Last Saturday, a relatively unknown pitcher did something that’s only been done 20 times before in the whole history of Major League Baseball.
The last time it happened, was in 2010. And it’s only happened for the White Sox twice before, in their 112-year history.
Last Saturday, Chicago White Sox pitcher Philip Humber threw a perfect game.
A “perfect game” is a baseball pitcher’s ultimate goal. It’s even better than a no-hitter. (A no-hitter is when a pitcher doesn’t allow any hits from the opposing team’s batters.)
In a perfect game, none of the opposing hitters is able to reach first base.
The right-hander struck out nine batters and threw just 96 pitches in the whole game. He lead his White Sox to a 4-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
The game was played in Seattle. Towards the end of the game, when people started to realize that this could be a “perfect” game, even the Mariners fans were rooting for Humber. Everyone there wanted to witness history being made–and they did.
Prior to the perfect game, Humber was not well known. The 29-year-old has only been playing for eight seasons. He has pitched for four MLB teams, including the White Sox. In all that time he has only chalked up 12 wins.
In one day, Humber went from relative obscurity to achieving the highest goal in his profession. It just goes to show that in sports, anything can happen.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Today we’ll look at one sentence under a microscope,
“It just goes to show that in sports, anything can happen.”
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Given the article’s final sentence, what is the most impressive thing you’ve seen while watching a sporting event? What is the most courageous moment you’ve seen? The most sportsmanlike? The most inspiring? What do these moments all have in common?
Reading Prompt: Elements of Style
Style is a description of a writer’s personality. The words that are chosen by the author, their order, and the ideas they share can often tell about the writer’s character. What does the author’s concluding sentence tell you about his personality and character?
Primary
Identify some elements of style, including voice, word choice, and different
types of sentences, and explain how they help readers understand texts (OME, Reading: 2.4).
Junior
Identify various elements of style – including word choice and the use of similes, personification, comparative adjectives, and sentences of different types, lengths, and structures – and explain how they help communicate meaning (OME, Reading: 2.4).
Intermediate
Identify various elements of style – including foreshadowing, metaphor,
and symbolism – and explain how they help communicate meaning and enhance the effectiveness of texts (OME, Reading: 2.4).
Grammar Feature: Dependent clause
An independent clause is a group of words that form a complete idea. A complete idea makes a sentence. For example, look at the independent clause, “I like baseball.” “I like baseball” could be a simple sentence. It could also be part of a fuller sentence, “I like baseball during the summer.”
A dependent clause is different because it is a group of words that cannot form a complete sentence. Their job is to tell additional information about the subject of the sentence. For example, in the sentence, “It just goes to show that in sports, anything can happen.” “Anything can happen” is a dependent clause because it tells additional information about the subject, sports.
Circle the subject and underline the dependent clause in each sentence below:
1. Julio has to learn to get here on time if he wants to stay on the team.
2. Those are the classes whose students are always on time.
3. That is the girl whose smile makes me smile.
4. This is the restaurant where Morgan met Katie for breakfast.
