When I saw Angry Birds in the Field of Dreams, I chuckled (laughed quietly) to myself, thinking that Jeff had come up with a clever (unusual, interesting) title for something that had happened in a baseball game earlier that week. Well, it was a clever title, but about something else. That means I get to tell the “other” story about anger on the field of dreams (in baseball)!

Let me start with a little Sociology 101 (an introductory class in college often has the number 101). Beginning sociology students are usually introduced to norms – rules that identify behaviors (actions) that are acceptable or required in different situations. Norms tell us how to act when we’re together with other people. But norms are rarely written; they’re learned by experience and example as we live with a group of people. They’re what we call rules of thumb (general ideas from experience) for how to act with other people.

Let me give you a couple of (two) examples of norms. When you get into an elevator, you’re expected to turn around and face (look toward) the door, away from the other people in the elevator. If you walk into the elevator and face the people, we’d say that you had “violated (disobeyed) the norm.” You didn’t do what you were supposed to do in that situation. Here’s another example: in the U.S., you are expected to look at someone when you talk with them. If you look down or somewhere else, we’d consider you (think that you are) impolite.

Back to the field of dreams. You don’t need to know all about baseball to follow the story, but if you’d like to learn more about it, the Wikipedia baseball article is pretty good: read the first paragraph, then go down to the part called Rules and gameplay. And this article, What is Baseball, is helpful, too.

A couple of weeks ago the Anaheim Angels played the Detroit Tigers. The game featured (included as a special part) two of the best pitchers (players who throw the ball to players, called batters, who try to hit it) in baseball. Everyone expected the game to be a duel (contest or competition) between two pitchers who throw the ball so well that most batters have trouble hitting it. Many of us expected a low-scoring game, maybe even 1-0.

In baseball, one of the most exciting plays (actions) is the home run. A home run happens when a batter hits the ball so hard that it goes over the fence and out of the baseball park. When a batter hits a home run, he’s expected to drop his bat and run around the field, being sure to step on each of the four bases.

Near the beginning of the game, Magglio Ordonez from Detroit hit a home run. While he was running around the bases, Angel pitcher Jared Weaver shouted at him because he thought Ordonez wasn’t running fast enough. Bad mistake! Weaver broke (didn’t obey) the unwritten rule that says you have to show respect for the other teams’ players. He would argue (say), of course, that Ordonez’ slow running didn’t show him respect. If that’s true, Ordonez broke the same rule.

Weaver’s shouting at Ordonez angered Carlos Guillen, another Detroit player. So, when Guillen hit a home run later in the game, he stood and watched the ball for a while, then danced slowly for a few steps toward first base, looking at Weaver the entire time, before he ran around the bases. More disrespect! Another bad mistake!

One of the unwritten rules in baseball says that if a player does something bad to you, you have to retaliate, you have to do something bad to him or to one of his teammates, and that’s exactly what Weaver did: he threw the ball at the head of the next Detroit batter. Fortunately he missed, but he was ejected from (thrown out of) the game and has been suspended from (prohibited from playing in) six games. The suspension is bad news for the Angels, who are trying to get into the playoffs (the competition at the end of the regular season): Weaver is their best pitcher and they need him to play.

Every sport seems to have its unwritten rules. I’ve seen them in American football, soccer, baseball, and basketball. And it seems to me, unfortunately, that they often make young men act like little boys. What do you think?

~ Warren Ediger – creator of Successful English, where you can always find clear explanations and practical suggestions for better English.

Photo used courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Baseball, as you probably know, is our national sport in the United States. Its influence can be seen in both popular culture (movies such as Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams) and in the recreational (sporting; games) choices of Americans themselves. When I was growing up in Saint Paul, Minnesota, not only did children play baseball and softball (a type of baseball that uses a larger, softer ball), but adults did, too.  Nearly every large company or community organization had a softball team, and many had leagues (a group of teams that play each other frequently).  Team sports were part of adult culture, in the summertime especially.  Playing on a team was something you would do in your free time that connected you to your neighborhood and community.

Now, it seems, things have changed.  According to a recent article, the number of these amateur (not professional) sport teams has declined (decreased) dramatically (a large amount) in Minnesota and around the country (in the entire U.S.).  The number of adult softball teams is down (has declined) by more than 50% since the early 1990s.  Basketball teams are down 75%, and other team sports have experienced similar drops (declines).  What happened?

Some attribute (explain; give as the reason) the change to the way Americans are less “connected” to each other. Most people don’t know 15 other adults who’d want to form (start) a sports team together (I know I don’t).  For many, it’s just easier to jog or bike, activities that don’t require a group of people. People work more than the traditional 40 hours each week nowadays, some say, and so they don’t have time for playing on teams.

But part of the answer can also be found on your cellphone.  Video and cellphone games such as Angry Birds have started to replace physical sports as a relaxing pastime for younger adults. The amount of time adults spend on gaming (playing video games) has gone up at the same time team sports have gone down. It seems that many of us would rather kill imaginary birds than play in the real world.

~Jeff

Photo credit: Angry Birds Promotional Artwork, Wikipedia Fair Use

Whether people intend (plan) to buy or only window-shop (look without buying), shopping malls have become popular destinations (places to go) around the world. “Let’s go to the mall,” is heard often in many households (people who live together, usually families) and many languages.

An article on The New Yorker web site tells the story of Victor Gruen, the man many people call the creator of the modern shopping mall. I was fascinated by his story and by the “science” of mall design.

Gruen grew up in Vienna. As a young man, he studied architecture (the design of buildings) during the day, and performed with his friends in cabarets (restaurants or clubs with live music and dance performances) in the evening. In 1938, he immigrated from Germany to the U.S. to escape Nazi persecution (cruel treatment) of the Jews. When he arrived in the U.S., he said he had “an architect’s degree, eight dollars, and no English.”

One day Gruen went for a walk in downtown New York and met a friend who wanted to open a leather-goods (products, like purses, made from leather) boutique (a small store selling fashionable products) on Fifth Avenue, a popular location for exclusive (fashionable and expensive) shops. Gruen agreed to design the shop and came up with a new idea that some called a “customer trap” – an area to attract customers and pull them into the store. Let me explain.

Up until this time, the fronts of most stores were flat. Gruen changed that. He created an open space outside at the front of the store – shaped like a “U” – with glass cases to display (show) the products. He also added special lighting and a special floor. Many customers who walked into this space – called an arcade – to look at the products continued into the store to buy something they first saw outside.

Gruen began his most famous project – Southdale in Edina, Minnesota – more than 50 years ago. It was the first of the modern malls. There were no windows on the outside; the fronts of all the stores faced (looked toward) the inside of the mall. The entire mall – with 72 stores – was under one roof and it was heated and air-conditioned. Gruen put the stores on two levels connected by escalators (moving stairs) and added two levels of parking outside the mall. In the middle of the mall he created a kind of town square with a fishpond, artificial (not live) trees, a cage of colorful birds, hanging plants, and a cafe. It was, according to news stories, a sensation (exciting, very interesting)!

I’m always fascinated by why things are done a certain way. The “science” of mall design used by Gruen – his reasons for doing things the way he did – has been borrowed and further developed (added to) by other mall designers. Here are some of the popular mall design ideas:

• Always include two or more anchor stores – large, popular stores that will attract people to the mall. Put the anchor stores at opposite ends of the mall to create as much foot traffic (people walking) as possible for the smaller stores in between them.
• Alfred Taubman, another mall designer, says malls should have two levels with escalators at each end. This allows a customer to come into the mall, walk along one level, take the escalator up or down, walk back along the other level, and easily return to his or her car.
• Put the escalators at the end of the mall – near the anchor stores – so shoppers have to walk past more stores to get to them.
• Taubman also puts more parking on the upper level than the lower level. “People flow like water,” he says. “They go down easier than they go up” and they’ll visit more of the mall if they start at the top level.
• Make the handrails on the second level transparent (easy to see through) so shoppers can look through them and see all the stores.
• Be sure the main corridors (where people walk) are no more than one-thousand feet (about 300 meters) long – if people have to walk farther than that, they lose interest in shopping.
• Keep related stores near each other – for example, put a Johnson & Murphy shoe store near a Brooks Brothers clothing store where a man might buy a new suit so he can get everything he needs without walking far.

Modern designers have experimented with many new ideas. The next time you visit a mall, take time to look around. See if you can identify some of the things the designers have done to give you a good experience and, of course, to encourage you to buy … buy … buy …!

~ Warren Ediger – creator of Successful English, where you’ll always find clear explanations and practical suggestions for better English.

 Shopping mall photo by J. Franganillo used under Creative Commons license.