4. The F-U-Ndamentals

4 The F-U-Ndamentalsb Mr. Ott said to meet him in our playground after school. When the dismissal bell rang, he was out there waiting for us. He had a bunch of bats, balls, gloves, and batting helmets. We sat around him on the grass. "How many of you youngsters have

奥特先生说放学后在我们的操场上见他。 下课铃响时，他正在外面等我们。 他有一堆球棒、球、手套和棒球头盔。 我们围着他坐在草地上。 “你们年轻人中有多少人

played ball before?" Mr. Ott asked. I've played Pee Wee football, but hardly any softball. Only Andrea raised her hand. She smiled the smile she smiles to let everybody know she did something nobody else did. "That's okay," said Mr. Ott. "I'll whip you kids into shape." "Is that legal?" I asked. "It's just an expression, Arlo!" said Andrea. "Baseball is all about the number three," Mr. Ott explained. "You got three strikes and three outs. You got nine players and nine innings. Three times three is nine." Man, this was sounding like a math lesson. "There's ninety feet between the bases," continued Mr. Ott. "That's

以前玩过球吗？”奥特先生问。 我玩过皮威足球，但几乎没玩过垒球。 只有安德烈举起了手。 她的微笑是为了让每个人都知道她做了别人没做过的事。 “没关系，”奥特先生说。 “我要鞭打你们这些孩子。” “这合法吗？”我问。“这只是一种表达，阿乐！” “棒球就是关于数字3的，”奥特解释说。 “你三振三出局。 你有九名球员和九局比赛。 三乘三等于九。” 伙计，这听起来像一堂数学课。 “两垒之间有九十英尺，”奥特先生继续说。 “这是

thirty times three. Blah blah blah blah blah blah..." He went on like that for a million hundred minutes. I thought I was gonna die from old age. We had less than a week to get ready for our game. When were we gonna learn how to hit, throw, and catch? "Can we play ball already?" asked Michael. "First, you need to learn the fundamentals," replied Mr. Ott. "Fundamentals starts with F-U-N. Let's start by throwing and catching." Finally! He picked up a laundry bag from the grass. And you'll never believe what he pulled out of the bag. It was a turtle! "Ooooh, I love turtles!" said

30乘以3。废话连篇……” 他就这样说了一百多分钟。 我以为我要老死了。 我们只有不到一周的时间准备比赛。 我们什么时候才能学会击球，投球和接球？ “我们可以开始打球了吗？”迈克尔问。 “首先，你需要学习基础知识，”奥特先生回答说。 “基本面从F-U-N开始。 让我们从投掷和接球开始。” 终于!他从草地上捡起一个洗衣袋。 你绝对不会相信他从包里拿出了什么。 那是一只乌龟！“哦，我喜欢乌龟！

Andrea. "Good," said Mr. Ott. "Think fast!" He threw the turtle up in the air. Andrea freaked out for a moment, and then she caught the turtle just before it hit the ground.* "Good job!" said Mr. Ott. "You caught the turtle with both hands." "Uh, shouldn't we play catch with a ball?" asked Michael. "No!" barked Mr. Ott. "If you drop a ball, it doesn't matter. But nobody wants to drop a turtle." I guess that made sense, in a weird way. Turtles are cool. One time, we did turtle yoga at school. We had turtles climbing on our backs. (You can read about it in a book called Ms. Jo-Jo Is a Yo-Yo!) Mr. Ott told us to pair up so we

安德里亚。“很好，”奥特先生说。 “想想快!”他把乌龟抛向空中。 安德里亚吓了一跳，然后她在乌龟落地前抓住了它。“干得好！”奥特先生说。 “你两只手都抓住了乌龟。” “嗯，我们不应该玩接球游戏吗？”迈克尔问。 “不！”奥特先生吼道。“如果你丢了一个球，没关系。 但是没有人想让一只乌龟掉下来。” 我想这是有道理的，以一种奇怪的方式。 乌龟很酷。有一次，我们在学校做乌龟瑜伽。 乌龟爬在我们背上。 (你可以在一本叫Ms。 乔乔是一只溜溜球！)奥特先生让我们两人一组，这样我们

could toss turtles back and forth. My turtle tossing partner was Neil. "Don't let your turtle hit the ground!" Mr. Ott shouted as he watched us toss the turtles. "If you can catch a turtle, you can catch a ball." Andrea was the best turtle tosser, of

可以把乌龟扔来扔去。 我的扔海龟搭档是尼尔。 “别让你的乌龟摔到地上！”奥特先生看着我们扔海龟，喊道。 “如果你能抓到乌龟，你就能抓到球。” 安德里亚是最会扔乌龟的

course. But we were all pretty good, because nobody wanted their turtle to hit the ground and get hurt. Mr. Ott said it was time for us to work on hitting. "Everybody grab a bat," he said. We all picked up bats. "Okay, put the knob end of the bat on your toe," said Mr. Ott, "and see if you can balance the bat on your foot." What? I tried to balance the bat on my foot. It was hard! The bat kept falling off. "What does this have to do with hitting a ball?" asked Alexia. "You need to have good balance to be a good hitter," said Mr. Ott. We balanced bats on our feet for a million hundred minutes. After a while, I got the hang of it. Andrea was the best

课程。但我们都很好，因为没有人希望他们的乌龟撞到地上受伤。 奥特先生说我们该练练打法了。 “每个人都拿个球棒，”他说。 我们都捡起了蝙蝠。“好吧，把球棒的一端放在你的脚趾上，”奥特先生说，“看看你能不能把球棒放在脚上保持平衡。” 怎么啦？我试着用脚保持球棒的平衡。 太难了！蝙蝠不停地掉下来。 “这和击球有什么关系？”亚历克西娅问。 “要成为一名优秀的击球手，你需要有良好的平衡，”奥特说。 我们把球棒放在脚上平衡了上百万分钟。 过了一段时间，我掌握了窍门。 安德里亚是最好的