Oakland A's

Based upon a true story, Moneyball, written by Michael Lewis, the book discusses the idea of how does a poor baseball team compete with the richer markets, like the New York Yankees. The main character Billy Beane, the GM of the Oakland A’s baseball team, created a new system to win games with low budget players. To work within the low payroll budget; Billy recruited young new players or under value older players which didn’t have high salary requirements. My prediction is that Billy Beane’s system will be a success and will get the A’s to the playoffs again.

In the 2000 and 2001 seasons the A’s used Mr. Beane’s system. After two seasons with this method, the A’s got 91 wins the first year, and 102 the next. The A’s payroll was only 90 million dollars, compared to the Yankees, who had 120 million dollars to spend on super stars. The gap between the rich teams and the poor teams is only growing bigger. For an example, for every one dollar a poor team has, a rich team has four dollars to spend on salaries. This is the biggest money gap in all of the major sports. In contrast, basketball spends one dollar for every one dollar and seventy-five cents, and football only has difference of fifty cents between the richer markets and smaller markets.

Another reason for their success is when the A’s players are in their prime, they trade them away. Those players in their prime can do one thing the A’s don’t like, take up money. With that money saved, they could pick up promising minor league players and picks in the MLB draft for low prices. This actually happened with the A’s star closer, Jason Isringhausen, they traded him for 2 first round draft picks and reduced A’s payroll by millions of dollars.

The system Billy Beane created benefited not only his A’s, but every other small market team in baseball. It was a way to beat the rich teams with a smaller payroll.

Marcus

Author’s note: Black and white, is the story about how racism tore a friendship apart. I will focus on one of the main characters, Marcus.

In the book, Black and White, written by Paul Volponi, one of the main characters, Marcus changes from the beginning of the book to the end.  To get enough money for a senior trip to six flags, Marcus and his best friend Eddie, resort to robbery.  During their third theft, Eddie shoots the victim.  From that point on, Marcus’s life changes and will never be the same. Marcus’s relationship with Eddie, his future, and Marcus himself changes.

Marcus could have been one of the nation’s best basketball players, with scouts from Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State and St. John’s all looking at him and Eddie. But that was all thrown away when he chose to rob someone.  Not only did he lose the chance to go to college, but he now has a criminal record that will never go away.

Marcus, never really thought about this actions much up until this point, he was a care free kid that only focused on basketball and friends.  When he was out on bail, he cherished the time he spent with his family before he went to jail.  Marcus felt very guilty and wanted to apologize to the victim, “I wanted him to know how sorry I was. But there was no way to get though.” In addition, Marcus was very angry at Eddie for not taking the fall with him. “`You lousy piece of Sh*t!`  he screamed, wrapping both of his hands around my jacket collar. He drove back against the side of a brick building. And I (Eddie) felt the air pop out of my lungs when I hit.”

Marcus and Eddie where best friends and the robberies tore their friendship apart.  Shortly after the shooting Marcus was convicted and thrown in jail. In contrast, Eddie, was caught by the police, but acquitted due to lack of evidence. Marcus got infuriated once he figured out this information.  Eddie then went to St. John’s on a basketball scholarship, while Marcus went to prison for two years

Marcus’s life has changed for the worse, in the one month of the book. He was a basketball star, but now he’s a convict in upper state New York prison. That’s how quickly a promising future can be thrown away because of one poor decision.

Patriot's Pen

Authors Note: This is my Patriot's Pen piece about the joint football team of Shorewood-Messmer and their controversial logo.

When the founding fathers created the declaration of independence, they wanted to form a country where everybody can praise their own religion and express their freedom of speech. In the time before the founding fathers, England’s government picked the church of England to be the only religion allowed. The people who opposed the church of England left for America, where they could have some religious freedom. People seem to misinterpret the main meaning of freedom of religion, taking the separation of church and state to the most extreme places.

In Shorewood, the local high school combines with Messmer Catholic High School, to form a football team. Every few years they have their students create the logo for the team, and this past year a design won that had the Shorewood greyhound and Messmer’s bishop hat with a cross on it. It was approved by both schools and was used throughout the 2012 season. Then close to the end of the season, some parents and students spoke up against the logo, saying that the cross on the bishop’s hat shouldn’t be there. Those people say that it needs to be removed because it is an issue of separation of church and state. I think the founding fathers would have believed those people interpreted the concept of separation of church and state incorrectly.

I think the founding fathers meant the separation of church and state to mean, that the church could not rule the state, or the state could not pick one religion either. Having the state pick a religion goes against the first amendment, freedom of religion. The parents and students interpretation was that logo was ruling over the public school. The Messmer football players have the right to express their religion on their football helmets, even though they are combined with a public school.

I think the founding fathers would find this wrong and would of let the Messmer football team play with the Bishop’s hat on their helmet. Just because there’s a cross on the helmet, doesn’t mean that the government is making them become Christians.

City of Ember

Author’s note: My cause and effect from the book "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau.

The builders created an underground city called Ember, for the safety of the people from the outside world. Over time; the city has become worn down, power outages are common, most of the people live in their own waste, and the city is running out of supplies. Everybody wants to get out of the city, and two people figure out how to escape. Doon and Linda solved a ripped up note that has directions to lead the citizens of Ember to the outer world. Then just as they solved the note, the government of Ember issues warrants for their arrests. They were not able to share the information with all of the citizens, because they need to leave. The reason the government wants them arrested is because, they spread malicious lies about the mayor. As the result of the events of solving the note and insulting the mayor; the government forced Doon and Linda  to leave Ember.           

Black and white

Author's note: Conflict piece on a book called "Black and White".

I believe that the main conflict of black and white is “black and white” vs. racism and/or the conflict inside themselves to not give each other up. These friends fight though racial barriers, and just about nothing could tear them apart. Even when they get caught by the police. The conflict inside them self was to not give each other up, for less jail time. A resolution to racism is to move away from it, just forget about. The conflict inside themselves not to turn each other in, a resolution the problem is, either turn white in so, black would have less jail time. Or just let black keep it to himself for little more jail time.

My chipped teeth

Authors Note: This is what happened to me at a wrestling regionals last winter.

One thing I remember very well from the wrestling season was what happened at regionals. Some good memories, others bad. I remember chipping my teeth during a match. It did not feel good and I hope it doesn’t happen again.

It was my  second match at regionals, when I chipped my front teeth. I was wrestling a kid from Mukwonago. After a minute, he took me down hard.  I struggled to get back up, but he threw my head to the ground, and little teeth parts went all over my mouth and cut it up. Once the first period was over, I got some water to sooth the bleeding in my mouth. They said that I could forfeit the match. I decided to fight though the pain, and eventually, I lost 7-2 in three periods. I was disappointed but, I did learn something valuable. Always wear your mouth guard.

Chipping your front teeth can hurt your mouth. It became a lesson for me, to always wear my mouth guard in contact sports. Or else you might get a major injury. That would keep you out of sports for a very long time, or even forever. 

Unbroken

Author’s note: This is the retelling piece from the book advertisement on Unbroken. 

When 1936 Olympian Louis Zamperini gets sent in to the Army Air Force during world war II, he gets shot down over the pacific ocean and has to survive on a little life raft, with nothing to eat but, a chocolate bar. Not to mention there’s two other people trying to survive with him.