Sports Commentators

I believe that as a fan the commentator of a game has a lot to do with how much I can enjoy a game. Sometimes if I feel the announcer is biased either way towards either team I can't even stand to watch the game. I really can't stand a bad in-game commentator. Sometimes I even mute the game on TV and find a local radio station that is broadcasting the game. It is very important to me and I'm sure a lot of fans to have an unbiased intelligent announcer. 

Some of the most important and biggest plays in sports history have some of the most memorable quotes from the commentators. It seems that every big sports moment is paired up with a commentator. The best commentators are those that know what they are talking about, are unbiased and are dramatic. Being dramatic as a commentator makes it seem that the game is as important to them as it is to the fans. That is important in a commentator.

In some instances I think it is okay to be biased as an announcer. If the announcer calls games only for a certain station and team then it is okay. I think Michael Reghi was a great caller of games for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was very enthusiastic about the Cavs and people felt like he was a fan calling the games. He was famous in Cleveland for his intense and dramatic calls of plays. I think it was wrong that he was fired and was replaced by the Detroit Pistons announcer Fred McLeod. Cleveland needed a Cleveland guy like Reghi calling the game, not the enemies former announcer. 

With all things said, I think it is very important who the commentator is in enjoying a game.

Intercollegiate Athletics

Intercollegiate athletics are a huge part of the history and philosophy of sports. I think it is safe to say that intercollegiate athletics are taking over the sports world. That is at least in two sports, football and basketball. A reason I think that intercollegiate sports may be more popular than professional sports is because not all states or big cities have a professional sports team. However, all states and most big cities have a big college program. 

For example, look at the Arkansas Razorbacks football team. Arkansas has no professional sports organizations in the whole state. People latch on to the Razorbacks as their professional team. Darren McFadden became a superstar playing in a state with no professional team but excelled at the college level. Another great example is at Utah and Boise State. The only professional team in either state is the Utah Jazz NBA team. Neither have a professional football team. Both states connect better to their collegiate teams. Utah and Boise State have had a lot of success as smaller schools competing against the bigger schools. I think most of the focus of sports fans in these states are on their football programs. Even in states where professional sports are prominent, like in Ohio, a lot of people enjoy watching the Ohio State Buckeyes rather than any other team. I think this is because of the success Ohio State has had and a fan likes to root for a winner. All other teams in Ohio have had very little success and sometimes its hard to be a fan of those teams. 

Another point to be made is the following of the NCAA basketball tournament. It alone is the biggest sporting event in the United States. Every game is bet on and people do brackets and pay attention to the tournament even if the team they root for isn't in the tournament. I used to watch the games in class in high school on a five inch TV to keep up with the games. 

The final reason is that collegiate athletics are pure. Players aren't competing for money but for pride. It's not about that next paycheck but for your school and the fans of your program and the history. That isn't seen nearly as much in professional sports.

All of these reason are why I think college football and basketball are taking over the sporting world.

The Origins of Baseball

I found Thursday's class to be especially interesting because I am so interested in the sport of baseball. I really enjoy finding out and discovering new things about something I already know a lot about. The origins of baseball have always been kind of a hazy area for me - especially the early rules. Though a lot of the rules are the same, some I thought were kind of strange or funny. First of all, there were no called strikes, you had to swing and miss three times in order to be called out. I am very glad that this isn't the rule today because I don't see a lot of players at any level swinging and missing completely three times. Either the pitchers were very good in this era, or the games were very long with more hits and most outs came via a batted ball. I guess the point wasn't really to strike anybody out in that era but to let them hit the ball though seeing as that the pitcher was obligated to toss the ball gently. 

These are the really early days though before games even got very competitive. What really struck me however, was that even as the game progressed into a more competitive era, for a while an out could be recorded by throwing the ball at the runner. I found that funny because when I used to play stickball when I was younger we would use a tennis ball and outs could be recorded by throwing and hitting the runner with the ball. I always wondered how that came to be. As weird and interesting as some of the rules of the game were then, I am very glad where they are and have been for generations now. Baseball seems to be a game where the rules have changed the least over the course of the years. Almost every year there seems to be a rule change in professional football. I think that baseball has very sold roots and the rules for the game that were established so long ago are still perfect for today's game.

Sports in Revolutionary America

After reading the many articles about sports in Revolutionary America I was surprised to see how many sports we still play today that got their roots in that time. What also surprised me is that the sports were never really played competitively with "no attempt to build company pride through sports challenges, nor pit one state or region against another" stated Bonnie Ledbetter in Sports and Games of the American Revolution. I believe that they probably didn't want to get too competitive against one another especially when they were fighting a war with each other. It wouldn't have been good to have animosity against a soldier you are fighting with because of an intense cricket game that was played the day before. I think that also has to do with why they never would keep score or keep track of who won and lost.  Ledbetter went on to say "The positive attributes of theses games were informality, individualism, spontaneity, and flexibility."(53) It was a good thing that the soldiers cared so much about these attributes because otherwise the games we know today could have been much different.

Mascots

After watching the video about mascots and how they depict Native Americans I had mixed feelings. Being from Cleveland and a long time Cleveland Indians fan I have always shrugged off the protesters of the games and didn't really consider it a big deal. After seeing the video I more understand where they are coming from. Only a small portion of the video dealt with the Indians but what struck me the most was about the Washington Redskins. I never knew that Redskin was a slang word that had a very negative meaning. Any word that is comparable to the 'N' word is terrible. I could not imagine another professional sports organization using a word comparable to that word to represent their team. It is very unprofessional in my mind. 

The problem I think is that there is not enough Native Americans to speak up. With all of the oppression in their history and now their small numbers across the United States, their voice isn't loud enough to be heard. If any teams had a slang name for Hispanics or African Americans as their mascot it wouldn't be for long because of the huge outcry that would follow because of the sheer numbers of their populations. So, in conclusion, sadly it doesn't look like much is going to be done about this problem. 

Introduction

My name is Andrew Karr and I am a Junior Sport Management major with a specialization in marketing. I am from Parma Heights, Ohio outside of Cleveland. I am taking this course not only because it is a requirement of my major but because I am also very interested in the subject of history and philosophy of sports. All my life I have been a fan of and participated in sports and still do both today. I am a huge Cleveland sports fan and Ohio State Buckeyes fan even though I go to BG. I like to believe I know a lot already about the history of sports and different sports stars and icons. I am actually hoping that I don’t know as much as I think I know and that this class can teach me a lot more.
As for my own history playing and watching sports I started when I was five with soccer. I never really got into soccer and stopped playing at age 8. At the age of six I got into tee-ball. I gradually moved my way up and kept with it. I played many years of travel baseball and started four years on my high school’s varsity baseball team where I hold two school records. To this day I still play in an adult wood bat league in the summer. I realized while growing up my passion was for football. I never played organized until I was in 7th grade but I started playing pick-up games around six years old. I went on to be very successful playing football in high school being named 1st team all conference and all district three times as well as honorable mention for the all-state team three times setting my schools’ rushing record. I decided to play football after high school but because of my small size was not given any scholarship offers. I played for a year at a small division III school called Baldwin-Wallace. After a year I realized college football wasn’t for me though I still had a lot of passion for the game. I still like to stay active and play other sports like basketball and golf, but nothing ever compared to playing football.
That was my playing career. As for my experience as a fan, being from Cleveland, it wasn’t very exciting. I remember watching the Browns before they left when Bernie just didn’t seem to have it anymore. I remember how heartbroken I was in 1995 and ’97 when the Indians just fell short. Until recently I remember how dismal the Cavs always were. And I will never forget in 1995 when the undefeated Buckeyes and Eddie George got ran over by Tim Biakabatuka and the Wolverines. I’d have to say I really started paying attention to sports at age six or seven which would have been 1993 or 1994. Since then the Buckeyes have been pretty consistently good and it’s not painful to watch them. The Indians are inconsistent now, the Cavs are looking great and who knows about the Browns. All I want is a championship for Cleveland really. I think we deserve it.
I hope this class gives me a chance to learn new things and gain more respect for different aspects of sport. I am excited about the things I may be able to learn in this class.
Thanks for reading!