Baseball’s Antitrust Exemptions Essays

Baseball’s Antitrust Exemptions Essays Baseball’s Antitrust Exemptions Paper Baseball’s Antitrust Exemptions Paper It is a matter of fact the debates whether baseball’s antitrust exemptions should be eliminating is still the agenda as no single agreement has been achieved. Actually, the debates started in 1901 when Napoleon Lajoie decided to join a new team and such action was claimed to violate the National League contract. It meant he had either to continue playing in his original team or to leave baseball. As a result of the conflict, the National Agreement was signed in 1930 claiming that all of the owners are allowed jointly operate the monopoly. According to this agreement, the rules about salaries and contracts of all players were established. Nevertheless, the year of 1998 played crucial role in the debates as the Congress passed the Curt Flood Act and baseball’s antitrust exemptions were recalled and voided. I think that antitrust exemption is a double-edged weapon and either to eliminate or to promote has both negative and positive aspects. My opinion is that antitrust exemptions should be eliminated, but, it is necessary to discuss different perspectives of the argument to have clear understanding of the problem. On the one hand, baseball antitrust exemptions shouldn’t be eliminated because they give professional baseball players and excellent opportunity to ensure and sustain high quality of play because the number of professional teams is restricted and all teams are playing, therefore, in major leagues demanding proper skills and training. No team is willing to be defamed. From this perspective, antitrust exemptions make players work hard raising the popularity of baseball in the country. It is argued that baseball tickets are relatively low as teams have to compete for fans and expensive tickets would prevent them from professional sport and they would find another ways of entertainment. For example, Raymond Keating in his paper supports antitrust exempts mentioning that they ensure teams are in one city. In such a way, antitrust exemptions defend players from owners who may wish to relocate forces. Keating says that exemptions should be provided for all professional sports. On the other hand, antitrust exemptions should be banned primarily because they give sense of superiority over other professional teams and sports. It is claimed that antitrust exemptions keep the tickets relative cheap, but the real situation is another. It is antitrust exemptions that have resulted in increased prices for tickets. Public funding is spent to reconstruction of older stadiums and construction of new ones. Advocates of exemptions claim that baseball players stay in current locations, but players may undergo pressures and threats from the major baseball league. Moreover, exemptions cause discrimination and inequality in opportunities as other leagues are unable to stay in one location because it violates antitrust laws. If to eliminate antitrust exemptions, additional teams would be formed in cities which are fond of baseball. In other words, cities wouldn’t be afraid that team would leave the city in case if a new stadium isn’t constructed. As I mentioned above, antitrust exemption allows leagues to abuse power utilizing illegal resources and influences to scratch people’s money. Simply speaking, cities are forced to use pub expenses to build new sport stadiums and provide major league with all necessitates. If new teams are formed, baseball fans will be provided with more services and cheaper tickets. It will increase the demand for professional baseball and admission prices will be reduced as well. Moreover, eliminating antitrust exemption will prove that cities are able to support more teams, though earlier it was claimed that it was prodigally to support many professional sports leagues. Nevertheless, cities would even save money as public expenses won’t be spent on building new stadiums. For example, Raymond Keating in their paper recommend â€Å"breaking up existing leagues into competing business entities†. Summing up, despite certain benefits, I think that antitrust exemptions should be eliminated as it will assist in forming new teams, reducing public expenses, ensuring cheaper tickets, and providing equal opportunities for all teams. References Barra, Allen. (2000). In Antitrust We Trust. Retrieved October 8, 2007, from salon.com/news/feature/2000/05/19/antitrust/ Keating, Raymond J. (1997). The Economic Woes of Pro Sports: Greed or Government? Retrieved October 8, 2007, from libertyhaven.com//ecowoes.shtml

How an Extended Response Item Can Enhance Learning

How an Extended Response Item Can Enhance Learning Extended response items have traditionally been called essay questions. An extended response item is an open-ended question that begins with some type of prompt. These questions allow students to write a response that arrives at a conclusion based on their specific knowledge of the topic. An extended response item takes considerable time and thought. It requires students not only to give an answer but also to explain the answer with as much in-depth detail as possible. In some cases, students not only have to give an answer and explain the answer, but they also have to show how they arrived at that answer. Teachers love extended response items because they require students to construct an in-depth response that proves mastery or lack thereof. Teachers can then utilize this information to reteach gap concepts or build upon individual student strengths. Extended response items require students to demonstrate a higher depth of knowledge than they would need on a multiple choice item. Guessing is almost completely eliminated with an extended response item.  A student either knows the information well enough to write about it or they do not. Extended response items also are a great way to assess and teach students grammar and writing. Students must be strong writers as an extended response item also tests a students ability to write coherently and grammatically correct. Extended response items require essential critical thinking skills. An essay, in a sense, is a riddle that students can solve using prior knowledge, making connections, and drawing conclusions.  This is an invaluable skill for any student to have. Those who can master it have a better chance of being successful academically.  Any student who can successfully solve problems and craft well-written explanations of their solutions will be at the top of their class.   Extended response items do have their shortcomings. They are not teacher friendly in that they are difficult to construct and score.  Extended response items take a lot of valuable time to develop and grade.  Additionally, they are difficult to score accurately.  It can become difficult for teachers to remain objective when scoring an extended response item. Each student has a completely different response, and teachers must read the entire response looking for evidence that proves mastery. For this reason, teachers must develop an accurate rubric and follow it when scoring any extended response item. An extended response assessment takes more time for students to complete than a multiple choice assessment.  Students must first organize the information and construct a plan before they can actually begin responding to the item.  This time-consuming process can take multiple class periods to complete depending on the specific nature of the item itself. Extended response items can be constructed in more than one way. It can be passage-based, meaning that students are provided with one or more passages on a specific topic. This information can help them formulate a more thoughtful response. The student must utilize evidence from the passages to formulate and validate their response on the extended response item.  The more traditional method is a straightforward, open-ended question on a topic or unit that has been covered in class.  Students are not given a passage to assist them in constructing a response but instead must draw from memory their direct knowledge on the topic. Teachers must remember that formulating a well written extended response is a skill in itself.  Though they can be a great assessment tool, teachers must be prepared to spend the time to teach students how to write a formidable essay.  This is not a skill that comes without hard work.  Teachers must provide students with the multiple skills that are required to write successfully including sentence and paragraph structure, using proper grammar, pre-writing activities, editing, and revising.  Teaching these skills must become part of the expected classroom routine for students to become proficient writers.