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I. Introduction
II. Objectives
III. Preparing the Students
IV. Presentation
V. Enrichment and Assessment Activities
VI. Additional Resources
VII. Web Links
VIII. Mutli-Media Gallery
IX. For Videoconferencing
X. Relevant National Learning Standards
XI. Planning a Videoconference?
Played somewhere almost every day, baseball is a part of popular culture with deep-seated aspects of American tradition. Long considered the National Pastime, baseball influences language, forms of entertainment, a context for how people relate to each other, and the clothing they wear. Baseball and culture have been interrelated since the 19th century, influencing the popularity of music and movies, literature and souvenirs. Popular culture is determined mutually and democratically by both boys and girls, fans young and old, and it is expressed in individual and creative ways. Although the definition of popular culture may be subjective, the universality of baseball has been a common thread of many societies and populations throughout various eras and nations. Because each generation chooses its own icons, students have an important role in determining what is popular in the culture of their communities today.
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A. Define, in a group or individualized way, what comprises popular culture and its effects on society and individuals.
B. Understand the roles that peer pressure and individual choice play in determining popular culture.
C. Explain baseball's relationship to culture - popular or otherwise - and how local customs and influences determine that correlation.
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A. Background
"Right off the bat," "three strikes you're out" or "way off base," are common expressions in everyday language. The fashions we wear, the movies we watch, the music to which we listen, and the books we read often have a relationship to baseball. While many students are deeply involved in baseball, others may be surprised to learn the impact of America's oldest professional sport on popular culture. The question, "What is popular culture?" has many answers. This is the essential question for students to address. Just as there are diverse approaches to playing and enjoying the game of baseball, there are many interpretations of how and why popular culture relates not just to baseball, but also to the daily lives of students everywhere.
B. Vocabulary
Accountability
Advertising
Authenticate
Celebrity
Charitable
Chronological
Collectible
Commercialism
Communication
Community
Consensus
Controversial
Corporate
Counter culture
Culture
Democratically
Diversity
Endorsement
Ephemera
Generation
Icon
Idiom
Influence
Integrity
Licensing
Logo
Marketing
Motif
Nostalgia
Objective
Peer pressure
Popular
Product
Prominence
Promotion
Responsibility
Slang
Society
Souvenir
Sub-culture
Subjective
Symbol
C. Suggested Pre-Program Activities
1. Ask students to design a Wheaties box. Whom would they select as the celebrity or athlete to portray on the front? How and why was this person selected? What did students learn about popular culture from this exercise?
2. Ask students to review the baseball card adventure book series by author Dan Gutman. What examples of popular culture can students find in these stories, including the use of baseball cards and a player's celebrity status?
3. Have students conduct a survey with a sampling of relatives and others in their community of a variety of ages. Ask them to probe the participants for insights about what they currently collect or did collect when they were younger. Why were these collectibles considered valuable, either for financial or sentimental reasons? Do these collectibles remain equally valuable today? Students should report their findings to the class in either a written report or oral presentation.
4. Download examples of baseball cards from the Hall of Fame's website, two from each era (two fronts and two backs, which the students should then match up). Ask students to relate the baseball cards to elements of popular culture, and ask them to give details about each player from the backs of the cards. What can they learn about each player from their card and in what era did they play?
5. When enjoying appropriate movies, music or literature, have students list common baseball terminology used in a non-baseball context. Examples of slang or idioms might include "out of left field" or "she threw me a curve." Ask students to distinguish between the phrase as an idiom of popular culture and as term of relevant to baseball action.
6. What current words (slang or terms) have changed meanings over the years? What words, on the surface, have similar meanings but actually mean completely different things? Examine your own language when communicating with friends - these will differ based on backgrounds, societies, regions - and how those words relate to one another.
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A. Opening
1. Show a DVD montage of movie excerpts and other examples of cartoons, advertising or music to stimulate a conversation with students about popular culture. Ask questions to help students list ways that popular culture represents baseball according to what they see in the DVD. Validate their responses, acknowledging there are no right or wrong answers.
2. Introduce a dialogue that includes common baseball expressions found in the English language and literature, such as those listed below. Ask students to complete the sentence:
"Three strikes and you're out"
"Give me a ballpark estimate."
"Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjack."
"I'd go to bat for you."
"Nice try, but you struck out with that idea."
"You are way off base"
"That was a close call."
3. Wear an example of baseball and popular culture, such as a necktie, jewelry, athletic cap or other baseball apparel. Ask students to identify the items and explain how they demonstrate a relationship between baseball and popular culture.
4. Use these examples of language, movies, music and fashion to help students arrive at either a group or individual definition of popular culture, with the explanation that baseball has influenced popular culture, and vice versa, since the 19th century.
B. Lesson
1. Display an assortment of baseball cards from recent decades (different from those downloaded before the program), emphasizing the change and evolution of the medium. Ask students to discuss the styles of graphic design, a player's appearance and the uniforms they are wearing to illustrate how baseball and popular culture reflect each other. Examples might be the wood-grain television motif used in baseball cards of the 1950s that represented the emerging popularity of color television, or player hairstyles and bright uniforms of the 1970s.
2. Ask students to discern the difference between a card from an older generation and a newer card by arranging them chronologically. What characteristics allowed the students to distinguish between old and new styles? How do these differences reflect changes in popular culture?
3. Baseball cards, like uniforms and ballparks, represent the importance of nostalgia to the culture and history of the game. For example, some styles of clothing and types of baseball card designs were once popular, fell from popularity, and have regained a nostalgic status.
4. Why are things collectible? Ask students what they collect. Not yet recognized for their value, baseball cards of the past allowed children to use their imagination in creating new uses, such as card-flipping games and placing them in bicycle spokes to make noise while riding (if possible, demonstrate either of these uses).
5. Now due to supply and demand, baseball cards are recognized for their investment value. What collectibles today allow students to imagine other uses for their entertainment? Are other types of collectible cards similar to baseball cards?
6. Discuss the purpose of baseball cards, how they were originally intended to market and help sell candy, gum, tobacco and other products. In time, the cards became a part of culture more popular than the items they were originally intended to promote.
7. Like baseball cards, player endorsements in advertising and marketing have often been a representation of the game's impact on popular culture. Historically, baseball's popularity has encouraged advertisers to seek out star athletes to promote products both related and unrelated to baseball.
8. Ask students why a ballplayer's familiarity to fans may increase sales of merchandise or the awareness of a charitable cause. What relevance does a player's integrity and character have to promotion of a product or cause? How does a player's celebrity status - or the celebrity status of any person - influence popular culture? Are the factors of celebrity influence, individual choice and peer pressure related?
9. Ask for examples of products and causes promoted by athletes, movie stars and recording artists. Are you more likely to support a product or cause when it is endorsed by a celebrity? What happens when a celebrity who endorses a product later gets into trouble? Can a celebrity's popularity in culture change for good or bad?
10. Besides player endorsements, what other examples of advertising are seen in baseball, and vice versa? Discuss advertising in the stadium, names of ballparks, and corporate logos on player equipment and uniforms. Also, show baseball images in general advertising as examples of how the game influences what is popular in culture.
11. List baseball players from history who are universally recognized icons, such as Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Derek Jeter and Cal Ripken Jr. Are there players who evoke a negative or controversial response, yet who still symbolize the relationship between baseball and popular culture?
12. Discuss how different players and aspects of the game (e.g., the home run, the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," Abbott & Costello's comedy routine "Who's on First," or autographs) elicit emotional reactions to become cultural symbols.
C. Conclusion
1. Despite, or perhaps because of, commercialism, baseball is popular beyond the ballpark. The influences of the game can be seen in movies, music, literature and common expressions, such as "three strikes and you're out."
2. For example, ball caps were once mainly for players. Today, due to mass marketing, their appeal makes them common apparel for fans, presidents, celebrities and stars of other sports.
3. Over the past two centuries, culture, and the concept of what is popular in culture, has changed considerably. One constant has been the popularity of baseball as a source of symbols and icons for society, even as the game itself continues to evolve from generation to generation.
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1. Using freehand illustrations, computer design software or a digital camera, have students create a baseball card of themselves. The card should capture their own personality, individual preferences and unique achievements with predetermined elements (e.g. their birth date, hair color, favorite team, etc). The front and back of the card should be designed in a way that students think might interest a collector. Afterwards, shuffle the cards and pass them out among the class. Ask students to compare and contrast each other's cards, display them or create games with them.
2. Create another baseball card with an image on the front and, instead of stats on the back, have students write three or four sentences about themselves they would want fans / collectors / scouts to know. This activity will show that numbers are not everything. Players are judged by statistics and students should discuss the difference in how they are viewed. How do you best summarize your accomplishments for a year - do you use statistics, or a more subjective way? How does society focus on statistics, and how does that view affect reality? In what ways do statistics relate to truth (what excuse can you make for hitting .200?) accountability?
3. Ask students to create a sequel to the popular song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" or the well-known poem, "Casey At the Bat." This can be an individual or a group activity. A variation could be "Take Me Home from the Ballgame," or a story about what happened to Casey after he struck out. Have them read or perform their version for the class.
4. Have students conduct an in-depth oral history with a family member or other member of the community focusing on the popular cultural icons of their time - from within baseball and outside of baseball - who were their heroes? Why did they try to emulate that person? If that person was alive today, would they be the icon they once were? Add your own questions for the interview. If possible, submit oral history to Hall of Fame's Education website for publication…
5. Ask students to transform themselves into their own cultural icon; If you could affect popular culture, what effect would you want to have on society? What products would you endorse? Would you pick and choose your endorsements or accept all of them indiscriminately? How would you behave as a personality, and are you naturally suited for stardom (is there an aspect of your life you would need to change before your ascent to superstardom?)
6. Have students create a baseball cap. Students will need to choose a logo to reflect their personal preferences - either an existing logo or create a logo for a preferred product. If students choose a corporate logo, how do they feel about representing some commercial product for free?
7. Host a Baseball Pop Culture Day at your school. Activities could include baseball card games, cap making, musical performances, movies, local team mascots, creative writing recitals, ballpark foods and author presentations. Every grade can be responsible for one aspect of the day's events.
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A. Literature
Thank You, Jackie Robinson by Barbara Cohen
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord
Choosing Up Sides by John Ritter
The Boy Who Saved Baseball by John Ritter
Honus & Me by Dan Gutman
Babe & Me by Dan Gutman
Abner & Me by Dan Gutman
Satchel & Me by Dan Gutman
Jackie & Me by Dan Gutman
Mickey & Me by Dan Gutman
Shoeless Joe & Me by Dan Gutman
Casey Back at Bat by Dan Gutman
Baseball: The National Pastime in Art and Literature by David Colbert
Baseball As America by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
America at Bat by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Summerland by Michael Chabon
My Backyard History Book by David Weitzman
Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors by Maureen Taylor
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Baseball As America
Library of Congress
List of baseball-oriented movies
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Coming soon!
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Coming soon!
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A. Art Connections
1. Understands how the characteristic materials of various arts are used to transform similar events, scenes, emotions, or ideas into distinct works of art.
B. Visual Arts
1. Knows how different materials, techniques, and processes cause different responses from the viewer.
2. Knows how history, culture, and the visual arts can influence each other.
3. Understands the historical and cultural contexts of a variety of art objects.
C. Music
1. Understands the roles of musicians in various music settings and cultures
D. Theatre
1. Knows ways in which theatre reflects a culture
2. Knows how culture affects the content and production values of dramatic performances
E. Behavioral Studies
1. Understands that people sometimes imitate people or characters they see presented in the media.
F. History
1. Understands elements that contributed to the rise of modern capitalist economy.
2. Understands aspects of contemporary American culture (e.g., the international influence of American culture, increased popularity of professional sports, influence of spectator sports on popular culture, sports and entertainment figures who advertise specific products).
3. Understands various influences on American culture.
4. Understands the emergence of a global culture
G. Language Arts
1. Writes narrative accounts, such as poems and stories.
2. Gathers data for research topics from interviews.
3. Responds to questions and comments.
4. Understands techniques used to convey messages in visual media.
5. Understands the use and meaning of symbols and images in visual media.
6. Understands basic elements of advertising in visual media.
7. Understands techniques used in visual media to influence or appeal to a particular audience.
8. Understands influences on the construction of media messages and images.
9. Makes basic oral presentations to class
H. Geography
1. Knows the ways in which culture influences the perception of places and regions.
2. Understands cultural change.
3. Knows ways in which communities reflect the cultural background of their inhabitants.
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A. Videoconference
Checklist (PDF)
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Culture: Take Me Out to the Ball Game