Conclusion

In class, I learned a lot about Lebron James that I did not really care about, but when we were on topic there was a lot of information we learned.  It seemed like the class was a trip around the world.  We never focused on one thing, but always traveled, from the Asian Invasion to American sports, Qatar getting the 2022 World Cup, David Beckham being the most recognizable face in sports, South Africa in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, to the Canadian Crisis with the Wayne Gretzky trade.  The most useful thing I learned was that we as a country are not as great as we thought.  We lost the Olympics and the World Cup and when everyone thought the Super Bowl was the most important sporting event in the world, all three World Cups (soccer, rugby, and cricket) all get more fans and are watched all over the world.  The topic I found most interesting was the “boatload mentality” and how my opinion was dramatically different from the rest of the class and I refused to budge my beliefs.  This practice is not a race issue, but a business proposition and it is something I enjoyed debating.  As far as blogging, I definitely did not keep up, as it is something easy to do at the last minute, however I do wish I kept up with them because it is a great way to write down all your thoughts on a subject and express yourself and by keeping up it sums up what was just learned and helps you remember it better.  Blogging is the new technology driven public journal and I have always thought about doing a sports blog to speak my mind on current topics, so this may be a start for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this class because of how laid back and conversational it was.  I was passionate about the topics, so I loved giving my opinion and throwing my two cents out there.  In all of my other classes, I generally just sit in the back and do not say anything because truthfully I do not really care, but this class was much different and was a great atmosphere and I would tell anybody to take this class.

The "Boatload Mentality." It's About Skill, Not Race

Every time we discussed the “boatload mentality” and comparing Latino players to Asian and American players, the race issue was always brought up.  This happened because it was the easiest excuse to make but there does not need to be an excuse for this since there is no problem to begin with.  The reason why American born players make more than Asian and Latino born players (and essentially why Asian born players make more than Latino born players) is because of the level of competitiveness and age were all these players sign their contracts.  Americans are 18 year old players coming out of high school or 20-23 year old players coming out of college.  These young men are playing the ultimate competitive level of baseball and that is why they are making million dollar signing bonuses.  These are the ones that have proven the most on the amateur level and have a strong upside.  When Asian players enter Major League Baseball, they are in their upper twenties, lower thirties in age and have been playing in the Asian leagues for years, often considered to be a level just above AAA baseball and just below the MLB.  Finally, the reason that Latin American players have such a low bonus when coming to play baseball in America is because they come from a region that has next to nothing and competitively is not much better.  Yes, there is a lot of talent in these Latin American regions, but when these players are signed, they sign at the age of 16 and come to America based on potential and still have a lot to learn.  These young men will gladly take that bonus because it will probably be more than they could ever make while staying at home.  Most of these young men do not have a future because they will not get a good education, if they get one at all.  Baseball is their ticket.  If they work hard and show potential, a team will take a risk on them.  That is how it has been and more than likely how it will always be.  This is not a race issue, this is all business.

Mandela and the Springboks

Nelson Mandela was a smart man.  He knew that the best way to unite a divided country was to use sports.  Athletics get disrespect, but if you look through history, sports are what bring people together, and minus a few acts of violence, are generally peaceful times.  Rugby was the white man’s game and black people did not care about it, but Mandela used his political power to unite all the people of South Africa past the apartheid during the 1995 Rugby World Cup.  Mandela was seen around the South African rugby team, the Springboks, and even wore the jersey of the captain, Francois Pienaar, during the tournament.  So why is all of this relevant?  Mandela, a black man himself, associated himself with the Springboks and campaigned for them, always speaking good and always trying to get the entire nation to rally around them.  Blacks did not play or care about rugby, but they did care about and respect Mandela, so they rallied around his cause.  They learned the game of rugby and cheered full force for the Springboks during the World Cup and rooted them on to victory against the All-Blacks of New Zealand, another power in the game.  With Mandela backing up the team and the team doing their part on the field, the entire nation of South Africa was overjoyed and finally together.  Mandela used rugby to unite a nation, and maybe I only feel this way because of how much I love sports, but it seems that is the best way to unite people.  Forcing them into things politically and economically never seem to work, but to unite them on a common ground, to have them root for their fellow people against another country, that is what brings people together.

Canadian Crisis and the NHL's Gain

Wayne Gretzky is arguably the greatest hockey player to ever lace up a pair of skates.  He was a Canadian hero and icon and an instant legend.  He played for Canada’s own Edmonton Oilers and dominated with them, winning Stanley Cups and setting all sorts of individual records.  However, one day changed everything for Canada and they lost their hero.  When Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings, a team that did not put fans in the stands in a city that did not get very cold, the whole country was devastated.  Canadians were constantly losing and finishing behind the United States in everything including sports, politics, and economics.  Canada had Gretzky and then they lost him to the country that always one ups them.  The free trade agreement scared Canadians that the United States would somehow take over and control parts of Canada.  Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal for cheating and Gretzky married an American woman before being traded.  Canadians were on hard times and the Gretzky trade made things worse.  It did however help the NHL.  It brought great hockey to a region that never experienced that before.  It opened up an entire new market and games in Los Angeles and against the Kings were selling out and the NHL was making a lot of money.  The NHL loved the trade, but good luck explaining that to Canadians.  Edmonton was set to win a few more Stanley Cups, Gretzky was on pace to break more records, and the history books would be filled with information about the great Oilers dynasty, but things changed that night when Gretzky left Canada.

Beckham to America

Tom Brady is a hero, Derek Jeter is an icon, and Michael Jordan is a legend.  These three men are recognized all over the world, but there may be one man that is even greater.  That man is David Beckham.  Beckham is one of the best and most popular soccer players in the world, especially a few years ago when he was in his prime, but why?  One, he has the talent.  Swift soccer skills and great goal scoring ability, he has a lot to put on the pitch.  Two, he has the looks.  He dresses well, looks nice, and always presents himself well. Finally, and extremely most importantly, he knows how to market himself.  That is the key in how to become one of the most popular people in the world.  He handles himself well on the pitch, with the media, and in public.  He has never really shown a reason to be hated other than you root for a team he does not play for.  He also plays the world’s game.  Playing the world’s most popular and recognizable sport helps him become higher than Brady, Jeter, and Jordan.  Him being sold to the Los Angeles Galaxy also helped bring a little more excitement to America for the game of soccer.  He may have been passed his prime and may have been a disappointment to some, but he still brought his swagger and his style to America and is still one of the most recognizable men on the planet.  Most people do not realize this, but MLS stadiums are selling out and soccer is as popular as it has ever been in America and Beckham coming to America to play does have something to do with that.

Twist of Race

Ben Johnson was a Canadian hero.  He was a man born in Jamaica, but just liked many others was accepted in Canada for being different.  Canada, unlike the United States, is a mosaic.  They are filled with all sorts of different people and lets them all be different, while the United States is a melting pot, where they try to take all their different people and turn them all into the same thing.  Johnson won Olympic Gold in the 1988 Summer Olympics in the 100m sprint, beating American Carl Lewis, considered to be one of the best all time sprinters in the world.  Canadians love beating Americans and a natural rivalry has been created where both countries take things a little more seriously when an event is between one another.  Johnson proved that Canadians can be better than Americans and with that gave Canada a sense of pride and every different person in Canada was proud.  Except there was one problem; Johnson cheated.  He got caught using performance enhancers three days later and was stripped of his gold medal.  This brought the twist of race.  Now Canadians saw him as nothing more than a cheater from Jamaica and hated him.  There even seemed to be more coverage in the newspapers that he cheated more than him winning the medal in the first place.  Because of this, the Dubin Inquiry was formed.  This was a court case that began in January of 1989 and lasted 91 daysand featured 122 witnesses that ranged from athletes and coaches to doctors and government officials.  This was something that Canada took very seriously and as happy as they were to have won, they were even more furious that Johnson cheated.

History of the Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is an International team tennis tournament played every year and this year’s Davis Cup was the 110^th anniversary of the start and the 99^th time a champion has been crowned.  The idea came about when four members of the Harvard Tennis team decided to challenge the British in a competition, with one of the Harvard players being Dwight F. Davis whom the cup would later be named after.  He created the tournament format and purchased a trophy with his own money.  Harvard, and thus the United States, ended up winning the first match in 1900 and the rematch in 1902 and by 1905, four more countries were competing.  The Davis Cup had only ever been won by four countries (the United States, Great Britain/British Isles, France, and Australia/Australasia [which was a combination of Australia and New Zealand]) until 1974, when it was awarded to South Africa when India refused to play them in the final due to the South African apartheid.  As far as expansion from the original two starters of the tournament, at the 100^th anniversary, there were 129 nations that competed to try to claim the Davis Cup.  The top 16 teams in the world compete in the yearly tournament and countries that do not compete in the main tournament compete in a regional zone tournament, in which losers of the main tournament face winners of the regional tournaments to decide who would compete in the following year’s tournament.  The top finishers of the Davis Cup include the United States, who has won or finished as a runner-up in 61 of the 99 tournaments, Australia who has finished in the top two 47 times, and Great Britain who has finished first or second 17 times.