I might use it to discuss anything that I may have any sort of opinion or feeling about. I am not sure that I would ever use it in a professional setting, but I may use it to casually say what I feel in front of millions of people. There is something very liberating about that.
The Great (Corporate) American Pastime- By Cody Campbell
It has been over a year for tribe fans for the transition from ‘the Jake’ to ‘the Prog.’ I am talking about the change in the stadium name for the Cleveland Indians. This has been on the mind of Indians fans for quite awhile now and the topic of stadium name changes has been on the mind of baseball fans everywhere for even longer. The commercialization of baseball stadium names has been really picking up pace over about the past five to ten years, and even more recently than that. There are currently 17 out of the 30 teams in Major League baseball who have sold the rights to the names of their stadiums since the stadium was first named. Let’s run down the list: Oakland A’s: “McAfee Coliseum”, Toronto Blue Jays: “Rogers Centre”, Seattle Mariners: “Safeco Field”, Tampa Bay Rays: “Tropicana Field”, Chicago White Sox: “U.S. Cellular Field”, Cleveland Indians: “Jacobs Field” and “Progressive Field”, San Fransisco Giants: “AT&T Park”, Philadelphia Phillies: “Citizens Bank Park”, Cincinnati Reds: “Great American Ball Park”, Milwaukee Brewers: “Miller Park”, Houston Astros: “Minute Maid Park”, San Diego Padres: “Petco Park”, Pittsburgh Pirates: “PNC Park”, St. Louis Cardinals: “Busch Stadium”, Colorado Rockies: “Coors Field”, Arizona Diamondbacks: “Chase Field”, and finally, Detroit Tigers: “Comerica Park.” So, let’s review. There are only a few stadiums that are named after the teams who play there. Other than that, there are stadiums (that have recently sold their rights to the names) named after beer, banks, cell phone companies, insurance companies, credit card companies, beer companies, juice companies and the Petco one is just randomly named after a pet store. There is even a great story behind Jacobs Field for all of you Indians fans. A rich guy named Richard Jacobs bought the rights to have the stadium named after him…that’s it. Okay, so it’s not a great story, but that is my point. Amongst all of this madness that is happening in the most historic and prestigious game in the world, in my opinion, there are some stadiums that have not sold the rights to their names since it was named. The team that has stayed true to the real meaning of baseball and has not been a corporate sell-out is the one who you would think would be the first one to sell-out…the Yankees. Yankee Stadium has held its name since its grand opening in 1923. Even though it is a team run by billionaires, it has stayed true. Even though I am one of the biggest Yankee haters ever, I respect their authenticity in keeping the name (even if they are destroying history by tearing down the old stadium). There are a few more stadiums that have stayed true to the game (Fenway, Wrigley, Turner, etc.), but for the most part the Great American Pastime is giving itself a price tag. It deeply upsets me as a baseball fanatic, someone who grew up knowing that football and basketball may have their problems but baseball will surely always remain the same, to now see baseball’s true colors coming out. People like me are not running baseball, however. It is corporate America. These greedy types who ran Wall Street into the ground are now stomping on the sacred ground of baseball. You may not realize it, but a terrible thing is happening right now. Baseball has always been that escape from the real world. Somewhere you can go to forget everything that is dragging you down in life and enjoy three hours of pure and worry-free bliss. I have been to 53 Indians games in five stadiums and, just like me, I don’t think that baseball will ever recover from this corporate, commercializing disease that is plaguing it now.
When we first started the class, I felt that this was going to be a very difficult class, and the introduction of the analytical research project just reconfirmed my beliefs. Then, the digital composition was sort of a more relaxing transition. Now moving on to the op-ed, I sort of feel that I am in the groove of the class. I am not saying that the class is easy because it does still require some heavy writing and deep thought, but it has gotten more laid back (to me) over the course of the quarter.
The rules and conventions of op-eds are simple. Someone is explaining a topic and what they feel about that particular topic. They are also trying to get you to come over to their side and accept their opinion as your own. They are trying to play on your emotions or logic or trying to persuade you about a topic that you may know nothing about. The author may use sneaky tactics to play on your vulnerabilities and get you to side with them.
It is interesting the way that the author describes the difficulties of the off-season for pro baseball players. They usually end the season in late September (unless their team makes the playoffs, then it is extended from a week to about a month) and start again the next (late) February or (early) March. So there may be four or five months off. I really thought it was weird that some of the players actually do strange things because they get bored in the off-season. For example, some of the things that the author cites, buying expensive cars, taking dancing lessons, hooking up with old girlfriends, getting part-time minimum wage jobs (when many of them have multi-million dollar contracts. Don’t these people have families or friend to do normal things with. Over-payed athletes should stop complaining about boredom.
The difference between academic and popular writing is simple. For academic writing, you are giving very reliable and detailed academic information to a more narrow academic audience. However, for popular writing, you don’t have to do any research and can write with no direct purpose other than entertainment.
I feel that there is something relevant to be said about the destruction of the old Yankee Stadium and the construction of the new one. Why are they doing this? It seems that the people who love the stadium a lot are not being considered here. Or do they really love it that much? Why is more protesting not being done. Are the economic benefits really worth building the new stadium. Will the Yankees keep their promise and finance the project themselves along with building newer and bigger parks after building over the old? I guess we will have to wait over the next few months and see what happens and how the city, the fans, and the organization respond?
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