Final Entry

This class has given me a good understanding of how to think about different ethical issues that are in sport. I learned alot about how there are many problems that sport managers face in the world, from ones that have little affect on the organization to big issues that can have drastic affects on how people view your organization. I have gained a good understanding of the history of how sports began and how they have grown. I never had a good understanding of how many sports got their start. Reflective thinking is a great way for people to understand how they become more responsible. When i get into the work setting it will be a good job to be able to reflect about the decisions that have been made by the organizations. Most organizations problem is that they make hasty decisions that are only good for their organizations, if they would just think about their actions and see if they can help anyone besides the organizations it can become a better world.                 

The Battle of the Sexes

The Battle of the sexes was a turning point for womens sports. Before this point women were not viewed  as being on the same level as men were and they had very few opportunites in sport. However after this match women were given more respect then they previously had and more opportunites arose for them to play sports. Title 9 was a piece of legislation that has helped give more opprortunites to women and has increased participation by girls around the country. 

Although i do feel that women should have the same opportunites that men do no matter what the situation is, i feel that Title 9 can be unfair in some situations. The reason why i say that is because the bottomline is that more guys play sports then women do. Because of this there are many schools who could have certain sports that would thrive, but because of the restrictions these state sponsored schools have they cannot do have them.       

Globalization of Sport

The Globalization of sport has been greatly influenced by the increase of the Olympics. The Olympics have always been a world-wide event (obviously) but sports as a whole have been gaining world wide attention from the NBA to the world cup of soccer. Even though there has been the World Baseball Classic the NBA has grown the most as the result of the Olympics as shown through the increase in international players in the NBA. Even though soccer is not too big in the United States, it has seen its interest grown as a result from the world cup. Baseball has already seen its increase in international players and is only going to increase as a result of the popularity of the World Baseball Classic. 

While the NBA has had the most recent increase in international players, baseball is doing the most to keep their talent coming in from other countries by establishing baseball academies to help train potential athletes. I feel that America is behind in the globalization of sport because they have yet to fully accept soccer, while every other country in world has embraced it. Because of this America will not be able to call itself a globalized country until we realize that soccer is a way to reach other countries in the arena of sport.         

Scandals in College Basketball

The NCAA Basketball tournament has been one of the premier tournaments in sports for many years. but their has always been controversy as to how these teams get their top recruits. As seen with coaches like Kelvin Sampson, their are still violations happening throughout college basketball. Whether coaches actually get caught or not they need to strive to recruit their players more ethically. Because of the rules that prohibit high school players going straight to the NBA, their has become more pressure to get these high profile recruits. 

Even though there is great pressure from universities on their coaches to make sure that the teams not only make the tournament but perform well. As we had discussed in class, i believe that there are many cases of coaches making sure their athletes get into easy classes, or even teachers who help the athletes get grades that they don't deserve.    

The Golden Age of Sport

Baseball has grown to become some of the biggest sports not only in America but across the world. But before it became what it is today there were a few players that made it the spectacle it is because each sport had its superstars that helped the sport become larger then life. The first prolific player was Babe Ruth and his impact that he had on baseball. Babe Ruth was by no means athlete, but during this era of baseball, most players the most athletic. The Babe's image of drinking and smoking cigars, was justified by the public because of his ability to hit an outrageous amount of home runs. Not even was he justified for his actions, he was even paid more money then the president at that time. This can show how much baseball was beloved at this time in history.

Youth Sport

Youth sports is something that can have a major impact on the developement of children. Most of the the things that youth sport can teach children are beneficial to their development, there are still many drawbacks to it. We have all heard of parents that take their childrens sports too serious, but being pushed by their parents can hurt the childrens view of good competition. Because kids nowadays are focusing too much on winning, whether it is in club sports or youth sports, their views of real sportmanship have been skewed. Some leauges and communities have taken good strides to help bring the kids back to enjoying the game by not keeping score. I beleive that at a certain age the kids need to be able to play without worrying about winning. If children just play these sports to win and not have fun, then they are being robbed of the enjoyment and fun that sports can provide.

Youth sports however is not all bad because it can provide alot of positives in some kids lives. Some kids live in rough neighborhoods and don't have positive role models around to set a good example. If these kids play sports they will have less free time and can do something constuctive that will teach them hardwork and even teamwork. All kids that play youth sports can learn these valuable lessons and gain good healthy habits that they can use in life

Mascot Discusssion

Over the years there has always been a great amount of discussion over the use of Native American figures for mascots in sports. I myself am part Cheyenne Indian and to me I don't a problem with the use in the sports world. I understand that there is proper way of using these symbols and sometimes the proper way isn’t always followed. Most of the representations are ok but there are some situations where they can be wrong such as the Indians that do the dances with the face paint that which are not historically accurate. For most of these cases the teams are not trying to make fun or bash these tribes, but because they do not consult anyone who is affiliated with these tribes, they end up doing harm. Teams such as the Cleveland Indians and the Florida St. Seminoles are on the edge of being offensive, but they their name and mascots are more generalized. When the teams choose these nicknames, they try to get the passion and emotion that mascots posses such as tigers and patriots. The various indian tribe were fierce warriors and that is the exact passion that these teams are looking for to describe their teams.

A blog is a way for people to be able to tell other people what they really feel about various things. I have never read too many blogs, but I always felt that it would be a fun thing to do. Well as you can tell from the title of this blog, I’m Joel Foos. I am a junior at BGSU, and I major in Sport Management with a specialization in enterprise. I have always been a fan of sports from the time I touched a soccer ball in the third grade. Since I first played soccer I have either played or watched sports during all of my free time. I went to a small school where I was able to be a three sport athlete in soccer, basketball and baseball. Soccer was the first sport that I played as kid and is the sport that I excelled the best in. When you are a three sport athlete in high school, you don’t get too many breaks throughout the year, because there is always something that you could do to prepare for the next season.So as you can tell sports is definately a big part of my life.
When we had to pick an event in history that we would love to see live, my choice was when Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship last year with only one good knee. The reason why I choose this event was not because this event was his best finish, (because that is how he always finishes tournaments), but because of the amount of strain that Tiger had to put on his knee. Although everyone will always love Michael Jordan because of how amazing of an athlete he was, Tiger Woods could possibly be the best athlete in any sport ever and will be the greatest of this generation. He has broken a lot of records already and is on pace to break many more. Even though he missed half of last season, according to reports on his progress, Tiger will more then likely return to golf better then he ever was. If this is true then we have only just begun to see his dominance.