Baseball Turnaround by Matt Christopher

Author:Matt Christopher [CHRISTOPHER, MATTHEW F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316093750
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2009-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

10

What Sandy had learned from Ben put him in a foul mood for the rest of the day. His disposition hadn’t improved by the next day’s practice. He played third base with one eye on Tony in center field. Any mistake Tony made only added fuel to his fire.

This guy’s not that good, he thought after Tony scrambled to retrieve a dropped ball, then rifled it to the wrong base. If the coach had given me a chance, I’d have shown everyone I deserved the center field spot. I’d play a real team game.

“Heads up, Sandy!” called the pitcher, Mitch Lessem, from the mound. Sandy snapped back to attention but missed the hot grounder hit between short and third. He sprinted to pick it up and tossed the ball back to Mitch. The runner made it to second.

As he returned to third, a movement off the field caught his eye. He glanced over to see what it was — and sucked in his breath.

Hunkered down against the fence was a familiar figure. A figure with red hair. Perry Warden.

“Nice play, Comstock,” Perry said mockingly. “Why don’t you go back to coaching?”

The heat rose in Sandy’s face. But he refused to show that he had heard.

Coach Winston called an end to the day a moment later and walked onto the field to pick up the bases. When he came to third, he spotted the boy near the fence. He broke into a wide grin.

“Hey, Perry! Didn’t expect to see you here. Come by to see your old team play?” he called.

Perry stood up and leaned over the fence. “I heard from some of the guys you had some new faces here,” he said. He stared over Coach Winston’s shoulder at Sandy. “Hope they’re not giving you any problems.”

The coach shook his head. “So far, no one’s given me cause for concern.”

“That’s good. ’Cause all it takes is one person to ruin things, doesn’t it?” Perry agreed. “Just one person.”

While the coach and Perry continued to chat, a few of the other Raptors joined them. Tony Cataldo was among them. Sandy grabbed his glove and hurried off the field. His mind whirled the whole way home.

This is just great, he thought bitterly. Am I ever going to get a break from that one guy? Everywhere I go, he turns up!

Then a dark thought struck him. What if he’s telling the coach and those players about what happened? Memories of how his old Raiders teammates had treated him flooded his brain. So did Mr. Richards’s advice to tell the story himself before someone else told for him. But what can I do? They’re his friends — who’re they going to believe, him or me? I’m not even sure I want to tell them! If he doesn’t, why should I? The less they know, the better, as far as I’m concerned!

Over and over the same questions and problems flew around his mind. But he couldn’t seem to come up with a solution to any of them any more than he could figure out a way to move from third base to center field.

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