2011 Season expectations

With this off season being as crazy as it has been in years 2011 should be a very exciting year. Especially in Philadelphia where they have a pitching staff that carries 4 aces. They are clearly early favorites to win the World  Series. Behind them is The Boston Redsox who have made certain moves that tuned their offense up in a big way. They too have a pretty stellar staff. It should be excited what the future holds for baseball. Until then this great sport has high hopes as revenue is at its peak. More fans than ever, and a really bright future that lies ahead!

Reverse of the Curse

2003, The Boston Redsox would lose to the "evil empire" once more. That would be credited woth Aaron Boone's walk off shoot in game 7 of the ALCS. 2004 was a redemption year as The Redsox would play The Yanks once more. Down 3-0 in the series all hope was lost. Until a historic come back would take place. The Redsox would go on to win the next 4 games to advance to the World Series. A remarkable turn of events that shocked the baseball world. They would sweep The St Louis Cardinals to win the World Series, something they have not done in 86 years. This was the sign that the great curse of the bambino has come to an end. That still does not compare to The Chicago Cubs who have not won a World Series in 103-years.

Money Ball

In the off season of 2001, Alex Rodriguez would sign the largest contract ever. He would agree to terms with The Texas Rangers. The deal was for 10-years and 275-million dollars. He would be traded to The New York Yankees three years later. Derek Jeter would sign a large contract too, a deal for 10 years and up to 200-million dollars would be grand for the captain. Baseball was becoming a high revenue sport, and players would see large increases in their contracts. Baseball has an absurd amount of players who reach triple figures. But the fans don't mind paying more for great entertainment.

2001 and Barry Bonds

Baseball was on a delightful uprising, it was a fun with a lot of sun. Especially on the bay, San Fransico would have one of the most eventful summers and that is mainly because of Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds would have arguably one of the best seasons in baseball. That was mainly in part of the 73 home runs that would leave the yard. Baseball would be all about the long ball, as Barry Bonds would shatter the record that Mark McGuire had set. The post season was remarkable as Derek Jeter would become known as Mr. November. But The Yankees would lose in 7 to The Arizona Diamondbacks. A stunning upset as the team from Phoenix would win it's first and only World Series.

gang signs

Brooklyn DA

On Monday, November 13th a man from the Brooklyn DA's office came to St. John's to discuss the gang borough of Brooklyn. He was a student at St John's, lived in Queens his whole life and attended school in Queens his entire life. The Brooklyn DA's office is a progressive look at crimes to progress the safety of the city. They have 9 DA's handling the gang borough. The first thing in the gang borough is judicial prosecution, then they talk about the investigated branch with proactive prosecution. What everyday people call snitches, the DA's office calls confidential conformance which are people who realize that this is not the life that they wanted to live. So they decide to try and reduce their sentence and tend to give useful information in reducing crime. The role of the prosecutor is to protect the constitution and to protect people's rights. If they do not have enough information to prosecute the criminal then whoever is defending him must help the defendant get out of that situation. Even if that man did commit that crime. Although NY has a high crime rate they are not as bad as LA or Chicago. The gangs of today tend to recruit kids at the age of 13 or 14. With that they tend to get people known as the "going along to get along". Which they are only in the gang for their best safety. These people are looked at by the DA's office, and the DA's office will help these people live a better life if they were prosecuted. The gangs of today are hard to control, police and prosecutors try and do their best but members of gangs are having kids. With their kids being raised up in the gang, it will be hard to stop a gang completely. The DA's office will try and control this problem one day at a time.

Late 90 dynasty

The New York Yankees under new manager Joe Torre would prove to be baseball's favorite team and the most disliked team once more in 1996. This is when they played in the fall classic and brought home the trophy that they had not won in 18 years but it would be their 23rd title. They would go on to win the World Series in 1998, 1999, and 2000 as they were proven to be the dynasty of the 90's. With those four teams they had some of my favorite players that I would grow up with starting with Derek Jeter and ending with Paul O'Neil. They would prove to be the best team going into the new millennium, and have high hopes that are not met until 2009 when they will win their 27th World Series title.

The summer of magic

The strike in 94' really put a damper on America's past time. Baseball needed something that would spark this great sport, something with pop. That is when the long ball became a thing of glory especially in the summer of 1998. Mark McGuire or Big Mac and Sammy Sosa, Slammin' Sammy, would have a lot of pop in their bats this fine summer. Mark would leave yard 70 times breaking Roger Maris record of 61 in the summer of 1961. Sammy, Mark's counter part would fall 4 short with 66. But the passion of the sport was back and baseball was proving to be Americas sport once more, until these records are tainted.

Video assignment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPeZfGxY1N4&feature=related

FBI and its legacy

Johnathan Corbett
On Monday November 8th, 2010 Thomas J Pickard came to St John’s and presented to the St John’s students the life of a FBI agent. He said that it is not an easy thing to get in to. Only 30 out of 3,000 applicants get accepted at a time. The hardest part about being a FBI agent is that they do not know that they will be transferred. They have to deal with it, inform their families that they will be moving and leave. In order to get into the FBI you must pass a physical fitness test, firearms test and take classes for this specialty. They have to train in Quantico, Virginia which is a marine headquarter and an Army base. He was selected for the job and worked at NYO headquarters which deals with bank robberies and fugitives. His first week on the job he had helped the police chase down a bank robber and in telling the robber “FBI freeze or die” he threw his shotgun and gave up. His first undercover mission was under ABSCAM which was an undercover construction worker site that had captured 5 or 6 congressmen who where taking 50,000 dollar bribes for approval of Arab citizens (illegal aliens). He then was promoted by 1998 he was the #2 man in the FBI, he worked on the 747 that disappeared off of the radar. They concluded that it was the engine that had exploded not terrorism that took down this plane. In 1992 he tracked down terrorist Ramzi Yousef, for the bombing of the 1992 World Trade Center. He said that Ramzi is the smartest man that he has ever come to know, he can speak 7 languages and was very exceptional with dealing with Sciences. He represented himself at court and had a 8 month trial until he was convicted. He also talked about how he had to travel to another country and pick up one of the terrorist that they had on their list. The country cooperated until the very end, when people came up with a machine gun and demanded the terrorist. Pickard wanted non of this so he babbled on until the next morning and they gave in, a couple of weeks later he had learned that the FBI agency had flyers coming in to rescue him and they had informed the people on the machine gun scaring them away. He had fun days with the FBI but he had called it quits in 2001. He now works at Bristol Myer Squibb, and has been employed there for 9 years.

Thomas J Pickard

The strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGf48SXz5Jk

Greed!

1994 Strike

Baseball was at a debacle players felt that they were not getting paid what they deserved. Fans were not attending the games baseball was losing hype. That's why in 1994 the union called for a strike to freeze the 1994 season. And making 1994 the first time in 80 something years the World Series would not be played. No one owner was happy, they had to work an agreement and bring excitement back to the game. To do this they would have to pay their players, and generate a bigger revenue. hey would eventually do this and when they get through this debacle magic would soon embrace baseball for the greater good via the long ball!

Trevor Hoffman

Relievers

The bullpen in the mid 80's became the big thing to baseball. In the mid 70's they had a few relievers but in the 80's they began to have closers. They would usually pitch 2 to 3 innings as opposed to the closers of today's game who thrown 1 maybe 2 innings to close and save the game. With closers came the idea of middle relievers, they would come in, in the ladder part of the ball game which is the 6,7, and 8th inning. They have one job and that is to keep the game in tact, if the game is out of control the team will then go to the long relievers. They usually just go out and keep pitching til the game is over, just to save the bullpen for another time. Some of the greatest closers in the game range from Goose Gossage, Mariano Rivera and up to all time save leader Trevor Hoffman.

Cliff Lee

Starting Pitchers

Over the years starting pitching roles have changed. Back in the early stages in baseball they were the only pitchers sometimes throwing 250 pitches on 2 days rest. But of course they were throwing 50 miles to 60 miles per hour. Now a days pitchers can throwing 90 miles and 100 miles an hour. They have to pitch on 5 days rest and they can only last about 6 or 7 innings and they call that a quality start. Then they will turn it to the bullpen. Some pitchers like Nolan Ryan and now a day pitcher Cliff Lee are pitchers that don't usually need the bullpens help as they can go 8 or 9 innings they are considered the star of the staff or the ace.

Willy Mays

5 tool outfielders

There are many greats to the game. Then there are 5 tool outfielders, these are guys that have a great arm are fast, very good defensively can hit well and hit with power. One of the greatest 5 tool out fielder is Willy Mays. He was a Giant Great hitting over 550 home runs, he made some f the greatest plays in baseball history and he is one of three members in the 40/40 club 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season. 5 tool out fielders are a rarity to have Josh Hamilton would be considered one, but there are not too many in today's game.

Perfection When it Counts!

On Wednesday October 6th, 2010 history would be made. Roy Halladay in his first ever career postseason start had reached perfection. Only the second no hitter in Post Season history. The first was thrown by a New York Yankee in 1957. Don Larsen in game 5 of the World Series against The Dodgers. His was at a bigger stage, and the Yankees would win the series too. But Roy Halladay with his second no hitter of the season is having a career season. As a matter of fact it is probably going to be considered the greatest pitching season of all time if not in the modern era.  He is probably the best pitcher of the decade, and is on the way to win his second Cy Young. An instant hall of famer, and another man who just makes this sport even better!

Rays clinch east

After a long battle with the Kansas City Royals, and the New York Yankees loss in mind The Tampa Bay Rays had time to celebrate. They already knew that they had clinched around the 8th of the game that they were playing between the Royals. But they had a 9th inning comeback, so they had to wait to celebrate. When they won the game in the 12th they had a good reason to celebrate with an extra inning win and a American League's best record in the East. They hope to celebrate more in the playoffs!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/04/SP3R1FN33F.DTL

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BKRAgwdwjvg

A long came some legends

Baseball was developing at a vast rate. The world series was becoming a huge deal, as teams like The Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox's are usual's competing for this prized possession. Ironically the Cubs have not won that trophy in one hundred and two years! The Red Sox's didn't win it for 86 years till they came back and won it in 2004. They were believed to be cursed. They called it the curse of Bambino. Bambino of course is the man everyone should know, the great Babe Ruth. In 1918, The Boston Redsox's made a trade of this living legend. They had traded him to The New York Yankees. The rest is history as The Yankees have gone on and won 27 world championships since then. From the house that  Ruth built, to the new ground also known as The House that George built. In recognition of the late owner George Steinbrenner. But Babe Ruth had a remarkable career hitting 714 homeruns, a career batting average of .342 and an astonishing 2,213 Runs batting in. He was an easy first time hall of famer. Him and a guy known as Ty Cobb.  Second on the all time hit list with 4,189, a career average of .366. Remarkable stats to say the least. Then comes another Yankee great the "Iron Horse". Lou Gherig another man who had a remarkable but short career. He was another easy first time hall of famer, with 493 homeruns, 2,721 career hits and 1,995 career runs batted in.  He died at the young age of 37, with the disease formerly known as Lou Gherig disease, which is when your body starts to lose strength, decay slowly leading to death. These three man have a huge impacts on making this sport as grand as it is today. With their key contributions, these guys have left a trademark and a big one and have influenced many more of the greats!

Now we begin

It all started with a ball and a stick. Actually the ball was a rock but close enough. Who would of knew that this sport would advance so far to what we have today? The first known origins of this sport came in about 1853, where men would play countless hours of stick ball. The ball was made of leather, and they did not have gloves it was all bare hands. Not until 1878 they came out with the first glove, and they started to run bases as this sport was starting to develop. The wooden bats did not come out til a coule of years later. In fact he bats that they used were huge like a caveman type of bat. The first league would be set into baseball in 1887. This league had 8 teams and they just played for fun. Not until 1898 this sport took on some revenue and the guys were starting to play for competition and competing for a trophy. And the league had advanced to 16 teams as some of the well known franchises of today are established. Like the Cubs or The Red Sox's. This was becoming a new and the start of the turn of the century for baseball.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9PT-DcBjNo

http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp

The Journey

Through out the years many people have influenced baseball. Their contributions has helped this sport be established throughout the world. Americans past time has influenced different cultures, and helped create an international hype. Whether its through the Little League World Series all the way to the World Baseball Classic, different cultures compete with one another through each age group. Most men intend to make it to the majors a.k.a. Major League Baseball where the most elite players compete with one another all for the trophy. Not to many people make but plenty of them try. There are different levels for these guys to play at if they cannot make it to the big stage. Whether it is Minor League Baseball or Beer league men will compete for a prize and most importantly have fun. The best part about baseball is many different things can occur from one different play. This is the main reason why I love this sport so much! So visualize through the journey that this sport may bring you, as I will try to present this sport to you the best that I can.