Baseball in America Culture Book

8/13/2019 Baseball in America Culture Book

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Brad Coleman November 2013ELD 376Dr. Messersmith

Table of Contents

Brief Introduction to America & Baseball3

Baseballs Cultural Importance in America..5

The Science Behind Baseball 10

References..15

Glossary.16

Standards17


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Brief Introduction to America & Baseball

Baseball is a sport that has been a part of Americas sporting culture for hundreds

of years. Baseball has been played in America since the late 18 th century. It is thought to

have been invented here in the United States, and not in any other country, which led to

the game being called Ame ricas national pastime. Although it is unclear as to who

invented the sport, many historians have concluded that baseball was created by a man

named Abner Doubleday, who fought in the Civil War.

America was discovered by Spanish explorers led by Christopher Columbus in in1493. It was colonized by English settlers in the 17 th century, and the American Frontier

began as 13 British colonies. Eventually, the thirteen colonies rebelled against their

British ruler, starting a war called the American Revolutionary War. America declared

their independence in 1776 and eventually won the war, obtaining their right to become

their own country, the United

States of America. America would

continue to develop as a country

until 1861, when the southern part

of the country, known as the

Confederacy, declared war on the

northern part, called the Union,

over the issue of slavery. This became known as Americas Civil War, which ended with

a Confederate defeat and the abolition of slavery in the country. As time went on,

America would become involved in more wars and more domestic issues and changes.


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The country continued to grow and expand, and now consists of the 50 United States we

live in today.

Baseball is a ball game played between two teams of nine on a field with a

diamond-shaped circuit of four bases. One team is always at bat trying to hit the

baseball while the other team is

pitching one player throwing the

ball to the batter and fielding the

ball when it is hit. The two teams

take turns batting and fielding, whilethe objective of the game is for one

team to score more than the other.

Scoring is kept through a points system in which the batting team scores a run

baseballs equivalent to a point. The team is the field tries to prevent the batting team

from scoring runs. Each team has nine opportunities to bat, called innings, and the end of

which the team with the most runs is declared the winner. If both teams have an equal

amount of runs after nine innings, the game continues until one team has a greater

amount of runs at the end of a full inning (both teams batting).


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built on the White House lawn. Baseball provided fun during a very trying time for our

country. By 1865, there were 100 established national baseball teams, and by 1867, that

number jumped to 400. At this point there were teams all across the country, from New

York to California. The Civil War helped to expand the game past where it originated in

the Northeast, and began to solidify baseball as a the national pastime.

Baseball became a professional sport in the late 19 th century, and would

eventually become known as Major League Baseball. Continuing a familiar pattern,

baseball continued to remain an integral part of Americas culture, especially during

difficult times. World War I occurred just as Major League Baseball was beginning toestablish itself in the country. As a result, the 1918 season was shortened and eight major

league players were killed in service. World War II affected the Americans and their

beloved game much more, because by this time baseball had definitively established

itself as the countrys favorite pastime. As America became involved with the Second

World War, President Roosevelt

established the Selective

Training and Service Act, also

known as a draft. The draft

required every American Male

between the ages of 21 and 36

to serve the United States

military service for twelve

months. Even baseball players were not exempt from the draft, and many had to leave

their teams for a short period of time. In addition, many baseball players who were not


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involved in the draft voluntarily enlisted to protect the freedom of their country. More

than 500 major league players, including some of the most famous, took time off from

baseball to fight for the United States in WWII. Despite this blow to baseball, its

importance remained in American culture. President Roosevelt declared, It would be

best for the country to keep baseball going. He even asked Major League Baseball to

conduct more games at night so that more hard working Americans could attend.

Although the temporary replacement players did not have the same baseball skills as

those fighting in the war, baseball remained as Americas primary source of

entertainment, and was a welcoming distraction for the citizens who otherwise endured asad and scary time during one of the greatest wars in history.

Baseball was not only a cultural aid for America during wartime. It also served as

a prominent diversion from

domestic issues. During the

Great Depression of the 20 th

century, countless Americans

were unemployed, and many that

were employed received wages

that were much too low to

support their families. The Great

Depression would directly affect

baseball, as many Americans no longer had to money to buy tickets and attend games.

Teams were forced to cut players salaries and reduce the number of coaches and players

on each team. In an attempt to combat these problems brought on by the Depression,


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baseball began to play some games at night, something that was new and exciting to the

public. Baseball also began to broadcast games on the radio, so that fans could still hear

and follow games from their home. These efforts were very effective, and the popularity

of baseball was greater than ever. Once again, baseball proved to be essential to

Americans on a national scale, because it provided joy and entertainment for everyone,

no matter what kind of struggles their daily lives consisted of. Watching or listening to

baseball was the happiest part of the day for many struggling people, and it gave them

something to look forward to.

Baseball is important in our culture not only for the entertainment value, but alsofor the diversity it brings and its help in the progression in racial issues in America. In its

early days, when baseball was still being

established in the country, African Americans grew

to love the game as much as everyone else.

Unfortunately, players of color were not initially

aloud to participate in the Major Leagues. Instead,

they formed their own way to play the game,

creating the Negro Leagues. The Negro Leagues,

like Major League Baseball, were professional

baseball leagues. The only difference is the Negro

Leagues consisted of mostly African-American

players. Eventually, similar leagues would be formed for players of other ethnicities,

particularly Latin Americans. It wasnt until after World War II that Major League

Baseball would begin its integration of the sport. On April 15, 1947, a man named Jackie


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Robinson would be the first to break baseballs color barrier, and played in his first Major

League game. In 1951, Latin American players began to sign with Major League teams.

The integration was very controversial, and colored players were harassed by opposing

players and fans for many years. However, these brave men did not give in to the

pressure, and played the game at a very high level. Slowly, they began to win over many

of the fans, and more players of color would be signed to teams. Within the next 25

years, over of Major League Baseball players were African American, and baseball

had proven to play an important part in closing the racial gap in Americas culture.

To be an important part of Americas culture, baseball doesnt have to be equatedwith difficult times in our countrys history. Baseball is called Americas pastime

because it is entertainment enjoyed by families everywhere. Fathers and mothers will

often take their son or daughter to a baseball game, passing down the same joy and

excitement they experienced as a child. Families will make special trips to see their

favorite teams play, or they will cheer on their favorite players together while they watch

a baseball game at home on their television. There are also many values instilled in

Americas game, as

the sport promotes

hard work and

teamwork. To this

day, baseball proves

to be a valuable

aspect to the culture

of the United States.


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The Science Behind Baseball

Baseball may be considered a sport or a game, but just like anything else, there

are many concepts of science involved. Science plays a part in both the offensive and

defensive aspects of the game. These concepts are fairly common, and can easily be

related to everyday life.

Hitting a baseball cannot be done without physics. The difficult task involves a

lot of motion. The ball is thrown from just over 60 feet away, and can race to home plate

as fast as 100 mph, leaving the batter only a split second to decide if he will take anenormous swing at the tiny ball and try

to hit it as far as he can. To explain all

of this in scientific terms, scientists

turn to the laws of motion, particularly

Newtons Second Law of Motion. The

concept states, T he acceleration of an

object as produced by a net force is

directly proportional to the magnitude

of the net force, in the same direction

as the net force, and inversely

proportional to the mass of the object.

In baseball, this means the increasing speed and distance a baseball is hit depends on the

shape and weight of the ball, combined with the force in which both the pitcher throws

the ball, and the batter swings the bat. If a ball is thrown and hits a still bat, the ball will


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bounce off the bat due to the speed at which the ball was pitched. If a bat is swung and

hits a ball that is not moving, the force and speed of the bat will move the ball. However,

combining the speed and force of a ball thrown AND a bat swung, the combination will

result in a much further and faster motion of the ball.

Pitching a baseball requires just as much science as hitting, if not more. Watching

a pitcher pitch, one might notice that most pitchers perform a very complex movement

before physically throwing the ball.

This is called the sequential

summation of movement, and it isthe process of shifting momentum

from the pitchers body to the ball

being thrown. To do this, the pitcher

must begin by moving their largest

body of mass, continuing downward

in order to shift all of the momentum

to the ball. For example, a pitcher

will begin his movement in his legs,

then his hip, shoulders, arms, wrists and finally his fingers. They finish by thrusting

forward when they throw the ball, putting as much momentum and accuracy as possible

behind the throw. The science behind this is why the average Major League Baseball

pitcher can throw a baseball at a whopping 95 mph.

Try this experiment: Go outside with two different balls of the same shape and

size. With the first ball, stand in place. Do not move your legs, and try to move your


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torso as little as possible. Throw the ball using only your dominant throwing arm. Then,

from the same place you just threw, stand with the second ball. If you are familiar with a

pit chers windup, perform the windup and throw the

second ball in the same direction as the first. If you are

not familiar with a windup, take five steps back, take a

short running start and throw the ball in the same direction

as the first. In either case the second ball should go much

further than the first. This is because you have used the

sequential summation of movement, the same conceptMajor League pitchers use. When you threw the first ball,

there was no force to build up momentum, and the ball

traveled simply off of the force from your arm. In the

second throw, your whole body was involved. Your legs moved first, because they

contain the greatest mass on your body. Body parts continued to move, in order from

greatest to least mass, and built up the momentum, which was finally transferred to the

ball as you threw, resulting in the ball traveling further than the first throw.

There are two more important forces that scientifically explain much of what

happens to a moving baseball. The first has an affect on everything on Earth. The

moment a ball leaves a players hand or flies off the bat, gravity begins to take effect and

pull the ball back down to the ground. Gravity also comes from Sir Issac Newton, whose

Second Law of Motion helped to explain hitting a baseball. It is a force pertaining to

physics that attracts an object towards the center of the earth. As Newton himself put it,


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What goes up, must come down. Gravity is constantly pulling on a ba seball, which is

why even the furthest hit baseballs usually still land somewhere in the stadium.

The other force working with gravity against the moving baseball is air resistance.

Air resistance, like gravity, is also ever-present on Earth, but can sometimes be forgotten

because it is less noticeable. Air resistance is constantly providing resistance against

every moving object, including a walking person. We cant always feel this resistance

because air is so much less dense, but it is happening, and the same thing happens to a

moving baseball. If gravity is restricting the ball vertically, air resistance is holding it

back horizontally. When the ball is in the air, it is essentially moving air out of the way,which slows the ball down. If there were no air resistance, the ball would travel a lot

further, and would only come down by the force of gravity. The combination of gravity

and air resistance keeps the ball at a manageable distance from the point where it is

thrown or hit. Players may not realize it, but science is making baseball a much more

challenging game.

Try this experiment: Ask your parents or teacher for a floor or window fan. Set

the fan up on a table or a desk, and turn it

on a medium speed. Place a trashcan two

feet in front of the fan on the floor. Then,

take a balled up piece of loose-leaf paper

and stand about eight feet in front of the

fan, six feet in front of the trashcan. Take

turns with friends or classmates trying to

toss the balled up piece of paper into the trashcan. Careful its harder than it sounds!


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Notice how the fan provides additional air resistance. Now combine that with the

difficulty of predicting how gravity takes effect, and you should have a challenging time

throwing the ball into the can. If you d ont think so, take away the fan and experience

how much easier the task becomes. This experiment provides an exaggeration of air

resistance in order to make the concept easier to see and understand. Even without the

fan, there is still air resistance, only not as strong and noticeable.


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References

Bedingfield, Gary. Baseball in World War II. Baseball In Wartime . N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Nov 2013.

.

Bluett, Terry. Baseball and the Civil War. PA Civil War Trails . N.p.. Web. 3 Nov 2013.

.

Marquez, Heron. Roberto Clemente: Baseball s Humanitarian Hero . Twenty-First

Century Books, 2004. Web.

Morley, Kenny. Science Behind Baseball. Sports N Science . Ohio State University,

n.d. Web. 3 Nov 2013. .

Science of Baseball. The Scientific Slugger . Exploratorium. Web. 3 Nov 2013.

.

World War I. Baseball Reference . 2000.


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Glossary

Abolition the legal prohibition and ending of slavery

Acceleration increase in the rate or speed of something Air Resistance forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative

fluid flow velocity

America United States: North American republic containing 50 states Baseball a ball game played between two teams of nine on a field with a

diamond-shaped circuit of four bases

Colony a country or area under the full or partial political control of another

country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country Confederacy a league or alliance, esp. of confederate states Domestic existing or occurring inside a particular country; not foreign or

international

Draft compulsory recruitment for military service Gravity the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward

any other physical body having mass

Inning a division of a game during which the two teams alternate as offense anddefense and during which each team is allowed three outs while batting

Integration the intermixing of people or groups previously segregated Mass a coherent, typically large body of matter with no definite shape Net Force the overall force acting on an object Run a point scored when a base runner reaches home plate after touching the

other bases

Union term used to refer to the United States of America, and specifically to the

national government and the 20 free states and five border slave states which

supported it

Wage a fixed regular payment, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis, made

by an employer to an employee, esp. to a manual or unskilled worker


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NJCCCS Science Standards

Grade 4

5.2.4.E.1 Motion can be described as a change in position over a period of time

5.2.4.E.2 There is always a force involved when something starts moving or

changes its speed or direction of motion. A greater force can make an object

move faster and farther

5.2.4.E.4 Earth pulls down on all objects with a force called gravity. Weight is

a measure of how strongly an object is pulled down toward the ground by gravity.

With a few exceptions, objects fall to the ground no matter where they are on

Earth

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Baseball in America Culture Book