At that time, segregation was the poison that had drained our society of its full potential. In baseball, it robbed us of the opportunity to witness some of the greatest athletes of all time on an even playing field. It was a time when legends such as Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Cy Young came to light. What would be our perception of those legends if segregation had not skewed our vision?

Minority players who might have achieved greatness in the majors were relegated to the minor leagues or, as they were called, the Negro Leagues. Life was tough for the Black ball player in those days. There were many sordid incidents, including clashes with the Klan, spitting on players from the stands, and the throwing of rocks at team buses. Yes there was definitely a “color barrier,” not only for baseball but for America.

Many of the statistics and numbers from the Negro Leagues are unknown, and the talking points about greatness in the league cannot be verified because the games, events and incidents were not documented properly.

Until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, much of the history of players of color was forgotten and lost. Mostly, all we have as a resource are the stories of the players that played in the Negro Leagues.

Walter “Dirk” Gibbons, a pitcher with the Indianapolis Clowns, said, “Nobody wants to believe we were as good as they say we were, but I can vouch for it, I was there. I know these guys were really that good. All we wanted was a chance to prove we could play the game. I knew sooner or later it would happen, but we had to go through so much before it really did happen.” Walter Gibbons should know what good is; by his own account, he was a 19-game winner with 229 strikeouts in one season. The Indianapolis Clowns were also the team that produced Hank Aaron. In considering what happened, Gibbons succinctly noted, “It was segregation, and that is just the way it was.”

At one time, much of what went on in the Negro Leagues was ignored. In fact, Gibbons claimed that Jackie Robinson wasn’t the best player in the leagues. “He was good, but he wasn’t the best,” said Gibbons. Other players, like Satchel Paige and Larry Doby have a place in the history of baseball once they entered the majors, but what about their accomplishments when they were locked out of the all-White leagues?

At the end of the Civil War, the Negro Leagues started to develop with the creation of unofficial and unorganized teams. The first Black professional team took the field in 1885 in Babylon, New York. White reporters named the team the “Cuban Giants” in an attempt to attract White teams to play them. By the end of the 1860’s, there were a number of Black baseball teams in the Philadelphia area that would play against any other team, professional or not.

By 1885, Black baseball started to organize with the official formation of the Southern League of Base Ballists. In 1888, the Middle States League appeared and admitted two all-Black teams, the Cuban Giants and the New York Gorhams. After a long and blurry history of organizational forming, dissolving and reforming, Bill Veeck attempted to buy the Philadelphia Phillies, announcing that he would recruit Black players for his club. The National League stepped in and bought the Phillies, handing the club over to William Cox, who had no such intentions.

Finally in 1945, Branch Rickey, a member of the Major League Committee on Baseball Integration, searched the national and international baseball scene. He was looking for the best player candidate to break the color line in Major League Baseball. His perfect candidate turned out to be Jackie Robinson. It has been suggested that Robinson wasn’t the first player to break through the color barrier; that there were others before him. While there may be some truth to that, Jackie Robinson will always be remembered as the player who started to change the public’s attitude toward segregation.

Today, there’s a concerted effort to remember the past. In February 2006, a special 12-member panel was convened to start the electoral process of inducting players from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues into Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Although so many players of color never participated in Major League Baseball, the greats are starting to be officially recognized for their athletic achievements.

This article was written by FR Penn sponsored by http://www.stubhub.com. If you’re looking for baseball tickets to see your favorite team live in action, look no further than Stubhub.com where fans buy and sell the hottest sports tickets. Reproductions of this article are encouraged but must include a link back to http://www.stubhub.com.

A stone fire pit can be designed in whatever way you like. You can choose to have an old style design, or you can use modern colors to make it blend in with your house. It can be small or large, incorporate cooking facilities, and give your garden an attractive focal point. So spend some time looking at where you plan to build your fire pit, and see what else is close by. Do you have a brick house? You will need to think about what type and color of stone will complement the bricks. Or perhaps your fire pit location leaves you free to choose whatever stone you like. Maybe you have a stone path that you would like to match. It’s your decision.

Once you have a basic idea of what you want, you will need to find someone who has experience designing and building stone fire pits. This is important, because if it’s poorly designed the air won’t flow properly, which means your fire will struggle to burn well. Make sure the design incorporates some safety features, so that people who wish to approach the fire pit for warmth or to toast marshmallow can do so with ease.

If you’re an experienced handyman, you will probably be able to take the fire pit designs and build the structure yourself. However it might still be wise to have an expert do the work, simply because fires can be tricky things to get right. Building the fire pit correctly will make a big difference to how well it works. Plus, you want your fire pit to be something that can be admired, rather than an eyesore. A well-built stone fire pit will be something that all your friends and family will admire.

If you want to read more about fire pits, click over to Josh’s site at http://www.infoaboutfirepits.com

First of all, if you are up to the chess challenge, you have to begin by learning the rules of the game. Being an abstract strategy board game, chess is played by two players on a square board that combines eight rows-called ranks -and eight columns-called files. Its simple design creates sixty-four squares of alternative color; one darker than the other. Each of the players is assigned to sixteen pieces (units) at the beginning of the game, which as the game progresses they are eliminated by the opponent’s movements on the board. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent. This practically means that one of the players has successfully managed to perform all the appropriate strategic movements so as to threaten the opponent’s king from moving. It has to be stressed that due to the variety of the chess pieces and their distinct abilities on the game’s board, chess has successfully become one of the world’s most popular games.

Garry Kasparov and Robert Fischer-or Bobby-have been famous chess players worldwide, due to their exceptional abilities in combining the art of chess with the strategic maneuvering entailed in disciplines of science. Considered by many funs to be a “mental martial art,” chess has gained its popularity among the nations of Asia, Europe and the Americas. Generally known as Western Chess or International Chess, to be distinguished from its many variations, the chess I was taught by my father is currently being played in a number of counties, some of which claim to have invented its original form. The most commonly held view is that chess originated in India, since the Arabic, Persian, Greek, Portuguese and Spanish words for chess all come from the Sanskrit game Chaturanga.

Currently, chess funs can be found anywhere from Japan to Sweden and chess players can locate their future opponents on the online forums and websites specifically designed to the pleasure of playing chess. If you are considering taking up the chess challenge, visit your local chess listings and you will be surprised of how many people are daily committed in exercising their mental abilities via a fun and instructive game like chess.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Games, Boating, and Tennis.

So which grill wins the debate? Let’s look at the arguments for both. The case for gas or charcoal seems to be divided along three main points:

• Convenience
• Cost
• Taste

The Convenience Argument

The clear winner in this category is the gas grill. Most models feature push-button ignitions, a consistent, steady heat source that’s ready to go within minutes, excellent temperature control, and easy cleanup.

But convenience isn’t necessarily a deciding factor for all grill shoppers. Charcoal enthusiasts say it’s the ritual–piling up the charcoal, lighting it, tending the fire, and manually adjusting cooking temperatures by moving food from hotter spots to cooler ones–that makes outdoor cooking worth the effort. They feel that trading the process of the backyard barbeque for the push-button convenience of a gas grill is missing the point.

The Cost Argument

If cost is the most important deciding factor for you, you’ll likely want to look at charcoal grills. They cost considerably less than gas, with basic models ranging from about $30 to $100. If you add features like additional burners and side tables, you can count on something like a $300 to $400 range.

Most gas grills–excluding portable and table-top models–are on the expensive side, ranging anywhere from $300 to $1500, and more for higher end models such as built-ins and smoker/grill combinations.

The Taste Argument

Though some barbeque fans swear they can’t tell the difference between food cooked on gas grills and food cooked on charcoal, the charcoal purists insist otherwise. According to them, the flavor that is infused from the smoke of charcoal briquettes or wood coals is what distinguishes an outdoor feast from a standard kitchen meal.

In an effort to address the taste issue, some gas grill manufacturers have built models that add ceramic flavor bars. These bars catch grease drippings and vaporize them into smoke that infuses more flavor into what’s being cooked.

So who’s the winner in this category? The jury is still out on this argument, and it probably always will be. Taste is such an individual decision; you may just have to try both grills and see for yourself.

For Those Who Still Can’t Decide . . .

As you can see, there are pros and cons to owning a gas grill, just as there are advantages and disadvantages to owning a charcoal model.

Still aren’t sure which one is right for you? Do what many families have done in recent years–buy both! If you truly enjoy outdoor cooking, it makes sense to own two models that you use for different purposes. For example, you can use the gas grill for cooking quick barbeque meals during the week, and break out the charcoal grill for when you want to take your time on the weekend.

There are a couple of options available to you if you want to own both a gas and a charcoal grill. There’s the obvious one: buy both grills. But if your budget is tight, or you’re limited on patio space, check out a combination gas/charcoal model. These grills convert from gas to charcoal and back again with just a little preparation and effort.

So what will it be–gas, charcoal, or both? In the end, the decision comes down to your lifestyle and what features work best for you and your family.

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About the Author

Vanessa Kirkland is a freelance writer and outdoor cooking enthusiast whose articles offer consumer tips and advice for online purchasers of gas grills, charcoal grills, and other barbeque accessories.

Here are some innovative homework activity ideas:

Homework activities using the World Wide Web:

The internet is an important part of daily life these days. Think about incorporating it into your students’ homework. Here are some homework activities that use the World Wide Web:

· Create a classroom page or group and have your students post their homework assignments on it. Also, have your students post a comment or question once a week or answer or respond to another student’s comment or question.
· Have your students check online newspapers for stories that relate to whatever lesson you are teaching.
· Have your students make and update their own web pages

Outdoor homework activities:

· Have your students help the environment by picking up litter in their neighborhoods.
· Have your students gather different types of leaves, rocks, insects, etc. and bring them to class. Have them guess what they are, and then have guides in your classroom to figure out what they actually are.
· Make a flower press to add plants to every week. You can then take the pressed plants and add them to a craft project.
· Have your students take binoculars out and look at the stars and observe them every night for 15 minutes. What do they notice changing?
· Give your students a magnifying glass to study the world of their backyard or a park up close. Have them write about what they see.

Indoor homework activities:

· Have your students think of ways that they can conserve electricity or water at home.
· Give your students safe, at-home science experiments. For instance, have them put two ice cubes in separate cups and add salt to one of the ice cubes and see what happens. Or have them mix corn starch and water and see what they get.
· Have your students use household objects to create musical instruments.
· Have your students turn on TV for just 10 seconds, write down as much as they heard and saw, and then have them turn that information into a story.

Other homework activities ideas:

· Give each of your students a chance to come up with their own homework activities (within certain restrictions) to assign the other students.
· Create a scavenger hunt for your students to follow throughout the week.
· Divide your students into groups and have them work together as a team to come up with inventions.
· Have your students call or e-mail representatives of your states with ideas or questions, etc.
· Have your students write to a company to learn more or to express a problem, etc. – teach your kids how they can elicit change in their own environments.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, fashion, and home decor. Her background includes teaching and gardening. For more of her articles on teaching ideas, please visit Teaching Supplies.