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Cultural influence in sports
Sport and cultural identity
How culture affects sports
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With about 83 players currently to in the MLB, 682 players since 1950, and so far 2 players in the Hall of Fame with much more to get inducted, it’s clear that the Dominican Republic dominates the game of baseball. In the Dominican Republic, baseball is the country’s pastime and official sport. Baseball doesn’t discriminate, regardless of gender, race, and economic status. In my personal view, baseball runs in the blood and embedded in the genetic coding of Dominicans. As a person whose mother and father are Dominican and born and raised in Miami, there seems to be little to nothing that connects me to their culture. Nonetheless, this Miami-born Dominican- American is proud to say that the sport I love the most can connect me to the Dominican culture and serve as something I can use to relate to my people. …show more content…
He used the beloved sport mainly as a way to bond and spend time with me, but also an attempt to continue the cultural tradition of baseball. His attempt to do that succeeded, watching the game sitting on the couch, enraged at the fact that the Marlins can barely win any games together. He serves as a prime example that proved to me that baseball runs in Dominican blood. I have only visited the Dominican Republic a few times, but that was more than enough to show me how much the people care about the game. They would play and enjoy baseball with anything, and play it anywhere. It seems that regardless of the troubles they’re going through in their lives, all is forgotten at the
America’s pastime has been complicated in the last couple centuries, and integration has been a big key in the game of baseball. Like most of America in the 1940’s, baseball was segregated, with whites playing in the Major League system and African-Americans playing in the Negro Leagues. There were many factors that made whites and blacks come together, including World War II. Integration caused many downs in the time period, but as baseball grew and grew it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history. It was hard to find the right black man to start this, they needed a man with baseball abilities and a man who didn’t need to fight back.
I chose this topic because I thought that it was important to highlight the recent successes of the Latino baseball players to show how minority groups can prosper in America. Latino atheletes have gain notoriety and riches through the sport of baseball. These are things that they couldn’t have dreamed about achieving without Major League baseball. Major League Baseball has given Latin Americans the opportunity to better their economic and social situation.
In terms of racial inequality in baseball there have been many eras of integration. Baseball originally is seen as America’s national game belonging to the white men of America. However, throughout history there have been steps taken in recognizing and integrating those groups deemed “less favorable” by the American community. These groups include German immigrants, Irish immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, Native Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Asians. America used the game of baseball as a tool to indoctrinate the American ideals and values of teamwork, working hard, and collaborating for the greater good into the cultures of the “uncivilized world.” These groups used baseball as a medium to gain acceptance into the American community as racially equal counterparts.
Most consider the sport of baseball to be America’s pastime. While many in the United States spend countless hours following or playing the sport, it is more than a diversion in the Dominican Republic; it can be the key to overcoming impoverishment. For most citizens of the island, poverty is the only known way of life. In 2015, 32.4% or 3.4 million lived at or below the national poverty line. The per capita income for the country in 2016 was $6,909.13, which is $45,285.76 less than that of the United States. In order to achieve their goal of creating a better life for themselves and their family, baseball provides Dominicans an opportunity for upward mobility. It is common for children in the Dominican Republic to grow up playing baseball, the country’s beloved sport, hoping to make their hobby a full-time job.
It was the beginning of a new softball season, and I couldn't wait to get out there with my team. At our first practice I remember feeling back at home on the field. Just when I thought this was going to be our teams best season, my parents moved me to a private school. Leaving what I was familiar with was not an easy task, and deciding if I would continue my passion of softball with a different team was even more difficult.
As in all areas of social culture, African Americans denied of a shared walk through baseball history with whites turned to making their own history on the playing diamond of an ever-changing America. " African Americans recognized that they had the talent to throw and catch round horsehide objects almost as soon as t...
Baseball has been a part of me for quite a while now. I have done something baseball related each week for the past several years. It has really changed what I like to do in my spare time, and it also had changed my priorities. This was the first sport I would have played, and I haven’t played a different sport since the start of me playing Baseball. There were and still are so many ways baseball has changed my life.
In many countries around the world, the socioeconomic problem is so bad that they are granted the title of a Third World country. Countries that are not quite as bad, such as most Latin American countries like Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, often have trouble, on a smaller level, of creating jobs and job security for its people to inspire work ethic and incentive to raise the socioeconomic bar that has been set below average. Sometimes, all it takes is a role model; a person who is from that respective country who has made a name for themself of continental proportion to inspire the rest of the country to fight against the low standard that has been acquired. This paper will discuss how in Latin America, the people of these countries have found hope and incentive to work through the hardship and hard work of certain professional baseball players that had either defected or were lucky enough to work their way into the American professional baseball system. Because these players have struck gold on such an enormous level, a global level, they have given the poorer and disadvantaged people of their country a reason to fight to make their situation better. These players have given back considerably to their communities and their countries which makes them the role models they are today.
Baseball has for a long time been a staple in the American sporting culture as baseball and America have grown up together. Exploring the different ages and stages of American society, reveals how baseball has served as both a public reflection of, and vehicle for, the evolution of American culture and society. Many American ways including our landscapes, traditional songs, and pastimes all bear the mark of a game that continues to be identified with America's morals and aspirations. In this paper I will be addressing the long residuals of baseball as it specifically relates to the emergence of the American nation and its principles of nationalism. This is a particularly important issue because baseball seems to be a perfect representative system having many comparative analogies to the larger system of development, America. Since the sport first emerged, baseball and America have shared the same values, responded to the same events, and struggled with the same social and economic issues. To learn of the ideals concerning the sport of baseball in America, is to know the heart and mind of America.
Many people don't understand the point in playing baseball. Why would someone swing a stick, hit a ball, and try to get back to where they started before the ball returns? What pleasure is there in that? Why not participate in a sport like wrestling or track where there is an obvious level of individual improvement and therefore pleasure. Well, I play baseball because of the love I have for the sport, and because of the feeling that overwhelms me every time I walk onto a baseball field. When I walk onto a field I am given the desire to better myself not only as an athlete, but also as a person. The thoughts and feelings I get drive me to work hard towards my goals and to be a better person. The most relevant example of these feelings is when I stepped on the field at Runyon Complex in Pueblo, Colorado during our high school state playoffs in 2003. This baseball field will always be an important place to me.
One diamond, four plates, nine players, a sweaty uniform, cleats, a bat, and a ball are the only things I’ve dreamt of since my first baseball practice when I was three years old. I remember the way it felt to smack the ball off of the tee and have everyone in the stands cheer and scream for me as I ran for first base as fast as I could and never wanting to leave the field even after it had gotten dark outside and all the field lights had been shut off. Baseball has been all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life from the very beginning. I can’t imagine doing anything other than eating, sleeping, and breathing the game of baseball. So when people ask me, “What are your plans after high school?” all I’ve ever known myself to say back was, “I’m not sure but it 'll have something to do with baseball.” With this being said, I have decided to be a baseball coach so I can pass down the knowledge I have for the game I love so much to people younger than me that love it just the same as I have and still do.
Over history America has changed. From its culture and weapons to its geography and foreign relations, nothing stays the same for long. As America changes, so does its pastime-baseball. If the pros were to walk into a game from the 1800s, they would be lost. Nearly every part of baseball has changed; the field, the equipment, the arrangement of the teams, the way people play the game, even the ball has been tweaked. The only thing that stays the same from decade to decade, century to century, is all that really matters. . . our country’s love for the game.
A travel of over 3000 miles for some, a 210 mile drive for me, just to arrive at the biggest gathering of over 1,500 twelve year olds; all just to play baseball. The only place that would be suitable for such an event is Cooperstown Dream Parks, every baseball players heaven. Cars have come to Cooperstown from everywhere for this week long tournament. I met children my age from all over the United states. I became friends with kids from Ohio, Illinois, California, I even met a player from Puerto Rico who barely spoke any english. The windows of everyone 's car decorated with the names and numbers of teams and players. Excited baseball teams spill from their Barracks and hustle toward the already crowded seating area. Festive music played over
African-American baseball players had been a part of professional baseball when it was first starting in the 1880s. Some black players had signed a contract already with their team, but the International League banned blacks from signing anymore. Blacks that were already under contract were able to finish until it was up, but they were not allowed to renew it. Ever since that, Major League Baseball was a segregated sport until the late 1940s. The major league owners had conspired together and wrote what was called a “gentlemen's agreement” to keep black players out of the game. This did not stop African-Americans from achieving their goal of playing baseball. They organized their own teams and played “pickup games” with anyone that ...
This game of a stick and ball has captivated the United States during good and bad times. In either time most of us today can remember stories of players from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. These are legendary figures in the sport of baseball that have are celebrated as hero’s and in scandal, i...