World Series Baseball:

 Was It A Subway Series or What?

 

 

A WebQuest for Ninth Graders

Fitzroy I. Hayles

Fitzroyhayles2@hotmail.com

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Baseball has become American’s favorite pastime. The game of baseball is the second most watched sport in the world.  It is second only to European football. The major prize for the game of baseball is the participation in the World Series, which is affectionally called the “ Fall Classics”. Over the years participations in the World Series has been reserved to the few teams with the ability to acquire the elite players. In essence, it has given certain teams so much power and has help to create dynasties within the sport. Not only is it difficult to reach the  “Fall Classics”, but also it is ten times as hard for two teams in the same state, much less the same city to achieved that level of success. New York City has attained that level of success and was reward with his Teams The New York Metropolitans and New York Yankees reaching the so called Subway Series

 

 

The Task

 

Students will do the following:

  1. Investigate the historical background of the World Series, including public policies that have contributed to the introduction and spread of the game within the country and around the world.
  2. Determine what social effect the game of baseball, in general, and the Subway Series will have on the City of New York
  3. In addition to your research, students will develop a questionnaire and conduct a survey using the Opinion Survey software.
  4. Use their knowledge of graphing to present their finding in tables or graphs in order that it can be easily understood.
  5. Write a 3-5 page condensed report of your findings.
  6. Using your research and survey finding (results), create a Power Point presentation.

In their endeavor to formulate public opinion, the researchers will be guided by the following questions:

 

What were the financial, social or political benefits that were derived from the event in the city?

In the best interest of the sport, would it have been more beneficial if the World Series were played between two teams from different cities?

Does the financial superiority of teams have any long-term effect on the team’s ability to win?

Was the “Subway Series” an event view and enjoyed by the average fan?

How did the results or failures of the series help in the formulations of future public policies within the city, state, and that of Major League baseball?

 

 

The Process

 

  1. Students will work in their original groups of four as was assigned at the start of the school year.
  2. The group leader will assign specific roles and define goals for each member of the group.
  3. You will develop, complete and conduct an online survey about the historical, socio-economical and political effects of the Subway Series.
  4. Every group will identify and list the website and other research took that were used in the process of their investigation.

 

 

Baseball Survey

 

Answer the following questions, saying whether you feel the statement is true or false

1.   Yankees and Mets aye the two most popular teams in baseball  _______

  1. An equal percentage of Mets’ fans and Yankees’ fans live outside the Tri-state area  ____

3.   Mets fans are mostly female      ________

4.   As compare with the other teams in baseball, a higher percentage of Mets’and Yankees’ fans lived outside the state of New York    _________     

  1. Most Mets and Yankees fans are rich white males __________
  2. A higher percentage of Yankees’ fans are Republicans as compared to the Mets’ fans  ___
  3. Mets and Yankees has the highest individual payrolls in baseball ______
  4. Mets and Yankees are the two best teams in baseball ________
  5. The baseball public would rather want to watch the World Series game between the Mets and the Yankees than between any other two teams in baseball _______
  6. The Subway series is the best finale in baseball _______

 

 

Fill in the blank

11. Where do most Yankees and Mets fans live?    _________

12. Is there a greater percentage of Yankees’ fans outside the Tri-state area than Mets’ fan? _______

13. Which team has the higher percentage of Democratic fans?        __________

14. Is the percentage of Hispanic and other minorities Yankees’ fans greater than the percentage of Hispanic and other minorities Mets’ fans? ________

15. Which team has a higher percentage of young fans?       _________

  1. Which team has the higher percentage of fans with college degrees? _____
  2. Which team has the higher percentage of fans less than thirty-five years of age? __
  3. On a scale of one to five, what are your feelings about the importance of the subway series: It is the best thing for baseball ______
  4. The Subway Series is of great financial importance to New York: strongly agree, agree, no basis to judge, disagree, strongly disagree. _______
  5. Baseball is the most exciting game played in the world today strongly agree, agree, no basis to judge, disagree, strongly disagree. _______

 

  1. Your 3-5 page paper will:
    1. Highlight the and describe the results of the group’s findings
    2. Propose a possible policy change that would address the issue of preventing monopoly in baseball and promoting different system that will allow for more equity in the sport.

4.   Graphical PowerPoint Presentation

  1. As you perform your investigations copy, download, or take into account any charts, tables, graphs or statistical analyses about the World and Subway Series

 

 

Resources

 

Students will be allowed to use the Internet and all other resources available to them to complete their investigations and research.

 

Items in category history

Baseball Almanac

A baseball almanac filled with stats, facts, and a book full of baseball history

http://baseball-almanac.com

 

Baseball Reliquary

The Baseball Reliquary is dedicated to fostering an appreciation of the historical development of baseball and its interaction within American culture

http://baseballreliquary.org

 

BaseballHistory.com

A site that features the history of baseball, MLB, NL, records, historic films, books and videos

http://www.baseballhistory.com

 

Coughlin’s Corner

Provides links and information about the history of baseball and current events

http://students.tusculum.edu/~tcoughli

Graphical History of Baseball

A graphical history of baseball

http://home.istar.ca/~mbien/baseball.html

Major League Baseball History

Standings from every Major League Baseball season since 1876 and postseason championship series results

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/4222

 

RBI-Research in Baseball Index

Society for American Baseball Research service for accessing baseball literature database.

http://www.baldeagle.com/bibcomm/rbi.html

 

Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

Research information, SABR On-line Bookstore, Bulletin Board Comment Page, Baseball Links

http://sabr.org

 

Subway Series

A chronicle of the intra-city World Series between NY Yankees, NY Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. The social and financial implications, benefits derived by the city.

http://mrudolf.tripod/subway/html

 

Baseball Classic Journal

Stats, studies, and news relating to the history and legacy of the game.

http://www.thebaseballpage.com

 

Other Sources of Information

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://si.com

 

For news and television station Internet sites

http://caribbeansorts.com

http://cnnsi.com

http://foxsports.com

http://espn.com

http://chanel7sports

 

For individual team information (achieves)

http://mets.com

http://yankees.com

 

Baseball Questions and answers

Volunteer experts answer your detail one and one questions

http://www.allexperts.com/browse.asp

http://MLBfans.net

http://iis-sports.com/ub/forumdisplay

http://sportspic.com/forums/forum.html

http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=baseball+worldseries

http://photosport.com

http://search.aol.com/subwayseries

http://baseball-almanac.com

http://www.diamondfans.com

 

 

Evaluation

 

Your work will be evaluated as group work and individual work. The evaluation will be bases on the survey that was done, the PowerPoint presentation and the written reports.

I.                    Baseball survey

II.                 PowerPoint presentation

III.               Written report

3-5 pages of text, typed, double space, report format

All the name of group member listed in alphabetical order

 

You will be evaluated based on the rubric chart below

 

 

Unsatisfactory

Needs Improvement

Satisfactory

Exemplary

Survey

Did not take Baseball survey

Survey results not well presented, insufficient responses, no change in opinion before or after the survey

Very good survey, lots of efforts placed in accessing the results and tabulating the findings

Survey results shows clear understanding of the process, well planned, distributed, and results discussed and tabulated.

Research and Information Gathering

Very little research done

Incomplete, research brief with little or no example.

Shows a good amount of thorough research has taken place on the topic

Well-researched, understood the topic used specific and relevant examples and facts

Complete and accurate information where ideas are well researched and elaborated upon.

 

Report

Poorly developed report, not formatted, serious grammatical and spelling errors.

 

 

 

Complete, sufficiently developed information.

 

Report acceptable, not formatted, few serious errors

Well formatted report, few spelling and grammatical errors

 

Well formatted report, grammatically perfect

PowerPoint

Presentation

No PowerPoint presentation

Effective uses of the

PowerPoint presentation.

Effective uses of examples of the PowerPoint presentation

Well-designed PowerPoint presentation

 

 

Conclusion

 

By the end of the project, the students will have an idea about how public policy are developed and the effects they have on the community. Your involvement and usage of the Public Policy Analyst techniques will help you develop problem solving and writing skills. These skills are very important in your schoolwork and examinations. The final products (your projects) will be displayed on the school main bulletin board. A copy will be given to the principal in order that it can be placed in the school yearbook.