Title: Baseball America
1American Sports The Early Years
1600s-1880s Colonial America and early United
States culture was mixed in its view of sports.
2Puritans in northern colonies frowned upon
sports. Games and sports were part of
excessive worldly joys. Human nature was
untrustworthy and too much leisure was dangerous.
Idle hands are the devils workshop.
3English heritage of games endured with some. A
Leisure ethic vs. Work ethic endured in many
colonies.
4Eventually in the South a more Aristocratic form
of life emerged with slaves and servants doing
the work and the (Gentry) ruling class doing the
playing , with high wagers to show off their
wealth. Horse racing, cockfighting, boating,
wrestling, fencing and hunting were popular
amusements.
5The Puritan view was not the only view in the
North and as a gentry class emerged in big cities
like Boston and Philadelphia, so did games.
(Urbanization) Rural areas had forms of simple
ball or folk games.
6Games were outlawed during the revolution as a
waste of precious time.
7John Cox Stevens started to develop
commercialization of sports. In 1835 he offered
1000 to the first man to run ten miles in under
an hour 30,000 showed up to watch this display of
Pedestrianism. Average income200 a year. Many
athletes sought the money. Crowds started to
watch, eventually 50,000 people watched athletes
compete for 4000. Also, founded the New York
Yacht Club in 1844. Americas cup race 1851
Stevens boat beat British contenders.
8 QOD 11/28 Is baseballAmericas game?
9Who invented Baseball?
- British folk games of Rounders, Cricket,
Stoolball, Tip-cat, Trap-ball, and Cat and Dog
10The Abner Doubleday myth
- Veteran of Civil War, Mexican
- War and the Indian wars
- The myth was created by Al Spalding, to end the
years of controversy on the creation of the
sport. - Claimed Doubleday invented the game in rural
Cooperstown, NY -
11The Truth?
- The game probably was developed with influence
from the English folk games. - Alexander Cartwright gets the credit for being
the first person to formally introduce the game
of baseball
12Knickerbocker Nine
- Club of elitist that wanted to practice playing
the game called the national pastime. 1845 Beat
in their first competition to the New York Nine
(23-1)
13Knickerbocker Rules
- Used as a guide for baseball in the New York
area. - Become the basis for the rules of the modern
game. - Revised in 1857 by the National Association of
Base Ball Players (NABBP) - By 1862 The NABBP was offering games in enclosed
stadiums for an admission price - Knickerbocker Baseball Rules
14The Civil Wars influence
- The movements of soldiers and exchanges of
prisoners helped spread the game. - 1865 Teams emerged as far west as Kansas and as
far south as Tennessee - 1869 the first openly professional team forms
The Cincinnati Red Stockings - http//www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/2150
9.html
15African Americans in Baseball
- Few AAs played baseball in the early years.
- The first major league AA baseball player is
Moses Fleetwood Walker who played for the Toledo
Blue Stockings which joined the Major league
American Association in 1884
16African Americans in Baseball Cont.
- Shortly after Walkers debut a Gentlemens
Agreement/ Color Line was made that did not
allow blacks in the major leagues until Jackie
Robinson in 1947. - Players such as Cap Anson refused to take the
field if a black player was on it.
17Todays leagues form
- The National Association fields 9 teams in 1871
and grows to 13 in 1875. - Gambling, liquor sales, and other corruption
drives away crowds. - 1875 National League forms with businessmen
owning the teams instead of the players. - 1882 American Association competes with lower
ticket prices. - An agreement is made that makes the major league
owners gain control of player contracts.
18Todays leagues form
- Players revolted and tried to start their own
league (The Players League) in both 1884 and 1890
both failed by going bankrupt. - The American League formed in 1901 and raided
many of the best National League players. - The National League reaction forced the leagues
to select a 3 man panel to run the leagues as
they coexisted peacefully.
19Progress and controversy
- Up to this point is referred to as the dead-ball
era. - Strategy, bunting, base/place hitting, and base
running was the way to generate offense. - The ball was used for a long time maybe even 100
pitches before being replaced. - 1914 the Federal League sued claiming the major
leagues were a monopoly. The supreme court
responded by saying that baseball was exempt from
anti-monopoly legislation.
20The stage is set for what is to come!!!!!!!!!
21Is this Americas game?
22Boxing Is it too violent? Your attention is
requested!
23How did such a violent sport start?
Is it no longer violent enough?
24Some questions to consider Answer the following
boxing questions in your groups
- Why does someone want to watch/do this?
- What can we learn about the society that supports
it?
25The beginnings
- Ancient Olympic games
- Fight to the death!
- Rome- banned the practice
- England-Prize fighting
- Early America outlawed
- Prize fighting
26 Prizefighting- illegal, yet it happened
- Rise of prizefighting was integral part of
American social and economic development -
- Working class activity - working-class
sensibility -
- For the upper and middle classes boxing
symbolized urban depravity
27Blood and Wages Industrialization
- Working class as wage slaves of modern
capitalism -
- Ideal of working-class prizefighters vs ideal of
the model worker -
- Partially as a reaction to the wage system,
workers revitalized blood sports
28Another Round?
- Saloons - the heart of working-class life -
prizefights -
- Working-class culture deprived men of freedom,
self-governance, and thus masculinity -
- Day-labor undermined masculinity by making it
nearly impossible for a man to prove his manhood
by being a good breadwinner
29A Man Among Men
-
- Boxing as a rejection of the cult of
domesticity -
- Maleness and masculinity confirmed not in the
company of women but in the company of other men -
- Boxing as a means of bestowing male honor
30Sweet Science?
-
- Boxing shaped violence into art, gave it order
and meaning -
- The pit rendered mayhem rule-bound instead of
anarchic, voluntary rather than random -
- A properly carried out fight was a performance, a
pageant, a ritual, that momentarily imposed
meaning on the savage irrationalities of life -
- The ring offered a form of cultural opposition or
resistance
31John L. Sullivan (1881-1892)
- Irish
- Boston Strong Boy Yankee
- Challenged anyone to fight him for 500
- Symbol of self-determination
- Last bare-knuckle champion/1st gloved champion
32James J. Corbett(1892-1897)
- Gentleman Jim
- Father of Modern Boxing
- Knocked out Sullivan in 21 rounds in 1892
- Boxing instructor in the manly art of
self-defense
33James J Jeffries (1899-1905) Boilermaker
- 6 3 225 (100 Yards in about 10 seconds)
- The Champions of the time would not fight black
challengers but they claimed white supremacy.
When Jeffries retired in 1905 as heavyweight
champ there was a lack of good fighters to fill
the gap.
34Boxing Has it passed its prime?
- The biggest gains in boxing popularity have been
in womens participation! - Lack of bad guy we love to hate or hate to love
- Lack of identification with a barbaric sport
- Other ways to fill the thirst for blood
- Decline of industrial America
- Pay-Per-View
35Football
- Nov. 6, 1869 Rutgers beat Princeton 6-4 in the
first football game. (Rugby style) - 25 men on each side
- Columbia joined the game in 1870
36Walter Camp Father of American Football
- Played at Yale from 1876-1880 and coached them
from 1888-1891 and then Stanford from 1892-1895
(81-5-3 record) - Served on every rule committee in collegiate
football from 1878-1925. - Responsible for changing the game from a rugby
(kicking game) to modern football.
37Camp cont.
- Contributed the following rule changes snap-back
from center, safety, the system of downs, and the
points system (touchdowns vs. kicking , and the
7 man offensive line formation. Modern Football!
38Michigan Football
- 1879 first season
- 1887 taught Notre Dame the game
- Hail to the Victors 1898 after last minute
victory over the University of Chicago - Champions of the West?
39NCAA is Born
- Football was a bloody sport in its beginning and
many people called for it to be outlawed. - TR called together the major colleges to discuss
the matter in 1905 out of this meeting the NCAA
is born