MLB Essay

#1
stephenk24

stephenk24

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#1
Hey guys.

I always come to VN for inspiration for my history essays now, as this community always has good ideas and reccomendations.

Some of you may know that I am doing Sports Journalism at College. So I tend to focus my history essays on 'Merica.

My next essay I have decided, will be about baseball. Specifically a topic surrounding its history in some way.

I already wrote about race and Jackie Robinson in high school so I am looking for a different topic.

Any of you have any ideas for a good topic to cover and any books documentaries that would help me research? I really appreciate it.

The only idea I have is to write about whether the 98 home run race saved baseball...

Thanks again guys,

GO VOLS!
 
#2
#2
Roberto Clemente. For sure.

The Negro Leagues and how they finally crossed over to the MLB / were no more / their biggest legends.

The strike could be one, if you wanted to get into Selig's role.

The relationship MLB has with latin america, the scouts down there, and how mlb can improve that relationship.

Use of now-illegal pitches (spitballs, how pitchers used to cheat)

Watch Ken Burns: Baseball documentaries... they go back to the known beginnings.
 
#3
#3
The collusion between the owners in the 80s not to give contracts to free agents is fascinating. You can even go all the way back to Curt Flood and Andy Messersmith fighting to get free agent status.

The Black Sox Scandal.

Pete Rose gambling.

If you do the 98 home run race, you could expand it into the whole steroid issue.

Baseball has a history full of good stories.

Youtube would be a good place to watch documentaries and videos about the subject you like.
 
#4
#4
Awesome. Some topics I hadn't thought of there. Thanks. I certainly like the idea of Pete Rose gambling / black sox and the strike in the 90s. Thanks.
 
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#5
#5
I'm pretty sure some individual player "sportscentury" features are floating around on youtube, and i've always really enjoyed those.

could do cal ripken, jr.

could do something about back in the day players missing years for service time.

could discuss how games used to be covered and the progression of media... i remember hearing that newspapers used to release an afternoon copy to update eager fans after half of the game, and then an evening or morning copy with final scores.
 
#6
#6
The Black Sox scandal would be great.

Curt Flood is a really interesting dynamic.

You can do one advanced statistics if you like that sort of thing.
 
#11
#11
Tommy John Surgery

Ted Williams... Could speculate on what his numbers would be like if he hadn't served in two wars.

All-time great base-stealers

A historic minor league park

Evolution of pitching staff usage strategies: one-inning relievers, LOOGYs, 6-man rotations, the possibility of piggy-backing young starters to split a game for one rotation spot, versus carrying a seventh reliever that pitches once a week.

Cuban baseball

The Designated hitter

Park effects

Worst teams of all-time

The knuckleball
 
#12
#12
Curse of the billy goat. It is a bizarre story that, unfortunately for me, still haunts Cub fans to this day. Some highlights

* owner of the billy goat restaurant in Chicago tries to bring his goat to a game, is turned away, and curses cubs.

*Black cat runs onto the field during a game, circles Cub great Ron Santo who is standing in the on deck circle, then runs off the field. Cubs collapse and are eliminated from the playoffs.

* Bill Buckner is traded from the Cubs to the Red Sox then blows the World Series for the Sox with an error at first base. He was wearing his batting glove with the cubs logo under his fielding glove (you're welcome Sox fans).

*Bartman

..and the list goes on. Damn, now I need a drink.
 
#13
#13
An interesting topic that I haven't seen listed yet is baseball as a means for spying. When baseball's best went to Japan barnstorming in 1934, the Americans abroad includes names such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and...Moe Berg?

Moe Berg was a second-rate catcher who just happened to be a multilingual US spy. Some of the information he gathered was used in planning and carrying out the 1943 Doolittle raids. During WWII, Berg served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services (a predecessor for today's CIA).

I won't clog the thread with a huge wall of text, but if it sounds interesting, a quick Google brings up quite a bit of information on him.
 
#15
#15
Some great suggestions. Going to be hard to decide what to write about, appreciate it guys.
 
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