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Baseball – America’s national pastime

The activity that I enjoy most is Baseball, which is a competitive game of skill played between two teams, each with nine players. Baseball is America’s national pastime and is played by people of all ages. Abner Doubleday, a former American Civil War officer, is the inventor of baseball. Born in Ballston Spa, NY, Doubleday attended school at the United States Military Academy. As a young man, Doubleday organized a small amount of baseball teams in Cooperstown, NY, who played on what is now known as Doubleday Field. Cooperstown is the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Doubleday then died in 1893. Since then, amateur and professional baseball players have been improving the game of baseball in many ways. Baseball is played for the money, and medially played for the love of the game. The average salary for a baseball player is around $2 million a year. Some players can make as low as $250,000 a year up to about $25 million a year. On this present day, there is a baseball league in the United States called MLB, which stands for Major League Baseball. The MLB is made up of thirty teams and two different leagues, National and American.

Out of the two leagues, there consists of fifteen teams that make up three divisions with a different number of teams in each division. Each team play 162 games every year, unless they are tied with a team in their own division and a one game playoff must be played. At the end of the year, who ever has the best record out of their division makes it to the playoffs, as well as a wildcard team, who has the fourth best regular season record in the league, which makes four teams from each league that go to the playoffs.

Each team plays a team from their own league. The team with the best and the worst record in the regular season play each other, and the teams with the second and third best record also play each other, all in a five game series. The winners of those games then play each other in a seven game series. Finally, the two teams from each league that have been victorious play each other in the World Series, which is a series that consists of seven games. Most people, including myself, play baseball because they love the game.

Baseball is a remarkable sport that can be enjoyed by everyone. Baseball may be America’s pastime but it is also one of the major stepping-stones to equality among people. Jackie Robinson is a good example of that. When Jackie Robinson was growing up baseball was still only allowing white players to play. All of the African American players before him were forced to play in their own league called the Negro League. Jackie was an exceptional player and word soon spread about him and his skills.

Jackie was asked to sign a 10-day contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He accepted the offer and excelled at the pro level. He showed that African American’s were just as good at baseball as anyone else and that they should be allowed to play also. His courageous move opened the door for many other great athletes and now we have the privilege of being able to watch Barry Bonds play and many other African American players. Without Jackie we would have never been able to crown the home run king (Hank Aaron).

Like in every other situation there will always be speculation and doubt among people. Baseball is no exception. The big controversy these days is about steroids and the use and affects it has for the players that use it. Steroids are able to help you heal from injury in half the time, help you build muscle mass at an alarming rate and it can even help your eyesight. So obviously you can understand the controversy when some players are given the unfair advantage that the honest and respectable players aren’t.

So they have developed steroid testing that every player must undergo during the season. The first offense results in a 10-day suspension and being publicly announced that you tested positive. The second offense results in a 30-day suspension. The third offense results in a 60-day suspension. The fourth offense results in you being removed from the game of baseball for an entire season. Keep in mind that while they are suspended they do not get paid. So they not only get bad publicity they don’t get to provide for their families.

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