Matching Items (6)
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- All Subjects: Documentaries
- All Subjects: College Baseball
- Creators: Kurland, Brett
- Creators: Badger, Mathew Bernard
DescriptionPanic at the Elbow: High School Baseball's Tommy John Surgery Epidemic reflects on the history of Tommy John surgery, examines the scale of the current epidemic, explores its underlying causes and ultimately recommends steps that parents and players can take to avoid such overuse injuries. Link to documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31xvOCN_tqk
ContributorsMargiott, Benjamin James (Author) / Kurland, Brett (Thesis director) / Byck, Peter (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
My thesis project is a 26 minute 46 second film that documents the Arizona State hockey team's first season as an NCAA Division I program. ASU hockey was formerly a club team that competed in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA), but that all changed in the fall of 2014 after the program received a donation. The documentary explores the significance of the team, the emotion of the players and staff, and the results of the season.
ContributorsCasillas, Mauricio (Author) / Kurland, Brett (Thesis director) / Reed, Sada (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Each year, a select few minor league baseball players are chosen to attend the Arizona Fall League, a development league within Major League Baseball that hones the next generation of players, coaches, managers, and even umpires. These players make up the top talent currently in the minor leagues from each of Major League Baseball's 30 organizations. Of the thousands in the minors, just seven players from each organization can go to this extra six-week season, and learn to play alongside the best future talent the sport has to offer. On Deck: Inside the Arizona Fall League is a short documentary that looks at some of these players, as they continue their baseball journey that they hope leads them one day to the Majors. The documentary can be viewed online at https://youtu.be/jkggYiDtn14 or nicolesheraefox.com
ContributorsFox, Nicole Sherae (Author) / Lodato, Mark (Thesis director) / Kurland, Brett (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Beginning with the publication of Moneyball by Michael Lewis in 2003, the use of sabermetrics \u2014 the application of statistical analysis to baseball records - has exploded in major league front offices. Executives Billy Beane, Paul DePoedesta, and Theo Epstein are notable figures that have been successful in incorporating sabermetrics to their team's philosophy, resulting in playoff appearances and championship success. The competitive market of baseball, once dominated by the collusion of owners, now promotes innovative thought to analytically develop competitive advantages. The tiered economic payrolls of Major League Baseball (MLB) has created an environment in which large-market teams are capable of "buying" championships through the acquisition of the best available talent in free agency, and small-market teams are pushed to "build" championships through the drafting and systematic farming of high-school and college level players. The use of sabermetrics promotes both models of success \u2014 buying and building \u2014 by unbiasedly determining a player's productivity. The objective of this paper is to develop a regression-based predictive model that can be used by Majors League Baseball teams to forecast the MLB career average offensive performance of college baseball players from specific conferences. The development of this model required multiple tasks: I. Data was obtained from The Baseball Cube, a baseball records database providing both College and MLB data. II. Modifications to the data were applied to adjust for year-to-year formatting, a missing variable for seasons played, the presence of missing values, and to correct league identifiers. III. Evaluation of multiple offensive productivity models capable of handling the obtained dataset and regression forecasting technique. IV. SAS software was used to create the regression models and analyze the residuals for any irregularities or normality violations. The results of this paper find that there is a relationship between Division 1 collegiate baseball conferences and average career offensive productivity in Major Leagues Baseball, with the SEC having the most accurate reflection of performance.
ContributorsBadger, Mathew Bernard (Author) / Goegan, Brian (Thesis director) / Eaton, John (Committee member) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
For this project, I analyzed both the amount of overuse injuries or repetitive stress injuries occurring in college baseball and tried to understand why they were happening so frequently. I interviewed over a dozen people to get thoughts and messages on the subject from a variety of people from current college players, to Major League players, to current college coaches. While I spent the majority of the project working on the research and interviews of how these injuries effect college athletes, I always spent time speaking with journalists about the proper ways they go about reporting on injuries, especially those within college athletes. I found data that showed that the average rate of fastballs in Major League Baseball is going up and that is indirectly affecting the way in which players and specifically pitchers are learning to play as they go through college baseball. I got valuable perspective on how the game changing is affecting the injuries that are so common today. The most common occurring repetitive stress issue in baseball has been happening most with pitchers so much of the project is tailored toward the views of some of the best pitchers in college baseball. I found out how college pitchers are taking care of their bodies and using the offseason to help regain strength. Why do some pitchers not take as long an offseason as others? How intense is the pressure to stay healthy in college, as many of these athletes are pursuing professional baseball? What is the mental toll these student-athletes have on a day-to-day basis? All these questions and more are answered in the paper. Included in the long-form paper are all of the full transcripts from the interviews with players, coaches, trainers, doctors, and reporters.
ContributorsWerner, Robert Joseph (Author) / Kurland, Brett (Thesis director) / Dieffenbach, Paola (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Comm (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Link to documentary: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxFCDFfMBwpoNVdybDZOaGhaUWc/view?usp=sharing For my thesis project, I decided to do a documentary on Special Olympic Athletes in Arizona. These individuals have always inspired me because they have faced many challenges and yet they still go through life with a smile on their face. I believe they all deserve recognition for what they have accomplished during the games and outside of them. I wanted to give them this recognition. In my documentary, I interviewed five athletes, three of which are siblings. The first athlete I interviewed was Jesse McGirl, who is a star track and field athlete. In his part of the video, I talk about his strategy as well as his involvement in the games. I also talk about him being a Global Messenger and how he travels the world in order to spread the message of the Special Olympics. The next athlete was David Fromh, who started competing in the games in 1978. In his section, I talk to him about his relationships with his coaches and teammates as well as the strategy he uses while running. He is one of the most positive athletes out there, and I really emphasize on his positivity. The last set of interviews I did was with the Meagan, Emily, and Quincy Jones, three siblings who all suffer from intellectual disabilities. David and Gena Jones adopted them when they were young and their story is a true inspiration. The family is the main focus of my documentary, so they have three parts: Early Life, Special Olympics, and Future. The Early Life focuses on how David and Gena raised their kids and their high school life. The Special Olympics section focuses on their success at the games and the Future section is about the siblings' interests outside of the games. Along with my athlete stories, I have an introduction and conclusion as well as a brief history section describing the founding of the Special Olympics. I had a great time making this project, and I am very fortunate to be able to tell such inspirational stories.
ContributorsEurich, Danielle Nikole (Author) / Dunn, Heather (Thesis director) / Kurland, Brett (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12