1-20-11
English I
Mr. Williams
Roaring Twenties Sports
During the 1920's it was when happiness and joy changed the way everyone acted. It changed the way they dressed, the way they spoke, and the way they had fun. After the war ended, no one knew what to do. They were bored, restless, and had nothing to do. They didn't have giant supermalls like we do today. They didn't have Wii or XBOX to go to when they get bored. They probably didn't even have a TV to watch anything on because they just started coming out. What else was there to do? Sports. Whether a father and son were just playing catch or whether they would watch it on television, sports was flourishing everywhere. This was the Golden Age of sports.
Some of the major sports that were getting popular were baseball, boxing, golf, and tennis. Even in the Great Gatsby, Nick's girlfriend Jordan played a lot of golf. Tom Buchanan also played a lot of golf. Although golf was popular amongst the rich, baseball was popular amongst the commoners. They loved the action. They loved the suspense. They loved... the violence. Since men were the predominant audience for watching sports, they loved the violence. This was the main bad side about sports because there are kids watching and listening to the game on the radio when all of a sudden you hear Babe Ruth is smoking a cigar and spitting out some tobacco while is up to bat? What kind of role model was he? In this time period, where new ideas were spewing out, new ideas were influencing people, and old traditions are being forgotten, anything's acceptable; even smoking on live public television for every single kid to look at. The parents didn't stop them from watching because they didn't know what all those things can do to you. Cancer was rare, lung disease was unheard of, and toothbrushing was only an idea of the mind. However, not all the people in sports were bad role models. The great American football player Jack Dempsey was a good role model for those aspiring to be in the NFL.
There were also the good side of all these sports figures emerging. New opportunities for jobs were created. If you're going to make a team, you're going to need coaches. Also, there were more oppurtunities for kids to go dream big and get a job as a proffesional athelete instead of bumming out in school all day.
Today, rarely are there any athletes who play because they're passionate about sports. They only became for the fame, the money, and the women that line up just to see them. They don't care whether or not the don't get the promotion. Real, genuine atheletes are passionate and enthusiastic about sports. That's why they always compare them from the atheletes back then, to see if they were as good as them. They deserve to be what they are today, legends.
Lou Gherig Jack Dempsey Babe Ruth
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