In the case of baseball fans, this meaning is well suited. They behave insanely, they are insane about baseball trivia, and they are insanely loyal. Certainly the behavior of baseball fans is insane. They wear their official team jerseys and warm-up jackets to the mall, the store, the classroom, and, if they can get away with it, to work. Then, whenever the team offers a giveaway item, the fans rush out to get whatever it is that their team is giving away.
Wouldn’t your sanity have long been lost? The Chicago Cubs and their fans are still somehow optimistic after stretches as much as twenty losing seasons in a row, but still, the fans came to watch the Cubs. Why? Did they enjoying watching their hometown team lose, swing and miss, and blunder on the basepaths? Their 2013 season was as dismal as their last ten seasons, in last place in the national league’s central division with a record of 66-96.
Illustration Essay English 101 Softball Heroes I am what you could call a sports “fanatic.” I love sports in general, no matter what it is or who is playing. Well that all changed when I decided to get a job at the local adult softball fields. I figured it was just normal adults out there having a good time. Though, I was completely wrong. I saw things I couldn’t believe adults would do.
The following paper provides examples from many resources arguing the important role that instant replay could have in professional baseball. Had Major League Baseball adopted instant replay, as the National Football League did, many games, including vital playoff and World Series games could have had very different outcomes. There are countless conflicting ideas concerning instant replay. Many critics argue that instant replay will remove the human element from a classic sport by taking authority away from umpires, and slow an already time consuming sport down even more. The pitcher stops to pick up the chalk bag, dust flies into the air.
The elementary forms of sports fandom: A Durkheimian exploration of team myths, kinship, and totemic rituals was written by Michael Serazio. In this essay he explores the myths, kinship, and rituals of Philadelphia Phillies fans during their historic 2008 World Series victory in the United States' professional baseball league using Durkheimian's theoretical framework. Many fans adored the Philadelphia's and were die hard fans for them. They felt honered to be cheering for that team, and were not afraid to show it. There were countless many fans branded with the totemic badge of unity: that tribal mark that had long symbolized unrequited devotion, the Philies logo of Philadephia's professional baseball team (Serazio 2013 pg.1).
One night, baseball players appear on the field, including Shoeless Joe in left field, and Ray settles down to watch him play. In Ray's eyes, the scene is as complete as at any major-league park he has visited. But he notices that Shoeless Joe is the only player who appears to have any substance; the others are shadowy, ghost-like. Ray talks to Shoeless Joe, who tells him about his love of baseball, and Ray promises that he will finish the whole field. Chapter 2: They Tore Down the Polo Grounds in 1964 Ray finishes building the entire field; it takes him three baseball seasons.
Some of his teammates seem to barely stand in the box during their at-bats, stepping out after each pitch to adjust batting gloves (David Ortiz), take off their helmets (Jonny Gomes), and wander around the dirt and sometimes even the grass (Jacoby Ellsbury).Continue reading below Photos Slowing down the game * Graphic: How game times grew It’s those quirks and routines, coupled with mound visits and pitching changes, that give baseball its unique flow and plague it with dead time. And it’s why Red Sox games are averaging 3 hours, 11 minutes, and 34 seconds this year, the longest of any team in baseball. Five years ago, Major League Baseball sought to address its pace-of-game problem, issuing a directive to players, coaches, and umpires to — so to speak — make it snappy. From 2008 to 2011, games averaged around 2 hours and 51 minutes. After a bump to 2:55:58 in 2012, game times this year through Thursday are averaging 2:57:53 — a mark that would tie the 2000 season for the all-time high.
There are many ways to increase your baseball IQ besides playing the game your entire life. On the website baseball mental game they state, having a natural swing is instinct, but getting more cuts in the cages and on the field during batting practice cause muscle memory to take over and it becomes natural to your mind and body. The muscle memory is a mind mechanism, when you do the same thing over and over again your memory says “hey we are in that position and knows what to do” Another big problem that baseball mental game addresses is that most players have very fragile self-confidence. This can destroy a players mind, game, and even season. These are known as slumps.
Believe it or not softball has not always been a sport designed for women. It actually started around Thanksgiving in the late 1800’s when alumni from Yale and Harvard got excited about the results from a Harvard-Yale football game. Angered because Yale had lost, an alumnus picked up an old boxing glove and chucked it towards the other side of the room. A Harvard fan saw the glove flying across the room and attempted to hit it in midair with a stick back at the Yale supporter. From that event George Hancock had an idea to start an indoor version of baseball.
George Hancock, a reporter for the Chicago Board of Trade, jokingly called out, “Play ball!” and the first softball game commenced with the football fans using the boxing glove as a ball and a broom handle in place of a bat. The Farragut Boat Club decided to officially devise their own set of rules, and the game quickly leaked to outsiders in Chicago and, eventually, throughout the rest of the Midwestern U.S. As the sport grew more and more, so did all of the nicknames like “indoor baseball,” “kitten baseball,” “diamond ball,” “mush ball,” and “pumpkin ball.” In 1926, Walter Hakanson was at an interview and the title “softball” came out and the name stuck ever since that day in 1930. In 1934, the Joint Rules Committee on Softball collaborated to create a set of standardized rules. The original softball used by the Farragut Boat Club was 16 inches in circumference. However, Lewis Rober Sr., the man responsible for organizing softball games for firefighters in Minneapolis, used a 12-inch ball.