Public Speaking Speech

I have 4-5 minutes to inform my class about something.

Here is what I have decided:

The Curse of the Great Bambino

General Purpose: To Inform

Specific Purpose: At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to describe the 3 main facets of the history of the curse.

Central Idea: There are three main phases of time of the curse of the Great Bambino; when it began, the failed attempts at breaking it, and breaking it.

Organizational Pattern: Spatial

Intro: Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels. Celtics and the Lakers. Real Madrid and Barcelona. Colorado State University and University of Wyoming. There are hundreds of sports rivalries, and each has its own unique history and significance. As sports fans we all know these rivalries make games worth watching. One of the most famous sports rivalries between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees began almost a century ago when Harry Frazee traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees and the curse began. I was in 6^th grade when the curse was broken. At that point I had been a baseball fan my whole life. I grew up watching baseball and loved it with a passion. My dad taught me how to be a Red Sox fan and his dad taught him how to be a Red Sox fan. Today, I will discuss three significant phases of the curse: when it began, the failed attempts at breaking it, and when the curse was broken.

Signpost: To begin, we will go back nearly a century to 1918.

Body:

1          In 1918 the Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs to win the World Series (Waterman & Springer, 1999).

a.     Babe Ruth pitched 17 scoreless innings for the Red Sox that series  (Celebrate Boston)

b.     In 1919, the Red Sox manager sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees to pay off a debt on Fenway Park (NBCSports, 2004). This began the curse.

c.      After this, Red Sox did not win another World Series until 2004

d.     Yankees went on to win 26 World Series

Signpost: Now that we know when the curse began we will follow the Red Sox in their subsequent World Series appearances

                   The Red Sox made it to the World Series 4 times between 1918 and 2003

a.     They made it in ’46, ’67, ’75, and ’86 and each time something terrible happened and they lost (Celebrate Boston)

b.     Each time the curse was to blame. It could not be broken

c.      Red Sox were doomed by the curse to be a losing team

d.     Meanwhile, the Yankees became an empire that ruled Major League Baseball

Signpost: We now have seen the 4 failed attempts at breaking the curse. Lets move on to when they actually did break it.

3             In 2004 the Red Sox won the World Series

a.     The Red Sox came back from a 3 game deficit against the Yankees in the League Championship Series to make it to the World Series for the 5^th time since 1918

b.     The Red Sox beat the Cardinals in 4 World Series games and the curse was broken after 86 years

c.      Show Youtube Clip beginning at 2:44:16(MLBClassics, 2010)

Signpost: To wrap it up, lets review the three phases of the curse.

Conclusion: We have talked about when the curse began in 1919, how the Red Sox tried to overcome it in their World Series appearances and when they actually did break the curse in 2004 against the Cardinals. So next time you are watching a game between rivals you can think on and maybe dig into the history and significance of that rivalry. You might find out something like the history we discussed today.

Here is the whole 3 hours in case you've got nothing going on today