AFTER-READING ACTIVITIES. Answer the following questions

Answer the following questions.

1. In what way did the narrator try to kill his time when he had no chance to watch baseball?

2. What was the origin of his love for baseball?

3. Can we say that passion for baseball ran in his family?

4. What impression did the deserted stadium produced on the narrator?

5. Why was the man irritated by the artificial turf?

6. What did he need accomplices for and what united all these men?

7. What was the reason for their activity to remain secret?

8. For the sake of what exactly did these men gather every night?

9. What kind of reaction on the part of the players could be
expected at the beginning of the baseball season?

Playing and watching baseball is part and parcel of American lifestyle. But understanding this game presupposes the knowledge of some baseball terms. There are quite a few of them in the story. Match the terms with their definitions.

Can you explain the origin of some of the terms?

Let us describe the main character of the story with the help of his remarks. Give a brief character sketch of the man.

1. “Tell him a baseball fan is here to see him.”

2. “I have an idea. One that’s been creeping toward me like a first baseman when the bunt sign is on.”

3. “The wind blows through the high top of the grandstand, whining until the pigeons in the rafters flutter. It’s lonely as a ghost town.”

4. “I could show you what I dream, paint you pictures, suggest what might happen.”

5. “Tomorrow night would be fine. But there will be an admission charge.”

6. “I trust your judgment.”

7. “Gentle reminders not to tamper with Nature.”

There are several phrases in the first part of the story that create the atmosphere of the story. Read them and explain what the author is trying to say to the reader. Find more “atmosphere-making” phrases in the rest of the story.

1. Summer without baseball: a disruption to the psyche.

2. The whole place is silent as an empty classroom, like a house suddenly without children.

3. The whole place is silent as an empty classroom, like a house suddenly without children.

Let us focus on style. Read the definition of a stylistic device and find its examples in the story.

Simile is the stylistic device where the comparison between the two things is made explicit by the use of the words: as, like. Similes are often much more than mere comparisons. They may be poetic, personal, unexpected and imaginative.

12. Imagine the main character in a few years` time telling his granddaughter (who is now a teenager, who doesn`t take anything at face value) what he did for the love of the game.

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