Reflective Essay: The 2016 Saber Baseball Team

The Houston Astros have been making deals to improve their team, and avoid another collapse like the one they had last season. Their bullpen could not finish the year strong after being one of the best in baseball throughout the season. The bullpen, also, collapsed in game four of the ALCS against the eventual champions. The Royals could not hit Lance McCullers, but once he was removed with one out in the seventh inning, Kansas City 's offense got it going.

During the winter semester of 2015, I took leave from Oakland Community College to follow a dream – umpiring baseball. I started umpiring when I was 13, and immediately fell in love. The indescribable feeling that comes from a baseball slicing through the air as it catches the outside corner on a balmy August day is beyond anything imaginable.

This is a story of baseball and how it is a team sport. The book relates with the title by showing how this boy named Sandy Comstock that plays on the Grantville Raiders and has a big game coming up. It was against the Newtown Raptors. He wanted to beat them and become one of the best teams. By the time he knew it he ended up on the Newtown Raptors team and he was going to play is old team. It was kind of like a baseball turnaround.

Last year a whole nation came together to cheer on the Toronto Blue Jays as they made their bid to win the World Series. It was a feat that they had not accomplished in over 20 years. The excitement across Canada was unbelievable! People from all over the country were travelling to Toronto and the opponent’s city to show their support for the Jays. Unfortunately, their efforts were cut short in a series loss to the Kansas City Royals who ended up World Series Champions. Now with the 2016 season around the corner, can the Blue Jays make it back to back playoff berths with the changes that have been made in the front office, pitching rotation and player trades?

Professional sports are a competition between the greatest athletes in the world. And when I go to a game, that’s exactly what I expect to see. Sports are entertainment. There is no room for purity and respecting the limits that athletes had in the past. Modern athletes should utilize all the resources that they have available to them. This includes steroids, which enhance an athlete’s performance. After all, performance is what really matters.

1. Briefly, what are the major developments in the history of the labor-management relationship within Major League Baseball?

When asked to describe a baseball the first word generally voiced is white, and before April 15, 1947 that is exactly what the game of baseball was, white. “There is no law against Negroes playing with white teams, or whites with colored clubs, but neither has invited the other for the obvious reason they prefer to draw their talent from their own ranks” (‘42’). These were the feelings of people living in 1947, that blacks and whites were not meant to play baseball together. Then, why decades earlier, had there been an African American in the league? In 1887, an African American Pitcher, George Stovey, was expected to pitch a game with Chicago, however, the first baseman, Cap Anson, would not play as long as Stovey was on the field. Other

The beginning of baseball has had it twist on who started the game and who made the rules to the game. The sport we know as baseball was original name stickball before it became an organized sport. Baseball was a game that many just played as part of their moderate exercise for recreational purpose or time and they used the game to stay in shape. It was usually a middle class white -collar worker who played the game.

“So, coming into 4th quarter here and we have a huddle called by the Cougars. Here we go setting up we are tied 62 - 62. This could be the make or break moment of each team and who gets to progress into the Championship Playoffs.” Says the announcer.

Baseball is spread across the United States and has become a part of some cities culture. Cultures stretch from the newer teams of the west and the old school teams of the east. There are teams that have been around since baseball started and new teams that were made within the last 20 years. Major League Baseball’s culture differs across the United States depending on where you’re located. There are trends between cultures based on location and how long the team has been around.

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.

There are two styles in baseball fields, the modern ones and the classic ones. At US Cellular Field, they destroyed the best part of the stadium. They changed the classic lollipops. The lollipops are the seven pinwheel-looking decorations popping out of the scoreboard. Ever since I was two and had been going to sox games, the lollipops always entertain me more than the actual baseball.

Ever since the creation of America's favorite pastime, baseball, cheating has been an integral part of the game. Each era of baseball has offered new and improved techniques for cheating the game of baseball. Cheating has become a common occurrence in baseball, from the 1919 Chicago "Black" Sox, who were paid to throw the World Series, to Ty Cobb sharpening the spikes on his shoe to scare off fielders from tagging him out. Other famous cheating acts include Gaylord Perry's illegal spitball, Pete Rose betting on baseball, and

Softball is a sport that I have played for nine years. I started playing when I was nine years old. Over the course of those past ten years, I played at three different leagues. I started off playing at a city league called Montgomery American where I played for four years. Afterwards I started playing school ball at the school I was attending which was Montgomery Catholic Preparatory High School. I played school ball from seventh grade until I graduated. During the summer leading up to college, I played summer ball for this other city league called Montgomery Gray where I played for only two years. Playing on the teams with these three different leagues were completely different from each other. What was mainly different was the coaching.

In United High School, my community’s interconnection is especially highlighted. It is a delight to personally know the majority of my class. My school’s environment is welcoming and supportive so much so that I feel comfortable conversing with anyone in the building. When the morning announcements are read, specific students’ and sporting teams’ recent achievements are shared, and students continue to commend their fellow students’ accolades through the day. Moreover, I have the great privilege to have teachers who are deeply concerned with the success of their students and thus will go out of their way to help them (it was one of these very teachers who informed me of QuestBridge.) Although my school district houses members dispersed across four counties, everyone comes together as a whole. My school is aptly named; our community is truly United.