Friday, November 21, 2008

Individual Report Update

Well, I finally did what I have been threatening to do on my previous blog postings. I actually changed my individual report topic! I simply was not making any progress with my previous topic; and besides that, it was excruciatingly boring. I did not even find the topic particularly compelling, and it directly affects my life. Imagine how dull and inconsequential the entire report it would have been to the reader.
I have been working on my new topic. I am actually enjoying this topic. After several considerations and rejections of ideas, I decided on a sports related topic. I am conducting a plausibility analysis into whether the Fort Wayne Tin Caps (formerly the Fort Wayne Wizards) could make a move up a division in the minor league baseball system. Currently, the Tin Caps are a "low" Single A division team. I thought it might be interesting to investigate the potential possibility of the team moving to the Double a level.
I am primarily a football fan--but, I love all sports. After I became so disenchanted with my original choice of topic, I wanted to be sure that I would enjoy the revised choice thoroughly. In this way, researching and writing the paper would not be a chore or struggle. I felt that I had done enough "struggling" with my first topic.
Anyway, as you can probably imagine, the research has been more plentiful, and the writing has been easier. I am not one of these single-minded meatheads who has to relate everything in the world to sports, but an occasional foray into the realm of sports as fodder for my writing is immensely enjoyable.
In my research, I am comparing Fort Wayne and it's baseball team to Akron, Ohio and it's baseball team. I chose Akron because it is roughly the same size as Fort Wayne, population wise, and it's baseball team , the Aeros, already plays at the Double A level. I also chose Akron because it is located in the midwest, like Fort Wayne. I was hopeful that the similar geography between the two cities would make their demographics comparable as well. I wanted an apples to apples comparison. I have been very pleased thus far with what I have discovered regarding each. The two cities have some expected similarities, but some striking differences.

1 comment:

brian spaulding said...

Here's a blog post that my brother and I wrote last year that should help you out. Our conclusion was that it wasn't plausible to move to AA due to geographical conditions.

http://downtownfortwaynebaseball.blogspot.com/2007/01/could-fort-wayne-baseball-change-in.html

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