Blog

Ever since the drinking age has been raised from 18 to 21, there has always been groups and support for the drinking age to be 18 again. There have been arguments for it and now even some college presidents are pushing for it. I feel that the drinking age should actually be raised to 23 to help eliminate a lot of the alcohol at college campuses and give people more time to develop a maturity and some wisdom on how to consume alcohol. Even though it would hurt or concern people of age before this regulation change it would greatly aid those in college. In my opinion, each state should strengthen regulations on the age of drinking from the age of 21 to age 23.
One of the reasons for increasing the drinking age is that it would help eliminate a great amount of drinking on college campuses. Generally on a college campus, the ages of most of the students range from 18-22 with probably less than five percent being outside those ages. Experiencing a small amount of college life and parties myself, even though there are some “of age” students drinking and buying alcohol, most do not drink socially, they are drinking to get completely drunk. According to a study from the Medical College of Georgia, 90% of college student do not know how to drink responsibly and about 60 to 70% knowingly drink to get drunk. Also, since there are numerous parties happening at college, there is a great chance for binge drinking and also getting alcohol poisoning because of the intent of just getting drunk. Another reason that the raise in the minimum drinking age would benefit at the college level is if there was less alcohol there would be less pressure from others do drink and maybe inhibit someone to start bad habits or trigger a dependency on alcohol. An interesting study done by the Boston University School of Public Health showed some frightening statistics. Showing changes from 1998 to 2001, there was an increase in alcohol-related unintentional injury deaths from 1600 to 1700. Since the study was done over seven years ago, we can only assume that if the study were done today, unfortunately, the numbers would probably have increased. Also the study showed that there was about a five percent increase in the number of students reporting driving under the influence of alcohol. Overall, the effect of a college campus on students and drinking is one reason that I feel states should increase the drinking age to 23.

Blog

Movies try to intrigue the teen fan base with sex, drugs, money, violence, and many other vulgar ideas. Especially in today's time, it is tough to find a movie that has a meaningful impact on your life, or at least your ideas on certain subjects like God, time travel, or even destiny. Just in the past few years, box office hits have included Superbad (underage drinking), Pineapple Express (drugs), and Knocked Up (sex). On October 26, 2001, Donnie Darko was released nationwide in theaters. Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhall, encompasses everything a movie should be for viewers like teens. With the storyline making you question your ideas of life, death, time travel, among many more, Donnie Darko is the one of the most emotional stimulating and pleasing movies of our time.
While personally viewing Donnie Darko for the first time, I was in a complete stupor after the ending. I ended up spending the rest of the night researching the internet for answers to this movie, which was to no avail. Movies today reflect the attitudes of our teen generation. Just go through a store and you can find multiple items that offer “instant satisfaction.” What happened to the times of exploring and researching a topic to come to your own conclusion? Donnie Darko goes against the grain, especially in this aspect of society.
Without giving away any type of information about the movie, I urge everyone to watch it. Not just put it in your DVD player and have it play in the background while you do something else, but actively listen and pay attention to each and every detail. If you have to watch it more than once to pick up some details, please do. If you do so, this movie will make you question your thoughts on so many powerful ideas(hopefully). In other words, it's awesome. Rent/buy immediately!

Case Study

While writing, especially for this class, I have seen a connection in my feelings with my writing. Knowing that many of my peers are going to read and critique what I have wrote, I pay special attention to detail as to what I may or may not include. While baseball, the main subject of my papers, may not be controversial, I still want to be as universal as possible. Because I am still very self-conscious about what people may think, I pay special attention to my papers for English 111 in contrast to other papers I write for other classes because I know only the teacher will read those instead of the whole class.
Along with feelings influencing my papers, I can also see my temperament influencing my papers. Days when I feel angry are when my papers are full of raw emotion. I'm not really concerned about the structure but just getting words into the paper. It would never be something I would turn in, but when I'm mad is when I get a lot of detail into the paper. Days when I'm feeling in a good mood influences my paper, as well. These are days when I will sit down, turn some music on and work on my paper as a whole. Rather than just getting ideas down, I'll sit and make sure structure is evident and that the ideas flow smoothly in the paper as well.

Blog

Pitching up until the 1960's was the centerpiece for most major league baseball teams. While teams depended on big hitters like Babe Ruth, Eddie Mathews, Jimmie Foxx and others, the starting pitcher dictated whether the team won or lost that game. While it is a rarity to see a starting pitcher throw seven innings in a baseball game today, it was a rarity for a starting pitcher not to pitch at least seven innings. Pitching so deep into every baseball game ultimately decided how the game was going to turn out and is also the reason why most pitching records are held by players who played in the early twentieth century. Pitchers like Cy Young, Warren Spahn, Walter Johnson and many others have won well over 300 games because of their ability to pitch many innings at a time and the pitching concept led managers to keep starting pitchers in as long as possible. Hall of fame pitchers from today's pitching concept can still win over 300 games, but usually can only amass 250 victories throughout a full career. This is due partly to the change of the pitching rotation in the mid 1960's or so. Up until this time, teams carried four starting pitchers that were expected to pitch every fourth day as long as they possibly could. The idea of keeping more hitters on the bench rather than pitchers was important because the strategy of the game was skewed towards manufacturing runs with pinch runners and pinch hitters rather than today's current strategy.

In today's “new” concept, pitching has become a premium on the roster. This has changed due to many different reasons. Like everything in the world today, money is a big factor. General Managers are concerned about hurting the pitcher's arm, so they limit the amount of pitches or innings they can throw. Also, match-up pitching has become very popular. Using statistics, MLB teams can find out whether hitters are good against left or right handed pitchers and can even find out how good a hitter is on fastballs or breaking pitches. Due to this new information being kept in the “new” pitching concept era, teams usually keep up to 10 or 11 relievers to try to counter attack against a big hitter late in the game that could decide a win or loss. In Whitey Herzog's book You're Missin' a Great Game, Herzog talks about the planning each game took because of the new use of relievers. “You'll never know what reliever you'll need tomorrow, so the best thing is just to have depth on your staff” (Herzog 120). With all the different match-up's that were possible, it was vital to keep that many relievers in the “new” era of pitching.

While many people can debate over which concept is better, there are clear-cut positives for both concepts. Being able to pitch deep into ball games allowed teams only to keep 8 or so pitchers which gave the team that extra dangerous player on the bench who could get that important hit, steal a base or be able to sacrifice the runner to the next base. The game itself was much more of one starting pitcher against another. The better pitcher on that day would be the deciding factor in a victory or loss. In today's new concept, a baseball game has evolved into much more than just one starting pitcher against another. With pitch counts, expanded pitching rotation and risk factoring into each pitcher, the amount of innings pitched by starting pitchers has decreased. While some old time baseball fans may hate this new style, less arm strain on a pitcher could extend his career multiple years. Also, it may be more challenging for a hitter because of a new pitcher almost every other inning due to match-up relievers

Case Study Blog

In thinking of what type of writing I would ever pursue if I would want to make it a career, I felt the choice would be easy. As you could possibly guess, I am a giant fan of sports. Growing up, I played football, basketball, and most importantly, baseball. I mean, my first baby picture was taken with a cubs outfit on. As I grew older, my knowledge of baseball has expanded exponentially throughout the years. With playing experience through college, I can relate to major league players that someone who may not have played could not. Also, being involved in coaching junior high baseball expanded my knowledge in writing about baseball as well. Being able to relate to major league managers, though on a small scale, would also influence my writing by having knowledge on the managing aspect as well as being a player. My style of writing would be most beneficial in a sports magazine. I think with the insights I could offer because of my knowledge of playing and managing, my writing could be refreshing in the opinionated Sports Illustrated. Being able to write with the players and managers in mind rather than bashing them, in most cases, could create more friendly relationship between players/managers and writers.

Week 9 Blog

Every year, awards are given out after the baseball season like Most Valuable Player for both the National and American leagues, Silver Slugger awards, Gold Glove awards and also Rookies of the Year. One award imparticular has lost its luster and importance because of a change in how people are voting for the Cy Young award. In recent years, the pitcher who wins the award is not the pitcher who best leads his team to victory but the pitcher who can put up the best statistics to appeal to voters. While these new statistical categories have been very beneficial for Major League teams for scouting purposes, they should not play the deciding factor in voting for the Cy Young award. I feel that rather than basing one's vote on statistical categories for the Cy Young award, the award should be given to the pitcher who best leads their team to victory.

In recent years, the Cy Young award has not gone to the pitcher who has best led their league statistically and leading their team to victory. In this year’s voting for the National League Cy Young, statistics like strikeouts and earned run average skewed voters into voting Tim Lincecum the Cy Young award winner rather than Adam Wainright, who led his team to the playoffs and had four more wins than Lincecum. Also, pitcher Zack Greinke won the American League Cy Young award with a record-low 16 victories. The two pitchers who led their respective leagues in wins this season with 19 a piece lost their deserving award because of these baseball voters who are now enamored with statistics that do not mean nearly as much as wins or winning percentage.

Rather than a pitcher who has good statistics, I feel the deserving winner should be a pitcher who puts his team in the best overall position to win each and every game that he takes the mound.