I am interested in the question of how and why the progressive change in America has caused a decline in popularity and importance within the United States because I have always loved the sport of baseball, and when I learn that baseball is becoming less and less popular over time it makes me sad. I want to understand why this is happening and what are the true causes. This research question does not affect my view of baseball whatsoever because I have always loved baseball, I played throughout my childhood, and I will always love it. Since I was ten years old when I began playing baseball, it has always been my favorite sport. It honestly baffles me that children nowadays are less and less interested in baseball because it is so interesting to me. A lot of my friends tell me that baseball is too slow or way too long and boring to be enjoyable, but there are many more aspects to the game than many people realize. I believe that I am qualified to write about this because of my keen knowledge about the sport as well as having played it for the past eight years. 

My first source is a historic article surrounding the importance of baseball written in 1981 by Ira Berkow. It talks about how even through wars and the depression baseball has always been very significant in American culture and the writer believes it always will be. It is very intriguing to see the difference of perspective in today's world compared to a man in the early 1980s. The author of this article is very credible as he is a writer for The New York Times.  He also quotes different authors of books about baseball to support his claims. One of the more important sentences I noticed from his article is when he notes, "Baseball is part of the tradition of many American families" (Berkow).

My second source is another article from The New York Times except this time written in 2013 by Jonathan Mahler. He writes, "The game, in other words, has never been healthier. So why does it feel so irrelevant" (Mahler)? It is very interesting to see how the sport's revenue as increased dramatically but the feeling within America is that baseball is just not as important as it once was within American society. The article is about history's role with baseball. It mentions how before baseball expanded, when it was concentrated into one part of the country, it was such a huge deal, but when it spread throughout the countries, revenue definitely increased, but because certain teams have been known to be the greats, when basically unknown teams play one another in the world series, nobody cares and it becomes irrelevant. This author is also credible because he is a writer for this prestigious newspaper.

My last source is written by Chris Beneke on why kids are becoming less interested in baseball. The author writes that technology, other sports and video games are taking over the lives of children while making baseball seem less of an interest. He talks about how the sport began during the Civil War with adults playing and that the way the game is played has changed drastically. Baseball does not live up to the same "fun" aspect that other sports like kickball and football have for children and he writes, "Baseball still has a future, though it may be a diminished one" (Beneke).  The author writes for a famous magazine called The Atlantic, so he is definitely credible. By utilizing historic facts, he further supports his argument that baseball is declining in significance within America for children. 

This research question is arguable because some people like me can believe that baseball is declining progressively in importance and popularity throughout America as time goes on, but others may believe that this recession is not actually occurring or that it is simply a phase, and our country will grow out of it soon enough. With the articles I have discovered so far there are many agreements with my argument, and in the future I am going to find some sources that may not necessarily agree with me. Lastly, I do not think I need to revise my research question.

