With new players added to the Cubs roster, Maddon and the staff created a fun, positive culture that allowed the diverse age and experience of the team to prosper. In November of 2014, Epstein hired Joe Maddon to takeover as manager. Maddon developed a reputation for his square glasses, his phrase, “try not to suck,” and most importantly, encouraging the team to have fun. In a speech made by Theo four months after their World Series victory, he explained the traditional baseball norms young players were expected to follow and how Maddon chose not to adhere to them. Theo elaborated, “Typically, it takes young players years to adjust to life in the big leagues and to start performing up to their capabilities.” Further he explained that the reason …show more content…
comes from ridiculous old baseball norms that claim young players are followers not leaders and they must follow the established codes. The underlying codes dictated that players must wear suits and ties, and can’t get too excited on the field or look like they’re having fun. Obviously the Cubs did not have a few years for their players to adjust as Epstein and the fans wanted to win the World Series soon. Instead, Maddon allowed his players to go against the established codes and be themselves. Maddon and Epstein wanted their young players to be daring, to have fun and above all be themselves. Maddon changed the dress code from the traditional, stuffy suit and tie to, “If you think you look hot, wear it!” Maddon and Epstein chose to change the culture from traditional baseball teams to allow it to compliment their young, yet experienced team. By doing so, they created a more positive atmosphere that allowed for more success. Epstein and Maddon found the team’s atmosphere to be an important factor for the Cubs success. A study done by the University of California, Riverside found that happy people performed better than their less happy peers. According to the study, “evidence suggests that happiness is not only correlated with workplace success but that happiness often precedes measures of success.” Meaning, it is a cycle. Obviously, success will cause happiness in a workplace when people reach their goals, but that happiness and a positive environment can increase one’s chances of reaching their goals. So, by going against traditional baseball norms, Maddon and Epstein created a new culture that allowed their players to have a higher chance of performing well when compared to other teams in the MLB. Thus, allowing the Cubs to differentiate themselves and build a stronger team bond. With leaders like Epstein and Maddon pushing a positive environment, the players of the team were more than teammates, they were brothers. One of the younger players Kris Bryant once said in an interview about the team’s dynamic, “It’s really all about being positive and picking someone else up when they need it.” He continued to elaborate by saying that the Cubs team is the “kind of the culture here where we love one another and pull for one another. It’s just good people here.” The players enjoyed and appreciated the environment they were in. Additionally, star hitter and younger player, Kyle Schwarber was out for most of the season due to a torn ACL, but was constantly committed to his team. In an interview, Schwarber made it clear that he would work hard in order to get back and be able to play for his teammates. He “modeled a relentless desire to heal for his fellow players.” The players were there for each other and not just themselves. In the same study done by the University of California, Riverside, research found that, “employees with high positive affect have jobs that are described as more meaningful.” So, by feeling as if they were playing for each other, all the players had a stronger positive influence and therefore helped build the new positive, non-traditional team culture just as much as Epstein and Maddon. The new culture set the Cubs apart from the other teams in the Major Leagues and it gave them the extra push they needed for the World Series. The Moment of Truth: Game 7 _____________________________ When it came down to Game 7 of the World Series, the Cubs were there to win because their different culture had created a team ready for success due to their diversity and positivity. Throughout the Game 7, certain moments highlighted and symbolized the culture the Cubs had created around diversity of age/experience and the family mentality. The Cubs World Series roster appeared to be a strong dynamic on paper, and unlike other teams, they succeeding in using their teams informational diversity to their benefit.
With players ranging from 22 years old to 39 years old with only months of experience in the Major Leagues or years of experience, the Cubs had plenty of different views. The friendship of Anthony Rizzo and David Ross demonstrated the benefits the veterans gave to the the younger players and the excitement the younger players brought. A video caught a heartfelt exchange between Rizzo and Ross when the Cubs were leading by 3 around the bottom of the 4th. Rizzo was hanging onto Ross and pressing his face against Ross’s shoulder. Their dialogue went like …show more content…
this: Rizzo: I can’t control myself right now. I’m trying my best. Ross: It’s understandably so, buddy. Rizzo: I’m emotional. Ross: I hear ya. Rizzo: I’m an emotional wreck. Ross: Well, it’s only going to get worse. Just continue to breathe. That’s all you can do, buddy. It’s only gonna get worse. Rizzo: I’m in a glass case of emotion right now. Ross: Wait until the 9th with this three-run lead. Players around the exchange laughed and smiled as Rizzo looked to Ross for guidance and support. The mix of experience brought energy and wisdom to the bench. Unfortunately, the 3-run lead did not last and soon it was the bottom of the 9th and the Cubs and Indians were tied. At this point in the game, the Cubs had lost a 3 run lead and the game had been delayed due to rain.
They were all feeling down; it would be hard not to. They were faced with adversity, but their team bond that they had formed through the season had prepared them. Some players were not ready to give up so easily. Outfielder Jason Heyward called a players only meeting and according to Epstein, “all 25 guys squeezed into a space designed for half that many.” Heyward himself was having a terrible offseason. Epstein says, “by far the worst of his career.” Continuing to elaborate after the game, Epstein also said, “Most players who are having seasons that rough detach from the team and isolate themselves.” But Heyward was not around a traditional team culture. All the players were in there making small comments, trying to pick each other up when Heyward began: “We are the best team in baseball.” He’d walked to the middle of the room and continued, “We’ve got to stay positive and fight for your brothers. Stick together and we’re going to win this game.” From there, other players chirped in agreeing. Next thing, the rain was gone and the Cubs were on the field again. The Cubs had two runs in the top of the 10th from the help of Ben Zobrist and Miguel Montero. They were winning. Bottom of the 10th with 2 outs and Martinez of the Indians has a ground hit to Bryant who caught the ball and threw it to Rizzo: The Cubs had
won. According to Epstein, “The entire delay took only 17 minutes, but a different team came out of the weight room from the one that had entered.” Epstein claimed most players during a rain delay “become engrossed in their own worlds.” The Cubs team was different though and to Epstein, the players’ instinct was to come together. The Cubs had won because they were a family.
The author of Casey at the Bat classifies the poem as humorous. The author most likely decided this due to the rhyme and irony in the poem. As mentioned before, Casey at the Bat includes humor such as rhyme, examples include the following; "If only Casey could but get a whack at that - we'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat.", and "So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat, for these seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat." The other example of humor is irony. In the end of Casey at the Bat, Casey strikes out. At first Casey was like a super hero, because he seemed to have super human strength and appeared unable to be defeated. Casey's strength is exaggerated in the following text, "And now the air is shattered
Major league scouts had come to watch a shortstop whom they had heard was an excellent fielder and consistent batter. They were quickly distracted from this responsibility however by the performance of the man on the pitcher’s mound. Fernando Valenzuela was a pudgy teenage boy who had grown up on the dusty baseball fields of northwestern Mexico. From a young age, he had dreamed of playing professional baseball and he was about to get his chance. Less than two years later, he became the only player to win the Cy Young award as well as the Rookie of the Year award...
“Say it ain’t so Joe.” (Pellowski 5). These famous words were uttered by a heart broken fan outside of the courtroom of the Black Sox player’s trial. To understand the deeper meaning behind these words lets go back to the 1919 World Series of baseball. A historic Chicago White Sox team is getting ready to face the Cincinnati Reds in what is expected to be a lob sided match leaning towards the White Sox. They had the best player in “Shoeless” Joe Jackson playing in the outfield and already had a World Championship under their belt from 1917. With all these things to consider in the World Series matchup the fans knew that the White Sox should easily pull out a victory and win the championship. However, little did they know that there was a bigger picture being painted by the players of the White Sox that would lead to an enormous drop in popularity of the sport from players and fans. The Black Sox Scandal shocked denizens of the baseball world, changing the lives of the players, as well as tarnishing the sport’s reputation.
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.
Baseball statistics are meant to be a representation of a player’s talent. Since baseball’s inception around the mid-19th century, statistics have been used to interpret the talent level of any given player, however, the statistics that have been traditionally used to define talent are often times misleading. At a fundamental level, baseball, like any game, is about winning. To win games, teams have to score runs; to score runs, players have to get on base any way they can. All the while, the pitcher and the defense are supposed to prevent runs from scoring. As simplistic as this view sounds, the statistics being used to evaluate individual players were extremely flawed. In an attempt to develop more specific, objective forms of statistical analysis, the idea of Sabermetrics was born. Bill James, a man who never played or coached professional baseball, is often credited as a pioneer in the field and for coining the name as homage to the Society of American Baseball Research, or SABR. Eventually, the use of Sabermetrics became widespread in the Major Leagues, the first team being the Oakland Athletics, as depicted in Moneyball. Bill James and other baseball statisticians have developed various methods of evaluating a player performance that allow for a more objective view of the game, broadly defined as Sabermetrics.
"The hardest thing to do in baseball is to hit a round baseball with a round bat, squarely."
I felt as though I was watching a train barrelling towards me, an inevitable bullet that had come tumbling out of the opposing pitcher’s arm. But instead I stood immobilized, watching my team's only chance of winning whiz by me. Strike three. I heard my team from behind me shouting “SWING!” with my mind screaming the same. But my bat remained unmoving, the pop of the catcher's glove like the nail into the coffin that was our defeat. All I had to do to keep our hopes of winning hope alive was swing, and yet I couldn't. I stayed on the field afterwards, tossing the ball up in the air and swinging away, landing it on the thick maple barrel of the bat.
The team exchanged tips about throwing the world series so there were eight people involved in throwing the world series. They knew it was gonna be a difficult and risky thing to try to throw the world series and get away with it. The players that were involved too was, pitchers Eddie cicotte and claude ‘’lefty’’ williams (Andrews, Evan). Shortstop charles swede risberg and outfielder oscar ‘’happy’’ felsch, third basemen buck wever. Infielder fred mcmullin and the power hitter shoeless joe jackson. The world series started and the fix was going as planned the white sox were lost the first nine to one and lost three more and then. It all changed when the white sox player got way less from the gamblers then they were supposed to so they called the fix off and started to play to win and they came back winning game six. The white sox players started getting death threats from the gangster gamblers and said they were going to kill their families.they cinnati
Finally, the ballgame begins, as the Red Sox take field led by the rookie pitcher Jon Lester, who is making his major league debut. Lester is now one my favorite Red Sox players because of this moment. The Red Sox ended up losing the game that day, but for me even though the Red Sox lost, I felt like I was in Heaven. I cherish this moment because it was my first Red Sox game at Fenway. I only get go to one Red Sox game a year if we can afford it. I know to cherish this moment, because to me this day is like Christmas, it only happens once a year. I love going to Red Sox games with Phil because it is time I am spend alone with him. I hope that I can go this year, to go back my baseball heaven, Fenway. To me this experience is important, because it taught me to cherish the moments, and not have regrets.
Fact #1 “All you can do is play every game like its your fi nal shot at the World Series, and hope that for you, it isn’t.” (11 ) Fact #2 “I figured that was as good as it was gonna get, so I nodded.” (115)
The Nighthawks by Edward Hopper is considered two-dimensional art. Some examples of two dimensional art is paintings, drawings and photographs. This painting is considered two-dimensional art because it was painted on a flat canvas and can only be observed in terms of height and width. This piece is not considered three-dimensional because it does not occupy space or have mass. Although this painting does not occupy space, it does imitate three-dimensional space or depth.
Between these two teams the two longest championship droughts in sports history were presented in front of us. These teams were just playing for themselves… but they were playing for their cities. Playing to give their cities hope for the future. Playing to finally have their fans rightfully be proud to root for their teams. Dom Cirilli, a baseball trainer, and coach actually worked out with one of the now lower level Cubs prospects before he was signed. Cirilli said that he sent a message via text congratulating him on his victory. Cirilli told me Although he hasn’t been called up yet, it was still a special moment for him. For most people, if I had told them 5 years ago that the 2016 World series would be the Chicago Cubs against the Cleveland Indians, they would’ve called me crazy. These two teams have been through the worst of the worst over the
On July 4th, 1939, the New York Yankees honored a legend and a hero, Lou Gehrig, who was asked to give a speech to the fans at Old Yankee Stadium. He gave his “Farewell to Baseball Address,” Lou Gehrig shows how honored he was to have played baseball with many great teammates by using thankful speeches for his teammates and associates and to put at ease all of his baseball fans who were worried about his deadly disease. To show his illustrious life and career are not to be overshadowed by the recent events. To show the audience all the great accomplishments that overshadow this minor setback.
With a large number of pro baseball players off to war, team owners worried how they would keep baseball alive. Philip K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs and chewing gum mogul, had an idea. Out of concern for the sport of baseball and revenue at the ballparks,
Back in 1987 Ken Griffey Jr. was just starting his career as a professional baseball player, and little did he know that he would help many people and inspire them. Griffey has help his community and teams throughout his life. He invented new ways to play baseball, and impacted so many children’s lives. He has been an inspiration to heros across the world, who themselves have saved people's lives. But the most important thing he has ever done is that he has also always been able to make people laugh and put an everlasting smile on their faces. Ken Griffey Jr. innovated a new way to play the game of baseball, by involving a power swing and speed to his game along with some comedy, while at the same time creating an everlasting smile on children who watched him and children whom lives were impacted and saved by his foundation .