The title of the Princeton senior thesis paper was 28 words. The final product ended up being close to 80 pages. Royals pitcher Chris Young can still recount the topic of his study in quite vivid detail: “The Impact of Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball on Racial Stereotypes in America: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Stories about Race in The New York Times.”
Sounds like your typical summer project for most young baseball players, right? Young, 37, completed the senior thesis in 2001 as he rode buses in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor-league system. He had been drafted the previous summer after his junior year at Princeton.