Drugs, Cheating, and the Purity of Americas Pastime Essay -- Baseball

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most children who have grown up in an American household have at one point in their lives looked up to sports figures as heroes. Whether it was your grandfather telling his stories of watching Babe Ruth become a legend, your father’s stories of Mickey Mantle and the legendary Yankee teams of the 1950’s and 1960’s, or your own memory of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing the home run record, the feeling of wholesomeness that baseball provides has always found its way into many people’s hearts. Steroids have tarnished these sacred memories, cast doubts in the minds of many on the legitimacy of records and statistics and finally affected the way younger players play the game. Baseball, America’s pastime, is embedded in the fabric of society. The players and teams have come and gone, but the thing that remains constant is baseball’s ability to unite people as well as families. My own personal experience of this came right after September 11th, 2001. Following the tragedy that was 9/11, the country needed something to help everyone return to normalcy. In our moment of weakness and uncertainty, baseball helped calm my nerves. Fifty three thousand three hundred and twelve brothers stood up in unison and took back their lives. The electricity of that game, the sense of regularity in my life, and the knowledge that millions of people were finding comfort together with me during such a hard time, helped me feel a sense of closure that the worst was behind us. It is the mystique and aura of the players, the exciting tales behind them, as well as the history of the game that keeps us interested as fans. These are the reasons why people, children especially, see these players as invincible, and perfect in every way, shape, and form. What would happen if after a century of inspiring stories, and incredible tales of heroism, the inconceivable notion that these players were not perfect, took prominence? Or that many of these superstars cheated their way to the top?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Recently the topic of steroid use in baseball has been everywhere in the news. It has finally come to the attention of Major League Baseball, and now the general public, that a vast percentage of players have been using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. This not only casts a cloud of suspicion over which players are using steroids, and makes one wonder which players are genuine, but it tar... ...ue Baseball is showing that they are finally becoming adamant about ridding themselves and their reputation of this problem, is something that should give us hope for now, as well as for the future. Even more so than simply testing the players though, I think a key issue that has been overlooked and that may be a huge contributor to the steroid problem without many people being aware of it, is the incentives given in a player’s contract. Getting rid of the six figure bonuses commonly given for a certain amount of home runs, hits, strikeouts, innings pitched, etc, will help reduce the apparent need to use steroids as a source of instant reward and income. While doing this there will still most certainly be players drawn to steroids as a means to get ahead of the competition for personal glory or other reasons, the fact is eliminating bonuses has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of users in the league. It is then, and only then that we can be prepared to fully eliminate the steroid problem as we know it today, remove the cloud of doubt over everyone’s heads, and return the game of baseball to the past glorification that it once knew, as the true American pastime.

In The Tulip Touch Was Tulip Born Evil? Essay

This essay is about the statement above it will show how this can be shown as true or false. You could feel that Tulip is Evil by Nature or Nurture, but you might consider in which way she is, which would be different to what you firstly thought. How is Tulip evil, nature or nurture? Nature is what they’re born like that and nurture is her surroundings something they picked up after birth. There was not many evidence in the book that suggested it was her nature. While reading this book I could mainly find suggestions that it was nurture so that is my option so far. Firstly I will show evidence in which it is nurture. Tulip was said to have portrayed â€Å"her cocky self-confident self.† While at the Palace but when at her own ghastly dwelling it was a different story. Natalie thinks when Tulip is there she is as empty as a shell. Tulip dose drowned kittens sometimes, but only because if her dad dose it, it takes hours. So she does it to save the suffering of the kitten, this shows she has some humanitarian. Natalie’s dad thinks that she is purely evil by nurture. â€Å"Don’t be silly. You know as well as I do that Tulip has had a rotten start to life, that it is hardly a surprise that she’s insensitive to other people’s feelings.† So that could be a fight on how she is evil by nurture. At this point I am still for nurture but it could change after this. Now I will show how it could be nature. Natalie’s mum thinks that â€Å"Tulip is not stupid. Tulip knows the rules.† So in other words she thinks that Tulip is smart enough to know her boundaries. â€Å"Tulip is downright evil† Natalie’s mum and Miss Ferguson both think. Miss Ferguson also thinks that â€Å"That Pierce girl is malevolent by nature!† â€Å"Is Tulip mad or bad?† Natalie thinks that she could have just been born mad which makes her bad. Every one finds it atrocious that Tulip had been visiting the Brackenbury’s house, and then asking for their dead child to come out and play. Natalie wonders about her morbidity and finds out about the kitten drowning. Some of the hotel guests think that Tulip is as wicked as a witch. In conclusion I believe that my overall judgement is that Tulip Pierce is purely evil by Nurture. As I believe that no one can be born evil in less they have mental illnesses. As her dad threatens her she becomes evil by the way she is talked to and treated. Like when Mr Pierce yelled out â€Å"Better get home before me, Tulip, or I’ll snatch you bald headed!† So I think it was her upbringing and environment that caused her to be evil. I think If Tulip was a real flower and was planted in the palace she would of bloom bright and colourful. But at her own dwelling she was a shrivelled and dead flower who had not yet had a chance to bloom.

Chaucers Justinus and Placebo Essay - 949 Words

Why do you think Chaucer included Justinus and Placebo? What does the latter’s debate contribute to the overall Tale? A number of factors come together to distance the reader from the characters in the tale, not least the complicated and ambiguous series of lenses through which they are viewed. They are all types or allegories to lesser or greater degrees. Justinus and Placebo are examples are personification allegories, representing the abstract properties of good and bad advice. This is drawn from court satire and contemporary advice literature in which the recipient, usually a prince, is told how to choose good counsellors and to avoid flatters whose motive is the advancement of their own careers. This element in the tale†¦show more content†¦Placebo and Justinus represent not only the two sides of the debate on marriage, but also two kinds of friendly advice. Placebo specifically offers flattery, expressing the view that wise men should not presume to advise their elders and social superiors if they want to get on in life. Both Placebo and Justinus act as the Good and Evil Angels and al legorise the two opinions passing through Januarie’s own mind. However, the Merchant’s reference line 280 to ‘a court-man’ also meaning flatter refers to him not being an adviser but a sycophant, presents a very cynical and critical view of courtiers. Line 285, â€Å"Yet hadde I nevere with noon of hem debaat.† Translated, as â€Å"I have never been disagreed with any of them† is a perfect summary of the sycophant’s profession. The speaker becomes repetitive and is falling over himself to prove agreeable as the perfect reflexion of January’s own thoughts. January then turns to Justinus for advice, Line 311, â€Å"Senek, amonges othere wordes wise, Seith that a man oghte him right wel advise/ To whom he yeveth his lond or catel.â€Å" Here Placebo cities Seneca, a Roman playwright who discusses this in Beneficiis I and he reminds him that he must be careful with his goods and even more careful with his body. Justinus, however, appears to hold views based on personal experience which are similar to those of theShow MoreRelated Chaucers Canterbury Tales - Marriage as Portrayed in Merchants Prologue and Tale1193 Words   |  5 PagesPrologue and Tale  Ã‚   The story of Januaries marriage to May and her subsequent infidelity with Damyan allows for not only Chaucers view of marriage to come through, but also includes the opinions of contemporary writers. Chaucer allows his views to be made known as the narrator and his views could also be said to infiltrate the speeches of the Merchant. Justinus and Placebos views are also accounted for as the fictional characters also air their opinions on the institution of marriage. In