“’A Perfect
Baseball Day’: Black Press Coverage of the East-West Classic”
Although first being seen as a
“perfect baseball day,” the East-West Classic, played within the Negro League, was
abandoned as the black press began to focus on the heroes playing the major
league, including Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, and Monte Irvin.
The black press had originally been the main source to producing an intense
amount of content regarding the Negro League. Writers and editors such as
Wendell Smith played a significant role in displaying the talent of African
American athletes in baseball. Their efforts were not just an attempt to give
these black athletes a chance to gain a position in the Major League but
present the idea of integration in all aspects of society as well as the equality
among all individuals. Business and economic support of black baseball become a
major factor in society, as black businessmen encouraged each other to come
together and support the league. After the collapse and reconstructing of the
Negro National League, “the business-based rationale for integrating
professional baseball became more prominent in black press coverage.” While
major league baseball was facing increasingly lower attendance rates and
profit, major black sporting events were gaining more success. According to the
authors this “provided concrete evidence that integration was in everyone’s
best business interests,” especially the East-West Classic. It quickly became
the biggest sporting event within black America, aside from Joe Louis’ fights.
Black newspapers began to include ballots for fans to cut out and send it with
their vote for players, which became a big deal for the black community who
never had this type of voting opportunity. According to the authors, the
East-West Classic “owed its existence to the black press,” who helped to stage
the event. Apart from sending press releases to many black weeklies and white
dailies, the black press also promoted the event constantly, while also gaining
advertisements for the event in some papers. The success of the game over the
years along with the black press encouraged integration. White mainstream media
increasingly became a little bit more interested in this event, and in 1936 the
organizing committee for the Classic hired a white man to promote the event to
the public. Through the assimilation of black players such as Robinson and
Campanella to the major league teams, interest and attendance to the East-West
Classic as well as Negro League games.
“The
relationship of fantasy football participation with NFL television ratings”
In John Fortunato’s article, he focuses
on the fantasy football and the effect it has on NFL game viewing. He states in
the introduction at the purpose of the study was to “examine whether fantasy
football participation can serve as an additional motivating factor for fans to
watch National Football League games on television.” After conducting the study
and examining different variables and factors, Fortunato found that fantasy
football played a significant role in the NFL game viewing. The data implied
that there was a relationship between the two—fantasy football and NFL game
viewership. Fortuanto advises that with these findings, the “NFL should use the
attraction of fantasy football and the appeal of certain players as another
variable in putting together its television programming schedule of games.”
This in return would allow ratings and viewership to continue to increase.
Although it is hard to determine what games would get the best TV ratings
according to their past season’s records, Fortunato suggests that the high percentage
of fantasy football teams might be. The main idea that fans are more inclined
to watch a game if their own players on their fantasy football teams are
playing as well as if their opponents of their teams are playing.
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