Hothead by Cal Ripken Jr

Author:Cal Ripken Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction - Young Adult
Publisher: Disney Book Group

“Dude, you smacked yourself! With your own glove!”

“Yeah, that was awesome!”

“It was almost as crazy as Dog Boy gnawing on his shirt!”

It was two days after their win over the Yankees, and the Orioles were loosening up before practice on a field behind York Middle School. Moments earlier, Coach Hammond had gathered them on the bench to announce they’d be playing a best-of-three series for the championship against the Red Sox, who had beaten the Braves, 6–2, behind a two-hitter by Billy Burrell.

The mention of the Red Sox elicited a spirited round of booing. More boos greeted Billy’s name, especially when Coach called him “probably the best pitcher in the league—no offense to Robbie, of course.”

Naturally, everyone had then glanced at Robbie, who leaped to his feet, held up two fingers on each hand and started chanting, “We’re number two! We’re number two!” to much laughter.

Now, as they played catch on the sidelines, the hot topic of discussion was Connor’s post-error antics against the Yankees, which everyone agreed belonged on America’s Funniest Home Videos.

And it might just get there, Connor thought, thanks to Melissa Morrow.

“When you dropped that throw, I thought you’d lose it again for sure,” Willie said.

“So did I,” Connor said, shaking his head at the memory. “I was so mad at myself.”

“So how’d you keep from exploding?” Jordy asked.

“I’m not exactly sure,” Connor said. “It was like a little voice in my head said ‘Stop! Think what you could lose!’”

“You hear little voices inside your head?” Marty said. He pretended to edge away from Connor. “Now you’re really starting to scare me.”

“I know it sounds wack,” Connor said. “But it worked. I felt better right away.”

“Oh, sure,” Willie said, rolling his eyes. “I can definitely see how hitting yourself with a hard piece of leather would make you feel better.”

“All right, gentlemen!” Coach shouted. “Big game Friday. Let’s do some hitting.”

For the next hour, the Orioles took batting practice, with Coach Hammond on the mound throwing fastballs and breaking balls and even a few changeups to keep them on their toes.

Coach had been a pretty good high school pitcher, and he fired the ball in there to each batter, trying to give them a taste of what Billy Burrell would be throwing. Some of the Orioles were hesitant about digging in against Coach—you could see how fidgety they were in the batter’s box. But Connor was so locked in he hit three balls over the fence and ripped line drive after line drive with his fifteen swings, causing Coach to grin and shout, “He’s tearing the cover off the ball!”

They followed batting practice with a half hour of infield and outfield practice, and then Coach called them together near the pitcher’s mound.

“Time to work on our trick play,” Coach said.

The Orioles looked quizzically at each other and then back at Coach.

Finally, Jordy said: “Uh, Coach…we don’t have a trick play.”

“We do now,” Coach said. “We’ll call it the ‘X Play.’ It might even win us the championship; you never know.

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