Baseball is truly one of my favorite childhood activities. Baseball is a bat and ball game played between two teams of nine players. Each team takes turns hitting and playing assigned positions in the field. I can vividly recall rushing outside, after lunch to play baseball with my friends. As soon as March arrived, I would start oiling my mitt (softening it with oil to make it easier to catch the ball)on a daily basis and begin breaking it in so that it would be ready for use on our first warm, spring day.
Although most girls on my street were excited about being able to go outside to skip rope, I would always be overwrought with anticipation when I was finally able to go to the basement to retrieve my bat and ball for my first day on the field.
Once we had all of our equipment in tow on our bicycle's, my friends and I would run as fast as we could to our closest baseball field so that we could start to practice. I had a reputation for always scoring the first run in every game. My best friend was known for always breaking the bat when she hit a home run, because she would hit the ball with such great force.
Once little league commenced, we had practiced independently so often that we were ready to compete well before some of our team members. Each game was a brand, new opportunity to show how well prepared we were and we played to win.
Although we were slightly saddened when baseball season was over, the sadness was always very short lived because our beloved football season was next
Vocabulary:
vividly (adjective) - strikingly, clearly.
overwrought (adjective) - extremely excited or agitated
anticipation (noun) - expectation or hope
retrieve (verb) - recover or regain
tow (verb) - to pull or haul by rope, chain or other device
reputation (noun) - the estimation or name of being, having, or having done something specified
commenced (verb) - to begin or start
*Home run - when a player passes around first, second and third base and returns to the starting point, touching the bases in that order, after first having hit the ball over the fence in fair play.
In tow - having something with you.
Vocabulary Exercise:
Read the sentences. Complete the sentence with the correct antonym from the word bank.
WORD BANK:
*forfeit, terminate, calm, discredit, vaguely, dread*
1. Maya could __________ remember the ending of the movie.
2. Everyone was surprised by her ________ demeanor upon hearing the good news.
3. Most people ________ going to the doctor.
4. The team did not arrive on time and as a result had to ___________ the game.
5. Your thoughtless actions will bring ________ to your name.
6. Jane had to _________ her relationship with Sam because she found out that he was married.
Grammar Point:
Many words have more than one meaning. These words are called multiple meaning words.
In the blog entry above, I used the words: play, bat, ball and run. Each of those words are multiple meaning words. Write a paragraph where you incorporate four multiple meaning words into your writing.
I am glad to read about your love for baseball. For some ESL students, baseball will be entirely unfamiliar, so you would have to explain some of the game and what oiling the mitt and scoring a run means. And I think "tow" has to be described aith the whole expression "to have in tow."
ReplyDeleteYour enthusiasm for the game is great to see! It is upsetting that there isn’t a women’s professional baseball league! Other countries have embraced women in baseball but as you know softball is the option offered here in the US. I am an occasional baseball fan but a huge tennis fan. I can appreciate baseball because baseball and tennis have some similarities. For example, the pitcher and batter in baseball are very similar to the server and returner in tennis. In both sports the focus of the pitcher and sever is to obstruct the batter and the returner by affecting the ball using different degrees of speed, direction, spin and timing.
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