Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Sports stars as role models
Sports stars as role models
Personality traits of a leader
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Sports stars as role models
Ty Cobb
Although often overshadowed in baseball history by Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb is considered by many sports enthusiasts to be the greatest player to ever play the game of baseball. Tyrus Raymond Cobb, was born December 18, 1886 in Banks County in Narrows, Georgia. He quickly gained much notoriety for his great skill in baseball and eventually earned a position with the Detroit Tigers at the age of nineteen, after playing for several semi-pro and Sally league teams. Cobb compiled twelve batting titles, a .367 career average, and totaled 4191 hits (second all-time) in a career that spanned twenty-two years (1905-1928). With these and other superb achievements, Ty was inducted as the first member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, receiving more votes the Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner. As Cobb aged, his physical condition worsened and he developed terminal cancer. He eventually died July 17, 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of seventy-four.
The greatness cannot begin to be quantified in statistics and numbers. Ty Cobb redefined the words hard work and determination by stretching his limited God-given ability to the maximum, and making himself into a baseball legend. Cobb throughout his lifetime insisted that he was "not a super athlete, rather he had a great desire to win." Thus, Ty Cobb’s motivation and determination to excel created a pathway to his success.
Much of what made Ty Cobb so successful was his great work ethic. Cobb displays this desire best in what could be considered his epithet: "I’ve got to be first all the time- in everything." This work ethic was instilled in him from the moment that he was born.
Ty always wanted to play the game he fell in love with from an early age, but his father al...
... middle of paper ...
...-business" and "no play" attitude which enabled him to achieve stardom. "The Peach" poured all his heart and soul into baseball, and manager George Leidy’s prediction proved true: "… you will have every boy in America idolizing you. Cobb certainly retired from baseball with no regrets about his effort, which certainly would have made W.H. Cobb proud of his son.
Certainly one aspect of Cobb’s life, his hard work, successful career, determination, dedication, and ability, is remarkably admirable. But the other side of Cobb, his irascible nature, racist attitude, and volatile temper, has created a little doubt as to whether he is in fact a hero. However, looking at Cobb for what he accomplished in baseball, and how he accomplished his goals, through hard work and determination, gives him my vote for the best player to ever grace the great american pastime, “Baseball”
Babe Ruth is still a very well-known person in history today, even almost one-hundred years later. He did not only change the way people viewed negro baseball leagues, but he also gained a large reputation for his ability to play baseball, obviously due to his amazing abilities. Ruth’s ability to play was almost impossibly good, in fact, he was even titled “athlete of the century” for his ability. With that ability and power that he had once he won, he would become a
In the August 30, 1905 edition of Detroit’s Free Press, the sportswriters ran a small blurb announcing the arrival of a Detroit Tigers rookie, Ty Cobb. They stated, “Cobb left the South Atlantic League with a batting average of .328. He will not pile up anything like that in this league, and he doesn’t expect to” (Allen 177). Their prediction ironically rung true. Cobb hit better than their projected .328 batting average twenty times in his twenty four seasons (McCallum 217). Tyrus Raymond Cobb’s prolific career leads many fans and historians to believe that he deserves the title of greatest hitter of all time. However, some critics would argue that Ted Williams warrants this distinction. Unfortunately for Williams and his fans, the hitting prowess of Williams falls short of Cobb’s. While Williams arguably displayed a great hitting ability, Cobb remains the better batsman.
He was the first Hispanic baseball player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and the first to reach three thousand hits. His induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame was specifically special because an exception was made for him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame after his unexpected death. Usually baseball players cannot be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for at least five years after they quit playing, but Clemente was inducted in 1973. With all that being said, Clemente also never forgot where he came
America’s pastime has been complicated in the last couple centuries, and integration has been a really big key in the game of baseball. Like most of America in the 1940’s, baseball was segregated, whites playing in the Major League system and African-Americans playing in the Negro Leagues. There were many factors that made whites and blacks come together including World War II. Integration caused many downs in the time period but as baseball grew and grew it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history. It was hard to find the right black man do start this, they needed a man with baseball abilities and a man who didn’t need to fight back.
Jackie Robinson decided to fight to be the first African American to integrate the Major League Baseball (MLB). His autobiography states he “was forced to live with snubs rebuffs and rejections” ( Robinson). This quote shows that he was treated unfairly and disrespectfully. In Robinson’s autobiography it also states that Jackie Robinson broke the racial barrier and created equal oppurtunity proving that a “sport can’t be called national if blacks are barred from it”
Albert Pujols said, “Baseball was an outlet for him to be able to do that, and he had some special talent to go through what he did and still set an example for others. You cannot replace it.”
Whether it was on the football field, on the basketball court, or out on the baseball field, Robinson encountered quite a bit of success wherever he went. (cite) Despite the talents of many African American baseball players, many were deemed inferior to their white counterparts. The sense of inferiority led many baseball players and owners of the teams in the Negro leagues to adjust to the status quo, however, Robinson was not one to simply seek to fulfill the status quo. Robinson was unwilling to conform with what mainstream society tried to force him to conform with, he constantly told his teammates that they should always be ready, someday one of them would be signed to break the color barrier and play in organized ball (cite to pg 48). Unlike many of his peers, he felt a different calling in the sport of baseball.
Jackie Robinson acted heroically when he joined the Major League knowing he would face racial discrimination and injustice if he joined, and was the first African American
Back in 1987 Ken Griffey Jr. was just starting his career as a professional baseball player, and little did he know that he would help many people and inspire them. Griffey has help his community and teams throughout his life. He invented new ways to play baseball, and impacted so many children’s lives. He has been an inspiration to heros across the world, who themselves have saved people's lives. But the most important thing he has ever done is that he has also always been able to make people laugh and put an everlasting smile on their faces. Ken Griffey Jr. innovated a new way to play the game of baseball, by involving a power swing and speed to his game along with some comedy, while at the same time creating an everlasting smile on children who watched him and children whom lives were impacted and saved by his foundation .
Crack! Back, back, back the ball goes. Home run! Who hit it? It was Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player in the major league. Many people would agree Jackie was one of the best players to ever swing a bat. However, he faced many difficulties on his journey to becoming a professional baseball player. Without Jackie playing in the pros, baseball and civil rights wouldn’t be the way it is today. Baseball may have taken a long time to not be made up of mainly white players. Jackie was a beacon of hope to black people in the fact that they could compete and succeed in a white man’s sport.
Roy is described as a best baseball player ever in The Natural. He says, "Sometimes when I walk down the street I bet people will say there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in the game (Malamud, 27)." Roy knows that he is talented and since he knows it, he puts himself above everyone else. He keeps the same attitude all the time. Later in the book, he says, " If I had started out fifteen years ago like I tried to, I'da been the king of them all by now (Malamud, 150)," and it really shows that Roy has high self-confidence and self-sufficiency. Therefore, he always states it to prove to the world that he is the best. At the end of the novel, his health condition becomes a significant trouble, but Roy neither accepts his health condition nor wants to hear people saying about his health condition because "just in case he had the slightest chance of improving enough to play for maybe another season(Malamud,190)." He does not admit the truth of his health condition, yet he is just too straightforward with his desire for personal achievements and recognition. The crack of his bat, Wonder-boy, is the significant symbol of his limitation.
For a long time, it was assumed that blacks were not allowed to play in the Major Leagues simply because they had not for so long. When Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the commissioner of baseball at the time, declared that there was no rule preventing integration of the Major Leagues, the idea of an African-American joining the league was realized for the first time by a lot of people. In 1943, Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time, had an idea though to be outrageous by many during that period. He considered signing some black players to make up for the wartime shortage of talent. He narrowed down the list of prospects, searching for the best player to integrate baseball. The likely choices for talent would have been Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson. Rickey, however, wanted not only a star but a person who could deal with the harassment from the public, some teammates, and the overall opposition. Knowing of Jackie's talent and his hate for segregation, Rickey set up an interview hoping he could convince Robinson to sign a contract. When Rickey told Robinson why he had been brought to see him, Jackie's reaction was a combination of several emotions. "I was thrilled, scared, and excited.
To the average person, in the average American community, Jackie Robinson was just what the sports pages said he was, no more, no less. He was the first Negro to play baseball in the major leagues. Everybody knew that, but to see the real Jackie Robinson, you must de-emphasize him as a ball player and emphasize him as a civil rights leader. That part drops out, that which people forget. From his early army days, until well after his baseball days, Robinson had fought to achieve equality among whites and blacks. "Jackie acted out the philosophy of nonviolence of Martin Luther King Jr., before the future civil rights leader had thought of applying it to the problem of segregation in America"(Weidhorn 93). Robinson was an avid member of the NAACP and helped recruit members because of his fame from baseball. Jackie had leadership qualities and the courage to fight for his beliefs. Unwilling to accept the racism he had run into all his life, he had a strong need to be accepted at his true worth as a first-class citizen. Robinson was someone who would work for a cause - that of blacks and of America - as well as for himself and his team.
...rst all time in total accumulated bases with 6,856. He was second all time in at bats with 12,364. He was third all time in hits with 3,771. He was third all time in runs scored with 2,174. He was also third all time in games played with 3,298. He was elected into the Hall Of Fame in 1982. His autobiography, I had a Hammer, was published in 1990. In 1999, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of breaking Babe Ruth’s record, Major League announced the Hank Aaron Award, given to the best overall hitter in each league.
it is also important to give credit to those on base or to his coaches who