What I learned this semester

When I first got the topic of writing sports I was excited to write about a topic I was so passionate about. I am so passionate about sports that no other form of entertainment comes close to what I want to do with my time. Most people have a favorite artist or musician I do not due to the fact that all my focus is on sports. I used to blog for the state paper in high school so I was interested to see how much my writing had improved. I also was interested to see if writing could be academic if it was about sports and not about a topic that is more educational.

I liked the idea of being paired in groups of similar interests. My group was just as passionate as I was about sports however they could be critical. I feel if the groups were mixed the group would be too critical and would take away from the writing.

I think I showed the most improvement by the time the presentation came around. I truly knew what it was like to write out a script and then edit and edit some more. I felt the video came out well and it satisfied the length. I also felt the script covered the topic very well and there were not useless details or fluff thrown in.  

I felt I improved editing wise more than writing wise. I felt I was a good writer but now I need to improve my editing techniques. I noticed I needed to use more commas and everything can always be improved with proper editing. Writing is never finished and a fresh set of eyes will always help.

I feel like I improved and the process was sped up by being passionate about what I wrote about. As an undergrad student I felt I had to do research about something I was not passionate for. It would take longer to see positive results because I was not really into the material. This semester I was very much into the material and it helped me gain a critical eye of not only myself but the media in general.

With Social Media and the Internet the life of a college athlete will never be the same as 20 years ago

Imagine this situation when you were in college. After 18 years of hard work you were rewarded with a scholarship to continue to play the sport you love. You know you have a lot of hard work to go before you become a professional athlete so you will need to work on your game in college.

All of your friends who you graduate high school with will go onto college as well. College is supposed to be the best four years of your life, it is time to grow and a time to become more confident in yourself. College teaches you to balance your time better than any way possible. On top of classes you will have practice and games. This will make it even harder to balance your time but don’t you deserve to have a fun just like everyone else?

Now imagine you become so successful as a freshman that you win the highest individual honor in collegiate sports. With this Heisman trophy, you will be a part of fraternity for the rest of your life and will always be introduced as a Heisman trophy winner. In a span of one announcement you will go from normal college athlete to college celebrity. You think that the honor will be great and you can handle the new found fame, but now there is paparazzi following you on dates, at basketball games, and each and every move that you make. This is a social media generation so no matter what you do if someone gets a picture or video of it will be on the internet to scrutinize in a matter of seconds. You will need to reassess your life and how you interact with people in the real world all because of the internet and the media. All of this reassessing your life is even before you can make a dime playing the game you love because if you get a dime you will be deemed ineligible by the NCAA.

After all these rules to follow in order to keep yourself eligible it is impossible to have a true college experience and to be a regular student. Obviously non student athletes need to follow rules but they do not face the consequences that a college athlete faces and college celebrities face. However these athletes should know they will be held up to certain standards once they sign their letter of intent to play a college sport. College is not the same as it was 20 years ago. Some may not like the fact that is true and wish they could get the same college experience as their non athlete friends but sometimes in life if you are blessed with one ability you need to sacrifice in some other aspect of life.

With an Arod ban looming should Pete Rose still be banned?

With a suspension looming for Alex Rodriguez and a possible lifetime ban, it has brought up the attention on the career of one of the all-time greats Pete Rose. Rose received a lifetime ban for betting on baseball which he didn’t admit until years after receiving the ban. Rose wasn’t betting against his own team and was not point shaving which would make the situation much worse. He was betting on his own team; he was not purposely losing to win money like the 1919 White Sox did. Rose the all-time hits leader is still recognized as the hits leader,but he is excluded from baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Rose has come out and said that Arod should fess up to what he has done to avoid the lifetime ban. Arod has cheated the game by using performance enhancing drugs and he faces some steep consequences for it. Arod who could have been considered one of the best players of all time ruined his reputation by being involved with PEDS. This Arod suspension really puts into perspective of how Rose really did not do anything to deserve a lifetime ban. He was not point shaving like the 1919 White Sox and Shoeless Joe Jackson. He was not cheating the game by using drugs. All he was do was believe in his team so much that he would bet on them. The ban should be lifted, but the commissioner Bud Selig is so old-school that we won’t see it lifted while he is in office.   Selig needs any news to draw attention away from the Biogenesis scandal and I believe a lifting on the Rose ban would be right for the sport. There is no one being inducted into the Hall of Fame because of the black cloud that hangs over the game so this is ample opportunity to induct the all-time hits leader into a place that he should be in the first place.

Instant Replay in Baseball Proposal

Major League Baseball Instant Replay Speech

Major League Baseball has been around since 1869 and by a wide margin is the longest tenured of the four major professional sports. Despite the many years that the MLB has been around there hasn’t been as many changes to the game to the game we love today. I believe this shows how the game can be passed down from generation to generation. I believe it is great that the MLB has not made many changes to the game since its inception, but I think a change has to be made to catch up with the times. Just the other day the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays were involved in a controversial call at the plate. The call was wrong and the Tampa Bay Rays would get the victory. After seeing the replay the umpire Jerry Meals owned up to getting the call wrong. This is great and all but that does not change the game and the pennant race.

I have mentioned the 4 major sports however Major League Baseball is missing something to keep up with the times and that is instant replay. There is replay on home run calls and certain fair and foul calls that are up to the umps discretion but that is not enough. With the availability of replay it is imperative that Major League Baseball accepts a policy similar to the NFL before another instance like July 29 does not happen again.

Many skeptics think that replay will slow the MLB game down. Baseball is the only major sport where you can never predict how long the game will go because there is no clock. I however think the risk of adding a challenge like replay system is necessary. In the NFL a coach is allowed two challenges. If a coach is wrong on his challenge then he loses a timeout and no matter what he will only be allowed another challenge the rest of the game. If he is right then the call is right and if he is right a second time he gets a bonus challenge for nothing. Obviously baseball has no timeouts so there would need to be slight modifications. My suggestion would be since baseball is played in a series of 3 or 4 games against the same team is that if a manager is wrong on a call he loses that challenge for the rest of the series. This would make the manager think twice before throwing a flag and would try to keep the game from being slowed down. Another thing the challenge system would do is probably limit the amount of ejections. A manager will argue and argue but there is nothing that he can do to get the call changed. If there is a possibility of looking at a replay on a bang bang play then maybe the entire course of a game will change for the better. If we had replay Armando Gallarga would get the perfect game he deserves. Umpires are human so they are bound to make mistakes and with everyone looking with slow motion on tv I bet they would want the possibility of getting a second look at a close call.  With the technology being available why not try to implement it. All the MLB has been involved in this summer is the Biogenesis scandal. If the MLB would try to implement something that will improve the game it will take a little away from the black cloud that continues to hang over the game.

To me the positives outweigh the negatives. If an MLB game is an extra 5 minutes it would be worth getting the call right. What is the difference between a 3 hour game and a 3 hour 5 minute game? I want a game where everything is fair and equal and I believe that allowing instant replay would be a step towards that.

Bringing America’s Past time to the Future Revised

274 Evergreen Ave Hamden,CT 06518

Major League Baseball

245 Park Ave New York,NY 10167

Dear Commissioner Selig ,

Major League Baseball is one of the highest grossing leagues in the world for a reason. We continue to see many bright stars like Mike Trout and Yasiel Puig shaping this great game for many years to come. Baseball will continue to be passed down from generation to generation however some changes need to be made to keep up with this generation. 

With this generation comes much new advancement in technology and it has allowed for more coverage of this great game across the world. I applaud the work you have done to try to keep up with the availability of new technology by adding instant replay on questionable home run and fair and foul calls. The use of replay allows major league umpires to get the call right and I believe that umpires will agree that they are human and they just want to make the call right. I bet if Jim Joyce could go back in time he would hope to make the right call in Armando Galarraga’s perfect game. Obviously calls can not be changed after the game is over and umpiring errors are a part of the game but what if we could put a limit to these errors?

I know there has been added replay to limit some of the errors but home runs and fair and foul calls aren’t the only calls that can change a game.  Many people against instant replay are old school people who think that replay will slow the game down. Baseball is the only game out there without a clock so you never know how long a game will go. Taking a few extra minutes one or two times a game will make up for that one bad call and I  feel that one call can change the entire course of a game.

The National Football League does it right. They have instant replay down to a science and I think there can be a slightly modified replay for Major League Baseball. I think that a coach should be allowed two challenges. Over the course of a game if there is a questionable call he can throw the flag to look at the replay. If the manager is wrong and since he cannot lose a timeout I think you can take away the challenge flag for the rest of the series. Since baseball is usually a three game series at a time you can have some sort of penalty for slowing the game down. I feel with the extra replay we will be able to overturn some bad calls and by limiting them to two per game we wont necessarily slow the game down. I also feel that it will allow managers to gain more respect for the umpires. If they are able to win their case it shows that the umpires can make human error and if the manager is wrong it means the umpire has a closer eye on the action. What is the shame of a game taking a few more minutes if the end result is getting more calls right?

I thank you for your time and hope you look into this issue.

Thanks CougarBobcat23

The Life of Johnny Football

Ever since Johnny Manziel won the Heisman trophy last year the spotlight has been on him. Manziel became the first ever freshman to win the Heisman trophy and with winning the most prestigious award in all of college sports Manziel has become a celebrity and I believe that not even Johnny Manziel wants this type of attention.

It all started when Manziel got a speeding ticket his second semester of college, then Manziel was spotted at a Miami Heat game. Each and every week ESPN would have a Manziel story even though the college football season had ended. The spotlight has been intense and most recently he has come under wraps because he overslept a Manning camp session that he was supposed to be a counselor for. Now the media is trying to pin this on Manziel being hungover and being too much of a partier.

Manziel is 20 years old and each and every tweet and move he makes will be scrutinized. This is not how a college athlete should have to live. I know he doesnt want this attention and just wants to go back to what he was before he won the Heisman. For those who are scrutinizing Manziel are they looking at how they spent their life in college? Kids will be kids and college is a major growing period and they should be able to grow up through college and not be judged.

For the teams that might pass on Manziel in the draft because of off the field issues shame on them. If I am a coach I believe this is shaping Manziel. By him facing the scrutiny before he is even paid a cent to play football just imagine what he can do when he actually becomes a pro.  Everyone will face scrutiny and obstacles in their life it is how they overcome them that make them who they are.

Baseball Instant Replay Elevator Speech

Major League Baseball is the longest and probably one of the most successful sports leagues in not just American professional sports but professional sports in general. Baseball has been passed down from generation to generation and one of the great things is that not many rules have changed between the times of Babe Ruth and times of Derek Jeter.

Pro football has had to change their tackling rules and basketball has had to change rules on flopping while the wonderful game of baseball hasn’t made any outrageous changes. I suggest one small change to make the game more successful and to take advantage of the technology of this century. Every baseball game there is two to three close calls that could change the course of a game. I move for a challenge system like in football where if a coach doesn’t agree with a call he can throw the flag. If the coach is right the call is right and if he is wrong he should lose his challenge rights for the rest of the series. This way people who don’t want this great game being slowed down will not see it slowed down. The challenge system has worked in football and the end goal is to get the call right. Having only one to two flags allows the focus to be on the game and not each and every call. I feel with the availability of technology it would not hurt the game it would only improve the game because we can make sure that every close call goes right.

Bringing America’s Past time to the Future

274 Evergreen Ave Hamden,CT 06518

Major League Baseball

245 Park Ave New York,NY 10167

Dear Commissioner Selig ,

Major League Baseball is one of the highest grossing leagues in the world for a reason. We continue to see many bright stars like Mike Trout and Yasiel Puig shaping this great game for many years to come. Baseball will continue to be passed down from generation to generation however some changes need to be made to keep up with this generation.

With this generation comes much new advancement in technology and it has allowed for more coverage of this great game across the world. I applaud the work you have done to try to keep up with the availability of new technology by adding instant replay on questionable home run and fair and foul calls. The use of replay allows major league umpires to get the call right and I believe that umpires will agree that they are human and they just want to make the call right.

However home runs and fair and foul calls aren’t the only calls that can change a game and expanded replay needs to be looked into. Many people against instant replay are old school people who think that replay will slow the game down. I however feel that one call can change the entire course of a game. The National Football League does it right. They have instant replay down to a science and I think there can be a slightly modified replay for Major League Baseball. I think that a coach should be allowed two challenges. Over the course of a game if there is a questionable call he can throw the flag to look at the replay. If the manager is wrong and since he cannot lose a timeout I think you can take away the challenge flag for the rest of the series. Since baseball is usually a three game series at a time you can have some sort of penalty for slowing the game down. I feel with the extra replay we will be able to overturn some bad calls and by limiting them to two per game we wont necessarily slow the game down. I also feel that it will allow managers to gain more respect for the umpires. If they are able to win their case it shows that the umpires can make human error and if the manager is wrong it means the umpire has a closer eye on the action. What is the shame of a game taking a few more minutes if the end result is getting more calls right.

I thank you for your time and hope you look into this issue.

Thanks CougarBobcat23

Midterm Update

When I first started this class we were in the middle of the playoffs in two major professional sports. I knew that along with offseason stories and the playoffs I would have a lot to write about. However now with the NBA draft over  and three of the major four sports being in the offseason the only sport that seem to be playing right now is baseball. Baseball is a long great season and is America’s past time but I feel this is the deadest time for sports media. With football basketball and hockey in the rearview mirror and not playing organized games for at least a month I find it hard to write a story without forcing it.

How does a story differ from the very similar 162 game baseball season? How do you keep fans interested in sports as much as the writers are when school is out and people would rather go to the beach? That is what I believe is interesting about sports writing. People may not like sports as their major form of entertainment however it is and will remain the only thing in life that is unscripted. Reality television may seem real but it is all a set up. No one can control sports no matter how many conspiracy theorists are out there.

I have enjoyed the experience so far because of what I have learned. I have learned it is ok to write in your own style and to write about something fun like sports. You should write well but you do not have to write about history or something different you can write about what you just saw and give your audience a vision through your own mind.