SOMETHING ELSE THAT’S CARVED INTO OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY? BASEBALL. IT’S EVEN CALLED “AMERICA’S PASTIME.” AND UP HERE IN THE FOREST CITY …BASEBALL FANS ARE REJOICING BECAUSE OUR OWN CLEVELAND INDIANS HAVE MADE IT TO THE WORLD SERIES. UP NEXT, GABE KRAMER TAKES A SWING AT TELLING US ABOUT BASEBALL’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME.
Last summer, the Cleveland Cavaliers became NBA Champions – ending Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought. And now, just four months later, the Cleveland Indians are in the running for their own championship title. Last week, the Tribe topped the Toronto Blue Jays four games to one – sending them to the World Series.
The last time the Indians won the World Series was 1948 – that’s 68 years! Now, they’re facing the Chicago Cubs – the only team who has had to wait even longer for the championship title: The Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1908!
The very first Major League Baseball World Series was played in 1903, but the Cleveland Indians were playing even before then -- they started up in 1901. At the time, it really was a competition between what were arguably the best baseball teams around the globe… it just so happened that they were all based right here in the United States! The World Series is played by the two best teams in Major League Baseball today.
Getting to the World Series this year took a tremendous effort from one young pitcher: Ryan Merritt. The 24-year-old, rookie started only his second game of the year in the final game of the previous series to defeat the Blue Jays.
[Merritt clip]
For the first game of the World Series, the Indians returned to Progressive Field – and gave the hometown crowd a quite show: trouncing the Cubs 6 to zip! Indians catcher Roberto Perez was the offensive hero of the game. He hit two homeruns one in the fourth inning and another in the eighth. All of this on the same night the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New York Knicks across the street at Quicken Loans Arena in the first game of the new National Basketball Association season.
Instructional Links
Website: Cleveland Indians http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=cle
Website: Chicago Cubs http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=chc
Website: Major League Baseball http://mlb.mlb.com/home
Website: Major League Baseball | World Series Site https://www.worldseries.com/
Website: Baseball Almanac | World Series http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wsmenu.shtml