Johnny Eierman Source 1

Olympic Hardball: Baseball proves it's antithesis of Olympic spirit Baseball shows why it really isn't an Olympic sport

Sheridan, Phil. Philadelphia Inquirer [Philadelphia, Pa] 19 Aug 2008: D.1.

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Johnny -- the Philadelphia Inquirer is a news source and not a scholarly source.  While you're welcome to use this text, it won't count toward your five required works to be cited for the paper.  Let me know if you have questions about this or if you need help figuring out what is and is not a scholarly source.

         During this source I am going to question why baseball should not be in the summer Olympic Games. In this source Phil Sheridan from the Philadelphia Inquirer explains why the game between China and the United States was a joke. The game wasn't played the right way and the game was disrespected. Many people during the game got hurt by being beaned. One catcher got trucked at home plate and also left the game. The United States didn't have much competition at all from the host country, China. The United States invented baseball and China does not have a whole lot of baseball in their country. This source was written during the 2008 summer Olympics knowing this was the last year of baseball in the Olympics.

         Going into this research paper my opinion was that baseball should absolutely be an Olympic sport. This source opened my eyes to the opposing side. This source makes you realize that baseball that isn't Major League Baseball can be brutal to watch when it isn't played by professionals. Some new ideas this source brought was the risk of injury for the players. This source helped me get an opinion from someone who didn't think baseball should be in the Olympics and it made sense, and the source lead me to answer why baseball shouldn't be in the Olympic games.

         A new question this source has lead me to ask is if other countries can have any competition against the United States since the U.S. invented the sport. Next my research goes to the history of the medals won in the sport in the past. The United States might have invented the sport but do they always win? So far I have an argument about the game of baseball in the Olympics not being played the right way and players getting injured by intentional balls thrown at the other team. 

You're asking some excellent questions here, which I love to see.  But I would encourage you to "read against the grain" as well.  In what ways might we question the source's claims?  One thing I thought about while reading this journal entry was the Jamaican Bobsled Team (yes, I'm talking about Cool Runnings).  Even though they had no snow and had never bobsledded before, Jamaica worked to compete in order to represent their country and become a significant presence in the eyes of the world via the Olympic games.  Would that help us to question the claims here?  Maybe: just because a country doesn't play a sport, does that mean they should be excluded from those Olympic games?  Why do countries play sports in the Olympics that they don't normally play otherwise?  Does a country's skill depend only on whether they play the sport regularly or are there other factors to consider when figuring out why a nation would desire to play a particular sport?

It's this sort of thinking that I would like to see more of.  Again, you're doing a good job of reading with the grain (i.e. asking why the source might be right).  But also question the assumptions behind the source's argument.  And don't forget to question your own assumptions as well.