Amir is studious and inquisitive. His dream is to one day be a newspaper reporter. He works hard writing articles and conducting interviews for TLX News.
Emilio is an adventurer. He loves to travel with his parents and his older brother, Ernesto. He is also interested in history and has visited many historic sites.
Jill is running for class president at her school. She is a leader in her class and encourages good citizenship. Each month she volunteers at her town’s local food pantry.
Shelby loves going to her local recreation center to skateboard and take art classes. She is very involved in her community and helps with recycling and conservation.
Camille has French heritage. She uses her laptop to email her friends and organizing her MP3 collection. Her dad is a music teacher and someday she might like to be one, too.
Ernesto loves sports, and his favorite sport is soccer. He is also very interested in photography and one day hopes to be a professional photographer.
Ruby cares about environmental issues. She likes to visit state and national parks. Someday, she hopes to be an architect and design skyscrapers that are Earth friendly.
Aiden lives on a big cattle farm in Texas. He likes to grow vegetables in his own garden and uses them to help his family make fajitas. Cooking is his favorite hobby.
Adam lives with his grandparents near the beach. They are Chinese Americans. He likes to help his grandfather paint pictures of the ocean.
Lilly wants to be a pilot. One day she would even like to fly in the space shuttle! For now, she'll just use her telescope to visit outer space.
Reema and her family are from India. She likes animals and hopes someday to be a vet. She is practicing by taking care of her pet turtle, George.
Sam likes to read. He loves going to the library and reading books about dinosaurs. Sam is hearing impaired. His family is learning American Sign Language.

Amir is studious and inquisitive. His dream is to one day be a newspaper reporter. He works hard writing articles and conducting interviews for TLX News.

Home / Geography

How do sports affect our lives?

Breaking News! A New World Series Champion!

Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team! They won the World Series on October 28, 2011! This means that the Cardinals were the best baseball team this year. How did the Cardinals get to the World Series this season? To find out, we need to look at how geography affects the organization of baseball teams.

Star St. Louis player, Albert Pujols

Did you know that professional baseball is played all over our country (and in one city in Canada)? In all, major league baseball has 30 teams. These teams are divided into two leagues: the American League and the National League. A league is a group of sports teams that play against each other.

Hereâ€™s where geography comes in. Each league is divided into three divisions: the East, the Central, and the West. These divisions match the part of the country where the teamâ€™s hometown is located. For example, the hometown of the Minnesota Twins is Minneapolis, Minnesota. This team belongs to the central division of the American League because Minneapolis is located in the central part of our country. In addition to baseball, geography also affects the organization of teams in other sports. Basketball, hockey, and soccer also put teams into groups based on location.

St. Louis, Missouri

At the end of the baseball season, eight teams make the playoffs. The playoffs are a series of games between teams to find a final winner. In baseball, the best team from each of the six divisions makes the playoffs. This way, each part of the country has a team in the playoffs. If youâ€™re thinking, â€œWait a minute, that only makes six teams, not eight,â€ youâ€™re right! Each year, one more team from the American League and one more team from the National League gets to compete in the playoffs, making the total of eight teams. These two teams are called the Wild Cards. The Wild Cards are the teams in each league with the most wins behind the division winners.

Look at the map below. It shows the locations of the hometowns of the eight teams that made the 2011 baseball playoffs. Drag each teamâ€™s name to its home city on the map. Use an atlas if you need help finding where the cities are located.

Once youâ€™ve matched the teams to their home cities, think about which division of baseball each team belongs to. In what division does this yearâ€™s World Series champion play?

TLX News Journal: Geography Activity

Which professional sports team is your favorite? Write its name in your TLX Journal, and then list the teamâ€™s hometown city and state. Also, write which part of the country this city is located in. Then find out what your teamâ€™s logo looks like, and draw it in your journal.

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