1. Boxing

2.

3. asparagus and... hmm

4. baseball?

5. strawberry

6. they actually grow the pear inside the bottle ( when its still little they put the bottle and wire it over on the tree and let it grow - stuff is pretty potent )

7. dwarf and dwell

8. 1) period, 2) comma, 3) semi-colon, 4) hyphen, 5) question mark?, 6) exclamation point!, 7) "quotation marks"

9. Minnesota - since LA Lakers used to be the Minniapolis ones

10. Batter gets hit by a pitch, a passed ball, the catcher interferes, catcher drops third strike, fielder's choice, and being designated as a pinch runner.

11. lettuce

12. shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, and I can't think of another 2 at the moment