Episode 11
Forty Stories - "Play Ball"
I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper
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Season 3 Episode 11Thank you for downloading this episode.
👉The story begins at 01:40 and the tiny lessons begin at 14:00
👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!
👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/
A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.
All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.
Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Today it’s another sports story. It’s interesting, because I can write these stories about anything I want. And I’m not really a sports guy. But I did play a lot of sports when I was a child, and it seems like a lot of these stories are about being young. But I can tell you this: i love baseball. It’s my favorite sport to watch and to play. Some people think it’s boring, but I just love it. I love the rhythm of it. It relaxes me.
This story, though. Not very relaxing. Why? You’ll have to listen to find out.
The name of this story is Play Ball
“Oh come on,” said Coach Bob. “Ump, you’ve gotta be kidding me. That kid’s like six feet tall!”
Finn and the other players gathered in their dugout and whispered to each other as their coach walked angrily to meet the umpire near home plate. The two grown-ups spoke quietly, but urgently. Coach Bob was waving his hands around as he talked, becoming more and more upset, as the umpire tried to calm him down. Finally they calledthe other coach, who walked slowly over, his hands on his hips.
“Can you hear what they’re saying?” one of the boys asked Finn.
“No, but I’ll bet he’s swearing a lot.”
The adults kept arguing for a few minutes. Bob was now pointing at the gigantic player on the other team and shouting at the other coach. Finn could see the sweat stains forming under his armpits as he waved his cap around. Finally, Bob turned and stomped back to his team. His face was purple. He was holding his cap so tightly in one hand that he’d bent the brim.
“Well, boys. I don’t know what to tell you. That kid’s twelve. His parents had to show his birth certificate at the beginning of the season. His name is Lonnegan, and he’s probably gonna end up playing in the Major Leagues.
“But coach,” someone said, “He’s got a mustache!”
“I know he’s got a moustache, Pendleton. I know he’s a monster. But he’s in sixth grade, same as you, and you’re gonna have to play against that monster. Now, do you have anything else you wanna complain about?”
The kids all looked at each other, and then at their feet.
“Oh yeah, and he’s the pitcher. So, good luck. Now bring it in here, and let’s work on a strategy to win this game.”
From the diamond, the boys heard the umpire shout
“Play Ball!"
---
By the fourth inning, the score was already eight to one. Finn leaned heavily on the back wall of the dugout and watched Lonnegan strike out his teammates.
Pendleton was walking back from home plate. Maybe he was crying. It was Finn's turn at bat. Two outs. Nobody on base. All alone against the monster. He stood in the batter's box. He tapped his bat against his shoes, like the pros do on TV. He got into his stance.
Lonnegan shifted his weight back, then forward. Finn didn't even see the ball come in, but he heard it hit the catcher's mitt with a loud leather slap.
"Ball one!" screamed the umpire.
Finn realized that his eyes were closed. He opened them just in time to see Lonnegan throw the next pitch.
Another ball, low this time. Two-and-oh.
Another. Three balls, no strikes. He heard Coach Bob shout, "He's getting tired, Finn! Knock it outta the park!"
More than anything else in the world, Finn wanted to be somewhere else. Everyone was watching him, staring at him. Cheering. Or shouting? He couldn't tell. The sun was in his eyes. His helmet was too loose.
A strike this time. Three-and-one. Coach Bob screaming, "Swing, kid! Swing! It's your time, Finn!"
Another strike. Full count.
All he had to do was wait. Don't swing. Don't step out of the batter's box. Just hold this pose, with the bat up and back. Look ready, and let this enormous kid throw the ball. Whatever happened, it would all be over soon.
-----
Everything was red and yellow and orange. Where was he? Why couldn't he see anything? And what in the world was all that noise?
Finn tried to roll over--- He was lying on the ground!
Why was he lying on the ground? It was so dusty. There was dust in his nose and mouth. Why was he eating dust? He should stand up.
But why was he on the ground?
He rolled onto his side, and the colors exploded. Fireworks and sparklers. Were his eyes closed? Yes, they were.
OK. So. He was on the ground. In the dust. And his eyes were closed. And every time he moved, the colors exploded behind his eyelids.
So, he needed to open his eyes.
There was a pile of people. Small people. Kids. That didn't make any sense. Why would a bunch of kids get into a big pile? And why were they all dressed in the same colors? He looked down, and saw that he was wearing the same colors as some of the kids in the pile. Those were his teammates!
He was playing baseball! They were all playing baseball! But you're not supposed to get in a pile when you play baseball.
Adults were running over to the pile and pulling kids out of it. As soon as the boys were out of the pile, though, they started punching each other. The adults tried to step between them, but there were too many kids and not enough parents.
"Oh my god," thought Finn. "Those kids are really bad at fighting." But, of course, you're not supposed to fight either when you play baseball.
Unless.
Unless it's a bench-clearning brawl. Like on TV.
But that only happens when someone gets hit by a pitch.
Who got hit? It must have been really bad, if everyone on both teams was fighting like this.
A shadow fell over Finn as Coach Bob squatted down next to him. "Kid? Kid, can you hear me?"
"'Course I can hear you," said Finn. "But I've got dust in my mouth." He tried to get up, but Coach Bob held him down.
"Don't move, kid. There's an ambulance coming."
Finn was very confused by that. "It's just some dust, coach. I don't need an ambulance."
-----
The ambulance was going incredibly fast. Finn was strapped to the stretcher, and he couldn’t move his head, but out of the corner of his eye he could see Lonnegan sitting next to him. The monster’s face was all puffy and bruised. He was saying something, but Finn couldn’t hear anything over the sound of the sirens.
He stared at Lonnegan. The monster was crying. He was crying and wiping away his nose with his uniform sleeve.
Finn reached out and patted around until he found the other boy’s hand. It was sticky with tears and probably some blood. He held it tightly until they arrived at the hospital.
Wow, so how was that? A little scary? Do you think that Finn’s gonna be OK? How about Lonnegan? I can tell you that when I started writing that story, I wasn’t expecting it to get so..uh…violent. But the thing is, I don’t actually have a lot of control over these stories. It’s hard to explain, but I just let them write themselves, if that makes any sense. So I was writing the story, and i just knew, oh yeah, Finn’s gonna get hit in the head by a pitch. It HAS to happen that way. And if I think “No, I don’t want Finn to get hurt,” and I change the story, it won’t work any more. It won’t sound right. Does that make sense?
Anyway, kind of a scary one. But I think Finn's gonna be fine. And I hope we will see these guys again soon.
How about some tiny lessons?
First there’s a Big Fight in the Big Picture?
Why do you think that Lonnegan was crying at the end? These days, the Big Picture questions are really more about your opinion, not about finding the specific answer. But I think I put some clues in there. Go back and check. He’s crying because he’s a twelve-year-old boy who nearly killed another little boy by accident, and now he’s scared. He’s not a monster. He’s just a kid.
And the Dictionary Disco? Is it rockin tonight?
The first vocabulary word is….sparkler. I bet you’ve seen a sparkler. They’re those little kind of fireworks that are like a stick you hold in your hand. They don’t shoot off or anything. They just make sparks for a few seconds. So….sparkler!
And the other word is “pile” as in a pile of kids, fighting. A pile is just a bunch of stuff all kind of stacked on top of other stuff. Like in the fall, when you rake up all the fallen leaves, you make a pile. Or if you’re a messy person, you might have piles of laundry all over your house. So it was like a messy hill of kids, all fighting.
Maybe a Melody Moment will relax everyone.
So, the third act of this story has some really interesting intonation stuff. Because there are a lot of different emotions happening. Finn is confused, at first. He just got hit in the head. So there are a lot of questions? Where the intonation goes up. Then he starts to make decisions. Like he needs to open his eyes. And the intonation goes down. Then he has some surprises. And the intonation kind of spikes in the middle. What other emotions can you identify in that section, and what does the intonation sound like?
Let’s do the credits.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode11 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Chiba, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
Transcript
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Today it’s another sports story. It’s interesting, because I can write these stories about anything I want. And I’m not really a sports guy. But I did play a lot of sports when I was a child, and it seems like a lot of these stories are about being young. But I can tell you this: i love baseball. It’s my favorite sport to watch and to play. Some people think it’s boring, but I just love it. I love the rhythm of it. It relaxes me.
This story, though. Not very relaxing. Why? You’ll have to listen to find out.
The name of this story is Play Ball
“Oh come on,” said Coach Bob. “Ump, you’ve gotta be kidding me. That kid’s like six feet tall!”
Finn and the other players gathered in their dugout and whispered to each other as their coach walked angrily to meet the umpire near home plate. The two grown-ups spoke quietly, but urgently. Coach Bob was waving his hands around as he talked, becoming more and more upset, as the umpire tried to calm him down. Finally they calledthe other coach, who walked slowly over, his hands on his hips.
“Can you hear what they’re saying?” one of the boys asked Finn.
“No, but I’ll bet he’s swearing a lot.”
The adults kept arguing for a few minutes. Bob was now pointing at the gigantic player on the other team and shouting at the other coach. Finn could see the sweat stains forming under his armpits as he waved his cap around. Finally, Bob turned and stomped back to his team. His face was purple. He was holding his cap so tightly in one hand that he’d bent the brim.
“Well, boys. I don’t know what to tell you. That kid’s twelve. His parents had to show his birth certificate at the beginning of the season. His name is Lonnegan, and he’s probably gonna end up playing in the Major Leagues.
“But coach,” someone said, “He’s got a mustache!”
“I know he’s got a moustache, Pendleton. I know he’s a monster. But he’s in sixth grade, same as you, and you’re gonna have to play against that monster. Now, do you have anything else you wanna complain about?”
The kids all looked at each other, and then at their feet.
“Oh yeah, and he’s the pitcher. So, good luck. Now bring it in here, and let’s work on a strategy to win this game.”
From the diamond, the boys heard the umpire shout
“Play Ball!"
---
By the fourth inning, the score was already eight to one. Finn leaned heavily on the back wall of the dugout and watched Lonnegan strike out his teammates.
Pendleton was walking back from home plate. Maybe he was crying. It was Finn's turn at bat. Two outs. Nobody on base. All alone against the monster. He stood in the batter's box. He tapped his bat against his shoes, like the pros do on TV. He got into his stance.
Lonnegan shifted his weight back, then forward. Finn didn't even see the ball come in, but he heard it hit the catcher's mitt with a loud leather slap.
"Ball one!" screamed the umpire.
Finn realized that his eyes were closed. He opened them just in time to see Lonnegan throw the next pitch.
Another ball, low this time. Two-and-oh.
Another. Three balls, no strikes. He heard Coach Bob shout, "He's getting tired, Finn! Knock it outta the park!"
More than anything else in the world, Finn wanted to be somewhere else. Everyone was watching him, staring at him. Cheering. Or shouting? He couldn't tell. The sun was in his eyes. His helmet was too loose.
A strike this time. Three-and-one. Coach Bob screaming, "Swing, kid! Swing! It's your time, Finn!"
Another strike. Full count.
All he had to do was wait. Don't swing. Don't step out of the batter's box. Just hold this pose, with the bat up and back. Look ready, and let this enormous kid throw the ball. Whatever happened, it would all be over soon.
-----
Everything was red and yellow and orange. Where was he? Why couldn't he see anything? And what in the world was all that noise?
Finn tried to roll over--- He was lying on the ground!
Why was he lying on the ground? It was so dusty. There was dust in his nose and mouth. Why was he eating dust? He should stand up.
But why was he on the ground?
He rolled onto his side, and the colors exploded. Fireworks and sparklers. Were his eyes closed? Yes, they were.
OK. So. He was on the ground. In the dust. And his eyes were closed. And every time he moved, the colors exploded behind his eyelids.
So, he needed to open his eyes.
There was a pile of people. Small people. Kids. That didn't make any sense. Why would a bunch of kids get into a big pile? And why were they all dressed in the same colors? He looked down, and saw that he was wearing the same colors as some of the kids in the pile. Those were his teammates!
He was playing baseball! They were all playing baseball! But you're not supposed to get in a pile when you play baseball.
Adults were running over to the pile and pulling kids out of it. As soon as the boys were out of the pile, though, they started punching each other. The adults tried to step between them, but there were too many kids and not enough parents.
"Oh my god," thought Finn. "Those kids are really bad at fighting." But, of course, you're not supposed to fight either when you play baseball.
Unless.
Unless it's a bench-clearning brawl. Like on TV.
But that only happens when someone gets hit by a pitch.
Who got hit? It must have been really bad, if everyone on both teams was fighting like this.
A shadow fell over Finn as Coach Bob squatted down next to him. "Kid? Kid, can you hear me?"
"'Course I can hear you," said Finn. "But I've got dust in my mouth." He tried to get up, but Coach Bob held him down.
"Don't move, kid. There's an ambulance coming."
Finn was very confused by that. "It's just some dust, coach. I don't need an ambulance."
-----
The ambulance was going incredibly fast. Finn was strapped to the stretcher, and he couldn’t move his head, but out of the corner of his eye he could see Lonnegan sitting next to him. The monster’s face was all puffy and bruised. He was saying something, but Finn couldn’t hear anything over the sound of the sirens.
He stared at Lonnegan. The monster was crying. He was crying and wiping away his nose with his uniform sleeve.
Finn reached out and patted around until he found the other boy’s hand. It was sticky with tears and probably some blood. He held it tightly until they arrived at the hospital.
Wow, so how was that? A little scary? Do you think that Finn’s gonna be OK? How about Lonnegan? I can tell you that when I started writing that story, I wasn’t expecting it to get so..uh…violent. But the thing is, I don’t actually have a lot of control over these stories. It’s hard to explain, but I just let them write themselves, if that makes any sense. So I was writing the story, and i just knew, oh yeah, Finn’s gonna get hit in the head by a pitch. It HAS to happen that way. And if I think “No, I don’t want Finn to get hurt,” and I change the story, it won’t work any more. It won’t sound right. Does that make sense?
Anyway, kind of a scary one. But I think Finn's gonna be fine. And I hope we will see these guys again soon.
How about some tiny lessons?
First there’s a Big Fight in the Big Picture?
Why do you think that Lonnegan was crying at the end? These days, the Big Picture questions are really more about your opinion, not about finding the specific answer. But I think I put some clues in there. Go back and check. He’s crying because he’s a twelve-year-old boy who nearly killed another little boy by accident, and now he’s scared. He’s not a monster. He’s just a kid.
And the Dictionary Disco? Is it rockin tonight?
The first vocabulary word is….sparkler. I bet you’ve seen a sparkler. They’re those little kind of fireworks that are like a stick you hold in your hand. They don’t shoot off or anything. They just make sparks for a few seconds. So….sparkler!
And the other word is “pile” as in a pile of kids, fighting. A pile is just a bunch of stuff all kind of stacked on top of other stuff. Like in the fall, when you rake up all the fallen leaves, you make a pile. Or if you’re a messy person, you might have piles of laundry all over your house. So it was like a messy hill of kids, all fighting.
Maybe a Melody Moment will relax everyone.
So, the third act of this story has some really interesting intonation stuff. Because there are a lot of different emotions happening. Finn is confused, at first. He just got hit in the head. So there are a lot of questions? Where the intonation goes up. Then he starts to make decisions. Like he needs to open his eyes. And the intonation goes down. Then he has some surprises. And the intonation kind of spikes in the middle. What other emotions can you identify in that section, and what does the intonation sound like?
Let’s do the credits.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode11 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Chiba, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
