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I'm
Reading All About It
Vacation time!
This year, my family and I are heading to Massachusetts and Maine.
We're going to sit by the ocean (and a lake), eat fish and hang
out with my four brothers and two sisters.
I'll probably
do some reading while I am at the lake. I love reading about sports.
I've learned lots of crazy stuff about sports from all that reading.
For example . . .
- Jack Norworth,
the guy who wrote the words to the song "Take Me Out to the
Ballgame," had never been to a baseball game when he wrote
the song.
- Before it
became the New York Yankees, the team was known as the New York
Highlanders.
- Some other
weird nicknames for old pro baseball teams: the Brooklyn Bridegrooms,
Chicago Orphans and Boston Beaneaters.
- In 1871,
a franchise in the first professional baseball league cost $10.
That's a lot less than the $450 million the Lerner family paid
this year for the Nationals.
Okay, that's
enough baseball. Here are some interesting facts about other sports.
. . .
- Soccer's
first World Cup, in 1930, had only 13 teams. And the United States
made it to the semifinals.
- The soccer
championship wasn't played from 1938 to 1950 because so many countries
were fighting in World War II (1939 to 1945) and then rebuilding
after the war. To keep the German Nazis from stealing the gold
trophy, an Italian sports official kept the cup hidden under his
bed for most of the war.
- Mia Hamm,
who scored more international goals than any other soccer player,
played goalie in a 1995 World Cup game after the regular U.S.
goalie was ejected. Hamm did not let in a goal.
- Mack Robinson,
the older brother of sports legend Jackie Robinson, won the silver
medal in the 200-meter dash in the 1936 Olympics. Mack Robinson
came in second to another sports legend, four-time gold medalist
Jesse Owens.
- The first
lacrosse games played by the American Indians had hundreds of
players on a side.
And speaking
of lacrosse . . .
- Lacrosse
sticks used to be made of wood. So were tennis racquets and the
shafts of golf clubs.
Hey, speaking
of golf . . .
- The American
golf tee -- that little wooden peg that golfers stick in the ground
to hold the ball -- was developed by an African American dentist
and Harvard graduate, George F. Grant, in 1899. Some British inventors
had done earlier versions, but Grant got the first U.S. patent
for his tee.
See, there's
lots of cool stuff you can learn about the sports you like if you
keep reading. Even on vacation.
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