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Sean Weiser

Prof. Moore

WRD 103

26 September 2019

Cultural Artifact

The sun beating down, the grass freshly cut, the smell of sunflower seeds and bubble gum

fills the air, the pitch comes in and the ball is roped right at me, snagging it in my glove, I throw

the runner out at first. Everybody cheers as me as my teammates and I jog off the field and get

ready to take our at-bats. This is one of the many fond memories I have had playing baseball as

baseball has, and always will be a game about teamwork. There is no way to win a game without

everyone working together. To me, baseball has been instrumental in becoming more mature and

growing up. From as soon as I could throw a ball or swing a bat, I was enrolled in youth sports.

Youth sports often teach kids valuable lessons like teamwork, dedication, and that they learn as

they age. Baseball was no different.

My artifact of choice is my Rawling baseball mitt. It is reddish-black with long laces and

a small pocket. My glove and I have been through it all–stressful school work, relationship

issues, and even a game before homecoming. Throughout all these experiences, baseball has

always been there for me. It has been a resource, an outlet for my personal struggles, my

triumphs, and a source of enjoyment. I have had my glove since freshman year and going into

high school, there were a lot of uncertainties. One thing that was for certain, I had a new mitt,

and I was going to play baseball.

Over the past century, baseball has seen some incredibly drastic changes. For starters,

back in the early 1900s, there was a “gentleman's agreement” that would exclude all non-white
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baseball players from playing baseball (Washington Times, 2007). In fact, an entire group was

formed for those who were non-caucasian to play in called the Negro Leagues. Baseball players

of the early 20th century were known to be racist and did not want a merger between the two

leagues to occur. It took over 67 years for an African-American player to finally acquire a

contract in the MLB, that player, was Jackie Robinson. Breaking the color barrier was a huge

step forward in shifting the culture of baseball to begin to include more and more people of

color. Jackie Robinson is even honored in the MLB by having his number retired by each and

every team meaning that not a single person can wear the number “42” (Rymer).

Over the past 80 years, baseball has evolved tremendously, from a previously white-

dominated sport to an increasing amount of South American and Latin American players.

Baseball in South America is incredibly popular. Kids of all ages spend their time playing

baseball in the streets with their friends and family. The percentage of Hispanic baseball players

has significantly increased in baseball over the past 40 years. Baseball teams are looking more

exclusively for talent in the countries around South America (Visual Learning Center). Roberto

Clemente, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, are some of the most legendary players in the history

of the sport, each of them being born in a country other than the United States. It has been often

stated that baseball is “North America’s Pastime” however, it is quite clear that it can be any

“America's” pastime.

In regards to my personal childhood, youth baseball has always been a crucial part of

getting kids active with working together as a team. The best thing about baseball is that no

matter your size, you can still compete. This allows for so many more kids regardless of their

size to participate in such a fun and friendly sport. Youth baseball does have its cultural issues,

however. For one, coaches tend to take their team’s games a bit too seriously. I have many
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memories of youth coaches screaming and cussing at adolescent kids who are just trying to have

fun. The one motto I have always maintained over my many years of playing baseball is that if I

am no longer having fun, I will no longer play. I am a competitive player but, I understand that it

is just a game, nothing more, nothing less. That is the joy in youth sports, the games are very

competitive but at the end of the day, it is just a silly game that you can play with a bunch of

friends.

To some, it is just a baseball glove, to me, it is so much more than that. It is a

representation of all the changes that have happened not just to me but to sports as a whole. Over

the years, the game of baseball has had almost no change. I have gone through plenty of turmoil

and struggles yet through it all baseball has always been the same. Technology has gotten to the

point where a computer can tell if a ball is going to be a strike or not and yet, baseball still uses

human umpires behind the plate. The consistency of the culture of baseball, however, has

changed drastically. Now, when you go to a baseball game, regardless of the ethnicity or the

sexuality of the players, each and every one of them gets a grand cheer from the fans (well if you

are the home team at least). That is what makes baseball the game I love today, and why I will

always cherish my mitt.

Works Cited

“Blacks, Hispanics Not on the Same Team.” The Washington Times, The Washington

Times, 13 Aug. 2007,

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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/aug/13/blacks-hispanics-not-on-the-same-

team/.

“Chart of the Week: The Rise of Latinos in Major League Baseball.” Visual Learning

Center by Visme, https://visme.co/blog/mlb-demographics/.

Rymer, Zachary D. “Tracing Black Players' MLB Impact from Jackie Robinson to

Today's Game.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3 Oct. 2017,

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1604333-tracing-black-players-mlb-impact-from-

jackie-robinson-to-todays-game.

Reflection

This was a very enjoyable project to work on. I feel that for my first true college essay it

was a good place to start. I started off strong, as I planned to not necessarily worry about word

count and focus more on the content that I was writing. My cultural artifact was truthfully not
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very difficult to think of just because of how large of an impact it has had on my life. The

research that I conducted was not incredibly effective but I do feel like it helped emphasize my

purpose and helped drive my point across. I also appreciated some of the peer feedback I

received. The most common issue I had before revisions was my redundancy in my writing. I

really enjoy getting peer feedback because it is super difficult to try and correct your own

mistakes without someone else's opinion. One thing I felt I personally succeeded at was picking

an artifact that truly had meaning to me. I really enjoyed the fact that we had multiple drafts due

over time because it held me accountable and helped me to stop procrastinating my work. I also

enjoyed how much feedback we actually got because it really helps to flush out your work. One

thing I did not find super effective was some of the readings we had to do combined with our

essay. Although some of them correlated with our writing some of them just felt a bit random.

Overall I would say that I am pleased with the work that I produced and would enjoy writing

another personal piece like this in the future.