Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life

Sp
or
ts
135
thing, but that guy is much too small.” But that was all, I-I 
but-but that’s how, I-I-I-I was good. And I loved it. I loved 
it, I loved it. I dropped it in college while ba-basically, um, 
I would say I was, I had a-a scholarship I had to keep. You 
lose, uh, sports is something that, um, sports, it can be 
all, it has to be all consuming. If you want to be a pro at 
baseball, if you want to be a pro at anything, and you guys 
may know this, if you want, you have to totally devote 
yourself. It’s, a-a-a-a major league baseball player, they-
they say athletes are dumb. Th
ey-they may not necessar-
ily be dumb, but a lot, almost everything they have, if you 
want to make it to the pros, you’ve got to be 110 percent 
devoted. If you’re not, you’re not 
gonna
make it.
INTERVIEWER:
What position did you play?
MAN:
Second base.
INTERVIEWER:
Why?
MAN:
Second, um, second base because, uh, um, I didn’t 
have the arm. Later w-went to shortstop—certainly 
didn’t have the arm for the outfi eld. I was quick. I-I did 
have the arm from second base to-to fi rst base in double 
play, and-and I could cover the ground there, and-and 
usually, uh, the second baseman hits, traditionally, the, 
one of the-the-the shorter guys and-and usually a hot-
head. And-and I was.
You know, you know, uh, it’s the old 
McLuhan thing
. 
I-I-I almost do prefer the radio.
INTERVIEWER:
Why?
MAN:
Because-because you have to put more of yourself 
into it. You have to, you have to, uh, provide—you have to 
provide, you’ve been there, you have to provide the sur-
roundings, plus I-I believe the radio announcers are, well, 
television, they-they are, well, it’s a, it’s a, television, look, 
it’s a hot medium so, uh, they are more