Mapping Baseball

Grade: 6-9

Subject: Geography, History

Introduction: In this lesson, students will use their knowledge of American geography to consider how climate, distance, population shifts and other factors may have influenced the growth of baseball as well as research how baseball has impacted other countries, and how ballplayers from those nations have made their mark on American baseball.

Background: As America’s population has grown from the east to the west coast and from north to the south, baseball teams have migrated as well. Teams in Washington, D.C., Seattle, St. Louis, New York, and Brooklyn moved to Texas, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and other cities, while new teams often sprang up to take their place.

To introduce this lesson, the teacher should lead a discussion about how geographic factors throughout American history have caused several sports franchises (including Major League Baseball teams) to relocate. They have also caused the creation of new teams in cities that might not have had a market for a franchise just a few years ago.

Some of the topics to cover in discussion are the following:

Climate -The Northeast and Midwest regions where baseball began have relatively mild weather throughout the game's summer season. Baseball's expansion into regions with more extreme temperatures has kept pace with advances in technology. For fans in the South, air conditioning has put an end to sweltering in the bleachers, while heated domes in the places like Minneapolis and Seattle have stopped fans from shivering in September.

Distance -Because baseball teams must travel to one another's ballparks, the distance between teams has been limited by available means of transportation. Prior to the 1950s, teams traveled mainly by bus and train, but during that decade, air travel made it possible for teams to travel from coast to coast in less than a day. In the past, distance also limited team location to densely populated cities, where a sufficient number of fans could reach the ballpark by mass transit.

Technology-The improved highway systems developed during the 1950s enabled teams to locate in less densely populated regions, where fans from a wide surrounding area drive to the ballpark. And since the 1950s,the growth of television has extended this geographic reach even farther, making it possible for teams to count as customers fans who pay only indirectly through broadcast rights contracts.

Population -As the center of American population growth has shifted, first to the West, then to the South, baseball has followed. Likewise, population shifts in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington have caused ball teams to seek fans in more promising places.

Activity #1 The teacher should distribute blank paper or some sort of drawing paper to students, and ask them to draw a map of the United States and Canada. The teacher may wish to use one or both of the maps selected for the Resources above as a transparency, and have students create a wall-sized map on newsprint by tracing the transparency.

Depending on the time or level of the students, the teacher might also wish to have the students mark the location of all current major league teams. (Note: one good source to find all current teams is on the Official Major League Baseball site, which is located at http://www.mlb.com)

Next the teacher should ask the students to plot the movement of major league baseball teams as the 20th Century progressed. (Note: Some franchises moved, but others were created to accommodate new markets and were not part of the original National or American League.) Perhaps the easiest way to successfully do this on a large-scale (or desktop) map would be to have students use different colored markers or push pins to show teams, and possibly use colored pens or markers to draw team migration. ) Students should label each team city with the name of the city and the team.

(Inning 8 of Baseball demonstrates this well with an animated map of team movement. The segment can be seen from the 12:11-13:42 mark that part of the series.)

Extension Activity Students can also investigate the “evolution” of teams to their present-day name. For example, according to the Major League Baseball site, the Chicago Cubs were originally known (130 years ago) as the “Chicago White Stockings”, as well at other times as the “Chicago Colts”, and “Chicago Orphans”. The Brooklyn (Los Angeles) Dodgers were originally known as the “Bridegrooms”. As a class, discuss the geographical significance of certain baseball team names, and ask students to make up a geographically appropriate name for a new ball team in their city or state.

Activity #2 In this activity, students will act as the “commissioners” of the new “International Baseball Hall of Fame”, and will select their first “class” of inductees into the hall.

The teacher should introduce the lesson with some background into the Baseball Hall of Fame, located in Cooperstown, New York. (The Web site is located at http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/. A complete criteria list for election can be found at http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/rules.htm.) The teacher might either explain this to the class, or allow the class to look at the Hall Web site.

After the students have visited the site, or the teacher has discussed the Hall, the teacher can then direct the students in the activity.

Since baseball has “branched out” to various areas of the world, there should be many prospective hall of fame candidates, but the teacher may wish to limit the actual number to be inducted into the “International Hall” in order to allow for the groups to reach a common agreement on who should be included.

(Note: Depending on the ethnic make-up of the class, the teacher may wish to highlight certain ethnic or racial groups more than others. For the purpose of the basic activity, groups selected were Japanese players, Cuban, other Latin American nations (Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic) and Canada.)

Divide the class into as many groups as needed, and ask the students to do Web- based and/or text based research, on baseball players from each area. Ask the groups to determine a set number of “candidates” for induction for the Hall, and ask them to develop short “position papers” on each candidate… why that candidate should be included in the Hall, statistics (games won, batting average, etc.). Remind students that not every candidate will be selected for the initial class, but different geographic areas should be represented. (For example, the teacher might ask each group to nominate three to five players, and then set the number in the initial induction group to six players. In addition, the teacher might consider having a group set to determine qualifications for Hall members.)

Allot the students sufficient time to research candidates. After the “research phase” of the activity, each group should have an opportunity to present their nominees to the “election committee” (the entire class), with reasons why that particular player should be added to the hall.

After each group has had an opportunity to present their candidates, “election committee” can vote on which candidates they want in the Hall. Again, the students should be encouraged to vote for a diverse group of inductees (from all groups), but at the same time, election should be based more on ability and contribution to the game than to geographic location of nominees. If the class is a large enough group, they may wish to hold actual elections, with ballots that can be tabulated by the “Qualifications Committee”.

As an extension activity, the teacher may elect to have the class hold an “induction ceremony” with students role playing those players elected to the Hall. Traditionally in the ceremony, inductees make speeches, and there is some sort of reception for the inductees, and perhaps a similar ceremony, with refreshments, might make for a suitable conclusion for the activity.

Assessment: The teacher may elect to ask the groups to submit their “position papers” on which candidates for grading, or may wish to evaluate the groups on their persuasiveness as to how they presented their candidate.

Resources US states map http://www.50states.com/maps/usamap.htm

Map Canadian provinces http://www.geoexplorer.co.uk/sections/outlinemaps/canada.htm

Major League Baseball Team Histories http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/mlb_history_teams.jsp

Major League Baseball History http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/index.jsp

The Canadian Baseball League http://www.canadianbaseballleague.com/

Canadians who played Major League baseball http://www.sportspic.com/cndsports/players_cnd_hist.htm

SLAM Baseball page lists http://www.canoe.ca/SlamBaseballCanadaCanadians/home.html

Article highlighting the rise of professional baseball in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1771/3592187.html)

“The Migration of Baseball from Latin America and Back http://nationalhistoryday.org/03_educators/teach98/lesson2/

“Stealing Home: The Case of Contemporary Cuban Baseball” http://www.pbs.org/stealinghome/

Atlantic Monthly article regarding Cuban Baseball http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/84jun/8406brown.htm

The Baseball Almanac Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hof/hofcuba.shtml

Nippon Professional Baseball page http://www.inter.co.jp/Baseball/

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.baseball-museum.or.jp/museum_e/index_e.htm

Japanese Baseball History page http://ww1.baywell.ne.jp/fpweb/drlatham/history/history.htm

An American look at Japanese Baseball http://hsv.com/writers/jeffog/stadium.html

Standards: This activity addresses the following national content standards established by McREL at http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/:

History: Understands changes in American life in the late 19th century (e.g., how regional artists and writers portrayed American life, attitudes, and values; reasons for the appeal of new sports, entertainment, and recreational activities; changes in lifestyles)

Understands the factors that prompted new immigration in contemporary American society (e.g., new immigration policies after 1965, areas of the world from which most immigrants have come)

Understands demographic shifts and the influences on recent immigration patterns (e.g., the flow from cities to suburbs, reasons for internal migrations from the "Rustbelt" to the "Sunbelt" and its impact on politics, implications of the shifting age structure of the population)

Geography: Understands how concepts of spatial interaction (e.g., complementarity, intervening opportunity, distance decay, connections) account for patterns of movement in space (e.g., transportation routes, trade and migration patterns, commodity flows)

Knows the factors that influence patterns of rural-urban migration (e.g., urban commuting, effects of technology on transportation, communication and people's mobility, barriers that impede the flow of people, goods, and ideas)

About the Author: Michael Hutchison teaches social studies at Lincoln High School in Vincennes, Indiana, and at Vincennes University. In 1998, Compaq named Michael a first- place prizewinner in its Teacher Lesson Plan contest, and in 1999, Michael was named the Midwest regional winner in Technology & Learning magazine's Teacher of the Year program. In 2002, Michael was named "Teacher of the Year" by the Indiana Computer Educators and "Technology-Using Teacher of the Year" by the International Society for Technology in Education. In addition, Michael hosts a weekly social studies forum for TAPPED IN, works as a staff member for ED Oasis, and serves as a faculty member of Connected University, as well as a member of the PBS TeacherSource Advisory Group and has written curriculum for several PBS programs, including The Civil War and Empire of the Air.