Sporting Events Before Television example essay topic

Remember the time when Michael Jordan hit the game winning shot, with Byron Russel from Utah in is face, to win his six NBA title? Remember all the times that Joe Montana and Jerry Rice connected for touchdowns? Remember the time when Mark McGuire hit his sixty-second home run to break the old record? All of these sporting events are part of the mosaic that is the American society. The media bombarded American viewers with dazzling athletic feats and heroism.

But has the media gone too far in making these sport figures seem larger than life? Could it be that the media has corrupted the spirit and integrity of the once proud and traditional games? During the pre-television era sports were filled with hard work, loyalty, and self-determination but as times changed people began looking for instant gratification. It is easy to see this happening in the much watched and listened to game of baseball. Thus the fans preferred the towering home runs of Babe Ruth rather than the hard work style of base hits, base stealing, sacrifices and hit-and-run plays personified by Ty Cobb. American heroes were no longer lone businessmen or statesmen, but more often the stars of movies and sports.

Young boys now dreamed of becoming athletic heroes rather than the Captains of Industry. The incredible influence television has had on sports is clearly stated in the scholarly essay In Its Own Image: How Television Has Transformed Sports by Benjamin Rader. This scholarly essay is a well-written piece of work that takes a look at how much of an effect television really has on sports. Benjamin Rader states as his thesis "Television has essentially trivialized the experience of spectator sports. With its enormous power to magnify and distort images, to reach every hamlet in the nation with events from anywhere in the world, and to pour millions of additional dollars into sports, television-usually with the enthusiastic assistance of the sports moguls themselves-has sacrificed much of the unique drama of sports to the requirements of entertainment. To seize and hold the attention of viewers and thus maximize revenues, the authenticity of the sporting experience has been contaminated with a plethora of external intrusions.

To capitalize upon the public's love of sports, television-again with the aid of sports promoters-has swamped viewers with too many seasons, too many games, too many teams, and too many big plays. Such a flood of sensations has diluted the poignancy and potency of the sporting experience. It has diminished the capacity of sports to furnish heroes, to bind communities, and to enact the rituals that contain, and exalt, society's traditional values", (Rader, 6). This statements clarity and truth makes it very difficult to argue with.

Rader makes it evident that television has affected the experience of the sports for spectators. He also makes a very important point by saying that television has the power to distort images. Television has brought out a new part of sports that no one had ever seen before. They were dazzled by new action shots and the fact that they could watch the game from the safety of their living room. Although for a while the viewers had some troubles seeing the ball while it was in the air and they often missed some of the action. (New York Times, 1) As Rader goes on in chapter one to tell the reader about how sports used to be he explains how the sports world made it possible for Americans to continue to believe in the traditional gospel of success: that hard work, frugality, and loyalty paid dividends; that the individual was potent and could play a large role in shaping is own destiny.

He also makes it clear that in the world of sports before television, Americans found a rich history of fact and fancy, of legendary heroes, and of precise benchmarks for measuring present performances. (Rader, 12) The first part of this book starts off explaining his thesis wonderfully by telling the reader how sports used to be and by how the interaction between the spectator and sport stars will never be the same. It brings forth what the sports were intended for and the reasons why the athletes played the game. It goes deep into the early sport stars and shows the reader how enjoying the game can be without the television. According to Aaron Baker and Todd Boyd, "Sports before the television era showed the athletes true love for the game and gave the spectators a look at how wonderful the game could really be". As television came about it begun to take over the other areas of media that displayed sporting events and their results.

They were still there and they did their part of broadcasting and printing sports stories but it seemed that television had a greater influence on sports. Long before the advent of television, various forms of the media had been intimately involved in the history of sports. Few dreamed that after World War II the new medium of television would exert a far more profound influence on the history of American sports than had magazines, newspapers, and radio. (Rader, 31) I am convinced that television has had a greater influence on sports than any other form of media but I do not agree completely that the newspaper faded away when television came about.

Without the newspaper we would not be able to read the different areas of sports we missed the night before or we would not get the individual stats. The newspaper was and still is a great way to catch up on many different things and to find out how your favorite sports teams are doing. According to web "The television did have a outstanding influence on but the newspaper has always been there for Americans to view that statistics of each individual player and to read what the writer though of the game". Television's influence on sports led to different programs that aired the sports as a form of entertainment. This caused for a few, what seemed to be secondary sports, to be turned into much watched television shows.

"The marriages of the electronic medium to boxing, professional baseball, and college football had been far from blissful or problem-free; yet at least one marriage, that of the medium to a mere youngster-professional football-resulted in the transformation of a secondary sport into a phenomenally successful form of entertainment", according to Benjamin Rader. Like Rader mentioned in this point of the book, television did take some seemingly secondary sports and turn them in to what they are today. The fans obviously enjoyed these programs and found a new exciting way to spend their Sunday afternoons. Rader did a good job showing that the influence television had was not all bad and that it created some sports by molding them into extremely popular television shows.

He showed that television allowed people to see the programs on television that would never have a chance to go to an actual game. According to Benjamin Rader in one of his other novels, "Before the 1950's, newspapers, magazines, and radio had stimulated interest in sport, but television permitted millions who had never seen a major league baseball game, or pro football game, or the Olympic games to hear and see the spectacles in the comfort of their homes". Although television did make some sports what they are today there are also some sports that made television. College football became to be a growth sport in the 1960's while professional football and television were locked in a marriage. While television had assisted in making pro football a major sport, sports could also help make a major television network. Some television networks were only around because of the sports that they aired.

(Rader, 99) Rader brought up a very good point that some television networks relied on the sports. Networks were looking for ways to grow and start and could there be an easier way then showing sporting events once or twice a weak and bringing in tons of viewers? It was the perfect alternative for the programs and Rader did a great job showing that they not only needed sports but they often relied on them. The demand of the viewers caused the sporting teams and leagues to produce more of what the viewers wanted. So they adopted new rules to increases offensive output because there was nothing that a viewer wanted to see more than a touchdown. Since the basketball season was most watched during the playoff season college basketball expanded its playoff system.

Television encouraged the triumph of the professional sports model. (Rader, 155) The television leads the sport teams toward changing their offenses to produce more scoring and please the audience. Many people do not realize this is why they did that and Rader informs the reader of the changes and what influenced those changes. This shows how the game was changed by television and how it was not the same as it was in the beginning when the teams played to win not to attract attention. This television improvement not only put the viewers in a craze for the show but it also changed how they lived their lives.

The affect of these shows was great on the children who watched them very closely not missing a second. The death of the amateur model and the ubiquity of television also reduced the willingness of children to engage in spontaneous, informal sport. Observers everywhere saw that there was a sharp decline in games organized by youths themselves. The loss of such experiences meant that youngsters had fewer opportunities to learn valuable lessons in cooperation or to experience for themselves the sheer fun to found in sports. (Rader, 174) Not only did it cause a decline in the in games organized by youths it also persuaded people to watch big games on television rather than go to a game. According to New York Times, "With big games on TV people will not go to the little games".

So in result the minor league teams were getting a much smaller fan support along with school affiliated sporting events. Rader was very smart in putting this into his book because it showed that television persuaded kids to not get out and have some fun. Television also hurt the support of the fans at smaller events where the crowd can have a big affect on the outcome of the game. This brings forth the question that many people who saw sports before television are asking, Where have our heroes gone? Reducing the performances of athletes to a tiny screen somehow made their feats less noteworthy. On television, completing a long pass, returning a wide-angle ground stroke on the tennis court, and scooping up a hard-hit ground ball all seemed deceptively easy.

Everything was overlooked by the viewers and under appreciated. (Rader, 194) This part of the book gives the young reader an opportunity to think about and even dream about what sports were like before television. I was not around during those days and this book as me trying to picture what they could be like. Filled with athletes working hard and playing for very little pay. Seeing the scientific part of the game where the players make sacrifices like taking charges and stealing bases to win the game. As a final note Rader tells us what he thinks of television and sports, "While the value of this participatory revolution in sports can not be denied, much as been lost.

Television, more than any other single force, has transformed spectator sports into trivial affairs. Sports will never again be an arena populated by pristine heroes. No longer are sports as affective in enacting the rituals embodying traditional American values, and no longer do they evoke the same intensity, the same loyalty, or the same commitment. For sports are no longer so transcendent in American life". After reading and doing a critical analysis on this book I have to say that Benjamin Rader brought up some very strong view points and supported them very well. He has obviously done a great deal of research on the subject and used them productively in his book.

The book is very well written and makes the reader think and wonder what it would have been like to see the sporting events before television. I know that after reading this book it has made me wish that I could go back in time and sit in a crowded stadium filled with baseball hungry bodies. To observe how the fans acted differently than they do now. Rader supported his thesis throughout the entire book and he supported a very interesting argument. There was not really any bias in the book because he looked at the subject from both viewpoints.

I definitely think that this is an important topic of our history and it is something that more people should be aware of. I also think that every person should be able to go out to a baseball, football, or basketball and be able to see what it feels like to be around the players.

Bibliography

Baker, Aaron, Boyd, Todd. Out of Bounds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.
Rader, Benjamin G. American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Spectators. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1983.
Rader, Benjamin G. In Its Own Image: How Television Has Transformed Sports. New York: The Free Press, 1984.
New York Times. 24 June 1945.
New York Times. 26 June 1951.
Television and Sports. Available at web 1999.