The 2013 major league baseball season began this week, and Sarah Gross, Jonathan Olsen and their New Jersey students? many among them passionate Yankees or Mets fans ? couldn?t pass up the opportunity to explore America?s pastime for this week?s writing prompts.
Enjoy.
Narrative Writing
Sports: ?Don?t Let Your Signed Memories Turn Into a Plot Twist?
Common Core Standards: RI3, RI4, W3, W4, RH4, WHST4, WHST10
You know the plot: the main character has a valuable signed baseball that he, or she, cherishes. And then something happens. Maybe the dog eats it, maybe a child takes it outside in the mud. But the result is always the same ? a lost piece of memorabilia and a devastated collector.
Your Task: Compose a one- or two-paragraph scene in which a valuable signed baseball is destroyed. Be sure to use precise words and phrases, telling details and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the events.
Before you do the task, you might?
- Brainstorm a list of ways that a signed baseball might be lost. Try to think of the most humorous ways it might happen.
- Make a list of descriptive words about your setting. Be sure to use precise words and sensory details.
- Find a way to describe why the baseball was so important to its owner. Why was this object cherished?
Extension Activity:
- Perhaps the most famous baseball comedy routine is Abbott and Costello?s ?Who?s on First?? Originally performed by these comedians in a vaudeville show and on the radio in the 1930s, ?Who?s on First?? went on to become one of the most recognizable sketches in American history. Watch Abbott and Costello reprise their classic comedy routine in this clip from their 1945 movie ?The Naughty Nineties.? What makes this performance so memorable?
Argumentative Writing
Sports: ?Era of Modern Baseball Stats Brings WAR to Booth?
Common Core Standards: RI4, RI5, RI10, W1, W4, RH1, WHST1, WHST4
Statistics like WAR, VORP and B.A.B.I.P. have swept through baseball over the past decade, becoming part of the fabric of the game and an object of growing fascination to its fans, writes the Times sports reporter Steve Eder.
This embrace of cold calculations, known as sabermetrics, is now making its way onto radio broadcasts of baseball games. However, radio broadcasts of games have traditionally featured homespun baseball wisdom and not talk about terms like ?ultimate zone rating.? How will this new emphasis on advanced statistics affect baseball broadcasts?
Your Task: Should baseball announcers include more advanced statistics in their broadcasts or stick to the tried-and-true stories from the clubhouse? Include a quote from the article and one classmate?s opinion in your response.
Check out this response from one of our students, Sean K. (And you can read more of Sean?s writing on his blog.)
Ever since I was introduced to Moneyball and Strat-o-matic, I?ve been enchanted with baseball statistics. In the past two decades, the sabermetrics craze has been introduced into nearly every professional baseball club, cementing the sport?s position as the most statistically advanced game in the world, and turned leisurely hobbies like fantasy baseball into global phenomenons. Even with the recent stat explosions, should this complex data make its way to baseball commentary?
Baseball is known for its radio legends as much as it is for statistics, with immortal names such as John Sterling, the long-time voice of the Yankees. Says Sterling on the subject, ?The more numbers you keep giving to the fans, the more people don?t know what you?re talking about.? Television has readily adopted new sabermetric stats such as WHIP and OPS, and ESPN has a complete love affair with WAR. On the other side, radio has been slower to adopt numbers into play-by-play usually handled by one voice, unlike the multi-commentator crews on national TV. Kyle W., a supporter of tradition, believes that ?Americans prefer simplicity and would prefer clubhouse stories.?
Simple new stats such as WHIP, OPS, and B.A.B.I.P. would no doubt support intuitive fans and front office staff alike, so long as it?s merely sprinkled here and there. However, this is a much better move for television, which can add a devoted statistician to the crew and insert on-screen graphics. Having interactive television broadcasts or classic radio play-by-play would then give fans the best of both worlds, offering a choice between tradition and the future.
Before you do the task, you might?
- Go through the article to underline the reasons statistics should be included in the broadcast and circle the reasons stories should be the focus of down time in game broadcasts.
- Using your notes, choose a side and pick one quotation to include in your argument.
- Interview a classmate for his or her take on the topic.
- When writing your argument, be sure to identify who the speakers for both quotations are, and remember to put their words in quotation marks.
Extension Activity:
Create your own radio show with your friends. RadioLovers.com is a database with hundreds of old radio shows. Check out some of the classics like ?Buck Rogers,? Flash Gordon? or Gunsmoke.? Note how the shows introduce characters and use sound effects to help tell a story. Then choose a topic, write a script and perform your show. If you have a computer with a microphone, record your show with a program like GarageBand and add as many sound effects as you can.
Informative Writing
Sports: ?With New Move, Jay-Z Enters a Sports Agent State of Mind?
Common Core Standards: RI2, RI10, W2, W4, W5, RH2, WHST2, WHST4
Jay-Z has long been in the inner circle of A-listers like Alex Rodriguez and LeBron James, using their names in his lyrics and their star power to enhance his own. Now he is making a move to turn those relationships into big business in a more formal way.
On Tuesday he announced he was opening his own sports agency, and that he was stealing the Yankees star Robinson Cano from the most powerful agent in baseball. Jay-Z is now poised to become one of the most powerful men in sports and music.
Your Task: In a paragraph, summarize this move by Jay-Z from musician to agent. Be sure to include relevant and sufficient facts from the article.
Before you do the task, you might?
- Plan your essay before you begin to write by organizing your thoughts and any evidence you intend to use.
- Analyze the article to determine the key points that are emphasized by the author. Be sure to incorporate these in your writing.
Extension Activity:
Choose either the Yankees? or the Mets? home opener and imagine if the game had had a different outcome. (As New York baseball fans know, the Yankees lost their home opener while the Mets won.)
Be creative and rewrite the article with the opposite result of what is reported in the newspaper, but writing in the same style used by the Times sports reporters David Waldstein and Andrew Keh. Think of creative but plausible ways for your recap to achieve the new alternate outcome. You can use images from this opening day slide show for inspiration.
Working With Any Day?s Times
Any Day?s Times: Using Our Postcards Activity
Common Core Standards: WHST 9, RI 10
Directions: Postcards, one of the exercises from our Any Day?s Times collection, invites students to choose a New York Times article as a jumping-off point, then write and illustrate postcards they imagine could be sent to or from anyone mentioned in the article. What would that person say? Why? What image would he or she choose for the front of the card?
We can?t help but think of how well that exercise would work with a recent article about baseball history, ?Echoes of Ebbets Field as It Turns 100.?
Just a short list of who might write to whom could include:
- Jackie Robinson writing to a friend or relative about his first game.
- A Dodgers fan expressing his feelings to the owner, Walter O?Malley, about the team?s move to Los Angeles from Brooklyn.
- A Dodgers player or fan writing to someone living in the Ebbets Field apartments who doesn?t know or care much about the site?s history.
Whom would you add? What would he or she say? Why? Use evidence from the text to make sure you have the content and tone of your postcard right.
You can do this same exercise with nearly any Times article, of course, but it might work especially well with feature articles like this one that include many characters and points of view.
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