Comparison Essay Outline

Thesis: Although the Bulova advertisement and the FIFA advertisement have similarities and differences, analyzing the similarities of both are more important because they both try to end a problem which still occurs.

Pattern: Point

Main paper sections: Visual aspects and textual aspects

Similarities: Gold on the women, Large text communicating message, small text promoting company/brand, sense of unity

Differences: Time period/quality, One has only women and one has a man and woman, One the main text is over the image and one it is above, One talks about time and the other talks about level of play.

Everything is Bigger in Texas!

Texas Rangers

Have you ever heard the saying “everything is bigger in Dallas?” If you have heard the saying, have you heard it too much? Well, people say it so much because it is true. Even when it comes to baseball, it can still get bigger. The Texas Rangers stadium is called Globe Life Field. I will rank globe life field next because it is another stadium I visited for the first time over the past summer.

I am going to start off with the size. Globe Life Field is a warehouse. There is a lot of space. However, I feel like the stadium is huge for nothing because the Rangers did not do anything with the open space. At least we can come to one conclusion: it can not be that bad because it has an adjustable roof. Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit. It is a nice stadium, and it is aesthetically pleasing with all of the windows everywhere. I just feel like there was more potential to the creation of the stadium.

Globe Life Field is located in a perfect location. The whole outside area is filled with restaurants, bars, music, and more! Within a 10 minute walk, you can arrive at AT&T stadium which is home to the Dallas Cowboys football team. I strongly recommend touring AT&T stadium. It is a sight to see, and there is an art museum in it. Within a 10 minute drive, you can also reach Six Flags Over Texas amusement park. Overall, the area in Arlington is pure entertainment.

Nothing stood out to me in regards to the atmosphere. The Rangers are an average team, so it is not like they are bad. The crowd never got as loud as other stadiums I have been to. Maybe the capacity factors into the crowd. Globe Life Field holds around 40,000 people which is below the average capacity of a MLB stadium. The average capacity of a MLB stadium is around 42,000 people. It is interesting that the newest MLB stadium, whose first game hosted was in 2020, has a below average capacity even though the stadium is large.

I would not rank the Texas Rangers stadium as high as the Houston Astros or Toronto Blue Jays. However, I would still recommend visiting if you are in town and have the chance. My experience was enjoyable and relaxing. Depending on what mood you are in, that can hit the spot. I would rank Globe Life field an 8.0. It is hard to rate it over my favorite team which is the Washington Nationals. I think I have just attended so many Nationals games that I do not appreciate the stadium as much as these other stadiums that I have only been to once.

Civic Artifact Comparison

The artifact I chose for a comparison is the Equal Pay for Equal Play advertisement. I will use the same lens which is Visual Rhetoric. One of the key difference is the FIFA ad is recent. I feel like it will engage listeners more during my speech because it is something in their lifetime which they can relate to. With the FIFA ad being more recent, it will put into perspective how equal pay is still a problem to this day. Now, the FIFA ad is successful because women are now equally payed in FIFA. However, society still has a long way to go even though this is a step in the right direction.

Baseball out of the Country!

Toronto Blue Jays

Have I ever mentioned how much I glove baseball! I could talk about it all day. There is always something to talk about since the MLB has 162 games in a season. With the playoffs around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to introduce the next team I will be ranking. The MLB’s only team from out of the country: the Toronto Blue Jays.

The blue jays was another team I saw last summer. The only thing holding me back from going to the Blue Jays game was not having a passport. Once I got one, we bought tickets for the next month. At the time in July, the Blue Jays were not doing great. I bring this up because I think it speaks volumes on what I have to say.

Like the Houston Astros, Toronto’s stadium -Rogers Centre- has a roof. This has to be the best stadium which has a roof. Rogers Centre was built relatively recent. It comes with a whole experience. When the roof is open, you can see the CN Tower which is the tallest building in North America. Within five minutes of the stadium you can get to numerous attractions including the CN Tower and an aquarium.

The stadium looks nice and has a hotel built in (the white looking windows around the scoreboard in the outfield). The hotel factors in the ticket price of a game, so it may seem like you are spending a lot when you are not. The rooms have a perfect view of the game.

The Blue Jays know how to entertain and hype up a crowd. Before the players take the field, a hype video starts to play. Then, as they take the field, the crowd roars and blue, white, and red lights start flashing everywhere. The light show and hype video amps up the crowd as the game starts. My favorite part was in the 9th inning. The Blue Jays were bringing their closer in to win the game. Their closer (Jordan Romano) had his own hype video. As he took the field, fast and energetic music started to play as the lights flashed again. I do not know about anyone else, but it gave me chills.

I decided to rank the Blue Jays next since there are on the cusp of making the playoffs. I hope they make it because they have an amazing atmosphere whether they are good or not. I could only imagine how hype it would be to be at one of their playoff games.

Overall, I would rank Rogers Centre a 9.5. The food was great and the attractions around the stadium give it bonus points. The only issue is that it is far away. If it were closer, I would definitely go multiple times a year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best MLB Stadium!

Houston Astros

For the next ranking, I will judge Minute Maid Park. Minute Maid Park is my personal favorite Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium. I travelled to Houston in the summer of 2022. In fact, the Houston Astros actually ended up winning the World Series that year, so I can say I saw the Astros their championship year. If I were to recommend someone to go to a baseball game, the Astros would be the team I would say.

To start off, the stadium has a roof. As I said in my review of the Washington Nationals, the roof is an essential part to a great stadium because it prevents a delay or postponement of game because of the weather. Since each team plays 162 games and plays almost every day, quite a few games are impacted by weather. The roof is nice to look at, and it covers the stadium in a smooth way. Next, the huge scoreboard is eye catching and takes up the whole right side of the stadium. On the left side there is a train that goes across every time a home run is hit. Since left field is only 315 feet from home plate, there are a good amount of home runs hit.

The Astros have made it to the World series four times in the past six years and winning two of them; therefore, the atmosphere in Minute Maid Park is electric. The roar of the crowd is mind-blowing, and it seems even louder when the roof is closed. I clarified that teams would not be ranked based on how good they are; however, teams can have an electric atmosphere whether they are good or not. Even if the Astros were not as good, I believe the atmosphere would still be electric. 

The was nothing special about the comfortability of sitting in the stadium. With baseball stadiums, no comment is a good comment. Also, I like to collect the ice cream hat cup from each team I watch. Most teams only have one. However, the Astros have a blue hat cup and a orange hat cup which I love.

 

 

 

 

Overall, I would rate the Houston Astros and Minute Maid Park a 9.7. I would rate it a 10, but I feel like I can not give any a perfect score because there is always a way to make the experience even better. There is nothing bad I can say about the stadium, atmosphere, or anything else. Everything you would want going to a baseball game, you can have at Minute Maid Park.

Drafting Civic Artifact Speech

Introduction

As popular singer and songwriter Beyoncé once said, “We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet.”

So many people tend to say men and women are equal. We compare how women were treated in the past to how they are treated now. While women are now treated significantly more equal than before, we are not even close to perfect equality.

The watch company Bulova made an advertisement, which I chose for my civic artifact, in order to convey how it is time for equal pay for women. Features such as the gold watch, a man and woman holding hands, the large bold words in the center, and the hands zoomed in communicate the message for equality.

Critical Argument 1

  • Claim: The watches on the arms represent how everyone can purchase luxury items which should be affordable to everyone and not just mostly males.
    1. Evidence:
      1. Same watch on both arms (male and female)
      2. Watches both gold.
    2. Reasoning: The watches shown on both arms symbolize how men and women both fight for and support equal pay together. Gold is associated with wealth and expensive items like the Bulova Accutron. Both being gold represent how all men and women should be able to afford more luxurious items. Watches show how it is TIME for fair treatment.

Loving the Game

Rankings

Do you love baseball? If yes, great! You will lose track of time because of how invested you will be. If you do not love baseball, don’t worry! You will love baseball soon enough. There is more to love about baseball then just the game itself. The atmosphere and the stadium which lead to the overall experience are some of the key components that make a baseball game fun to watch.

As someone who travelled and watched a game at over half of the Major League Baseball stadiums, I will rank each team by the experience I had. The rankings will account for aspects such as the food, the atmosphere, the surroundings and appearance, and the comfortability. While I will not rank teams based on success or how well high they currently are in the standings, I do understand the atmosphere can be affected by how good the team was at the time.

I will be rating the experience on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 as the highest rating. The appearance and the atmosphere will weigh more into the ranking of each team. Ratings from 1 to 5 mean the experience was terrible, and I would not recommend. Ratings from 5 to 7 mean the experience was average, and it is worth it to go to a game at least once. Ratings from 7-10 mean the experience was amazing, and I would continue to return multiple years.

Washington Nationals

The first team I will rank holds an unfair advantage over the other teams. I live in Northern Virginia, so I cheer for the Washington Nationals. I attended at least 20 Nationals’ games in my lifetime. The first part of my ranking will begin with the appearance. The inside of the stadium looks like a classic baseball stadium. The scoreboard presents itself in an aesthetically pleasing way because it utilizes the Nationals’ colors. However, the stadium neglected to include a roof. The roof protects players and fans from getting drenched. Without a roof on rainy days, fans may become angry from delays or postponed games. 

The Nationals’ stadium holds over 41,000 people. The fans interact with each other nicely. You can always speak to the people around about anything. During the games, the atmosphere is moderate. In a normal season, it does not get extremely loud. When they won the world series in 2019, the atmosphere was electric. They have the potential to be deafening. The food is one of the best. There is a Shake shack which is one of the best fast food burger restaurants. In addition, all the traditional ballpark foods like popcorn, hotdogs, and Cracker Jacks are average prices.

Overall, I would rate the Washington Nationals experience a 7.5 out of 10. Even if I were not a fan of the Nationals, I would go back. It is a very pleasant experience.

 

 

Equal Pay

Civic Artifact

Are women and men truly equal? The answer is no. For my civic artifact, I decided to choose an advertisement about equal pay for women. Bulova (a watch brand) created this advertisement in 1972 in order to fight for equal pay for women. This issue continues to plague the world. Bulova created the Accutron watch which became the first tuning fork watch. The best lens to analyze the advertisement is through visual rhetoric. I can analyze through different aspects of visual rhetoric such as production and composition.

Examples through Visual Rhetoric

One of the features visual rhetoric will highlight is the gold color watches on both the man and woman. I will expand upon the gold symbolizing both men and women capable of buying luxury items. Another feature of visual rhetoric will highlight the huge words in the center of the post. When looking at the advertisement, the first thing the audience looks at is the words in the center. The words illustrate how Bulova fights for equal pay, so the first thing the audience notices is the overall message. Also, the fact that the man and women are holding hands, and the advertisement is zoomed in on the hands is important.

 

The Power in Standing up for Justice

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Had a Dream” speech in Washington D.C., which became one of the most memorable and impactful speeches in history. With the massive injustice to African Americans, King Jr. advocated for the rights of all people of color. Nobody was taking action, and someone had to stand up and push back in order to make change.

King Jr. spoke in front of African Americans and white people. He was addressing both parts of his audience. He spoke to African Americans in order to inspire them. Change would only occur if all of them stuck together and fought for themselves. He was a leader who gave them hope. Simultaneously, he address the people with white skin color because he was fighting for change. King Jr. made it clear that they were all equal and should have the same privileges and rights as everyone else. He tried to evoke a sense of shame and guilt in them. Every person who came was one more person he could convince that People of black skin color deserved to be treated equal.

In addition, one of King Jr.’s main points was to fight back without aggression. If they had fought with aggression, he would not have been able to keep the attention of people with white skin color. As a result, there would have been no chance of King Jr. making change.

Also, King Jr. gave his speech in Washington D.C. which is the home of the lawmakers a the government. He wanted to appeal to them in order to persuade them to do justice, so he mentioned the principles in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. He stated that both documents apply to all people and not just people with white skin color.

 

The Hidden Art of Sports

Baseball

A majority of people would describe baseball as the most boring sport to watch. Some say “it is impossible to sit through a whole game” or “baseball is one of the worst sports” or “there is no action”. However, the game is not just about the physical act of play the sport. It is about the experience which make people fall in love.

Each baseball game is different. It depends on where you go, the atmosphere around the team, and who is playing. As someone who has traveled to over have of the Major League Baseball (MLB) stadiums, I feel I can rank each stadium and experience into different tiers and would like to share my experience with the world in order to spread the love of the game.

Fantasy Football

Football is the most popular sport in the United States. Many people follow a team their whole lives and watch every game. As a result of most games being played on Sunday when people are off work, Sundays have become known for watching football for almost all sports lovers. In addition to watching football, there is a completely different side of the game.

Fantasy Football is when you join a league and draft players from any team to create your own team. It naturally makes you start cheering for certain players to do well, even if you do not like the actual team. Fantasy is another way to enjoy football more. Throughout the next couple of months, I will go through statistics and discuss the winners and losers of the previous week.