In my American Sport in the 21st Century class on April 7, 2015 we discussed the topic of Race and enthnicity. Sport is considered to be a meritocratic institution. Racel minioities in the US continue to face systematic discrimmination in society and in sport. Sport is NOT an oasis free from racial problems. Sport reflects same racial issues as in society. Ethnicity is a social population that shares a way of life and committed to their norms. These are shared cultures by people. Shared cultures ussually share same characteristics between eachother like language, religion, customs, and thier history. Minority groups are the members who share these common group characteristics and suffer from discrimmination. In society in history to today, there are still power imbalences. Unemployment for whites is 5% and for African AMericans is up to 15%. Power imbalences are seen still in categories like family income, home ownership, High School graduation rates, medical insurance, and arrests.
Definitions
These definitions are important to learn because they are commonly missed used words.
Bigot - person who stubbornly attracted to an opinion or belief
Prejudice - judging without knowledge of the facts about the indivisual
Stereotypes - fixed ideas about a group
Discrimmination - treating somone different than others
Race - a social category constructed by society to describe members with similar genetics
Jackie Robinson
The word race is a commonly misused word in society. in Race logic, the achievements of African American athletes are due to biology or physical ability. Achievements of white athletes are due to ability, character, and intelligence. African Americans have exploded in sports ever since the breaking of the color barrier of baseball star Jackie Robinson. Oppurtunities were becoming greater for African Americans not only in sports but in society when segregation was ended in 1954 and civil rights was passed in 1970. Though African Americans were exploding in sports people still wondered why they were good in participating in only a few sports. African Americans are known for "stacking" sports like basketball or football. People see they densly in sports like hockey, swimming, golf, and tennis. Athletes that have became icons in those sports like TIger in golf and Serena Williams in Tennis have represented African Americans.
Serena Williams winning 2015 Aussie
New York Times, the article: As Serena Williams Ascends, Grand Slam Buzz Grows, released April 4, 2015 by Christopher Clarey, dicussess the womans final between Serena Williams and Carla Suarez. Before the two met Serena dominated the first match between the two sweeping Carla. NOw in the final the score was 6-2, 6-0 this time and showing how dominate Serena Williams is. Williams has achieved a great deal in her 33 years, dominating the sport of tennis as an African American woman and has her eyes set on completing her first calender year Grand Slam. Serena Williams Dominates
Though African Americans face these race logics on why they are good at the certain sports they play they continue to try to expand. African Americans have broken color barriers for themselves. They have been tested to see if their genetics are different causing them to be better athletes. The consequences of race logic is the continued racial exclusion in sociol sports. The desegregation of revenue producing sports. Skewed distributionof African Americans in US colleges and Universities.
In my American Sports in 21st century class on March 24, 2015we discussed the topic about sport and media. Sports and Media idustries are interconnected to each other. The two businesses are the most succesful businesses in the US. The reason why sport has its popularity is only because of the coverage that media provides. The media industry generates its enormous sales in advertising based on the extensive treatment of sport. There are four roles important to the media. These roles are helped by a great deal in the improvement in technology in our history. Technology that allowed media to be around for so long and to have contunued success is newspapers, TV, the internet, and the radio. In increasing role of media, athletes embrace connecting with fans through social media. Athletes create social identities that could promote future business which is the proccess called social media marketing.
Roles of Media
Inform
Entertain the public
Educate
Advertise
MLB Wrapping up $300M wireless buildout
Sports Business Journel, the article: MLB Wrapping up $300M wireless buildout, released April 13, 2015 by Eric Fisher, dicussed how after nearly three years of development and work with wireless buildout, Major League Baseball this season is introducing improved technology. The league introduced improved wireless connectivity to fans. This is representing a critical component in the leagues ongoing mobile and youth engement aspiratins. This proves that media is important for organizations to have because with media, fans would not be able to see or come to games and connect with eachother or the team. MLB wireless
Electronic/Visual media - (new media) radio, television, film, video games, internet, cell phones
Sports depend on media. Professional sports is certainly a media commodity drieven market force. Sport is heavily reliant on TV showings for more revenue. TV allows for fans across the world to watch their favorite team or player from anywhere. Changes of Sport happened because of media. Halftime periods were extended, schedule times were created, and TV timeouts were created.
Sportscenter is a TV program and the news of the sports world
Pittsburgh Post-Gizzette, the article: How television took control of sports, by Robert Dvorchak, discuesses the impact of television on sports in the last couple decades. TV helps those who are not in town to watch the games. Leagues like the NFL have used TV for flex scheduling and having fans to see their games and make revenue still. This creates the NFL to be the third most watched program during the NFL season in the fall. TV has impacted sports greatly through history and TV can capture all sports and sports events. TV impact in Sports
In my American Sport 21st Century class on April 2, 2015 we disscussed the topic of the deviance of sport. Deviance is an act that differs from the norms or somone who breaks the rules/laws. Examples of deviant acts in society can be drugs, violent crimes and stealing. Violence in sports parrellels the reality of violence in society. Violent or deviant behavior in society are reported first on the news everyday because society is intrested in the deviant acts of people. The deviance in sports reflects to the deviance in society. Fans are excited seeing big crazy hits in sports like football. Those hits can create the most injuries but, society loves the danger of the fighting or hitting in sports.
Examples of deviance in sport
Fighting
Bounty Hunting
Academic Cheating
Performing Enchacing drugs
Gambling
illegal recruiting
Deviance among Athletes on the field
Deviance on the field can be cheatig, dirty play, or just violence in the sport. Athletes are not the only ones creating deviant behavior in sports. Coaches, Parents, and administrators encourge athletes to play their hardest and take out the opposition. Over 80% of men and woman in sport have serious injuries. 70% are disabled more than two weeks. In the NFL, the rate of disabling injuries is over 3 times greater then the working in high risk contruction jobs. 31 former NFL players sued the NFL because of brain injuries. The crazy hits in football do not just occur in the NFl but, in all levels of football these jurrastic hits have cause a plentiful amount of head and other body injuries.
Deviance off the field
Athletes do not have higher delinquency rates than those who do not play sports. The data found on acedemic cheating is inconclusive because of how much of it there is. Athletes are calculated to have higher rates of alcohol use and binge drinking than those who do not play sports. Drugs used in society has moved into sport and athletes who use drugs are cheating or breaking rules. performing enhancing drugs are the most used drugs in sport to improve the athletes performance on the field.
Olympic Medalist, Lance Armstrong admitting to taking drugs to gain edge in cycling
In my American Sport in 21st Century class on March 19, 2015 we dicusscussed the topic of Sport and economy. Money is the foundation of all sports at all levels. This leads to a large emergance in commercial sports. The concept of supply and demand is important to making a profit for organizations and having fans pay anthying to see their favorite teams or players. These fans useually have time, money, and media connections to get to these games or buy any of the teams merchandice. To make money, owners or organizations use the revue strem, which is the building block representing cash a company generates from each customer sergent.
Definitions related to the Revenue Stream
Gate revenue - primary ticket evenue for live events (variable/dynamic)
Media Rights - fees spent by broadcast companies to show sporting events
Sponsorship - fee paid to have a brand associated with a team, league, faci,ity, or event
Merchandising - sale of licensed products with team and league logos
Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally
Economically in sport
In sports athletes are able to make money in different way which can be by contracts, sponserships, endorsements, and appearance fees. Restrictive labor practices kept salaries down until the last two decades of the 20th century. For most of 1900s sports had the reserve system. Each club had the right to negotiate with players whose services were reserved for that club and the salaries were determined by owners keeping salaries low for athletes. Salaries for players did not increase until free agency was introduced in 1976 by Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally. Free agency did not start for basketball until 1976 and football in 1993. This is when salary took off for athletes because now they can negotitate how much money they can have. To counter this leagues have put Salary cap restrictions so there is a max and minimum salary. Caps maintain balance and limit teams can spend. MLB is the only league to not have a Salary Cap limit.
MLB first basemen Pablo Scandoval Signing a 100 million dollar contract with Boston Red Sox
SFGate Journal, the article: Pablo Scandoval reaches agreement with Red Sox, by Henry Schulmann, dicusses how Former Giants MLB 1st basemen Pablo Scandoval signed a contract with Boston Red Sox. Pablo Scandoval agreed to a five - year contract worth 100 million dollars. It was reported that Pablo's heart was set in San Francisco but, this was false. The Giants offered him first a 40 million dollar deal. Scandoval was insulted by the offer and accpeted the better deal and bigger challenge in Boston. Scandoval Contract
Former Lions Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh signs 6 years 114 million dollar contract with Miami Dolphins
The Sports Business Journal, the article: Free Agencies Signings see rise in Guarenteed dollars, relaesed April 13, 2015 by Liz Mullen, dicusses how fewer players signed the first two weeks in NFL free aganecy this year compared with 2014. The difference is that the players in 2015 accounted for more guaranteed dollars than players in 2014 in the same period of time. NFL Free Agency
In my American Sport in the 21st century class on February 19, 2014 we dicussed the topic of collegiate sport. Collegiate sport consist of high level of competion. Competion in college sports are seperated into D1, D2, and D3 with D1 being the highest level of competition. D1 makes makes revenue off media coverage, sponsers and etc... D2 and D3 make revenue off of tutuion. In Big D1 sports the sports that make the most revnue is basketball and football. These teams travel extensively throughout the country and being broadcasted on major channels. These sports provide training athletes to make it to the next level which would be the proffessional leagues. College sports are employed to improve the dicipline, health, and appetite while keeping them away from diffrent illicit activities when not in the classroom. Sport is also used to build bonds of respect and admiration between masters and pupils. The athletes learn the determination to win with respect for rules and established authority.
Abuses in College sport
Illegal recruiting
Clustering - athletes would major in easy majors to pass the classes
Pressure to win
Pressure to make money for the program
Spending money on big time college sport
Has no effect on academic quality of incoming students
Does not increase alumni donations
Does not improve win/lose records
Increases wealth gaps between athletic departments
Spend money to keep up with other athletic departments
NCAA Football Championship Game
In NPR article; released January 13, 2014, The first ever college football championship game turned in record ratings, attratcing about 33.4 viewers. The game was the highest ratings in the history of bith ESPN and on cable TV. NPR's Nathan Rott reprted the game had a 21 percent increase over the ratings from last years BCS National Championship game between Florida State and Auburn, which was a far closer game than this one between Ohio State and Oregon. The sport giant can look on the bright side as it noted that ESPN has now televised the top 20 programs in cable history.
Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati All-American Star, during the NCAA regional elimination game in Manhattan in March 1959.
In NPR article, March Madness: Keeping Society Sane since 1908 by Emma Bowman, released March 15, 2014, discusses how 68 teams were picked on Sunday to fill the March Madness bracket that has been a tradtion for a long time. the March Madness phenomenom has changed its fomat over the years but this does not stop fans from using worn out hashtags on sociol media and gambling thier money on the brackets. March Madness started in 1908 where teams like Kentucky ettracted fans before social media like twitter came along. The tournaments popularity grew and caught the attenstion the ISHA secratary and former high school coach , Henry V. Porter, who coined the term "March Madness" in 1939. Before apps fans would have to call in to get score results. Today their are many ways to follow the March Madness. Social Media has taken care of fear of fans missing out on the action of the games as they can view or see information everywhere. NCAA has started to revamp the March Madness app adding ways to watch the games or recive storylines and updates at anytime during the day. To view this article you can find it at this link: NPR March Madness
In my American Sport in the 21st Century class on February 12, 2014 we dicussed the topic youth sports. Youth sport started in the 20th century where America gained the intrest of haveing their young children fit and healthy for the events that were occuring at that time in the world. Youth sports are seen to be beneficial for the children. As a child who has played youth sports I have expoereienced what youth sports have to offer. As a child you to be greatful in the oppurtunitues you have in youth sport. You can grow in youth sport and make tramendous strides in your athletic ability and to your social values as well. As a class we disscussed the benefits of youth sports:
Develops fit and healthy children
Prepares for adulthood
Learn social values
Enhances interactive skills
Provides oppurtunities for leadership
To have fun in life
These benefits in youth sport are prime examples for why children should participate in youth sports while growing up. I agree with the factors above because i have expierienced these factors during my time participating in youth sports my entire life.
Major Problems In Youth Sport:
Overemphasizing of winning to children
Too much pressure set by others on the children
Instilling unrealistic goals
Overuse injuries, training, and burnout of childen
1.35 million youths a year have serious injuries
Fiday Night Tykes of a team huddling
The Post Game article: Friday Night Tykes Series Tackles Heart Of Youth Sport Parents, released January 20, 2015 by Jeffery Eisenband, discusses the TV series of Friday Night Tykes, which is a TV show of Texas youth football. Everything in this series is not a documentary it is real and the things you see in the series now is whats been happening before the series started. The series follows youth football 10 and 11 year olds in the San Antonio area. Two seasons of the series you can find that Texas youth football is not about just the x's and o's but, it shows these children have the potentiol to be our future stars in the football world. Texas youth football provides these athletes the best competition around at a young age. The show can show the intense coaching and relationships they have with their players. Some indivisuals enjoy seeing the inside of youth sports but some are turned off by some coaching and player relationships and how hard coaches pushes children at a young age. Maranz discusses the importance of youth sports. He states that youth sports in general is a gigantic activity and outside of school it is the largest extracurricular activity children can do. Parents influence youth sport as well puttuing pressure on their children. The balance between the bad and good influence of parents in youth sport can be evident. The series of Friday Night Tykes is giving this idea of a personal presence. The examples that it showed was the positive sportsmanship and athletic spirit that parents want for their children. To go to this link to see the article click on this link: Friday Night Tykes
In my American Sport in the 21st Century class on January 29, 2014 we discussed the topic of sport and social values. We asked our selfs as a class can sports mirror society? Whatever inpacts society impacts sports. sports can tell us what we value as a culture. it is a guide to our behavior. Values means something that we our compassoniate about and we internationalize these values through sociolization. in Society we learn from or family, peer group, teachers, and coaches. Sports help us develop clear values in how the society wants you to act. American society wants people to know how to respect others and know from whats roght and from whats wrong. Sports helps with those concepts. in sports athletes have are taught to obey coaches and show respect to officials and or coaches. if the athlete does not do that they are looked at in a negative way. Then in American society we are looked to never cheat, lie, or break any kinds of rules because this is saw as unfairness. This connects to sport because any athlete that is caught cheating and breaking rules suffers huge concequnces and is loooked down by peers.
American Societal Values:
Achievement and success
Materialism
Nationalism
Freedom
Equality Indivisualism
Conformity
The NPR article: Americas Love Affiar with Nationalism, by Linton Weeks, dicusses the patriotism of America that Americans show. Americans have made it easy to see how much they love thier country in sports. For tradition, Americans sing 'God Bless America' in every baseball game in the seventh inning. Look at the American flag pins on the labels and collars on every politician. Lloyd Kramer, author of the book Nationalism in Europe and America, states that nationalism carries with it good and bad characteristics. Kramer says that people feel committed to larger communities or intrest or ideas of human rights in society and the political progress. Natonalism can contribute to a sense of hope to a country and buildes positive personal and collective identities and a selfhood in the modern world. To view more of this article click on the link to view: Nationalism
How does sport contribute to norms, values, and behavior? Sport can contribute to these social aspects because of what people could learn growing up and participating in sports. Coaches or those who make a living in sport can contribute in the chararter building of an athlete. Through sport an athlete can can learn greater work ethic, leadership, sportsmanship, confidence, and respect. These aspects you can use in the real world society.
Darwinsim - survival of the fittest, lif is a struggle and only the strongest survive.
Sport prepares for competitive nature
Sport used as a mean to promote the love of the country
Sport used to promote health and fitness
Reinforces national conflicts such as judging other cultures and the worth of other cultures.
