BAS 101 — Baseball: Inside America's Game
Spring
Thursdays
7:00—8:50 pm
Date(s)
Mar 31—Jun 9
10 weeks
Drop By
Apr 13
2 Units
Fees
$405
Format
On-campus course
Open
Please Note: No class on May 5
Back by popular demand, this course is for anyone
who has ever loved, played, or been intrigued by our
national pastime. As every fan knows, baseball is more
than a game. The most traditional, numbers-oriented
and nostalgia-inducing of our major sports, it offers a
reprieve from the fast-moving digital world, a fantasyland
for statisticians, an instrument for social change,
heroes to admire, and memories to last a lifetime.
During this ten-week course, students will spend time in the company of baseball insiders, taking an informative, in-depth, and entertaining look at America’s game. Topics will include the business of baseball; the experiences of the beat writer and columnist; the life and times of an umpire; the appeal of the minor leagues; how a play-by-play announcer prepares for a broadcast; the challenges of the college game; a player’s life (during and after career); the x’s and o’s of scouting; technology and analytics; and much more.
The Bay Area is not only the home of multiple World Series Championship teams; it is also home to a disproportionate number of baseball experts. Each week, guest speakers will look at baseball from different perspectives.
Guest speakers tentatively include:
Ed Montague, a Major League umpire for thirty-four years and crew chief in four World Series
Dave Flemming, San Francisco Giants play-by-play announcer
Gary Hughes, a Major League scout for forty-five years and an inductee into the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame
Roger Noll, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Stanford and an expert on sports business
Joan Ryan, author of Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty and Freak Season: Behind the Scenes with Giants Pitcher Tim Lincecum
Bruce Jenkins, sports columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle and former baseball beat writer
Bill Schlough, long-time San Francisco Giants front office executive and chairman of the San Jose Giants minor league team
Randy Winn, former All-Star, San Francisco Giants outfielder, and thirteen-year MLB veteran
Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle A's beat writer and past president of the Baseball Writers Association of America
During this ten-week course, students will spend time in the company of baseball insiders, taking an informative, in-depth, and entertaining look at America’s game. Topics will include the business of baseball; the experiences of the beat writer and columnist; the life and times of an umpire; the appeal of the minor leagues; how a play-by-play announcer prepares for a broadcast; the challenges of the college game; a player’s life (during and after career); the x’s and o’s of scouting; technology and analytics; and much more.
The Bay Area is not only the home of multiple World Series Championship teams; it is also home to a disproportionate number of baseball experts. Each week, guest speakers will look at baseball from different perspectives.
Guest speakers tentatively include:
Ed Montague, a Major League umpire for thirty-four years and crew chief in four World Series
Dave Flemming, San Francisco Giants play-by-play announcer
Gary Hughes, a Major League scout for forty-five years and an inductee into the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame
Roger Noll, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Stanford and an expert on sports business
Joan Ryan, author of Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty and Freak Season: Behind the Scenes with Giants Pitcher Tim Lincecum
Bruce Jenkins, sports columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle and former baseball beat writer
Bill Schlough, long-time San Francisco Giants front office executive and chairman of the San Jose Giants minor league team
Randy Winn, former All-Star, San Francisco Giants outfielder, and thirteen-year MLB veteran
Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle A's beat writer and past president of the Baseball Writers Association of America
Gary Cavalli, Executive Director, Foster Farms Bowl
Gary Cavalli has forty years of experience in professional and college sports administration. He is the executive director of the post-season college football bowl game played in the Bay Area for the past fourteen years. Cavalli was co-founder and CEO of the American Basketball League, a women’s professional league, and sports information director and associate athletic director at Stanford. He is the author of the book Stanford Sports, and co-executive producer of the award-winning documentary film Disposable Heroes. He produced network television programming for Fox Sports and managed NCAA golf and soccer championships. He is an adjunct professor in the USF Sport Management Program and also teaches at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Bengie Molina and Joan Ryan, Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty (ISBN 978-1-4516-4104-2)