Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Boston finally has a reason to celebrate–and that’s exactly what Red Sox fans are doing.
Fans took to the streets last weekend to celebrate the fact that their baseball team won the World Series.
The parade made an important detour.
It stopped at the Boston Marathon finish line.
Last April, there was a terrible bombing during the Boston Marathon race, which took the lives of three people.
The city–and people all over the world–were upset by the tragedy.
On Saturday night, something unexpected happened in an important baseball game.
The St. Louis Cardinals were playing against the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
The World Series is a best-of-seven series. That means the first team to win four games wins the World Series and is named the best major-league baseball team of the year.
The games are always filled with tension and excitement, but Saturday’s game—game three—had a bit more of both.
It was the bottom of the ninth inning.
The game was tied 4-4.
It was the last chance for the Cardinals to score a point. If they did, they would win the game.
What happened next was very exciting.
He dances, he gives funny interviews, he bows to his teammates and he loves to flash a smile – even when taking a pie to the face.
His name is Munenori Kawasaki, and he is the gregarious new shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.
Kawasaki was called up on April 13 to replace shortstop Joe Reyes, who had suffered an ankle injury.
Kawasaki is originally from Japan, and often carries around a Japanese-English phrasebook to help him communicate.
When the new pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team – R. A. Dickey – throws a pitch, it goes up and down like a rollercoaster.
A rollercoaster: just like his childhood, his career and his life. Although it’s been a bumpy ride, he’s now in a good place as one of the best pitchers in the major leagues.
This year, he signed a contract for three years, for more than $25-million.
That’s a long way from the $11,000 a year he used to make as pitcher in the minor leagues.
At that time, around 2005, Dickey was a struggling pitcher throwing fastballs. But the batters were able to hit them, and sometimes knock them out of the park.
Mark Buehrle is a baseball pitcher who recently joined the Toronto Blue Jays.
Buehrle is an extraordinary pitcher. He is one of only 18 people in the game’s history to pitch a “perfect game.”
The Blue Jays are pinning some of their hopes of winning this season on Buehrle.
However, there is a problem. When Buehrle signed on with the Jays, he had to move to Toronto.
Ontario law doesn’t allow people to keep pit bulls as pets; Buehrle has a pit bull named Slater.
Hugo Chávez, the charismatic president of Venezuela, died on Tuesday. He was 58.
Chávez had been the president of the South American country since 1998.
Chávez grew up in a very poor family. He dreamed of becoming a baseball player, but instead he studied at a military academy and then joined the army.
As a student and a soldier, Chávez read many books and became interested in politics and the problems affecting poor people in Venezuela. He believed that the people running the government at the time were dishonest, and were taking money that should have been used to help the whole country.
Yesterday we posted a quiz featuring questions from events in the news in the first half of 2012. Let’s see how much you remember from the past six months as you tackle these 2012 news questions.
17) What huge sporting event took place in Summer 2012? Bonus point if you know what city it took place in.
18) The man who famously said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” passed away in August 2012. What was his name, and why was he famous?
19) Name the mayor of Toronto. Name one thing he did that was newsworthy in 2012.
20) “Replacement refs” filled in during an NFL labour dispute. What did they do that irritated many fans?
21) What did the Pope’s butler do in 2012 that made headlines?
22) Who won the World Series in 2012?
23) Why is nine-year-old Caine Monroy famous?
Grown men have been known to tear up upon hearing the famous words: “Touch ’em all, Joe!”
They were spoken by Blue Jays’ baseball radio broadcaster Tom Cheek back in 1993.
Recently, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced that the “voice of the Blue Jays” would receive the prestigious Ford C. Frick award for broadcasting excellence.
Many fans consider the award long overdue.
Cheek was part of the first Blue Jays radio broadcast. He continued to be the voice of the Blue Jays for 27 years.
From his first game to his last, he never missed a game. He worked 4,306 games in a row–from April 1977 until June 2004.
Cheek also broadcast 41 playoff games.
Cheek experienced struggles in his early years.
He was also witness to back-to-back World Series championships for the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993.
But topping it all was the call he made in 1993.
Blue Jays outfielder Joe Carter had just hit a huge home run to win the World Series.
The Toronto Blue Jays stunned and excited their fans last week when rumours surfaced about a blockbuster player trade.
The trade is not finalized yet, and it still has to be approved by the Commissioner of Baseball.
If the trade goes through it would be, arguably, the biggest trade in Blue Jays’ history.
Twelve players are involved: seven going from the Blue Jays to the Miami Marlins and five going from the Marlins to the Blue Jays.
For the second time in three years, the San Francisco Giants are baseball’s World Series Champions.
The Giants beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings. They completed a four-game sweep in the best-of-seven series.
That means they won four games in a row, which gave them the championship.
Former Toronto Blue Jay Marco Scutaro singled home the go ahead run in the 10th inning with two out.
Pablo Sandoval (a.k.a. Kung Fu Panda) was awarded Most Valuable Player (MVP).
That’s because in game one of the World Series he hit an amazing three home runs and, overall, he had eight hits in 16 at-bats.
