Six Innings: A Game in the Life - Softcover

Preller, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312602405 ISBN 13: 9780312602406

Verlag: St. Martins Press-3PL, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

Two teams, six innings, one game.

A lively cast of characters--baseball-loving boys between the ages of eleven to thirteen--are playing the biggest game of their lives. With acrobatic catches, clutch hits, dramatic whiffs, and costly errors, this game is full of action. But as the book unfolds, pitch by pitch, a deeper story emerges, with far more at stake: Sam and Mike, best friends, are trying to come to terms with Sam's newly diagnosed cancer. And this baseball diamond becomes the ultimate testing ground of Sam and Mike's remarkable friendship as they strive to find a way to both come out winners.

This is for the championship.

This is for life.

Six Innings is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James Preller

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Dylan feels the ball in his glove, grips it across the seam, reaches back for something extra, and blows Angel away with a high fast-ball. Strike three! Yes! Sam Reiser leans back and savors the moment. He is now completely caught up in the game. Everything else falls away, all life's distractions, like a skin that's been shed. He doesn't worry about his hair, or homework, or doctors. He isn't concerned about tomorrow. That's what baseball gives him, the urgency of the here and now.

Aus dem Klappentext

"Two teams, six innings, one game." A lively cast of characters--baseball-loving boys between the ages of eleven to thirteen--are playing the biggest game of their lives. With acrobatic catches, clutch hits, dramatic whiffs, and costly errors, this game is full of action. But as the book unfolds, pitch by pitch, a deeper story emerges, with far more at stake. And this baseball diamond becomes the ultimate testing ground of remarkable friendship between two boys, Sam and Mike, who strive together to find a way to both come out winners. This is for the championship. This is for life. James Preller is the author of the popular Jigsaw Jones mystery series, which has sold over 10 million copies since 1998. "Six Innings "is his first stand-alone novel, and it grew out of his love for baseball and his experiences in Little League as a player, father, and coach. "Those first baseball experiences are vivid times, burned into our memories," Preller says. "It's when we first learned to love the game. A time when we knew, somehow, the game loved us back." James Preller lives in Delmar, New York. In addition to writing full-time, he coaches Little League and plays in a men's hardball league. Visit him on the Web at www.jamespreller.com.

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Six Innings

A Game in the Life

By James Preller

Feiwel and Friends

Copyright © 2008 James Preller
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-312-60240-6

Contents

1 Top of the First, 
2 Bottom of the First, 
3 Top of the Second, 
4 Bottom of the Second, 
5 Top of the Third, 
6 Bottom of the Third, 
7 Top of the Fourth, 
8 Bottom of the Fourth, 
9 Top of the Fifth, 
10 Bottom of the Fifth, 
11 Top of the Sixth, 
12 Bottom of the Sixth, 

CHAPTER 1

Top of the First

The one o'clock championship game is almost upon them, like a locomotive approaching from a great distance. The closer it gets, the larger it looms. And now here it is — that big train coming through.

The boys have already taken batting practice. They've warmed up and cooled down; chatted, joked, and poked, until, moments before the first pitch, they grow idle and contemplative.

Coach Reid brings the Earl Grubb's team together for a pregame talk. A muted shout breaks the quiet, hand claps and cheers erupt from inside the dugout. "Team!" they cry.

Up in the announcer's booth, Sam Reiser informs the crowd:

And now, please stand for our national anthem....

Both teams hustle to the base paths, straddling the white lines that run from home plate to the respective foul poles. They take off their hats, hands on their hearts — Tyler Weinberg has to be reminded, and is, with a friendly whack on the head from Colin Sweeney — and they watch as the flag waves in a soft breeze. The anthem plays on a crackly sound system. And now at last, it's time for the game. Northeast Gas & Electric, the home team by virtue of a superior regular-season record, takes the field.

Dylan Van Zant stands about ten feet from home plate, timing his swing to Nick Clemente's warm-up pitches. Clemente throws nothing but fastballs that explode in catcher Travis Green's glove. Pop, pop, pop. "Balls in!" Green cries out.

The fielders toss their practice baseballs in lazy arcs toward the home-team dugout along the first-base line. "Coming down!" Green hollers.

The smooth, dark-skinned shortstop, Justin Pinkney, glides over to second base, backed up by the pint-size second baseman, Billy Thompson. Clemente snaps off a half-hearted curveball that floats in like a helicopter. Green snares it deftly, rises, and fires a laser to second base. Strong arm, Dylan notes admiringly, great catcher.

The umpire, bulky and dressed in dark blue, calls, "Come on. Play ball!" From his seat in the announcer's booth, behind and above home plate, Sam Reiser feels his heartbeat quicken. Play ball. He leans into the microphone and pushes the black button.

Leading off for Earl Grubb's Pool Supplies, today's starting pitcher, Dylan Van Zant....

As his name is announced, Dylan looks down the third-base line to Mr. Reid, who is stationed in the coach's box. The skipper claps his hands, nods. "Get us started, Dilly."

Dylan has already decided to take the first pitch. It doesn't matter where the ball goes, Dylan won't swing. He wants to see Clemente's fastball, up close and personal. Watch his motion, look for the release point — but mostly, try to relax. Get rid of the bees that are buzzing in his brain. Because here he stands, playing for the championship. How cool is that? Dylan takes a fastball down the pipe for strike one. It has begun.

Clemente has the unsettling habit of grunting with each pitch. He's like a bull in a pen, eager to break loose. Snort, snort, fliiiiing. Already at five feet, ten inches and 170 pounds, Clemente is colossal for a seventh-grader. Scary as all get-go and he knows it. Clemente works quickly. In seconds he's back on the rubber, charging into his delivery; he plays like his hair is on fire.

Dylan swings and misses at a chest-high fastball, corkscrewing his wiry frame into the earth. Late, Dylan thinks. Way late. He steps out of the box, takes a breath, feels the electric undercurrent from the packed bleachers. Clemente glowers from the mound, hoofing the dirt with his cleats.

The count is no balls, two strikes. No one out. No runners on base. The game has scarcely begun, but already Clemente has set the tone. He is going to work fast and throw gasoline. His every move an act of defiance, a dare that says, "Hit me if you can."

Down two strikes, Dylan inches his fingers up the bat handle. Fast to the ball, he tells himself. Protect the plate. No matter what, don't go down looking. There's nothing worse than striking out with the bat on your shoulders.

Clemente, square-shouldered and built like a soda machine, rocks back into his windup. His hands come together before his chest, pump back over his head, the left knee lifts up as he pivots, pushes off the rubber on a thick right leg, drives toward the plate with maximum force. Uhhhmmmgh.

The pitch is just ridiculous. A curve that acts as if it were dropped from the sky. One moment the ball is right there, then it isn't. Gone, vanished, like it fell into a manhole.

Dylan swings and misses. The home-plate umpire signals strike three. Green zips the ball back to Clemente, who sneers with satisfaction.

Batting second, Nando Sanchez....

The name on his birth certificate is Armando, after a grandfather back on the island. Everyone calls him Nando. And he is very fast. Everything Nando does, from eating waffles to fielding grounders, is restless and quick. He swings in short, choppy strokes — a slap hitter, not a power threat. "We will work with that," his father announced one day. "Speed never slumps. Hit the ball on the ground and fly, Nando, fly."

Thin and undersized, Nando bats with an exaggerated crouch, presenting the pitcher with a small strike zone. He takes the first two pitches high for balls. Clemente steps off the mound, angrily slams the ball into his glove. Clemente's fury surprises Nando, almost frightens him. Clemente grunts and fires another pitch.

"Strike one!" the umpire calls.

Hot stuff, thinks Nando, caliente. Nando steps out of the box, wipes his lips with the back of his sleeve, tightens his batting gloves, and eyes Coach Reid as he goes through the signs. Reid touches his hat, the indicator, then goes to his belt buckle. Nando understands: Bunt. The alert third baseman, Angel Tatis, also seems to sense the possibilities. He creeps in, bent low, his glove licking the tips of the grass.

Nando squares early, showing the bunt, bat held loosely at chest level. The pitch comes in high and tight. Nando falls away, instinctively using his bat for protection. Somehow he manages to bunt the ball foul as he collapses to the ground. Strike two.

"That's okay, Nando! You're okay!" his father shouts from the stands. "Two strikes now, Nando! You've got to protect!" Nando turns to see his father, mother, maternal grandparents, two brothers, and baby sister crowded together in their seats. They have come to watch Nando play in the great championship game. Not watch, no, they've come to cheer — wildly, enthusiastically, passionately. Nando hopes to make them proud on this day, not seeming to realize that it's already been accomplished, long ago. He focuses back on the pitcher.

Clemente stares with reptilian eyes, cold and lifeless. He won't waste a curveball on a weak hitter like Nando. It will be a steady diet of fastballs until Nando proves he can catch up to one.

"You must...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0312602405
• ISBN 13: 9780312602406
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 178
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland