C.J. Helweg

Mr. Robbins

English 1310

11/27/2007

Word Count: 1002

The Distribution of Sport

Technology has allowed information to be transferred faster than ever thought possible. Information is not the only thing being transferred at a rapid rate though. Clothing, food, electronics, automobiles, entertainment and fashion are crossing international borders as soon as they become available. One of the most influential things to be crossing borders is sports. Sports have made the jump from country to country with very little resistance and vast acceptance by the population. It is a universal language that everyone in the world can understand. The languages may not be the same, but the feelings of passion and support are mutual in all nations. Baseball, soccer, and golf can be found in nearly every country in the world.

The exact date of origin is unknown, but the sport of baseball was organized in the late 1800’s (Early Baseball Law). Since this time, baseball has attracted many athletes from different countries and has become established in many countries as well. Baseball is most popular in the Caribbean region, Asia and the United States. Players from these countries come to the United States to participate in the MLB, Major League Baseball. The Dominican Republic has the most non-U.S. players on the roster with ninety-eight, followed by Venezuela with fifty-one, Puerto Rico with twenty-eight, Canada with nineteen, Japan and Mexico had 13 each, Panama with seven, Cuba with six, South Korea with 3, Colombia and Taiwan two each, and Aruba, Australia, Curacao and Nicaragua each have one. This equals about twenty-nine percent of the all MLB rosters including inactive lists and disabled lists, which is a record high for the MLB (National Pastime). While the MLB in America is the most popular in the world, there is an international league called the World Baseball League. The league was established in 2005 and contains sixteen teams from around the world that include Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Italy, Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Africa, United States, and Venezuela (World Baseball Classic). It’s not only the adult players that are making world travels and playing different countries. The Little League World Series has exploded in popularity in the past few years. The first World Series was played in 1947, and since then 21 countries have joined the rush for the little league World Series trophy. When the Little League World Series started to be broadcasted on ESPN and ESPN2, the world started to get more interested and supportive of the little leaguers.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. It’s very simple to play, which makes it so popular among the masses. All you need is a round ball. Anybody can kick a ball,which makes it nearly available to everyone. There are many leagues in which soccer athletes participate in. The World Cup League involves thirty-two national teams competing for the world cup of soccer (World Cup). The Premier League in England has twenty teams (England). There are twenty-eight teams in the Champions League (UEFA). The popularity of soccer is growing in the United States.

“The growth represents a nice increase in total, but it's not huge on a compound-growth basis. Frequent players (40+ times a year) grew from 3 million to 5.3 million during the period. But it remains a youth sport. Participants aged 7 to 11 went from 44.2 percent of total participation to 36.3 percent. Participants aged 12 to 17 fell from 29.8 percent to 26.7 percent. That translates to 63 percent of all participants being under age 18” (Carr).

Cities are building new, major league soccer stadiums in the United States because the popularity of the sport is continuing to grow. The United States also has a professional soccer league, the MLS. The league had an eastern and western conference and includes the Houston Dynamo, Chivas USA, the Colorado Rapids, FC Dallas, Los Angeles Galaxy, and Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference. The MLS Eastern Conference includes the Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, Kansas City Wizards, New England Revolution, Toronto FC, and New York Red Bulls.

Golf has been around for thousands of years. "It is known that golf was played at St. Andrews before the founding of the university there in 1403, and there is sufficient evidence that it was being played in one form or another in Scotland as much as a century before that, about 1300" (History of Golf). Since these early beginnings, golf has expanded to include a number of tours which go around the world. The tours included are the PGA, LPGA, European, Champions, Nationwide, PGA of America Canadian and the USGA. There are over 110 courses that are included on these tours that are from around the world. Golf is not an exclusively English sport. There are players from around the world that are changing the traditional stereotypes of golfers. Three of the six top players in the world are American. The other three are from vastly different parts of the world. The exceptions include Vijay Singh from the Fiji Islands, K.J. Choi from South Korea, and Rory Sabbatini from South Africa (Tour Statistics). Driving ranges and new courses are popping up all over the world, making golf a fast growing sport that nearly everyone can play with little athletic ability. The relaxation of golf makes it more appealing to a larger part of the world population. Beautiful courses with friends make golf an enjoyable experience.

Sports are only one example of the way the world is coming together. Sports are something that can bring an entire nation together to cheer for a common goal. Everywhere you go there will be someone to talk about sports. Sports are a universal language that everyone can understand no matter what part of the world a person is from. Different sports have come from different parts of the world and are shared by everyone. They have been shared and swapped throughout the generations by people who love to share their ideas and customs. The thought of “Americanization” of sports is absurd and obsolete.

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C.J. Helweg

Prof. Robbins

English 1310

October 29, 2007

Word Count: 774

Restriction of Freedom or Freedom of Restriction?

It is Friday night, and a small town’s entire population has made their way to the football stadium. The teams run on to the field, the bands play, and everyone in the stadium stands. A lone student is at the microphone of the Public Address system. “Let us pray…” he starts. In Texas on a Friday night, it is not uncommon to hear a student delivered prayer before football games. Texas high school football followers often see the sport as some sort of religion. What was at one time accepted by the majority of the spectators and participants has gotten more and more criticism. People have different opinions, athletes have different ways of bringing religion to sports, and a few court cases have ever come from this topic.

Football spectators that I have had conversations with said they don’t like the prayer idea before games because it implies that everyone is a Christian and that’s the way that everyone should behave. These people don’t like the single religion aspect that seems to come from these prayers. They would feel more comfortable with a moment of silence or no prayer at all. But I have also conversed with people who embrace and support the prayers. The reasoning that I have heard for this mindset is the fact that it is not forced, and the prayer is just a simple one that asks that no person get hurt in the upcoming athletic contest. They are not meant to be derogatory or discriminative in any way. As Mark Shaw, a trustee on the Santa Fe school board, said, "Football games are ... attended on a voluntary basis, so if you don't like the prayer, come later." On the other side of the debate, Dena Marks, of the Anti-Defamation League, said, "It could be that there are certain people who don't believe the same way the person who says the prayer believes, and because of that, by definition, [saying a prayer] excludes those people" (Prayer). Incidents like this one are a sign that people are changing their views about religious tolerance at sporting events.

People have taken school districts to court because of prayer before a football game. "In 1963, the case of Engle v. Vitale , the Supreme Court ruled against mandated school prayer in the classroom." By extension, this ruling also applied to school events such as football games. "In 1989, the case of Jager v. Douglas County School District , the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that pre-game invocations by coaches, officials or students at high school football games were unconstitutional." In 1995, Doe v. Duncanville School District , The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th circuit found that informal student-initiated, student led prayers at sporting events were constitutional. They found that students "are not enjoined from praying, either individually or in groups. Students may voluntarily pray together, provided such prayer is not done with school participation or supervision. ” (Robinson). This means that students are allowed to pray, only on their own time and not using anything that has to do with their school. In 2000, the Santa Felead school district was brought to court. The charge was allowing a student , student initiated prayer before a football game. The prayer was allotted by the school district and therefore deemed unconstitutional (Robinson).

But what do athletes do in this situation? I have seen prayer in locker rooms, in pre game warm ups, during the huddle, and after touchdowns are made. Locker rooms are often a main place for prayer. Team prayers occur before every game asking for protection, the will to win, and the discipline to be sportsmanlike. These are often lead by both athletes and coaches. A majority of athletic spectators find little harm in this, but there are a few people who disagree with this pre game prayer. They feel that a coach should not be encouraging or participating in prayers. The thought is that all prayer should be student lead and spontaneous without any connection to the school. Even if prayer is barred from football games, the players will continue to pray.

The controversy of prayer before school events is not near to being over. As long as there is

football, there will be prayer before games. Not every person is happy about this, and I cannot see

any time in the near future where every spectator and athlete will be satisfied. It is an ongoing

debate that will continue to be argued over and over by everyone that attends sporting events.

Prayers will continue to be read, and players will continue to pray no matter what happens on the

political side of the battle.

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