| I. Introduction
II. Objectives
III. Preparing the Students
IV. Presentation
V. Enrichment and Assessment Activities
VI. Additional Resources
VII. Relevant National Learning Standards
VIII. Planning a Videoconference?
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Even in an era of free agency and million dollar agreements,
baseball is more than money. Beyond the big salaries
is a complex process of finding common ground individually
and institutionally. As players and management organized
themselves, the transition of our National Pastime from
a social sport to a professional industry provides a
unique lesson in free enterprise through the evolution
of contracts and commerce.
Appropriate for students in high school or college,
critical thinking and decision-making skills are engaged
in this fascinating look at the relationship between
employer and employee. How does baseball compare to
other entities that utilize collective bargaining and
contract negotiation? From the boardroom to the locker
room, learn the answers in this study of competition
and cooperation. Throughout American history, the teamwork
to earn a voice and a seat at the table has forged an
important, time-tested principle: labor is not a commodity.
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A. Examine historical data from various perspectives,
including museum and library collections, player contracts,
labor agreements, organizational structures, artifacts
and primary sources.
B. Compare and contrast models of resolving differences
throughout the various player organizations in baseball's
labor history - such as individual contracts, management
philosophies, meet and confer, collective bargaining,
mediation and arbitration.
C. Understand, through research, discussion and role
play: human and civil rights with responsibilities;
the purpose and concept of organizing a labor union;
the decision-making process that defines the employer-employee
relationship, including negotiation, conflict resolution
and contract enforcement.
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A. Background
For as long as baseball players and team owners have
had a professional relationship involving salaries and
profits, each group has tried to protect its interests
- including benefits and working conditions. The player-owner
relationship began when baseball professionalized in
the second half of the 1800s. As this alliance has evolved
throughout the history of organized baseball, it has
had a fundamental impact on the game, on and off the
field. Fans may know about the Major League Baseball
Players' Association (MLBPA) and the strikes of the
1980s and 1990s, but many may not realize the first
player union was founded over a hundred years ago. Since
then, there have been at least five distinct player
unions interacting with various owners and commissioners
as influenced by the precepts of the National Labor
Relations Act (the Wagner Act) and the National Labor
Relations Board. This collaborative effort has resulted
in the dynamic, healthy National Pastime baseball is
today.
B. Vocabulary
AFL-CIO
Allocation of resources
Anti-trust
Arbitration
Associations
Benefits
Binding arbitration
Blacklist
Civil rights
Club
Collective bargaining
Collusion
Commissioner
Competition
Contract
Employer / employee
Employment at-will
Franchise
Free agency
Free market
Indentured servant
Injunction
Interstate commerce
Labor agreement
Labor as a commodity
Labor union
League
Lockout
Loophole
Major League Baseball
Mediation
MLBPA
Monopoly
Organization
Pensions
Professional
Profits
Reserve clause
Salary
Salary cap
Shop steward
Strike
Working conditions
C. Suggested Pre-Program Activities
1) Research and acquire an historical understanding
of baseball player organizations within the context
of a broader labor movement, beginning in the 19th century.
These should include:
a) National Association of Baseball Players (1858)
b) National Association of Professional Base Ball Players
(1871)
c) Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players (1885)
d) Players' Protective Association (1900)
e) Fraternity of Professional Baseball Players of America
(1912)
f) American Baseball Guild (1946)
g) Major League Baseball Players Association (1952)
2) Teachers and commencement-level students may wish
to visit the American Labor Studies Center Web site
at www.labor-studies.org
or the AFL-CIO at www.aflcio.org.
3) Utilizing quotes provided in the Additional Resources
section (V.), construct a timeline and assign the viewpoints
and personalities to different eras of baseball's labor
history movement.
4) Plot the location of major league teams in 1925.
Given the constraints and realities of travel during
that era, discuss the salary and working conditions
a player might negotiate as a part of his annual contract.
Other typically non-negotiable provisions might include,
but would not be limited to: meal money, clothing, travel
costs, lodging expenses, etc. These funds should be
sufficient for the duration of a season. Project the
same expenses forward to the present day.
List other benefits and expenses the contemporary player
might request that would be different from those of
1925.
5) Discuss the concept of a major league baseball player.
What distinguishes a professional from an amateur? How
does the employer-employee relationship determine a
player's responsibility to the team and vice a versa?
What would happen if the players and owners did not
have a performance agreement that binds them to certain
standards and structures, including compensation and
rules?
6) Chart the organizational structure of Major League
Baseball, including the commissioner's office, the owners,
the players' association and the teams of incorporation.
Explain the respective roles, responsibilities and interdependency
of each.
7) Research what laws and regulations govern labor relations
in Major League Baseball. How is professional baseball
subject to the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner
Act) and the National Labor Relations Board?
8) As a class, research the structure and explain the
governance of a professional baseball team. Compare
and contrast this organization with other entities,
such as the school, the community, a local business,
the city or state government. Categorize these according
to social, political or industrial organizations. Do
they employ labor through an individual or collective
agreement?
9) Identify and list sources of revenue (e.g. ticket
prices, concessions, television contracts, etc.) that
influence the culture of labor in Major League Baseball
and may affect the interaction of the team, the owner,
the players and the fans. Role-play either actual or
hypothetical negotiation issues involving these sources
and portray the deliberation from each participant's
perspective of the process.
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If you are participating in a school visit or videoconference
please do not review this section with your students.
It will be taught as part of the presentation.
A. Opening
1) Discuss the terms "hardball" and "handshakes"
as they pertain to the study of owner-player relationships.
How are these phrases relevant to the process of negotiating
contracts and labor agreements?
2) Ask students to brainstorm, informally listing or
briefly describing changes in American history and/or
labor relations that may have influenced the following
periods in Major League Baseball player agreements:
a) Individual standardized player contracts (1850 to
1900)
b) Individual contracts between players, teams and their
leagues (1900 to 1950)
c) Contracts represented by associations and/or collective
bargaining (1950 to the present)
3) Using previous research, engage students in creative
role-play to depict famous ballplayers, team owners
and other historical figures who provide insights on
life, working conditions, management perspectives and
terms of employment during their respective eras. The
dialogue should include references to American culture
and society, including the economics of the age.
B. Lesson
1) Divide students into pairs or equal groups representing
various eras from 1870 to the present. Provide a copy
of a player's contract from each period utilizing those
found in the Additional Resources and Planning a Videoconference
sections for this thematic unit.
2) Ask each group to list important elements of their
assigned contract. Essential questions should identify
aspects pertaining to compensation, benefits, working
conditions, general terms and conditions of employment,
the signing parties and any indication of how the agreement
may have been reached.
3) Working together, the students should create a chart
that compares and contrasts contracts from successive
eras. The common categories of comparison may include
those listed above, but should be determined by discussion
and consensus of the students.
4) Talk about differences in contracts among each era.
Ask students to determine commonalities in language
and provisions among the agreements, hypothesizing why
some elements did not change while others changed considerably
over time. List indications of contracts moving from
individual agreements to those produced as a result
of collective bargaining.
5) To what extent were each of these contracts settled
amicably? Were strikes or lockouts necessary to resolve
differences?
C. Conclusion
1) List and discuss historical attempts by the players
to organize and defend their working conditions. What
motivated ballplayers during various eras to mobilize
and form these associations? What did and did not work?
Why were these early attempts to unionize initially
limited in their success and ultimately futile?
2) Compare previous attempts to form player associations
with the enduring success of the modern-day Major League
Baseball Players Association (MLBPA).
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A. Compare the salary, benefits and working conditions
of minor league baseball players to those of major league
players. Find examples of photos and primary source
documents, as well as testimonials from local players
and owners.
B. Conduct a comparative analysis of employment conditions
in Major League Baseball, the All-American Girls Professional
Baseball League, the Negro leagues and Minor League
Baseball.
Include such factors as contracts, compensation and
working conditions.
C. Research and present biographical reports on key
figures related to baseball's labor history. These could
include:
1) Marvin Miller
2) Donald Fehr
3) Curt Flood
4) John Montgomery
Ward
5) Harry Taylor
6) Robin Roberts
7) David Fultz
8) Albert Spalding
9) Robert Murphy
10) Jim "Catfish"
Hunter
11) Happy Chandler
12) Kenesaw Mountain
Landis
13) Oliver Wendell Holmes
14) Sen. Robert Wagner
15) Robert Cannon
16) Bowie Kuhn
17) Jim Creighton
18) Bob Friend
19) Ban Johnson
20) William Hulbert
21) Clark Griffith
22) Hughey Jennings
23) Charles Comiskey
24) John Gaherin
25) Walter O'Malley
26) William Veeck,
Jr.
27) Harvey Kuenn
28) Emanuel Celler
D. Compare and contrast the respective roles of Judge
Robert Cannon and Marvin Miller in establishing the
structure for the present-day agreement between players
and owners.
E. Research and role-play a panel discussion involving
players from the major leagues, the All-American Girls
Professional Baseball League and the Negro leagues.
The characters should discuss labor issues related to
their respective leagues and selected eras.
F. Evaluate the implications and repercussions of a
labor strike or lockout as a means of resolving conflicts
and pressuring the other side to gain an advantage in
the process of collective bargaining. Research and report
on an actual labor strike, either in baseball or American
history, including the economic, social, political and
industrial impact of a work stoppage.
G. Conduct a class debate on the role of a labor union
in professional baseball. Do players of such status
actually need to be represented in their contract negotiations?
Choose both sides of the issue, discussing the pros
and cons of player representation in collective bargaining.
H. Examine the role of the National Baseball Hall of
Fame in documenting baseball's labor history. What power
or influence, if any, does the Hall of Fame have in
representing the tradition of player representation
and performance?
I. Document the economic effect of player-owner relations
in the history of well-known baseball controversies,
such as the Black Sox scandal of 1919 or the joint holdout
of Hall of Fame pitching greats, Don Drysdale and Sandy
Koufax, in 1966. How did labor-management conflicts
lead to these predicaments?
J. Compare the Major League Baseball Players Association
with other professional labor unions, such as those
representing teachers, autoworkers, electricians, etc.
K. Consider the economic effects and labor implications
of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947.
To what extent were players and labor-management relations
impacted by the advent of civil rights? How do current
contracts protect civil rights and defend players against
discrimination?
L. Study well-known court cases involving baseball labor
disputes. At the very least, include the 1972 U.S. Supreme
Court case, Flood vs. Kuhn. Report on the outcome of
this and other judicial decisions affecting baseball
and labor.
M. Using the book, The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence
Ritter, read the account by Hall of Famer Edd Roush
of his legendary holdouts and contract disputes in the
early 1900s. Discuss how such differences and disagreements
might be handled in the context of today's collective
bargaining agreements.
N. Create a PowerPoint presentation that chronicles
the history of labor-management relations in baseball,
including some of its most successful figures and milestones.
When appropriate, integrate photographs, statistics,
graphs, primary source documents, text, audio or video
files, and key vocabulary terms.
O. Explore the extent to which support workers in baseball
are unionized. These could include umpires, ticket takers,
concession workers, ground crews, etc. The umpire strike
of 1979 and the more recent demise of the umpire's union
led by Richie Phillips are especially pertinent.
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A. Quotations
1) "A well-paid slave is a slave nonetheless."
- Curt Flood
2) "By combination among themselves, stronger than
the strongest trust, the owners were able to enforce
the most arbitrary measures, and the player had either
to submit or get out of the profession in which he had
spent years attaining proficiency."
-Manifesto of the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball
Players, November 6, 1889
3) "The essential dignity of equals sitting down
together just can't be overemphasized." - Marvin
Miller
4) "After twelve years of being in the major leagues,
I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought
and sold irrespective of my wishes."
-Curt Flood
5) "The players are getting too much money for
their own …good. Sure, we know who bid the contracts
up to where they are now, but now it's got to stop."
- Writer Roger Angell explaining management thinking
at the start of the 1981 baseball strike.
6) "The players' definition of give-and-take bargaining
is we give and they take." - Barry Rona, management's
labor counsel, shortly before the 1985 baseball strike.
7) "Acting in concert with regard to free agency
rights is prohibited whatever may be the economic situation
of the individual clubs."
-Thomas Roberts
8) "I did it for the guys sitting on the bench,
the utility men who couldn't crack the lineup with [the
Dodgers] but who could make it elsewhere. These guys
should have an opportunity to make a move and go to
another club." - Andy Messersmith
9) "The thinking of the average major league ballplayer,
was: 'we have it so good we don't know what to ask for
next.'" - Judge Robert Cannon
10) "Baseball is too much of a business to be a
sport and too much of a sport to be a business."
- Phil Wrigley
11) "Professional baseball is on the wane. Salaries
must come down or the interest of the public must be
increased in some way. If one or the other does not
happen, bankruptcy stares every team in the face."
- Albert Goodwill Spalding, 1881
12) "I am enormously disturbed by this arbitration
decision. If this interpretation prevails, baseball's
reserve system is eliminated by the stroke of a pen.
This would be a disaster for the great majority of players,
for the clubs and most of the fans." - Bowie Kuhn
13) "It would be very useful if we cold get into
the mode where we are more interested in the size of
the pie than in the size of the slice that would go
to the clubs and the slice that would go to the players."
- Charles O'Connor, Owners' Chief Negotiator, 1996
14) "Players have to step in and say, 'Don [Fehr],
we appreciated what you've done, but we have to look
out for the game." - Robin Roberts, 2002
15) "A glance around the league circuits at the
stupendous equipment recently completed or now under
construction would convince the casual observer that
after paying salaries, the magnate still has enough
left to keep the wolf out of the garage." - David
Fultz
16) "Like a fugitive slave law, the reserve rule
denies him a harbor or a livelihood, and carries him
back, bound and shackled, to the club from which he
attempted to escape." - John Montgomery Ward
17) "When the players band themselves together
in an effort to dictate to us the manner in which we
shall conduct our business it will be time for the magnates
to retire." - Colonel John Rogers
18) "They [the owners] treated us as if we had
been unruly kids who had to be lollipopped and put to
be." - Clark Griffith
19) "I question whether many of the players want
to make trouble for themselves, for they are a smart,
thinking class of men and have no grievances as far
as I can see." - Ban Johnson
20) "The reserve clause in baseball players' contracts
under the National Agreement intended to protect the
rights of clubs operating under the agreement to retain
the services of sufficient players." - Judge Oliver
Wendell Holmes
21) "Both sides must understand that any blows
at the thing called baseball would be regarded by this
court as a blow to a national institution." - Judge
Kenesaw Mountain Landis
22) "The validity of the baseball contract makes
me laugh. A baseball owner can do as he wants with a
player on 10-day notice." - Robert Murphy
B. Literature
Abrams, Roger I. Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law.
Temple University Press, 1998.
Burk, Robert F. Never Just A Game: Players, Owners,
and American Baseball to 1920. University of North Carolina
Press, 1994.
Burk, Robert F. Much More Than A Game: Players, Owners,
& American Baseball
Since 1921 University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Dworkin, James B. Owners Versus Players: Baseball and
Collective Bargaining. Auburn House Publishing Co.,
1981.
Helyar, John. Lords of the Realm. Villard Books, 1994.
Jennings, Kenneth M. Balls and Strikes: the Money Game
in Professional Baseball. Praeger, 1990.
Jennings, Kenneth M. Swings and Misses: Moribund Labor
Relations in Professional
Baseball. Praeger, 1990.
Korr, Charles P. The End of Baseball as We Knew It:
the Players Union, 1960-81. University of Illinois Press,
2002.
Lewis, Michael. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair
Game. W.W. Norton, 2003.
Lowenfish, Lee. The Imperfect Diamond: a History of
Baseball's Labor Wars. Da Capo Press, 1991.
McKelvey, G. Richard. For It's One, Two, Three, Four
Strikes You're Out at the
Owners' Ball Game: Players Versus Management in Baseball.
McFarland & Co., 2001.
Miller, Marvin. A Whole Different Ball Game: the Sport
and Business of Baseball. Carol Publishing Group, 1991.
Staudohar, Paul D. (ed.) Diamond Mines: Baseball &
Labor. Syracuse University Press, 2000.
Staudohar, Paul D. Playing for Dollars: Labor Relations
and the Sports Business. ILR Press, 1996.
C. Web Links
May 2007 interview with ESPN baseball writer Jerry Crasnick on the labor issues in baseball today
http://labor-studies.org
American Labor Studies Center
aflcio.org
Official site of the American Federation of Labor-Congress
of Industrial Organizations
sabr.org/sabr.cfm?a=cms,c,32,40,0
Society of American Baseball Research
businessofbaseball.com
Society of American Baseball Research Business Committee
baseballindex.org
The Baseball Index, documenting salary and statistical
information
sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.feature&featureId=247
Street & Smiths Sports Business Journal
athomeplate.com/flood.shtml
Web site documenting baseball issues and labor disputes
D. Multi-Media Gallery
1) Video
a) Marvin Miller speaking at the Symposium on Baseball
and the American Culture
2) Recommended Movies for In-Class Viewing
a) Baseball, A documentary series by Ken Burns: BMG
Video Service, 1994, Inning 1, Inning 3, Inning 8, Inning
9
b) Eight Men Out, Orion Pictures, 1988
c) The Natural, TriStar Pictures, 1984
3) Photographs
a) Marvin Miller
b) Curt Flood
c) John Montgomery
Ward
d) Robin Roberts
e) David Fultz
f) Albert Spalding
g) Robert Murphy
h) Jim "Catfish"
Hunter
i) Happy Chandler
j) Kenesaw Mountain
Landis
k) Robert Cannon
l) Bowie Kuhn
m) Jim Creighton
n) Bob Friend
o) Ban Johnson
p) William Hulbert
q) Clark Griffith
r) Hughey Jennings
s) Charles Comiskey
t) Walter O'Malley
u) William Veeck,
Jr.
v) Harvey Kuenn
4) Primary Source Documents
a) Charles
Radbourn 1879 Contract (PDF)
b) Paul
Cook 1884 Contract (PDF)
c) John
McGraw 1895 Contract (PDF)
d) Richard
F. Johnston Players League Contract 1889 (PDF)
e) Vivian
Kellogg 1948 AAGPBL Contract (PDF)
f) George
Herman "Babe" Ruth 1916 Contract (PDF)
g) E.J.
Roush 1914 Federal League Contract (PDF)
h) Walter
"Buck" Leonard 1949 Negro Leagues Contract
(PDF)
i) Joe
DiMaggio 1949 Contract (PDF)
j) Jerome
Herman "Dizzy" Dean 1936 Contract (PDF)
k) Brooks
Robinson 1955 Contract (PDF)
l) Warren
Spahn 1965 Contract (PDF)
m) Derek
Jeter 2001 Contract - facsimile copy (PDF)
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A. U.S. History
1) Understands the conditions affecting employment and
labor in the late 19th century (e.g., the change from
workshop to factory in different regions; how working
conditions changed and how workers responded to new
industrial conditions)
2) Understands reactions to developments in labor in
late 19th century America (e.g., how management and
industry responded to efforts to organize workers, the
response of management and government to labor strife
in different regions of the country)
3) Understands influences on the workforce during the
late 19th century (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, and
skill; how big business and the impersonal nature of
factory work affected workers; inroads made by women
in male-dominated jobs; legal status of women; the type
of work children performed; occupations in which children
were employed; dangers they faced during the workday)
4) Understands labor issues of the late 19th century
(e.g., organizational and agenda differences between
reform and trade unions, the extent of radicalism in
the labor movements, labor conflicts of 1894 and their
effects)
5) Understands the labor movement during the New Deal
era (e.g., the re-emergence of labor militancy and the
struggle between craft and industrial unions; the commitment
of labor unions to organize diverse groups and secure
equitable conditions and pay for minorities; the objectives
of labor leaders and advocates; how art, photographs,
and song lyrics contributed to the emotional appeal
to support unions; WPA projects and their impact on
local areas)
6) Understands how the New Deal influenced labor and
employment (e.g., the impact of the New Deal on non-union
workers; factors contributing to the success of the
CIO leadership in organizing the rubber, auto, and steel
workers in the period 1937 1941; labor's commitment
to organizing; causes, strategies, and leadership of
major strikes during the New Deal; the effects of the
New Deal agricultural programs on farm laborers)
7) Understands significant influences on the civil rights
movement (e.g., the social and constitutional issues
involved in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board
of Education (1954) court cases; the connection between
legislative acts, Supreme Court decisions, and the civil
rights movement; the role of women in the civil rights
movement and in shaping the struggle for civil rights)
8) Understands influences on business and industry in
the 19th century (e.g., how business leaders attempted
to limit competition and maximize profits, the role
of the government in promoting business, the concept
of the "American Dream")
9) Understands the development of business in the late
19th century (e.g., types of business organizations
that affected the economy; the impact of industrialization
on availability of consumer goods, living standards,
and redistribution of wealth; how new industries gained
dominance in their field; the changing nature of business
enterprise)
10) Understands elements that contributed to the rise
of modern capitalist economy (e.g., changes in the modern
corporation of the 1920s, including labor policies…)
B. Economics
1) Small and large firms, labor unions and educational
and other not-for-profit organizations have different
goals and face different rules and constraints. These
goals, rules, and constraints influence the benefits
and costs of those who work with or for those organizations,
and, therefore, their behavior.
2) Collusion among buyers or sellers reduces the level
of competition in a market. Collusion is more difficult
in markets with large numbers of buyers and sellers.
3) Through the process of collective bargaining with
employers, labor unions represent some workers in negotiations
involving wages, fringe benefits, and work rules.
4) Property rights, contract enforcement, standards
for weights and measures, and liability rules affect
incentives for people to produce and exchange goods
and services.
5) Employers are willing to pay wages and salaries to
workers because they expect to be able to sell the goods
and services that those workers produce at prices high
enough to cover the wages and salaries and all other
costs of production.
6) To earn income people sell productive resources.
These include their labor, capital, natural resources,
and entrepreneurial talents.
7) More productive workers are likely to be of greater
value to employers and earn higher wages than less productive
workers.
8) Changes in demand for specific goods and services
often affect the incomes of the workers who make those
goods and services.
9) Entrepreneurs and other sellers earn profits when
buyers purchase the product they sell at prices high
enough to cover the costs of production.
10) Entrepreneurial decisions affect job opportunities
for other workers.
11) Entrepreneurial decisions are influenced by government
tax and regulatory policies.
12) Economic growth creates new employment and profit
opportunities in some industries, but growth reduces
opportunities in others.
13) Investments in physical and or human capital can
increase productivity, but such investments entail opportunity
costs and economic risks.
14) An important role for government in the economy
is to define, establish, and enforce property rights.
A property right to a good or service includes the right
to exclude others from using the good or service and
the right to transfer the ownership or use of the resource
to others.
15) In the United States, the federal government enforces
antitrust laws and regulations to try to maintain effective
levels of competition in as many markets as possible;
frequently, however, laws and regulations also have
unintended effects for example reducing competition.
16) The labor force consists of people age 16 and over
who are employed or actively seeking work.
17) The consumer price index (CPI) is the most commonly
used measure of price-level changes. It can be used
to compare the price level in one year with price levels
in earlier or later periods.
18) Market prices are determined through the buying
and selling decisions made by buyers and sellers.
19) Labor productivity is output per worker.
20) Responses to incentives are predictable because
people usually pursue their self-interest.
21) Changes in incentives cause people to change their
behavior in predictable ways.
22) Incentives can be monetary or non-monetary.
23) Scarcity requires the use of some distribution method,
whether the method is selected explicitly or not.
24) Choices involve trading off the expected value of
one opportunity against the expected value of its best
alternative.
25) The choices people make have both present and future
consequences.
26) The evaluation of choices and opportunity costs
is subjective; such evaluations differ across individuals
and societies.
27) Choices made by individuals, firms, or government
officials often have long run unintended consequences
that can partially or entirely offset the initial effects
of the decision.
28) Students address such issues as human rights, economic
competition and interdependence and age-old ethnic enmities.
29) Students understand civic ideals and practices of
citizenship, such as the balance between rights and
responsibilities.
C. Language Arts
1) Students read a wide range of literature from many
periods in many genres to build an understanding of
the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic)
of human experience.
2) Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend,
interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw
on their prior experience, their interactions with other
readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning
and of other texts, their word identification strategies
and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter
correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
3) Students adjust their use of spoken, written and
visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary)
to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences
and for different purposes.
4) Students apply knowledge of language structure, language
conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media
techniques, figurative language and genre to create,
critique and discuss print and non-print texts.
5) Students conduct research on issues and interests
by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems.
They gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety
of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts,
people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that
suit their purpose and audience.
6) Students use a variety of technological and information
resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks,
video) to gather, research and synthesize information
and to create and communicate knowledge.
7) Students develop an understanding of and respect
for diversity in language use, patterns and dialects
across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions and
social roles.
8) Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective,
creative and critical members of a variety of literacy
communities.
9) Students use spoken, written, and visual language
to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning,
enjoyment, persuasion and the exchange of information).
D. Fine and Visual Arts
1) Students, individually and in groups, create characters,
environments and actions that create tension and suspense.
2) Students analyze descriptions, dialogue, and actions
to discover, articulate and justify character motivation
and invent character behaviors based on the observation
of interactions, ethical choices and emotional responses
of people.
3) Students, in an ensemble, interact as the invented
characters.
4) Students lead small groups in planning visual and
aural elements and in rehearsing improvised and scripted
scenes, demonstrating social, group and consensus skills.
5) Students apply research from print and non-print
sources, as well as cultural and historical information,
to script writing, acting, design and directing choices.
6) Students articulate and support the meanings constructed
from their and others' dramatic performances.
7) Students describe and evaluate the perceived effectiveness
of their contributions to the collaborative process
of developing improvised and scripted scenes.
8) Students integrate visual, spatial and temporal concepts
with content to communicate intended meaning in their
artworks.
9) Students use subjects, themes and symbols that demonstrate
knowledge of contexts, values and aesthetics to communicate
intended meaning in artworks.
E. Civics
1) Knows the historical and contemporary role of various
organized groups in local, state, and national politics
(e.g., unions; professional organizations; religious,
charitable, service, and civic groups)
2) Knows alternative ideas about the purposes and functions
of law (e.g., regulating relationships among people
and between people and their government; providing order,
predictability, security, and established procedures
for the management of conflict; regulating social and
economic relationships in civil society)
3) Knows ways in which Americans have attempted to make
the values and principles of the Constitution a reality
4) Understands issues that involve conflicts among fundamental
values and principles such as the conflict between liberty
and authority
5) Knows how the rights of organized labor and the role
of government in regulating business have created political
conflict
6) Knows instances in which political conflict in the
United States has been divisive and reasons for this
division (e.g., the Civil War, labor unrest, civil rights
struggles, opposition to the war in Vietnam)
7) Knows important economic rights (e.g., the right
to own property, choose one's work, change employment,
join a labor union, establish a business), and knows
statements of economic rights in the United States Constitution
(e.g., requirement of just compensation, contracts,
copyright, patents)
8) Understands the importance to individuals and society
of such economic rights as the right to acquire, use,
transfer, and dispose of property; choose one's work
and change employment; join labor unions and professional
associations; establish and operate a business; copyright
and patent; and enter into lawful contracts
9) Understands basic contemporary issues involving personal,
political, and economic rights (e.g., personal rights
issues such as dress codes, curfews, sexual harassment;
political rights issues such as hate speech, fair trial,
free press; economic rights issues such as welfare,
minimum wage, health care, equal pay for equal work)
10) Understands the importance to individuals and to
society of personal rights such as freedom of thought
and conscience, privacy and personal autonomy, and the
right to due process of law and equal protection of
the law
11) Understands the relationship between political rights
and the economic right to acquire, use, transfer, and
dispose of property
12) Understands the relationship of political rights
to economic rights such as the right to choose one's
work, to change employment, and to join a labor union
and other lawful associations
13) Knows historical and contemporary examples of citizen
movements seeking to promote individual rights and the
common good (e.g., abolition, suffrage, labor and civil
rights movements)
F. Thinking and Reasoning
1) Uses a decision-making grid or matrix to make or
study decisions involving a relatively limited number
of alternatives and criteria
2) Secures factual information needed to evaluate alternatives
3) Makes decisions based on the data obtained and the
criteria identified
4) Analyzes decisions that were major turning points
in history and describes how things would have been
different if other alternatives had been selected
5) Makes basic distinctions between information that
is based on fact and information that is based on opinion
6) Creates a table to compare specific abstract and
concrete features of two items
7) Compares different sources of information for the
same topic in terms of basic similarities and differences
8) Uses a comparison table to compare multiple items
on multiple abstract characteristics
9) Examines different options for solving problems of
historical importance and determines why specific courses
of action were taken
10) Evaluates the feasibility of various solutions to
problems; recommends and defends a solution
G. Historical Understanding
1) Knows how to construct and interpret multiple tier
time lines (e.g., a time line that contains important
social, economic, and political developments …)
2) Understands patterns of change and continuity in
the historical succession of related events
3) Knows how to periodize events of the nation into
broadly defined eras
4) Understands historical continuity and change related
to a particular development or theme
5) Analyzes the values held by specific people who influenced
history and the role their values played in influencing
history
6) Analyzes the influences specific ideas and beliefs
had on a period of history and specifies how events
might have been different in the absence of those ideas
and beliefs
7) Analyzes the effects that specific "chance events"
had on history and specifies how things might have been
different in the absence of those events
8) Analyzes the effects specific decisions had on history
and studies how things might have been different in
the absence of those decisions
9) Understands that the consequences of human intentions
are influenced by the means of carrying them out
10) Understands that change and continuity are equally
probable and natural
11) Knows how to avoid seizing upon particular lessons
of history as cures for present ills
12) Analyzes how specific historical events would be
interpreted differently based on newly uncovered records
and/or information
13) Understands how the past affects our private lives
and society in general
14) Knows how to perceive past events with historical
empathy
15) Knows how to evaluate the credibility and authenticity
of historical sources
16) Evaluates the validity and credibility of different
historical interpretations
17) Uses historical maps to understand the relationship
between historical events and geography
Return to top
A. Videoconference
Checklist (PDF)
B. Teachers: Please divide your class in to equal groups
of 3-5 students depending on the number your class.
You will need to print off one contract and one worksheet
for each group. Please choose from the contracts below.
Depending on the size of your class not all of the contracts
will be needed. Please have your students work within
their groups to read the contract and complete the worksheet
prior to the videoconference. They will use their completed
worksheet
(PDF) during the videoconference.
1) Charles
Radbourn 1879 Contract (PDF)
2) Paul
Cook 1884 Contract (PDF)
3) John
McGraw 1895 Contract (PDF)
4) E.J.
Roush 1914 Federal League Contract (PDF)
5) George
Herman "Babe" Ruth 1916 Contract (PDF)
6) Jerome
Herman "Dizzy" Dean 1936 Contract (PDF)
7) Vivian
Kellog 1948 All-American Girls Baseball League Contract
(PDF)
8) Walter
"Buck" Leonard 1949 Negro Leagues Contract
(PDF)
9) Brooks
Robinson 1955 Contract (PDF)
10) Joe
DiMaggio 1949 Contract (PDF)
11) Richard
F. Johnston Players League Contract 1889 (PDF)
12) Warren
Spahn 1965 Contract (PDF)
13) Derek
Jeter 2001 Contract - facsimile copy (PDF)
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Labor
History: 