Help for a report

[NYMets523]

In my AP United States History class we've been assigned a project on a subject of our choice. We can do basically anything so long as we relate to how it effected America. My teacher wants us to focus on a specific decade so we go into detail. I plan on writing my report on baseball (obviously).

My first issue is what decade to focus on. My first idea was to do the 1920's. I imagine the emergence of Babe Ruth and other famous players helped "cleanse" baseball after the Black Sox scandal. I also thought this would have a good amount of information.

My other idea was the 1970's because this seems to be the decade with the biggest transition between what the game was in the 50's and 60's to what the game is today.

The time period restrictions are really arbitrary so I can go into the couple years before and after.

I'm not asking anyone to write this report for me. I'm only asking for suggestions of good sources I can use and important events and people I can focus on. This report has 2 options; I can write a 5-page report and do a creative presentation (An example he gave us was if someone did TV in the 1950's was to make their own 50's TV show. I can handle this myself but if any has some ideas I'd love to hear them) or I can write a 10-page paper (will be more difficult but given the wealth of information and my experience doing one before I don't believe it will be very difficult.

Thanks to all who help.

[2Chance]

If you do a presentation on the 70s, you're right about the economics of baseball being perhaps the biggest issue. It started with Curt Flood, who had a great career with the Cardinals, being traded against his will to baseball's lowly outpost of Philadelphia after the 1969 season. You can't use wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_Flood) for a reference, but I can, and here's an opening paragraph:

His major claim to fame is becoming one of the pivotal figures in the sport's labor history when he refused to accept a trade following the 1969 season, ultimately appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although his legal challenge was unsuccessful, it brought about additional solidarity among players as they fought against baseball's reserve clause and sought free agency.
You should probably read the article for background. Also having to do with the economics of baseball, go with whatever you can find on Marvin Miller, Peter Seitz, Dave McNally, Andy Messersmith and Jim "Catfish" Hunter. It's easy to find stuff on Hunter, and you might throw in the craziness associated with working for Charlie Finley on the A's, and the difference between Finley's philosophy of gimmickry and Steinbrenner's of signing big stars for big money and telling them to win championships.

Something else to consider with the economics issue is the player's strike at the beginning of the '72 season which resulted in a pension plan and salary arbitration. As an aside, you might note that the two weeks of games they skipped were never made up because the owners refused to pay the players for those games, and that may have affected the final standings.

Race was still an issue in the 70s, and you had Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth's all-time home run record. I think it was 1971 when Danny Murtaugh put an all-black lineup on the field for the Pirates, and he wasn't thinking about color when he did it.

There were some great teams then. Teams that had nicknames! The Swingin' As, Big Red Machine, Bronx Zoo....

In architecture, the multi-purpose "cookie cutter" stadiums came into vogue at the start of the 70s, with the All-Star game being played on Astroturf in Cincinnati that summer and Pete Rose going all-out to win the game at any expense, effectively ending the career of Indian catcher Ray Fosse. Similar stadia were built in St. Louis, Philadelphia and Atlanta. One player whose name escapes me at the moment said that when you're inside them you can't remember which city you're in.

That ws actually the second all-star game on artificial turf: in 1968 they played in the Astrodome, for which the turf was created, the first enclosed area for baseball known at the time as "the eighth wonder of the world." They had to put up a building in Houston because the mosquitoes were so bad in summer that nobody would go see the Colt 45's play.

Hopefully some of this can get you started. Look into some of those biographies and maybe check wiki articles for background and more leading on where to go.

[NYMets523]

Curt Flood and the player's union was partly why I chose this era. I had seen Ken Burns' documentary and it ended with Flood appealing his trade to the Cardinals.

That is some good info to start with. Thanks.

[Dalkowski110]

"One player whose name escapes me at the moment said that when you're inside them you can't remember which city you're in."

I know the quote, and it's been ascribed to MANY players. It's most associated with Willie Stargell, but Pops would later claim he never said it. Tug McGraw took credit for inventing it as well (Interestingly, the Ken Burns documentary "Baseball" juxtaposes the ascribing of the quotes of McGraw and Howard Johnson commenting on Astroturf [whether he liked it or not]: "I dunno. I've never smoked the stuff.").

[The Dude]

If you would like to read the opinion of the court, here are a few links to it.

http://supreme.justia.com/us/407/258/case.html

http://www.law.pitt.edu/madison/contracts/supplement/flood_v_kuhn.htm

Those are citable sources and basically say the same thing wiki does.

[2Chance]

It occurred to me later that Bill James' Historical Abstract breaks everything down by decade.

Also, Baseball-Almanac.com has a great lead-in for each year in their "Year By Year" section. (Just a little plug. ;) )

[Sultan_1895-1948]

My first issue is what decade to focus on. My first idea was to do the 1920's. I imagine the emergence of Babe Ruth and other famous players helped "cleanse" baseball after the Black Sox scandal. I also thought this would have a good amount of information.


The scandal really didn't break publicly until near the end of '20, when the country already had its full attention on Ruth and his homers. That's what Babe did. He caused the scandal and its details to be in smaller print than it otherwise would have been. A pleasant distraction. That was in the past and was nothing like the ball they were seeing now anyway. Homers couldn't be fixed and on top of it, the player hitting them was the most engaging, charismatic, sincere showman they'd ever seen.