Any business' operator hopes to get a good deal. However, the network
sports industries have not been faring well lately. They have experienced
financial setbacks mainly caused by the oversaturation of sports
programming on networks and compering cable channels. Networks claim they
are now losing money on once-lucrative telecasts. Ironically, the slump in
business is occurring at a time when sports shows are drawing larger
audiences than in recent years. Part of the problem is that advertising
costs got too high, and the industries mat traditionally Duy ads beer ana
car companies are not paying the high prices. Networks, dependent on
advertising for revenue, are hoping that the market will change before they
have to make drastic reductions ir sports programming.
PROFESSIONAL SPORTS
The commercial aspects of American professional sports can make or break an
athlete's career. Young, talented athletes make it to the top because they
are exceptionally talented, but not in every case because they are the
best. In women's tennis, for example, an aspiring young tennis star must
not only possess a winning serve and backhand, she must also get corporate
agents on her side. Without agents who line up sponsors and publicity, a
player has a very difficult time moving from amateur to professional
sports. To get the endorsement of corporate advertising sponsors, a
talented young tennis player has a much better chance for success if she is
also attractive. Sales-conscious tennis sportswear companies pay large sums
of money to tennis pros who promote their products. Many top players earn
more money a year in product-endorsement fees than in prize money.
Competition and success in sports, then, is not only a matter of game
skill, but marketability as well.
COLLEGE SPORTS
College sports lost its amateurism years ago. Teams and events are
institutionalized and contribute to college publicity and revenue. Sports
bring in money to colleges from ticket sales and television rights, so
colleges like having winning teams. The better the team, the greater the
ticket sales and television coverage, and the more money the college can
channel back into athletics and other programs. Football and basketball are
the most lucrative college sports because they attract the most fans. Other
college sports, particularly women's sports, are often neglected and
ignored by spectators, the news media, and athletic directors who often
disregard-women's sports budgets and funnel money for equipment and
facilities into the sports that pay. On the other hand, top college teams
get a lot of attention. In 1986, the Division 1 college football programs
had a budget of nearly $1 billion, while entertaining millions of
spectators and television viewers.
STUDENT ATHLETES AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
To recruit student athletes for a winning team, many colleges are willing
to go to great lengths, providing full academic scholarships, to athletes,
and sometimes putting the college's academic reputatiori at risk. The tacit
understanding shared by college admissions directors as well as the
potential sports stars they admit is that athletes do not enroll in college
to learn, but to play sports and perhaps use intercollegiate sports as a
springboard for a professional career. The situation often embarrasses
college administrators, who are caught between educational ideals and
commercial realities, and infuriates other students, who resent the
preferential treatment given to athletes. Of late, some universities, such
as the University of Michigan, have initiated support programs to improve
academic performance and graduation rates of athletes.
WINNING
Increasing commercialization of college sports is part of a larger trend.
American sports are becoming more competitive and more profit-oriented. As
a result, playing to win is emphasized more than playing for fun. This is
true from the professional level all the way down to the level of
children's Little League sports" teams, where young players are encourag'ed
by such "slogans as "A quitter never wins; a winner never quits," and
"never be willing to be second best." The obsession with winning causes
some people to wonder whether sports in America should be such serious
business.
Sports: Colleges and Universities
The athletic programs of American
colleges and universities have come
in for a great deal of criticism
but there does not seem to be
a chance to alter the system.
James A. Michener gives background
information and comments on the problems.
First, the United States is the only nation in the world, so far as I
know, which demands that its schools like Harvard, Ohio State and Claremont
assume responsibility for providing the public with sports entertainment.
Ours is a unique system which has no historical sanction or application
elsewhere. It would be unthinkable for the University of Bologna, a most
ancient and honorable school, to provide scholarships to illiterate soccer
players so that they could entertain the other cities of northern Italy,
and it would be equally preposterous for either the Sorbonne or Oxford to
do so in their countries. Our system is an American phenomenon, a
historical accident which developed from the exciting football games played
by Yale and Harvard and to a lesser extent Princeton and certain other
schools during the closing years of the nineteenth century. If we had had
at that time professional teams which provided public football
entertainment, we might not have placed the burden on our schools. But we
had no professional teams, so our schools were handed the job.
Second, if an ideal American educational system were being launched afresh,
few would want to saddle it with the responsibility for public sports
entertainment. I certainly would not. But since, by a quirk of history, it
is so saddled, the tradition has become ingrained and I see not the
remotest chance of altering it. I therefore approve of continuing it, so
long as certain safeguards are installed. Categorically, I believe that our
schools must continue to offer sports entertainment, even though comparable
institutions throughout the rest of the world are excused from doing so.
Third, I see nothing wrong in having a college or a university provide
training for the young man or woman who wants to devote his adult life to
sports. My reasoning is twofold: 1) American society has ordained that
sports shall be a major aspect of our
national life, with major attention, major financial support and major
coverage in the media. How possibly can a major aspect of life be ignored
by our schools? 2) If it is permissible to train young musicians and actors
in our universities, and endow munificent departments to do so, why is it
not equally legitimate to train young athletes, and endow them with a
stadium?
Fourth, because our schools have volunteered to serve as unpaid training
grounds for future professionals, and because some of the lucky schools
with good sports reputations can earn a good deal of money from the semi-
professional football and basketball teams they operate, the temptation to
recruit young men skilled at games but totally unfitted for academic work
is overpowering. We must seriously ask if such behavior is legitimate for
an academic institution. There are honorable answers, and I know some of
them, but if we do not face this matter forthrightly, we are going to run
into troubla.
Kinds of sports:
BASEBALL
Baseball is a nine-a-side game played with bat, ball, and glove, mainly in
the U.S.A. Teams consist of a pitcher and catcher, called the battery,
first, second, and third basemen, and shortstop, called the infield, and
right, centre, and left fielders, called the outfield. Substitute players
may enter the game at any time, but once a player is removed he cannot
return.
The standard ball has a cork-and-rubber centre wound with woollen yarn and
covered with horse-hide. It weighs from 5 to 5 1/4 oz. (148 g.) and is from
9 to 9 1/2 in. (approx. 23 cm.) in circumference. ... The bat is a smooth,
round, tapered piece of hard wood not more than 2 3/4 in. (approx. 7 cm.)
in diameter at its thickest part and no more than 42 in. (1.07 m.) long.
Originally, fielders played barehanded, but gloves have been developed over
the years. First basemen wear a special large mitt, and catchers use a
large, heavily-padded mitt as well as a chest protector, shin guards, and a
metal mask. Catchers
were at first unprotected. Consequently,- they stood back at a distance
from home plate and caught pitched balls on the bounce, but the
introduction of the large, round, well-padded mitt or "pillow glove" and
the face mask enabled them to move up close behind the plate and catch
pitched balls on the fly. Players wear shoes with steel cleats and, while
batting and running the bases, they use protective plastic helmets.
The game is played on a field containing four bases placed at the angles of
a 90-ft (27.4 m.) square (often called a diamond): home plate and, in
counter-clockwise order, first, second, and third base. Two foul lines form
the boundaries of fair territory. Starting at home, these lines extend past
first and third base the entire length of the field, which is often
enclosed by a fence at its farthest limits.
The object of each team is to score more runs than the other. A run is
scored whenever a player circles all the bases and reaches home without
being put out The game is divided into innings, in
each of which the teams alternate at bat and in the field. A team is
allowed three outs in each halfinning at bat, and must then take up
defensive positions in the field while the other team has its turn to try
to score. Ordinarily, a game consists of nine innings; in the event of a
tie, extra innings are played until one team outscores the other in the
same number of innings.
The players take turns batting from home plate in regular rotation. The
opposing pitcher throws the ball to his catcher from a slab (called the
"rubber") on the pitcher's mound, a slightly raised area of the field
directly between home and second base. ... Bases are canvas bags fastened
to metal pegs set in the ground.
The batter tries to reach base safely after hitting the pitched ball into
fair territory. A hit that enables him to reach first base is called a
"single," a two-base hit is a "double," a three-base hit a "triple," and a
four-base hit a "home-run." A fair ball hit over an outfield fence is
automatically a home run. A batter is also awarded his base if the pitcher
delivers four pitches which, in the umpire's judgement, do not pass through
the "strike zone" - that is, over home plate between the batter's armpits
and knees; or if he is hit by a pitched ball; or if the opposing catcher
interferes when he swings the bat. To prevent the batter from hitting
safely, baseball pitchers deliver the ball with great speed and accuracy
and vary its speed and trajectory. Success in batting, therefore, requires
courage and a high degree of skill.
After a player reaches base safely, his progress towards home depends
largely on his team mates' hitting the ball in such a way that he can
advance. ...
Players may be put out in various ways. A batter is out when the pitcher
gets three 'strikes' on him. A strike is a pitch that crosses the plate in
the strike zone, or any pitch that is struck at and missed or is hit into
foul territory. After two strikes, however, foul balls do not count except
when a batter bunts - lets the ball meet the bat instead of swinging at it
- and the ball rolls foul. A batter is also out if he hits the ball in the
air anywhere in fair or foul territory and it is caught by an opponent
before it touches the ground. He is out if he hits the ball on the ground
and a fielder catches and throws it to a player at first base, or catches
it and touches that base, before the batter (now become a base runner) gets
there.
A base runner may be put out if, while off base, he is tagged by an
opposing player with the hand or glove holding the ball, or if he is forced
to leave his base to make room for another runner and fails to reach the
next base before an opposing player tags him or the base; or if he is hit
by a team mate's batted ball before it has touched or passed a fielder.
An umpire-in-chief "calls" balls and strikes from his position directly
behind the catcher at home plate, and one or more base umpires determine
whether runners are safe or out at the other three bases.
BASKETBALL
The History of basketball, a game that started with 18 men in a YMCA
gymnasium in Springfield, Mass., has grown into a game that more than 300
million people play worldwide. The man who created this instantly
successful sport was Dr. James Naismith.
Under orders from Dr. Luther Gulick, head of Physical Education at the
School for Christian Workers. Naismith had 14 days to create an indoor game
that would provide an "athletic distraction" for a rowdy class through the
brutal New England winter.
Naismith's invention didn't come easily. Getting close to the deadline, he
struggled to keep the class' faith. His first intention was to bring
outdoor games indoors, i.e., soccer and lacrosse. These games proved too
physical and cumbersome.
At his wits' end, Naismith recalled a childhood game that required players
to use finesse and accuracy to become successful. After brainstorming this
new idea, Naismith developed basketball's original 13 rules and
consequently, the game of basketball.
As basketball's popularity grew, Naismith neither sought publicity nor
engaged in self-promotion. He was first and foremost a physical educator
who embraced recreational sport but shied away from the glory of
competitive athletics.
Naismith was an intense student, collecting four degrees in the diverse
fields of Philosophy, Religion, Physical Education and Medicine. Although
he never had the opportunity to see the game become the astonishing
spectacle it is today, Naismith's biggest thrill came when he was sponsored
by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) to witness
basketball become an Olympic sport at the 1936 Games held in Berlin.
Naismith became famous for creating the game of basketball, a stroke of
genius that never brought him fame or fortune during his lifetime, but
enormous recognition following his passing in 1939.
For his historic invention, Naismith's name adorns the world's only
Basketball Hall of Fame, a tribute that forever makes James Naismith
synonymous with basketball.
Abner Doubleday, who didn't invent baseball, is probably a more widely
recognized name than Naismith, who did invent basketball. And even those
who know about him continue to learn more about the man who invented a
sport designed for offseason physical exercise, which began with his own 13
basic rules, but which has grown to become a game not for a specific
culture or nation or ethnic group, but for an entire planet to share and
enjoy.
Naismith is the only coach in University of Kansas men's basketball history
to own a losing record. Naismith was 55-60 from 1898 to 1907, which
mattered little to him only in that one of his most famous quotes was that
basketball was never meant to be coached, anyway, only to be played.
The new game was explained by 13 basic rules and was played with a soccer
ball, peach baskets and nine to a side. There have been major changes to
the game since that first contest, which is believed to have been played
Dec. 21, 1891.
But perhaps what is most amazing about Naismith's creation, other than the
fact that few sports that are purposely invented actually stand the test of
time, is that the essence of basketball-throwing a ball into an elevated
goal-has remained the focus from day one.
Today, Naismith would be universally recognized as a genius, a Bill Gates
of sport. And in all likelihood, the opportunity would exist for him to
become a multi-millionaire.
But if Naismith was The Basketball Man, he was not The Money Man, and life
in 1891 was far different than in 1991 or 2001.
But if Naismith's invention did not lead to profit, it did lead to huge
popularity for basketball. Even in the final years of the 19th century,
with communication and transportation that was primitive by today's
standards, the game's growth was palpable, immediate and widespread.
James Naismith had changed the face of sport, not so much for the 19th
century, but the 20th, and it is now clear, the 21st. All in an effort to
keep unruly students at bay.
Sources
America in Close up
http://www.students.ru
http://www.yahoo.com
-----------------------
Krasnoyarsk State University
“Law Faculty”
Comparative Law Department
Report
Sports in the USA
Done by: Popov Dmitry
Law 17
Krasnoyarsk 2002
Страницы: 1, 2
