will take a position on the debate that is going on with these three writers.

Allen Guttman's Essay

Guttmann reviews the phases of the American experience to explain what is meant by "American exceptionalism," and in the process of presenting that information he gives the reader some names of writers who tried to describe. America. For example, the French journalist and author Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America in the 19th century, and in that book he explains why Americans are different than Europeans. Americans didn't have any existing social order to deal with when they arrived in North America so they created one of their own and they….

ith a less stronger structure and with the fact that it had no history whatsoever, baseball did not appear to be the next big thing in nineteenth century Canada. Surprisingly, however, the sport grew into the hearts of the Canadians and quickly replaced cricket and lacrosse. Even though the game is played at a different level in Canada, the Canadian teams have been reported to be worthy of competing with some of the best teams in the U.S.
During its first decades, baseball had been nothing more than a chaotic game, with no strict rules and with people exploiting it in order to make profits. Even so, it had been practically impossible for someone to ignore the game's potential. Baseball seemed to be the perfect game for Americans and later even for Canadians. Furthermore, just as the people who lived in Northern America, it represented something fresh and rather extraordinary.

orks….

Baseball is a sporting game, whereby only a baseball bat, baseball glove and a ball are used, it is played between two teams, one is called the batting team and the other is the fielding team each consisting of nine players. Goals are awarded depending on the numbers of runs, of which to complete one run a player has to hit a ball thrown at him and then touchdown on a series of four bases arranged at the corners of the diamond, which is a ninety-foot square playing field. A team with the most runs definitely will have the most goals, consequently making them winners of the match. Players in the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, and the other players in the fielding team strive to prevent them from scoring complete runs by challenging their hitters. However a player in the batting team….

The age of the stadium can be appealing if the stadium is rich with history, or if it is new and equipped with the most modern features. However, middle-aged stadiums may have neither appeal and could result in depressed attendance figures. The number of wins that the team has in the season impacts fan interest, as does the team's salary (which is a good way to operationalize a team's star power).
Each of these variables is already quantified, so is fully operationalized. This avoids the trap of using spurious proxies in a study. There are three possible outcomes that can result from this research. The null hypothesis can be proven within significant confidence limits or it may be disproved. The third option is that the null hypothesis may be proven, but there is reason to suspect that some of the variables are closely related to one another and that this….

As a young pitcher, I had pretty good mechanics thanks to my father's coaching. His influence on my style did not always please the high school coaches but it did not take them long to notice that whatever I was doing worked. Yet I also had to work hard at surrendering my pride. I needed to incorporate the coaches' wisdom with that of my father's and blend it all with my own knowledge of the game and my own body.
I've learned that even for athletes, hard work means more than just physical exertion. In fact, the physical work we do pales in comparison to the mental work we perform on and off the field. First with our parents and friends who vie for our attention, who worry about us, and wonder if our dreams are misguiding us and leading us into false hope. Then we contend with unsupportive coaches….

What I also find fascinating about early baseball is how early baseball evolved into the business it is today. Expansion of teams into new markets first occurred in the 1960s ("The History of Baseball" nd). Players, fans, managers, and team owners as well as cities started to view the sport more as a business opportunity than simply a pastime. Before long, the players formed a labor union and their high earnings remain a controversial topic.

Baseball may have been based on games played in England, but now baseball is well-known as an American sport ("The History of Baseball" nd). Americans have been playing and watching baseball for well over a century, making the game an integral part of the nation's popular culture. The way professional baseball evolved since the Civil War also reflects on how American culture has changed into one that is more heterogenous and globally influential than ever before.

eference

"The….

Baseball Still America's Pastime?
There was a time when baseball was akin to religion. Baseball was played and discussed in small towns and large cities from coast to coast. But today many feel baseball is a dying sport. There are those who contend baseball is slowly and sadly fading away, overrun by a fast-paced, multi-cultural, technology driven society. In today's America baseball must contend with summer basketball, soccer, football in the spring and fall, and extreme sports. Furthermore, sedentary lifestyles brought about by technology have more children sitting indoors at computers and video games and fewer filling out enrollment forms for little league. And there are those who argue the game has grown boring from a lack of parity with the same teams continually dominating the sport. But is this truly the case? Is baseball dying?

Discussion

Background

There is some dispute as to when the game of baseball actually began to be….

It has become a strong fashion in both countries. ut while in America it is played by most people because they are brought up learning to respect and appreciate the game, in Japan the game is perceived as a game where both intelligence and the body must be used at the same time in order to win and to surpass oneself. It is in both the countries that the game stimulates a sense of national pride in its players but this occurs through different means. In the United States all the players are important, but the most important thing is for the team to win. In Japan on the other hand the value of the single player within the team is fundamental. The Americans might play to win. The Japanese would play in order to win after having played an excellent game giving the best of themselves. Japanese appreciate….

In his youth, Jimmy had missed becoming a pro pitcher because of a
shoulder injury. Now Jimmy receives a rare second change to perhaps live
his youthful dream after all, in midlife, a time when, realistically
speaking (at least for the vast majority of would-be baseball
professionals) anyone not making it long before this has simply missed his
chance. Jimmy Morris's late-life professional baseball story is true (with
a few Hollywood add-ons); put perhaps more importantly than that, it rings
true - probably within the collective American psyche in particular. After
all, very occasionally in America (and in baseball, two near-synonymous
entities in our culture) unusual exceptions to the rules, or to the long-
held norms and averages of life do occur.
Such special and singular occurrences, moreover, are plausible
entirely plausible to our psyche. e need not suspend disbelief. e need
not disbelieve at all. That is the real emotional power, for Americans, of
a movie like The Rookie. The continuing hold of….

Despite these glowing reports, Keating (1997) cautions that not every community has enjoyed the same level of success as the studies have suggested.
In his essay, "e uz Robbed! The Subsidized Stadium Scam" (1997), Keating says, "Only team owners and players clearly benefit from these taxpayer subsidies, because they are relieved of the costs of stadium financing. Indeed, annual debt-service costs can run into the tens of millions of dollars" (55). These savings in costs only serve to help the baseball owners and players though. A report from Financial orld cited by Keating noted that revenues for baseball teams with new stadiums increased by almost 40% the year a new facility opened. "The Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers both moved into new ballparks in 1994; according to Financial orld, their franchise values rose by 67% and 37%, respectively, between 1991 and 1996" (Keating 1997:56). At the same time, the franchise….

Some of the culprits included, Roger Clemens, Andy Pattitte, Manny Alexander, Chad Allen, Mike ell and many others. The report included volumes of pages from interviewing players as well as numerous other people, e-mail messages, tapped phone calls, and cancelled checks, receipts e.t.c. Mitchell concluded that, a thorough investigation that attempts to identify individual players who are using the illegal drugs will not be of much help, the problem f the use of illegal substances is the responsibility of the entire baseball fraternity since there was failure in recognizing the problem sooner, Use of performance enhancing drugs by players is ethically and legally wrong, and lastly MLs 2002 steroid response was entirely responsible when players switched from detectable steroids to undetectable hormone for human growth.
Mitchell recommended in his report that efforts of establishing education for the players regarding the severe health effects from drug use should be initiated, players….

History of Baseball
Baseball, America's pastime, has a rich and storied history that dates back centuries (Howell, 2005). Its origins can be traced to various bat-and-ball games played in Europe and England (Thorn & Palmer, 1991).

In the early 19th century, a game known as "town ball" emerged in the United States (Thorn & Palmer, 1991). It was played with a wooden ball and a bat, and the rules varied from town to town. In 1839, a group of young men in Cooperstown, New York, codified the rules of "base ball" (Howell, 2005). This game became known as the "Knickerbocker ules" and formed the foundation for modern baseball.

The Knickerbocker ules established a diamond-shaped playing field and nine players per team (Thorn & Palmer, 1991). The game was played with a hardball, and the pitcher threw the ball underhand. The first organized baseball game under these rules was played in Hoboken, New Jersey,….

aseball is the favorite sport in both Japan and the United States. It proudly has the status of national sport in both American and Japan. It is an important part of the American and Japanese culture. The game of baseball has evolved with the culture of the American culture. aseball has also been reinvented in Japan. It is part of the Japanese culture as it has had a lot of influence on the sport. aseball has been played in Japan for more than a hundred years. They are very proud of their national sport. At the same time people in America take baseball for granted. oth Japan and America have their own professional baseball leagues. Japanese baseball is all about pride and possibility. They were one of the first foreign nations to be exposed to America's favorite pastime. It was more like a bridge between the western and eastern culture.
The….

aseball Research
ristow, Schneider and Sebastian's (2010) article compared the fan loyalty of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs during the 2008 season. These scholars were interested in finding a tool to measure baseball fans loyalty. Using a questionnaire asking the interests of fans, they compared these answers to win loss records and home stadium attendance. The sample population would demonstrate their loyalty through their knowledge, competitiveness, and how many times they would attend home games.

The questionnaire was issued in both Arizona and Chicago. In Chicago the researchers posed the questions in bars and restaurants around Wrigley Field, while in Phoenix, they questioned the population sample at the baseball stadium. The data was collected over various times throughout the season and during games with different teams. This technique may contain bias due to the quality of opponents possibly determining the quality of the experience. The data was either collected before the….

Baseball Bats today come in many different varieties, from the standard $20 wooden bat to a state-of-the-art, $300 aluminum model (Sports-werd.com, 2002). Each type of bat has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each has a unique feel and sound. On both the college level and professional levels of baseball, the types of bats allowed vary in material. Yet, while the baseball bats may differ, there are still many similarities that make both aluminum and wooden bats comparable in the world of baseball.
Baseball bats in the first phase came in varying shapes and sizes. In the 1850's, players made their own bats and experimented with different lengths and mass. Due to the wide variety of bat size, and thus the wide differences in batting ability, a rule was made in 1859 that bats could be no larger than 2.5 inches around. A rule to limit the length of the bat….