Ballplayer: Pelotero, By Ross Finkel

Oh how I hated Seth! He was a small, shrimpy, pale kid. His voice was squeaky and sounded like there was a frog in his throat. Since he never t want to play, we decided to make him umpire. He was the worst ump in the whole world. . The first day we played kickball, P.J. and I were on the same team. P.J. was the opposite of Seth in my mind. He was great at kickball, and like me, he always argued. We had known of each other, but we never had a conversation. P.J. and I became friends quickly. We loved playing kickball together every day. Also, whenever Seth made a call against our team, right or wrong, we argued. Oh, how we argued! Challenging Seth was what we looked forward to, day after day. It was nonstop entertainment, and we had a lot of ammunition, with Seth as ump. We argued balls and strikes, safe and out, and catch or no catch.

Runner by Carl Deuker is a book written to describe the life of a boy named Chance Taylor and his dad. Chance is close to starvation and homelessness. He worries about paying the bills, having enough food to eat, and keeping his home, a small boat named the Tiny Dancer. While out on his usual run around the marina and beach, a man asks him if he would like a job. The man says all he has to do is run. Chance will have to pick up a package along the beach each day. The package will be hidden in the recesses of a rock buried at the foot of a maple tree. He then has to leave it in a locker. The man says the job pays a lot of money. Even though he suspects that he is smuggling drugs, he always completes the job and now has extra money in his pocket to spend at the café

Have you ever been forced to pick between right and wrong? Sometimes we are forced to choose between two hard choices, despite the consequences. In the book “Runner” by Carl Deuker, a boy named Chance is faced with a rough life, where his father drinks and his mother is no longer present. He lives on a boat with his father, in Seattle. Soon he is faced to with a offer to run packages around for men he doesn’t know, but get paid in the process. His small family needs the money, but who knows what is in those packages? He takes the opportunity for the money and goes through many adventures throughout this book, such as meeting a girl named Melissa, who lives the opposite life of his, privileged and nice.

Rather black people and white people are playing today other people from other countries are playing in the major leagues! Today you got one of the greatest Jose Altuve is from Venezuela and making his name in the Major leagues and other people from different countries. Today there is a baseball player named Ichiro Suzuki who is from Japan and he was a all star in Japan and he wanted to join MLB for more competition. One of the greats and future hall of fame player named David Ortiz my favorite baseball player of all time was from the Dominican republic and

The current population of Puerto Rican players in professional baseball today is around five percent. This is an incredible increase since the number of players during the eighties was only two percent. The meaning and point of this is that as can clearly be seen by the dramatic increase, the Puerto Ricans have learned through the past that hard work and perseverance pays off in the end. It is not only in baseball that this return rate can be seen. Unemployment has gone down in Puerto Rico since the eighties and although it may not be directly related to the numbers represented in professional baseball, it is role models in the community like the ones who are playing the professional sport that are creating hope and inspiring the rest of the country to excel to the best of their ability. Granted, “Puerto Rico has the dubious distinction of always suffering

Before the sport of baseball was tainted, it was initially just a growing sport amongst working middle-class people, whether they were playing or simply watching. The first professional team was formed in 1869 and was soon joined by eight other teams which formed the first national league for the sport of baseball. A few years after existence, the national league was struggling to stay afloat. Many team owners ruled with in an extremely strict manner. Athletes who put forward complaints were often fired and blacklisted. The first case of gambling within a baseball game happened the year 1877. Members of the Louisville Grays purposefully lost the game for money and claimed it was because they hadn’t been paid yet. Shortly after, baseball was turned into a booming business with the brand name “Spaulding” coming to rise in selling sporting goods. Eventually a new league of baseball was formed and came out on top as the favorite amongst the nation. While the players were enjoying the new conditions thanks to Spaulding, they were still ruled under extreme strictness. Players were being dictated and their complaints weren’t given any attention whatsoever. Despite many efforts to counter the strictness of the league, players were still put under poor conditions which may have caused the Black Sox Scandal to happen in the first place (Pearson).

Any sports one looks at can be classified as a money-making pit. Scouts looking at young talent ready to sign them for a quick buck and then once they stop producing, move on to the next potential talent. Baseball is the sport that is an industry dominated by trying to gain a profit from a region’s juvenile talent (Ruck). Since 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, there has been an increase in Latin American countries represented in MLB. More than a quarter of major league players are from Latin American, with about half of the minor league players being Latino (Ruck). On the opening day of the 2011 season, eighty-six players represented the Dominican Republic alone. That is more than a tenth of major leaguers (Ruck). One would

San Pedro De Marcoris, a costal city of the Republic which is the center of sugar production, is the only region in the world that has enough local talent to form a Major League baseball team. Most of the people of this sugar mill concentration are Colocos, as with most of the great baseball players of the Dominican Republic. So what is the connection between baseball and these Dominicans of English descent? Many will consider the hereditary aspect, as Colocos seem to be bigger in size than native Dominicans. However, the culture that they advocate is the major link in this relationship. The Colocos had a very organized and disciplined culture, carrying the British colonial tradition with them. This meant a certain degree of experience in benevolent societies and collective self-help, along with a strong sense of individualism. And they brought a passion for the game of cricket, which transformed into that of baseball. This attitude was carried on to the field and the approach to the game. Althouth the distinction between English and Dominican has waned, Colocos have without a doubt been the core of Dominican baseball's success,

In the poem Ex-Basketball Player, John Updike recounts the timeline of a once great basketball player named Flick Webb. The journey starts with a description of Flick’s hometown, then shares details about his current job, next it reflects on his high school basketball success, and finishes with his habits outside of work. In the first stanza, the poet is describing the town where Flick lives. Updike references trolley tracks which would imply an early 20th century setting. He also calls out the name of the garage specifically, Berth’s Garage. This implies that Flick lives in a small town because small towns named their gas stations after the owner, unlike big cities. In the third stanza, he talks about Flick playing high school basketball. Updike goes on to mention that in one season he scored three hundred and ninety points, a county record. The third stanza talks about how magnificent Flick was at basketball. The narrator indicates that he witnessed at least one such game when he noted, “I saw him rack up thirty-eight or forty in one home game” (Updike, 17-18). The countermotion of the poem occurs in the fourth stanza, which starts out by stating, “He never learned a trade, he just sells gas” (19). In this line of the poem, Updike reveals the tone of the narrator as sad and disappointed. With no education to fall back on, when a professional basketball career does not come about, Flick spends his life working at a gas station. The former player’s current life is described

One hundred and forty years after American-influenced Cubans fled their home island during the Ten Years’ War and brought baseball to the Dominican Republic (D.R.), the sport is thriving in the impoverished nation. In the sport’s top professional league, Major League Baseball (MLB), more current players were born in the Dominican Republic than any other country besides the United States, where 29 of the 30 MLB teams are based (Gregory 2010). The Dominican, a nation of 9.7 million that lies 700 miles southeast of the port of Miami, produced 86 of the 833 major league players on the opening-day rosters of the 2010 Major League Baseball clubs, and about a quarter of all the 7,000

Major League Baseball (MLB) in America has an influx of players from across the world and many come from Latin American countries. The country of Cuba has numerous players playing in the MLB even though Cuban citizens are not allowed to leave Cuba without a permit that is very difficult to get. Most young Cuban baseball players are forced to flea the country in order to enter the MLB. These young men have to risk jail time and their lives in hopes of getting a payday in America. They are smuggled out of their country by way of boat and often with help of the drug cartels. Hopefully one day Cuban ballplayers will have the same opportunities as those from other Latin American countries and will not be forced to flea their country in

The game of baseball has been argued to be the number one game in America and also around the world. Respectively the game is also known as “America’s pastime” had over 14 million people in the U.S. alone watching the World Series in 20151. Due to the growing popularity of baseball throughout the world the players of Major League Baseball (MLB) have become more diverse. Since 1950 when baseball started to grow in popularity the attendance per game has risen over 40%2.

For prospects that are forced into the minor leagues for development, the road to the majors has proven a grueling process and the majority of players never make it to the major leagues. Extremely low salaries and bonuses in the minor leagues has become an ongoing, controversial topic between MLB commissioner Bud Selig and minor league players 17. A fast food worker makes between $15,000 and $18,000 a year, which is two or three times as large as minor league players’ average salary, so minor league players are forced to have multiple jobs throughout the year 18. The majority of minor league players lie below the federal poverty level and while MLB salaries are rapidly increasing, minor leagues salaries remain constant. The MLB receives exemptions

Baseball is a sport that has been glorified and challenged since its fabrication in the 19th century. Baseball is a novel that analyzes and explains many of the defining and key moments of the sport's history that have shaped it into the game it is today. Rader's argument is that baseball is America's game, and like America's people, will stand the test of time. Rader reveals the struggles that have persisted to threaten the game's very existence and spectacular moments of the game that have brought America's people together. Rader also examines the impact and effect of the game's and America's heroes, such as Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and Roberto Clemente, that have defined what it means to be American, broken barriers, and changed the game

According to Baseball Reference.com, forty-eight MLB players were born in Japan, a dramatic increase since 1995 because of the impact of Nomo. After Hideo Nomo moved to America, forty-five players joined the MLB because Nomo was successful, but it was