Has Baseball Lost Its Cool?

What could be more American than Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet?

Major League Baseball is doing just fine. Unlike the N.F.L. and the N.B.A., it has been free of labor strife for nearly 20 years. It has more exciting young stars than I can ever remember. It has even achieved that elusive “competitive balance,” with seven different champions over the last decade. Teams across the country are playing in brand-new ballparks that they somehow persuaded local governments to help pay for. Over the last 20 years, baseball revenues have grown from roughly $1 billion to nearly $8 billion.

But the game that we affectionately call our national pastime seems to have lost its cultural relevance — at least compared to football and basketball, and now SOCCER!

Will you be watching?

Has baseball lost its importance in American culture?

Do football games really have more action?

The First Baseball Game Ever Played

Take Me Out to the Ballgame (Original)

Take Me Out to the Ballgame: (Chicago Style)

Casey at the Bat

Casey at the Bat:  Another Point of View

Who's on first?

What's on Second?

Centerfield

Whats Going On In This Picture?

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

Is this art or is it vandalism?  Whats the difference?

Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. He fiercely guards his anonymity to avoid prosecution. In Exit Through the Gift Shop An eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempts to locate and befriend Banksy.

"Graffiti does ruin people's property and it’s a sign of decay and loss of control.  Art is art, and nobody's a bigger supporter of the arts than I am, I just think there are some places for art and there are some places [not for] art. And you running up to somebody's property or public property and defacing it is not my definition of art." 

-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg 

Do you agree or disagree with this statement?  Support your argument with at least 3 facts from class.

What about our own THS Street Artist?  Art or Vandalism?

OBEY

Andre' The Giant or Brinck The Teacher?

 You may know Shepard Fairey's work, whether it be that repetitive face of Andre the Giant popping up at every street corner I've ever been on, or as the Obama Poster that definitely did more for an election than just add aesthetic to it - but I was not aware at how incredibly inspiring Shepard would turn out to be. For a new understanding of how this skateboarder turned mega famed street star turned out to be, check this film out.

met·a

/ˈmedə/

adjective

US

1. 1.

   (of a creative work) referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.

    

1. "our Current Events lesson on Shepard Fairey street art became current events."

Secret Lives of Muslims

What motivates someone to hate?

This story spoke to me and adds some perspective: A hardened Marine, who fought overseas against radical Islam and once plotted a terrorist act against Muslims in his own community in Indiana, eventually finds understanding.

Young or old; mother or soldier; Christian or Muslim; we are all looking for meaning, and we must realize our similarities far outweigh our differences.

If this guy can do it; there is hope for the rest of us.

'Varsity Blue'

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors announced that they charged nearly 50 people, including celebrities and university coaches, with paying or accepting bribes to help admit applicants to elite universities, including Yale.

In what authorities are touting as the largest admissions scandal ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice, prosecutors “charge[d] dozens of individuals involved in a nationwide college admissions cheating and recruitment scheme,” according to United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Andrew Lelling in a Tuesday press briefing.

The special agent in charge of the Boston office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joseph R. Bonavolonta, said that this scheme was the product of a “culture of corruption and greed.”

“You can’t lie and cheat to get ahead because you will get caught,” he said.

Is 'Honesty' always the best policy?

Bride of Isis

“ISIS bride” Hoda Muthana’s citizenship case will not be fast-tracked, a judge ruled Monday — waving off her family’s fears that the US might withdraw from Syria before her suit is resolved.

Muthana was born in the United States and in 2014 fled to Syria to join ISIS. In Syria, she married a series of jihadi fighters and used Twitter to call for terror attacks on US soil — but is now in a Kurdish-run refugee camp, begging to be allowed back home with her infant son.

Should Hoda be allowed to return to the United States with her newborn son?  What do you think?

Tigerland: Room for Debate

From Wil Haygood, the author of the best-selling The Butler, an emotional, inspiring story of two teams from a poor, black, segregated high school in Ohio.

1968 and 1969: Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy are assassinated. Race relations are frayed like never before. Cities are aflame as demonstrations and riots proliferate. But in Columbus, Ohio, the Tigers of segregated East High School win the baseball and basketball championships, defeating bigger, richer, whiter teams across the state.

The Brown v. Board of Education decision, which declared racial segregation of public schools unconstitutional, is more than 60 years old, but de facto segregation, now due largely to geography, still remains an issue for most school systems, from New York City to Columbus, OH, and beyond. In his article in The Sunday Review, David L. Kirp, the author of “Kids First,” said that “desegregation is effectively dead.”

How can we integrate public schools when neighborhoods have become more segregated? Is it time to bring back busing? What other options and solutions are out there for providing a quality education for all children?