The Commodification Of Baseball Players

For the better part of the 20th century, African American baseball players played under unequal opportunity. On one side of the field, European descendants were given a license to play this children's game for money and national fame. While on the other side of the field, African slave descendants were also given a license to play - as long as they didn't encroach upon the leagues of the Caucasians. What was left over for African American player in terms of riches was meager at best. Though the fortune wasn't there, the love and fame within the African American communities made the players of the Negro Baseball League legends.

Moneyball, the story of a dynamic change agent who rallied a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives to overturn convention and rethink how Major League Baseball (“MLB”) was managed and played. Its really a book about hustlers. Moneyball consecrated the notion that its noble to win inexpensively, but believe its good to stay a cheap baseball club, because of their fat annual revenue-sharing check they get at the end of the year. Michael Lewis wrote an un-organizational confusion, his misunderstanding of baseball, to his constant interruption of financial and statistical talk, that turned interest in the book away from many.

Anyone who has been involved in an organized sport, whether it is backyard football or a high school sports team, knows that these sports all have organizations that are responsible for setting rules, determining conditions of play, and penalizing individuals who infringe the rules. Some of the organizations like the National Football league and the MLB are familiar to most people, the rules they follow are not generally understood by anyone who is not closely associated with the sport. Most fans and sport critics assume that what is happening inside these organizations are of little concern to them. However, this is not the case. In the MLB, the New York Yankees spend an excessive amount of money every year to obtain big name players. A

"Baseball as America." Academic Search Premier. Spec. issue of USA Today Magazine 1 Apr. 2002: n. pag. EBSCO. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. The Baseball Hall of Fame is an iconic American landmark, which houses thousands of artifacts from baseball's crude beginnings to its current day glory. This piece is simple, yet it demonstrates what an important aspect of American culture baseball has become. The artifacts demonstrate how far baseball has come, among its highlights are Jackie Robinson's uniform, articles from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and even "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's cleats. Pictures accompany the article which adds the needed bit of glamour to illustrate how greatly baseball has influenced American

Bernard Malamud was brought up in the mid 1900s, a time period when baseball played a huge role in the lives of many Americans. Americans loved baseball because it gave them a chance to stop working and simply relax while they cheered on their favorite team. It was a time when people played baseball solely for the love of the game and the thrill of hearing the fans cheer for them. Today, however, baseball is much more corrupt, and many athletes are only in it due to their own greed and selfishness. This strong desire for money stems from some important players in the past, such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, who were outstanding athletes and grew very overconfident in their abilities. They became so confident that they began to demand

Jayson Stark, ESPN columnist, presents an interesting argument of the downfall of baseball after free agency. He uses sarcasm and slight humor to introduce the reader to the topic of free agency and uses the argument style of comparison and contrast to predict what today might have held had there been no free agency. But within his column, player agent Tom Reich states, “The people who criticize free agency to easily today don’t realize how bad baseball was twenty-five years ago” (Stark). It is Stark who realizes that the talent of the game has improved, but the overall passion in each player may have decreased.

Baseball has been known as America’s great sport since the 1920’s. Many people love to watch the games and create their own fantasy teams because they look up to the wide, diverse players on each team. Every team consists of males of different races and this helps bring culture into the great game. Having such a big diversity in one sport makes it easier for more people to enjoy because there is something in it for every person. However, baseball has not always been like this. From the very beginning of baseball, only white men were playing in the Major Leagues. African Americans were technically allowed to be on the team, but no one wanted them on the Major League teams. This was a time where African American’s were still treated badly and segregation was very big. People would not see an African American on a baseball team until the 1940’s. The first African American to play on a white team had to be the best at the game and needed the strength to withhold any feelings that would lead him to acting out because of the things the whites would do or say to him. This man happened to be the young, courageous Jackie Robinson. The hardships Jackie Robinson endured changed the game of baseball and still influences not just athletes, but people in every aspect of life.

In the racially separated culture of 1919 America, one man stood up to break the color barrier in professional baseball. His name was Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson (Scott). As the first black man drafted to play Major League Baseball he faced frequent personal attacks, game boycotts and even death threats (Scott). But Jackie handled himself with true dignity, never quit and let his talent speak for itself winning several prestigious awards throughout his career (Scott). Jackie lead a race revolution forever changing the game of professional baseball in America and leaving a lasting legacy (History).

At the beginning of the twentieth century and the outset of the professional sports industry the existence of underpaid players at the premier level of athletics was a legitimate problem. It was this problem that played a role in the fixing of the

They could not afford to outbid other teams for established players. Under the farm system, the Cardinals bought minor-league franchises and hired young players. The farm clubs provided the players with experience. The best players then moved up to play with the Cardinals” (Sports Champions, 1). This quote shows how teams with less money can get good baseball players without having

Baseball is known as one of America's favorite pastimes. A fun filled family outing would include a picnic and a trip to see their favorite Major League Baseball team play. The faces of the children would light up when they caught a foul ball. This pastime of "baseball" was one of segregation and a naïve sense of enjoyment, for the "baseball" that they knew was a game of only Caucasian Americans. Little did they know, some of the most talented players were African-American. These black baseball players had to play in a separate league. It was called the Negro League, and this league along would change America's view of "baseball" forever (Sigworth, 2003).

Any sports one looks at can be classified as a money-making pit. Scouts looking at young talent ready to sign them for a quick buck and then once they stop producing, move on to the next potential talent. Baseball is the sport that is an industry dominated by trying to gain a profit from a region’s juvenile talent (Ruck). Since 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, there has been an increase in Latin American countries represented in MLB. More than a quarter of major league players are from Latin American, with about half of the minor league players being Latino (Ruck). On the opening day of the 2011 season, eighty-six players represented the Dominican Republic alone. That is more than a tenth of major leaguers (Ruck). One would

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.

Michael Lewis’s Moneyball is a fascinating story about a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives who had turned themselves into one of the most successful franchises in Major League Baseball. The underlying question to this story is where the real discussion should begin. That question is: how did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games? This question can lead into a series of discussions regarding strategy or luck, but the real answers can be found in the leadership of the organization. This leadership is found in the form of

Major League Baseball is known as America’s favorite pastime, and MLB teams spend an extensive amount of money in the excess of a billion dollars with the ultimate goal to win the World Series. This learning team’s focus throughout this descriptive statistics paper is the MLB players’ performances, salaries, salary caps, and winning percentages. Though salaries will by no means be a trade for wins, the goal is to use the less experienced players and pay them a lower salary. Research has been done on whether or not player’s salaries and wins are connected.