Authors: Kurtis Scaletta
The 823rd Hit
Teddy “the Bear” Larrabee just hit a homerâand on his birthday too! He really wants the lucky ball back, so Chad, the Pine City Porcupines' batboy, heads into the stands to find it. Bad news: the old guy who caught the ball won't give it up. Good news: he's the uncle of a new kid in town who goes to Chad's school. Now all Chad has to do is figure out what he can trade for the ball so he can keep “the Bear” happyâand slugging. To the baseball card collection!
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For Byron, our little champ
âK.S.
To Ethan and Abbie
âE.W.
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE
: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scaletta, Kurtis.
The 823rd hit / by Kurtis Scaletta ; illustrated by Eric Wight.
p. cm. â (A Topps league story ; bk. 4)
Summary: To keep Teddy “the Bear” Larrabee happy and
slugging, Chad the batboy has to figure out what a crabby
fan would be willing to trade for Teddy's lucky home run ball.
ISBN 978-1-4197-0446-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4197-0445-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
[1. BaseballâFiction. 2. BatboysâFiction. 3. Baseball cardsâ
Fiction.] I. Wight, Eric, 1974â ill. II. Title. III. Title: Eight
hundred and twenty-third hit.
PZ7.S27912Aap 2012
[Fic]âdc23
2012008321
Copyright © 2012 The Topps Company, Inc.
All rights reserved. Topps and Topps League Story are
trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc.
Book design by Chad W. Beckerman
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or two weeks in August I did the worst thing ever. I did something I never thought I'd do: I rooted against my team, the Pine City Porcupines.
This is what happened.
When I got my job as a Pines' batboy, Mom and Dad said I couldn't work during the school year. They said I'd be out too late on school nights. They thought I would need the time to do homework.
So I knew my days as a batboy were numbered when Mom started talking about clothes and school supplies and my new teacher.
“Why can't I work on weekends?” I asked at dinner.
“We already agreed you wouldn't work during the school year,” said Dad.
That was true. But I only agreed so they would let me take the batboy job.
“It's just a few games,” I said. I took the Porcupines' schedule out of my pocket and spread it on the table. I stabbed the month of September with my finger. “The regular season ends in two weeks. The Porcupines are on the road for one of those weeks. Then they're in town for only one more weekend. After that, it's just the playoffs.”
“How many games are we talking about?” Mom asked.
Now I knew I had a chance.
“Two,” I said. “Three if you count Labor
Day, and four if you count Friday. Plus the playoffs.”
“Hmm. That sounds like a lot of games to me,” said Dad. “You could fall behind on your schoolwork and never catch up.”
“Melissa Carvel was out of school for three weeks last year when she had the mumps,” I said. “She caught up.”
“That girl didn't have a choice,” he said. “We do.”
Dad won that round.
I went on to the next.
“If you don't want me to work on school nights, why do you make me walk the dog and unload the dishwasher?” I asked.
“Those things don't take you out of the house for hours,” said Dad.
He was right. I knew it was a weak argument.
I decided it was time to play my best card.
“Dylan's parents are letting
him
work on the weekends.”
Dad sighed. “You can work on the weekends until the Porcupines are done,” he finally agreed. “But only under two conditions.”
I felt a mixture of hope and dread. “What two conditions?”
“First, once school starts, you have to do all of your homework before you go to the ballpark.”