The Lucky Baseball Bat (5 page)
Marvin fidgeted on the bench. He wished Jim would let him take Artie’s place. He felt sure he could hit now.
Then all at once Jim called to him. “Okay, Marvin. Go out to left field!”
M
ARVIN dropped his bat under the bench, picked up his glove, and ran out to left field. A fly ball came out to him. He caught it easily.
When it was time to bat he wasn’t nervous any more. The bat felt just right in his hand. He felt good. He waited for the pitcher’s throw — and the very first pitch he hit for a single!
The crowd yelled. He could hear Jim’s voice — “Thataboy, Marv! I knew you could do it!”
Finally came the sixth inning, the important moment, with the score 8 to 6 in the Bears’ favor. The bases were loaded. Marvin again was up to bat. A hit could tie the score. A good long drive could win the ball game. Many a time Marvin had thought of a moment like this, when he would come to the plate with three on. Now it had really happened.
Before he got into the box he rested his bat on the ground, reached down and rubbed some dirt into his palms to dry off the sweat. He had seen Barry do that. Then he picked up the bat and stepped into the box. The pitcher stepped onto the mound, looked at the runner on third, then lifted his arm and threw the ball toward the plate.
It was chest-high. It looked good to Marvin. He put his left foot forward and brought back his bat. He swung, and the
crack!
sounded throughout the park as bat met ball.
Like a white bullet the ball shot over the shortstop’s head. Marvin dropped the bat and scampered for first. The ball hit the grass halfway between the left fielder and the center fielder, who both ran as fast as they could after it. It bounced on beyond them!
One run scored! Two! Three! Marvin ran in from third. One of the fielders picked up the ball and heaved it in. But it was too late.
Marvin crossed the plate — a home run!
It won the game — 10 to 8.
T
HE bat was lucky, all right. Marvin kept on hitting the ball in every game. Jim placed him third in the batting order, just before Rick. At the end of their fifth game his batting average was .453 and Rick’s .422. Barry Welton came to see Marvin play whenever he wasn’t playing himself. Of course, Jeannie and his mother and daddy never missed a ball game.
Then one day Jim Cassell called Marvin aside. It was after they had won a game that put them in the lead five wins to one loss. Marvin held his bat and glove in his hands as he looked up at Jim. He felt very happy. He had made three hits today, and had walked once. A perfect day at the plate!
Jim said, “Marvin, I’ve some nice news for you. How would you like to appear on television tonight?”
Marvin’s heart jumped. “On television?”
Jim grinned. “Jerry Walker’s sports program. He called me up last night. Says he sees by the papers that you’re hitting the ball like a major leaguer, and he would like to have you on his program. He would like to ask you a few questions, I suppose.”
“Boy! If it’s okay with my mother and daddy — I sure would!”
He was bursting with pride when he told the news to them in the car. Their faces brightened with happiness. Jeanie clapped her hands.
“Wait till I tell Annie and Grace!” she cried. “They’ve got TV sets!”
“Well, you haven’t said if I could go,” Marvin murmured anxiously.
“Of course you can!” Mother exclaimed, and she pulled out a small handkerchief and wiped her eyes. Daddy smiled big too, but he did not say much. He just gave Marvin a strong hug. Whenever he appreciated something Marvin or Jeannie did, that was what he would always do. Give them a strong hug.
“May I ask Barry to come with us?” Marvin said.
“Certainly,” his daddy said then. “You tell Barry and we’ll pick him up when we go.”
He saw Barry and shouted to him. Barry came over and Marvin told him what his daddy had suggested.
“That would be swell!” smiled Barry.
That night Marvin appeared on Jerry Walker’s program. Mother, Daddy, Jeannie and Barry sat in another room, watching through a huge plate-glass window. At first sight of the cameras and lights Marvin was a little frightened and nervous. But by the time the program started, and Jerry Walker talked to him, he felt better. Jerry asked him how long had he played ball? What was his batting average? What did his mother and father think of his playing baseball?
Finally Jerry mentioned his bat. “Jim Cassell tells me you have a bat you won’t let anybody else use,” he said. “You must think a lot of that bat, Marvin,” he added, smiling.
“I sure do,” Marvin answered. “It’s my lucky bat.”
W
HEN August came, the Tigers and the Bears were tied for first place. The boys were growing more excited by the day. They kept talking about the World Series game. Jim Cassell told them not to let the excitement of it make them forget about playing good baseball. But Marvin and the rest could see that Jim was pretty excited, himself.
“We’ve three more games to play,” Jim said. “We must win two out of those three. If we win, we’re in!”
They started playing the first of the three games. For the first two innings neither team scored. Then the Bears got on by a bunted ball that caught the Tigers off guard. It must have worried the Tiger pitcher, Larry Munson, because he walked the next man. The third batter hit a single that scored one run. The next batter hit a double to make the score 2 to 0.
A fly went out to left field that Marvin caught easily. The next hitter banged a liner toward Billy Weston at third, who caught it and threw it to second. The runner on second had started to run, thinking it was going for a hit. He didn’t get back in time. The second baseman touched the base and the runner was out.
In the fourth inning the Tigers scored two runs to even it up. It stayed that way till the first half of the sixth. Larry was first batter and got a single, a nice one over first base. Kenny Stokes walked. Then Marvin came up, and everybody cheered.
He swung at the first pitch. Missed! The next one was a ball. The third was in there. He swung hard and hit it — a neat single — but something terrible happened.
The bat broke in two! One piece he had in his hand. The other was flying out across the ground toward third base!
M
ARVIN did not know what to do. Without his bat he was sure everything would be the way it was before. He would not be able to hit again, and Jim would take him out of the game.
There were only two games left to play. The Tigers had won one. They must win one more. If they lost the next two games their chance of seeing a World Series game was gone.
It was a cloudy day. Marvin stayed inside the house most of the time. He did not feel like going out. He did not feel like going anything. He wished the baseball season were all over so that there would not be any more ball games. With his bat broken he might as well quit playing. He would not go out on the ball field now. He knew he could not hit with any other bat. He just knew it.
“It isn’t the bat, son,” his daddy said to him. “It’s you. You’ve got it in your head that you can’t hit with any other bat, and you’re wrong.”
“But it’s true, Daddy!” Marvin cried. “I can’t hit with any other bat! I never could! Didn’t I try it before?”
His father put a hand on his shoulder, and looked him squarely in the eye. “Look, Marvin,” he said softly, “why do you think you can’t hit with another bat, and still you were able to hit with the one Barry gave you?”
Marvin shrugged. “I don’t know, Daddy. Maybe there was something about that bat.”
His daddy grinned. “Something lucky?”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“You believe that
bat
was lucky?”
Marvin turned away. He wished his daddy would not talk about it any more. There was no use talking about it.
“I don’t know, Daddy. I just know that every time I used that bat I’d hit the ball. I didn’t always get a safety, but I’d hit it some place. I never did it with any other bat I used. Never!”
“Just try again,” his daddy said. “Just try again, Marvin.”
Marvin wished that it would rain on Friday, the day of their next game.
In the morning it looked as if it was going to rain. But in the afternoon the clouds cleared away and the sun came out bright and hot. Jim still had Marvin bat third. Jim had no idea that a bat made a difference. He was like Daddy.
The first two men up flied out. When Marvin came to the plate he let the first pitch go. It was a strike. He let the next one go. That was a ball. He ticked the third pitch, which made the count two and one. His heart beat faster. From the bench he could hear Jim and Rick yelling:
“Hit it, Marvin! Hit it, boy!”
The fourth pitch came in. He swung — and struck out.
M
ARVIN dropped the bat and ran to the bench after his glove.
“Never mind that, Marv,” Jim said. “You’ll hit it the next time.”
Marvin didn’t say anything. When the next time came he would strike out again. Jim would find that out himself. Maybe he didn’t believe the bat made a difference, but it did with Marvin. There must have been something about that bat. Striking out his first time up with another bat proved it. How could anybody say it didn’t?
He caught a high fly ball that inning. The crowd cheered loudly, but it did not make him feel any happier.
When the Tigers came to bat again he did not have a chance to hit. The Bears’ pitcher was too good. He threw hooks that fooled the Tiger hitters. Even Rick struck out.
Marvin trotted back out to the field. That first inning had surely gone fast. The first Bears’ hitter stood at the plate and hardly took the bat off his shoulder. Larry was wild with him. Maybe it was because the batter was so small. Larry walked him.
The next batter hit a ground ball that Kenny missed at short. It rolled to the outfield. Marvin and the center fielder dashed after it. Marvin picked it up and threw it to third. Now there was a man on first and second. Marvin returned to his position in left field and wished no more balls would come out to him.