Baseball School for Big-League Dreamers

Both Ketchum Marsh in “A Baseball School for Big-League Dreamers” and the author of “I Believe in the Also-Rans” —

• are frustrated by their limited athletic abilities

• are natives of the same geographic location

• have families that emphasize the importance of athletics

• have attended exclusive schools that focus on achievement

Read this sentence from paragraph 2 of “I Believe in the Also-Rans.”

"As an English teenager I was schooled in an elite school where I was fed the idea that I was better than others and that achievement and winning were all-important."

Which sentence from “A Baseball School for Big-League Dreamers” contrasts with the attitude expressed in the sentence from “I Believe in the Also-Rans”?

• “You kind of just don’t want to leave the field at the end of the night,” he says

• “We are not sending the message that every one of our players are going to wind up playing shortstop for the Mets.”

• Bolek, who has coached in the minors, the majors and college, says his job is not always about baseball.

• And there’s something else: Many of the coaches have given years to the game.

Which sentence correctly describes the organizational pattern used by the authors of the two selections?

• Both selections provide definitions of key terms to add meaning to the texts.

• Both selections include anecdotes as examples to support their main ideas.

• Both selections use quotations from experts to support the main ideas in the texts.

• Both selections use cause-and-effect to highlight the relationships between key ideas.

What do Ketchum Marsh in “A Baseball School for Big-League Dreamers” and Cyrus in “I Believe in the Also-Rans” have in common?

• Neither is a natural-born athlete

• Both become easily frustrated by failure.

• Neither has supportive adults in his life

• Both hope to play professional sports.

What is the purpose of paragraph 32 in “A Baseball School for Big-League Dreamers” and paragraph 3 in “I Believe in the Also-Rans”?

• To explain that early disappointment can often lead to long-term failure

• To point out the educational advantages of attending elite schools

• To emphasize that the realities of adult life often differ from early experiences

• To specify the most important qualities needed to become a successful adult