Baseball during The Great Depression Essays

Comiskey was able to get away with paying low salaries because of the "reserve clause" in players' contracts. This clause prevented players from changing teams without the permission of the owners. Without a union, the players had no bargaining power.

Since the stadiums are most on the metropolitan areas, the fans from suburbs spend lots of expenditures, money and time, to watch baseball games. They give up the opportunities to do something else rather than watching games. Every year, the Major League Baseball receives more than $2 billion from advertising, sales of tickets and merchandise. And the “New York Yankees” got more revenues than the combinations of the other teams’

Teams with large payrolls routinely win at a higher rate than teams who cannot afford to spend the massive amounts of money other teams do. For example, in the last fifteen years the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, two teams which regularly are among the highest spending teams in baseball, won on average 94.7 and 86.8 games respectively. By comparison, the San Diego Padres and the Kansas City Royals, two teams who are not able to compete financially with teams with deeper pockets, won an average of 77.1 and 71.6 games respectively in that same time span (Major League Baseball). This disparity in season wins is a direct cause of Major League Baseball’s lack of a salary cap. Over the course of a 162 game season, teams with higher payrolls, and therefore better talent on their roster, will prevail more often than

There are many question about how the great game of baseball originally started and how it has grown to become Americas game that so many of us enjoy so much as little kids until till we die. Baseball is one of the only games today where the rules of the game have stayed the same since a guy named Abner Doubleday first evolved the game in 1845. Then he went on to be a Civil War hero shortly after as the game of Baseball became Americas beloved national pastime.

Baseball became greater this increased baseball players contracts.Then in 1947 one of the biggest things in history happened not just baseball history in all history

The league was the brainchild of Philip K. Wrigley, president of the Wrigley chewing gum company, and owner of the Chicago Cubs National League baseball team. Wrigley was concerned with the future of baseball. The major leagues had already lost more than half of their players to the military. The minor leagues were even harder hit. By the start of the 1943 season, more than 3,000 minor leaguers had joined the service or the war effort. Only nine of the nations 26 minor leagues had enough men left to play.

spread the sport of baseball all over the country. As an example, the union soldiers would play the game as a form of

Every sports team/organization operates the same when it comes to salaries some players get paid more than others and salaries fluctuate based on the economy. In the 1920s the average monthly salary for a Negro baseball player was about $230 which is about $2,760 annually. Whereas in the 1920s the average annual salary for a major league player was about $5,000 to $6,000. Then the dreaded 1930s hit the decade of depression. Despite the failing economy baseball was and is America's pastime and is always popular among the people. People would always manage to go see a baseball game every now and then. This would allow for an average annual salary increase of about $1000 from about $5000-$6000 to $7000. It obviously made sense that as the economy is failing salaries would start to decrease. Of course they did Negro baseball players monthly salary went down from $230 to $170. Which would be $2,040 annually about $720 less than the previous

Between 1933 and about the end of the second World War, black baseball evolved from just another failing Depression-era industry to an incredibly successful league complete with interesting storylines, characters, and controversies. The Negro league collapse began slowly as the United States returned home from war. As the general society became more comfortable with the idea of integration, the Negro leagues met its conqueror — a slow but steady

The economy in the black community was helped significantly by the Negro Leagues. The games were a big form of entertainment, drawing large crowds of black citizens from all over. The Negro Leagues helped the African-American economy because it brought more black people into the large urban cities across the country (Neil Lanctot). The African-Americans considered these leagues to be a form of racial pride, because they showed that the black community had a very successful business that lasted for a very long time (Despite Struggles). “Most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, but baseball teams and leagues thrived for decades”, this is showing that baseball brought in a lot of money and entertainment for the black community in the U.S. Baseball is considered to be a “major achievement in black enterprise” (Neil Lanctot). These leagues of all-black teams brought in a lot of money and attention.

So they play baseball. And how sweetly it is played! Another element in the socio-economic factor is for many young men, it is the only road to success; either make it in baseball or go work in the mills. This is a drive which pushes them even harder to become exceptional baseball players.

“Baseball is America’s pastime, and that record is absolutely huge in the States.” This quote by tennis player Pete Sampras defines the reason Charles Alexander wrote the book Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Great Depression Era. Alexander has complied a book about what baseball was like during the years when America lived in a time of great poverty and economic troubles. Alexander writes with the aim of writing a chronology of baseball and how it the happenings of the world influenced this sport. Baseball has had a great following and Alexander explains the National pastime in a way that feels like you are right there during the season. Alexander’s style, source base, and focus makes this book a great history of the time. He does miss a few things that weakens his argument that baseball remained strong during the crumbling thirties.

The sport is such an integral part of our culture today that we Americans sometimes take for granted its significance in our everyday lives. Contemporary baseball is so closely related with American ideals and identity that it often has served as an expression of patriotism. In times of national hardships, baseball has been used to encourage and rally the nation. In speaking of the emergence of America's nationalism in the historic and contemporary playing field, there are several key issues that surface. Of these issues I will specifically address the long residuals of how baseball has helped to establish our (Americans) national spirit and identity. That is the links between our heritage and national institutions and the game of baseball as a cultural and political representative abroad and unifying tradition at home. I will also address ideals and injustices. That is how baseball's acceptability has changed over time, and how this acts as a microcosm for America's changing attitudes about equality and opportunity.

The sport of baseball, otherwise known as “America’s favorite pastime”, has reportedly been around since the 17th century. It has had its ups and downs like every other sport, but the crazy history of how it came about is quite extensive. Having to find new players that no one would think of to play and eventually having the first ever World Series; the sport has changed throughout time.

Growing up in my house, sports were around like Sunday church services and family dinners. From the time that I can remember, baseball was the most prevalent of the sports focused on by my family. Games were always on the TV. My father, a Dodger's fan, would always catch the L.A. games when they were on. When my dad told me bedtime stories, I heard about Duke Snyder and Willie Mays, Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium instead of fairy tales. He taught me how to throw, catch, and bat, but he also imparted to me the history of the game. All through my youth I was a never- ending fountain of questions about baseball, and Dad always seemed to have the answers.