The
Business of Baseball
I.
Preparing the Students
A.
Background
Because of baseball’s enduring popularity since
the early 20th century, the game often
reflects trends of trade and industry in American
society. Consumer prices and the interconnected
factors that influence them – materials, energy,
labor and transportation – are typically
represented in the rising cost of attending a
baseball game. Player salaries, ticket prices and
concessions are interrelated in their collective
impact on the wealth of the game and its many
associated industries (e.g. trading cards,
equipment, clothing, etc.). The law of supply and
demand ultimately determines the economic ebb and
flow of baseball and the value placed upon it by
contemporary culture.
B.
Vocabulary
Baby
Boomer
Cause
and Effect
Concession
Consumer
Currency
Depression
Economics
Energy
Era
Factory
Industry
Inflation
Information Age
Korean
War
Labor
Materials
Product
Rationing
Resources
Scarcity
Space
Age
Supply
and Demand
Technology
Trade
Transportation
Trend
Vendor
World
War II
C.
Pre-Program Activities
1)
Acquaint
students with different scenarios to explain the
concept of supply and demand, such as the Homestead
Act, the Stock Market, oil embargos or the scarcity
of goods during the Great Depression and the war
years. The examples, which could be simple or
complex, do not necessarily need to be baseball
related. These illustrations could be in the form
of story problems integrating different areas of the
curriculum.
2)
Choose an
existing product that, in its production,
demonstrates the economic factors of material,
energy, labor and transportation – as well as the
causes and effects related to the pricing of that
product.
3)
Ask
students to research, compare and contrast the cost
of a gallon of milk, a postage stamp, a loaf of
bread and a movie ticket as they were on the
student’s birth date and a family member’s birth
date.
4)
Assign
students one of the following eras to research:
1929-1939 (The Depression); 1940-1959 (The War Years
and Baby Boomers); 1960-1979 (The Space Age);
1980-1999 (The Information Age); and 2000 to the
present (Today). As individuals or in groups, have
them develop a presentation on major economic or
historical events of that era. The presentation
could be in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, a
simulated newspaper, a poster project or a written
report.
5)
Using the Hall of Fame’s Web
site at
baseballhalloffame.org,
ask students to sort and classify primary source
documents to find artifacts related to an assigned
era of study (see above). Students should be
responsible for comparing, contrasting and gathering
documents or data related to their era of study.
D.
Classroom Preparation
1)
Primary
source documents needed include contracts, tickets,
game programs, concession prices, newspapers and an
Economic Scorecard for each group.
2) Before
the lesson begins, physically group students
according to the following eras: 1929-1939 (The
Great Depression); 1940-1959 (The War Years and Baby
Boomers); 1960-1979 (The Space Age); 1980-1999 (The
Information Age); and 2000 to the present (Today).
ascribe a role for selected students in each group –
such as a general manager (contract salaries),
ticket taker (ticket prices), press reporter (group
recorder), and vendors (program and concession
prices).
Pat LaFond
Education Director
National Baseball Hall of Fame
607.547.0362
25 Main Street
PO Box 590
Cooperstown, New York 13326
plafond@baseballhalloffame.org
