How to Create a Baseball History Class
The history of baseball winds through the last century and a half of American culture, helping to define our country for better or for worse. It has also spread to other nations around the world, providing a common love shared by people of numerous different cultures. As a teacher or professor, you may be interested in devising a course on the history of baseball and the way it has impacted the society around it. Like any other class, it requires a certain amount of preparation, as well as the right materials to properly inform your students.
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Instructions
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Familiarize yourself with the history of baseball, as well as any texts that you wish to include as curriculum. Examples of books on the topic include Charles C. Alexander's "Our Game," Benjamin G. Rader's "Baseball: A History of America's Game" and Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns's "Baseball: An Illustrated History" (which serves as a companion to Burns's documentary on the same subject).
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Determine how many classes will constitute the complete course. The exact amount depends on the number of weeks in a given quarter or semester at your school, and the number of times per week you wish to hold class. That provides a basic structure for the coursework, allowing you to organize the history of baseball in a way that covers everything.
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Divide the history of baseball into sections according to your schedule of classes. Begin with the early days in the 19th century, move into the development of professional leagues, cover the Golden Age of the 1920s, the struggle of racial integration in the 1950s, baseball's expansion across the country and end with the current era of corporate ownership. Pinpoint key events in that time--such as the Black Sox scandal of 1919 and Jackie Robinson's entry into the big leagues--and think about how you might like to discuss them. Some topics may require more than one class to fill.
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Draw up a lesson plan for each class covering all of the information you wish to impart and what the students will be required to learn. Assign homework for each class and know how much work each student will be expected to do. (Make sure you balance the workload against other classes the students may be taking and/or the demands of their day jobs.)
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Speak to the school administration about finalizing a schedule and open it for the students to sign up.
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Tips & Warnings
If you're teaching your class during the right time of year, you should plan an outing to a baseball game in your area. Even if it's just a high school game or single-A minor league, the reality of seeing it in the flesh is vital for understanding this kind of material.
If you have room, you may wish to include a class or two on baseball as legend and mythology instead of just history. You can study poems like "Casey at the Bat," apocryphal stories like Babe Ruth's called shot, and books and movies such as "Field of Dreams" or "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon." Such material shows baseball's influence beyond a simple game and the effect it has had on society.
