History of American Sport

The following sample essay on History of American Sport tells about popular sports in America.

American sports are American because they are a reflection of societal values and cultural norms during the rise of an industrial America. These recreational activities became popular economic enterprises with specialized labor roles, set rules compared to the standard workplace protocol in other industries at the time, and were intentionally “civilized” in such a way that they became more profitable for those in charge. This civilizing also meant a specialization of labor as many athletes became more professional with Irreplaceable skills.

In the late 19th entry are reflective of greater historical trends regarding Industrialization. American sports became American over the late 19th century by gradually integrating rising class values into the creation of sporting rules and practice. The urban and extensively diverse atmosphere in which popular sports developed necessitated “Americanize” them in such a way that sporting rules became cohesive with the exclusive class values of participants so that they opposed non- native culture and benefited the social group of the rule-makers.

American” sports re competitive, and thus leaving something to be gained, were inherently both profitable and popular, thus presenting fine arena’s for a communication of the participants and practices by a leisure class. The American mentality that was present during the late sass’s was a rise in the nativity. Sports that played upon class tensions were popular due to their popularizing and often violent nature. This is evident through the class confrontations In breakneck fighting.

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When John L. Sullivan fought the Jake Klan In the last of the gloveless confrontations In 1889, Klan as represented as a favored native due to his American identity. Sullivan had Irish ancestry and although surely not every bit of money was bet by spectators on fighters who were not of their ethnicity, but the match was primarily polarize. For both the participants and the spectators, boxing has offered an appropriate window to play out sometimes violent class tensions in an equal and fair way.

American sports became more American by gradually excluding African Americans from the world of white privilege, as It had previously been an avenue for self-determination and social mobility. Prior to the rise of Jim Crow and exclusive policies, athletes like Tom Monolingual, for example, had used the realm of sport to fight all over the world in the late sass’s and make a decent living doing ITIL. However, his race certainly was a barrier to his success in the United States, as white boxers practically forced him to move to Europe through a communal unspoken policy regarding black athletes.

The use of sport as a social tool also remained available to Isaac Murphy, a black Jockey, who arguably was one of the most influential black athletes in the mid- 1 ass’s and the ass’s, racing in events like the Kentucky Derby and other notorious events. He was systematically pushed out of the sport, however, by white Jockeys who frequently boxed him in on the race track. Hitting him with their whips. This was an intentional action done by The Jockey Association to slow down Murphy’s practical assimilation Into white social culture through making an example of his race on the track.

At ten turns specialization of labor, both the professional athlete and the average middle-class rocker had specific Job specifications. The pinnacle of Jim Crow, however, arises in the exclusion of African Americans as a kind of specialization of labor, that is, white athletes wanted to equate race with the ability to do anything specialized at all. Jack Johnson had to wait until Jim Jiffies accepted his challenge, as nobody was going to facilitate the fight without Jiffies’ approval anyway. Andrews, Matthew. “The Manly Art. ” Lectureћ, September 9, 2014. 2 Andrews, Matthew. “Black Athletes in the Age of Jim Crow. ” Lectureћ September 16, 2014. While Johnson inevitably won the fight, black players became marginalia for their skin color due to commonly held racist ideas about what kind of athletics spectators, coaches, and other white players wished to eliminate and augment in the group dynamics. Industrialization was a time of uncertainty not only for the everyday worker, but also for the professional athlete himself.

Just as the danger and unstable Job conditions surrounded industrial labor, baseball players could be working one day and on the street the next. As the athlete became a commodity in the eyes of professional assessable managers around the turn of the 20th century, there was a gradual development of strategies utilized to take advantage of the infrastructure of sports like baseball that were greatly expanding opportunities for athletic employ due to their increasing popularity. This led to professional players exhibitionist themselves to play for multiple teams and in multiple games.

This increase lends explanation to how sports like baseball, initially an exercise, and then a hobby for middle-class white-collar males allowed them to embody the American and capitalist spirit and lay baseball full-time. Baseball players celebrated upsetting the social hierarchy by “throwing” games, constant rotation of skilled players between teams, and the taking of money from bribes or payment from the team owners and investors. The nature of general labor for the majority of Americans during the Progressive Era was brutal and offered little social determination.

The degree to which baseball players reveled in the intense degree of control the group cumulatively had to manipulate the efficacy of the game. The same can be said for the rising popularity of American football. Theodore Roosevelt for example paralleled moral notions of muscular Christianity in football with the work ethic of the industrial working linen. While work ethic and personal ability was significant for being a part of a professional 3 Andrews, Matthew. “The Game of Baseball. ” Lectureћ, September 2, 2014. 4 Andrews, Matthew. College Football and the Strenuous Life. ” Lectureћ, September 1 1, 2014. Sports team, like many of the industrial Jobs at the time, there was a communication going on at the time in terms of the labor of “production,” or more amateur baseball layers in urban centers that could replace and continue to saturate the baseball market for the sake of the team-owner and for the spectators. In other words, the skill of the players was important, but it was arbitrary since baseball was such a new phenomenon, spectators Just wanted to watch people play.

I en sequence AT Great White Hopes like Jiffies is referred to in the Jack Johnson article, for example, as a discussion of some sort of continual oppressive sequence of forces opposing black people. It didn’t matter if it was Jiffies or any other individual; there were always ongoing to be more bodies to fight the battles and preoccupy those intrigued by racial tensions. Communication was also evident in the rising ticket prices and how that affected the types of people that could afford to attend more expensive athletic events.

According to professor Andrews, the rising ticket prices “kept out the riff-raff’ and offered a safe and clean environment for the middle and leisure classes to enjoy a sport. This notion of cleaning up the sport and paired with the communication of players truly displays how the marketing of baseball and players themselves was coming more important than the ability of the individual player. The media blew up matchups (a lot like they do today) as they were the primary form of advertisement and the sole form of information after the game that some Americans would come into contact with.

It was important for a baseball club, Just like any other business of the time, to differentiate themselves based on the personal quality of their players since moral games were desirable outings to attend. Much like attending the opera, ballet or any sort of presumably classics event, porting events and the fanfare that surrounded them were utilized by the upper class too conspicuously. Display wealth and illustrate the differences between commoners and the attending elites. The displays of wealth were not only meant to make statements to the urban or who starkly opposed the wealthy through their sporting mannerisms, but they were intended to also put the athlete in their place.

Athletes performances were commonly the grounds of gambling, entertainment, and otherwise the social field through which the elite interacted. While Jockeys competed in the Kentucky Derby, the leisure class rested in the stands while relaxing in fine garments. Upper class elites Joined social and athletic clubs to not only exercise themselves, but to enjoy watching the skilled boxers fight and spars. There are several things, although minor, hat undermined the American identity of fundamentally native sports.

It was often advocated that Americans should take up sports and reject alcoholism and immoral behavior, yet many American athletes at this time, like Jim Jiffies, dealt with problems regarding substance and domestic abuse. In the Jack Johnson article, Jiffies is described as being out of good form due to these issues, lacking speed, and overall Just being old, thus indicating the degree to which this sort of immoral behavior did not belong in the sporting realm. The Americanism of native sport is further undermined regarding the origins of any games and athletic practices that Americans favored during the time period.

Sports like baseball, for example, had ostensibly native roots in evidence of the statically Ana ease games played In Tiny century England one could argue never, that the addition of certain rules were significant to Americans determining their individuality by renovating old forms of sport. For example, the idea of adding a line of scrimmage to American football as a way to “civilize” English Mob football is significant and exemplary of the ways that the game symbols and 7 Andrews, Matthew. “Sport and 100% Americanism. Lectureћ, September 23, 2014. Eternally balanced in a rule-based fashion that was favored by Americans. In conclusion the ways in which the communication of the American athlete and the specialization of his identity during the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, is a lens through which to understand something more about the ways that American society thought about civilizing sports. This was done by integrating rules that equated to class values in order to create spheres of interaction for the leisure class to both profit and be entertained by the sports arena.