Baseball Joe at Yale #2

I have now finished my Baseball Joe book. One way it seemed to pertain to my essay topic is based on the competition of one team and fighting for playing time. Baseball is such a big deal for these Yale players (It’s their life) that they are willing to put their teammates in danger just to get the glory of playing for their college. The Yale pitcher at the beginning of the book is Ford Weston. Baseball Joe wants to take his spot as the starting pitcher. He does so successfully, but in order to get his job back, Weston frames Joe for a prank Weston did himself.

In Division 1 college athletics, players are given popularity, great facilities, and attention. The only thing this will do for the 98% of athletes who don’t continue to the professional level, is pamper them and misguide them about what the future holds. Fortunately for Baseball Joe, he is offered a professional job right after his big win against Princeton.

Another thing that is brought up in the book is the constant practice and overuse of athlete’s bodies. Joe’s arm begins to tire during a game, but he decides to continue to pitch because he doesn’t want the Yale fans to think he’s weak or that he’s making excuses. As just college kids, some athletes are faced with multiple practices per day, in which to impress their peers and the rest of the sports world, they will make the ill-advised decision to continue playing when they really shouldn’t.

A couple ways in which the book differs from real life, is that very rarely does a D1 athlete walk-on to their school team. And if they do, then they never actually play. Also the book seems to show that while Baseball Joe’s main focus is baseball, he still has time for class, where he doesn’t do spectacularly, but he does well enough. For the D1 athlete, there is almost no time for class, and all their focus is on their sport. Furthermore, since Baseball Joe is set in 1913, college athletics have become much more popular. Over the last century, the introduction of media has allowed everything (including college sports) to gain a lot more attention. At times, even more than the professional level.

For my project, I plan to mention Northwestern’s attempt to unionize the football team. They believed that they were acting as employees for the University. The NCAA attempted to reverse the earlier decision made by the regional National Labor Relations Board. I find it interesting that the school and the NCAA are both fighting this attempt to unionize. The NCAA makes so much money from these athletes, that they really should be considered employees of the school. In fact, in many cases, a student could have a paid job in the school bookstore where they sell the athletes jersey, yet the athletes still is not getting paid.