Canis Minor

Do you know what's so important about 1839? It was the year that America’s pastime was created. That's right we're talking about baseball! “Little is known about the origin of baseball, the subject of considerable debate and controversy for more than 100 years” (“B-R Bullpen” 1). With all of this debate surrounding baseball’s creation, the sport has changed over the time. Baseball’s history is a bit scattered. We don’t technically who the original creator was but one rumor that was floating…

My favorite baseball player is Rod Carew and I decided to read the book he wrote about himself as a kid and as a ballplayer. In the beginning of the book Rod talks about his life growing up in Panama and how he did not have a lot of money. In the middle of the novel Rod talks about his career for the Minnesota Twins and what it was like to become a professional ballplayer. Towards the end of the book Rod talks about the end of his tenure with the Twins and him joining his new team the California…

Joe Diffie was born in December 28, 1958. He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His first performance came when he was age four, and he performed in his aunts country music band, he played in a rock band during high school, and later moved on to gospel quartet. After graduating he attended Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma. During college he joined a bluegrass band called, Special Edition. In 1982, Joe got married to Janise Parker, his college sweetheart. As a married couple they welcomed two…

The Rookie The first movie that I will go over is called “The Rookie.” This movie is about a young boy named Jim Morris, who loves baseball. In the movie, we learn that Jim spends quite a bit of time practicing alone just throwing a baseball at a fence. This repetitive practicing displays intrinsic motivation, which is defined as “motivation that comes from within the individual.” This motivation from within can also be called “love for the game.” Jim played in little leagues when he was…

Williams, the best hitter in the history of baseball, was wildly popular at the time. Williams had won two of the last four Most Valuable Player awards in the MLB and was fresh of his 1949 MVP campaign (Montville p. 148). He also was placed in high regards after serving as a pilot in the Marines during World War II. However, once Williams returned from World War II, he was placed on inactive reserves. Williams and the public had largely forgotten about his status as an inactive reserve until…

Executive Summary Steward Roddey, the general manager of Oakland A’s baseball team is faced with the decision of whether or not to give a hike to Mark Nobel, the second best pitcher in the American League. Nobel’s agent was commanding a contract fee in the region of $600,000 per year owing to his performance statistics from the 1980 season. One major argument presented by Nobel and his agent is that Nobel has the ability to attract crowds and thereby increase attendance to the games and drive…

The setting of this novel, CURVEBALL: The Year I Lost My Grip, by Jordan Sonnenblick, is set in Peter's hometown. It takes place the summer before Pete's freshman year. Pete was playing baseball all summer and 1 game changed his life. After this game he had just played his life was very depressing. Everything was just going down hill. He had his first day of school and realized life isn’t that bad. Things started to get better for Pete’s life. Peter Friedman was just an average teenage…

Giannetti defines ideology as, “a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture” (448). A film’s purpose is often reflected through the ideology it possesses and in this case, the ideology expresses the treatment of minorities in baseball culture. A League of their Own, The Perfect Game, and 42 all contain an explicit sense of ideology with a thematic orientation towards teaching people about treatment of minorities in baseball culture. A…

The Professor and the Madman, is a tale of tragedy, insanity, and academia. The book tells the story of two men, Dr. James Murray and Dr. William C. Minor. These men were very similar in nature, but led very different lives due to circumstances of environment and mental health. Dr. Murray was a lifelong academic, always pursuing education. Dr. Minor was a surgeon for the Union Army in the United States Civil War, who grew increasingly madder until he murdered a man in the streets of London,…

The person that I interviewed had a job title by the name of Rawlings director of pro baseball services. That job is working directly with players and executives of teams directly in Major League Baseball. As a part of the job, during the season you are required to be at as many games as possible and in the offseason, there is never a day that goes by where you will not be in contact with multiple players or executives of teams. Another aspect of the job is to recruit baseball players to sign…