When Chris Sale isn't pitching for the White Sox, perhaps he can tutor your high school student in SAT vocabulary.
Sale, a three-time MLB All-Star, has a special word challenge for himself during his interview with reporters after each start this season. He must include a word designated by Bryan Johnson, the team's video coordinator, in proper context.
Scott Merkin of MLB.com has documented each word since Sale began this caper in April:
- Juxtapose (April 11)
- Consternation (April 17)
- Ameliorate (May 22)
- Acquiesce (May 27)
- Capitulate (June 1)
- Nascence (June 7)
- Ruminate (June 12)
- Repudiate (June 18)
- Antithetic (June 23)
- Dichotomy (June 28)
- Cacophony (July 4)
- Adjudicate (July 9)
- Ubiquitous (July 21)
- Voracious (July 26)
- Prescience (Aug. 1)
- Amalgamation (Aug. 6)
"When you commit to something as serious as this, you have to ride it out through the good and the bad," Sale told Merkin. "We had said that we were going to do it every start this year. In a sense, me and Bryan are on a team now, and I can't let my team down. I have two teams to play for a night."
Here's video footage from MLB.com of Sale's using ameliorate, capitulate and ubiquitous:
Merkin writes, "There's really no deep meaning behind this word-of-the-start tale, aside from illustrating how comfortable Sale has become as an elite Major League starter -- not to mention how much enjoyment he seems to gain from a game that can be one part exasperating and another part exhilarating."
Sale was a criminal justice major at Florida Gulf Coast University, a school perhaps best known for its Dunk City basketball team that beat Georgetown in the 2013 NCAA tournament.
