“Wow!” said Benny. “Two baseball fields! One is on the outside, and another one’s on the inside.” Benny was six years old. He was excited that Grandfather was taking them to a baseball stadium. Not just for a day, but for a whole week!
Jessie, who was twelve, smiled at her younger brother. “There’s nobody using the outdoor ball field right now,” she said. “What does that make you think?” All four Alden children were good at solving mysteries, but Jessie was the one who always listed the facts and what they meant.
“It makes me think we can use it right now,” said Benny eagerly
“Or, it makes me think we aren’t allowed to use it,” said ten-year-old Violet. She was the shyest of the Aldens. As she spoke she slipped a baseball glove onto her left hand.
“Who’s right?” kidded Henry. “Benny or Violet?” Henry was fourteen and very good at figuring out how things worked. Sometimes he even invented his own tools. This time he said, “Look at the sign.”
Grandfather parked the car in the big parking lot surrounding Cogwheel Stadium. They would stay at an inn here in the town of Clayton. And they would go to a baseball game every day.
The four Alden children lived with their grandfather, James Alden. After their parents had died, the children had run away from home and lived in the woods in an old boxcar. They had never met their grandfather and thought he would be mean. But their grandfather found them and they learned he was a good person.
All five Aldens climbed out of the car and looked at the sign. Play Ball! the sign said. Whenever You Want To.
“Benny is right,” said Violet happily. “We can use the ball field!”
“After you’re done,” said Grandfather, “go to the front gate of the stadium. Tell them that Jim Tanaka left tickets for you.”
Grandfather walked toward the front gate of Cogwheel Stadium. Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny took bats and balls and gloves onto the field.
“Jessie can pitch,” said Henry, “and I’ll catch. Violet and Benny can take turns hitting.”
Violet turned to Benny. “You can bat first, and I’ll try to catch what you hit. Then we can switch places.”
Benny stood at the plate and Jessie threw the ball. Benny took a wide swing with the bat. He missed the ball.
“Watch the ball as it leaves Jessie’s hand,” Henry told him. “Just keep your eye on the ball, then hit it.”
Benny watched the ball. When it came to him, he swung his bat. The bat hit the ball and the ball bounced across the infield. Violet ran to pick it up near first base.
“Good one,” said Henry.
After Jessie threw twenty pitches to Benny, it was Violet’s turn to bat.
Benny stood near second base and watched. He saw Henry had his catcher’s mitt pointed down. His other hand was down, too. Henry was moving his fingers up and down, almost like he was counting. Benny saw one finger down, then two fingers down, then three fingers down. Then back to one finger.
“Hey!” said Benny. “What’s Henry doing with his fingers?”
Jessie turned around to answer. “I want to practice my pitching, so Henry is giving me signs on what to throw.”
“Signs?” asked Benny. “What kind of signs?”
“Signs with his fingers. One finger down is a sign that he wants me to throw a fastball. Two fingers down is a sign that he wants me to throw a change-up.”
“What’s a change-up?” asked Benny.
“It looks just like a fastball, but comes in slower.”
Benny thought about this. “When I watched the ball come out of your hand, sometimes it came fast. But sometimes I swung before the ball even got to me. That pitch must have been a change-up!”
“That’s right,” said Jessie. “If you had known the pitch was going to be a change-up, you would have been ready for it. You would have hit the ball.” Jessie turned back to throw to Violet.
By now the parking lot was half full. The Aldens gathered their balls, bats, and gloves and put them in the car.
The four of them walked to the front gate of Cogwheel Stadium. “Look at the long line of cars waiting to park,” said Violet.
“That’s part of the reason Grandfather is here,” Jessie reminded her. “So many people are coming to Cogwheel Stadium that Grandfather is going to help with plans to make the stadium bigger. It needs more parking spaces. And more seats.”
When they reached the turnstile, Henry spoke to the man taking tickets. “We’re the Aldens. Our grandfather told us that Mr. Jim Tanaka left tickets for us.”
“Welcome,” said the man as he let them through the turnstiles. “I’m Jim Tanaka, and here are your four tickets.” He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the tickets.
“Thank you,” said Jessie. “Do all baseball team owners stand at the front gate?”
Jim Tanaka laughed. “Not usually,” he said. “I’m here because the stadium is so crowded we don’t have enough help.”
“We’ll help,” said Henry. “We’re very good at helping.”
“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to help,” said Mr. Tanaka. “You’re my guests, and you’re here to enjoy the game.”
“But we enjoy helping,” said Jessie. “Especially if our help is needed.”
“I really do need help,” Mr. Tanaka said. “Thank you for asking. You can start—Oh, hello.”
Benny turned to see who Mr. Tanaka was talking to. It was a man dressed in shorts and a flowered shirt. He wore a Cogs baseball cap and sunglasses. The cap brim was pulled down so low that it hid the man’s face. In his hand was a pencil and small notebook.
Instead of saying hello, the man raised a finger to his lips and whispered, “Shhhh!”
“Oh,” said Jim Tanaka. “Right.” He let the man through the turnstiles.
“Who was that?” asked Benny.
“Oh, uh, nobody,” answered Jim Tanaka. “Now let me show you what you’ll be doing.” He looked at the children again. “Henry and Violet, I’m going to put you here, at the front gate, just behind the ticket takers.” He walked over to a large cardboard box and reached in. He pulled out something large and orange. “These are today’s giveaways,” Mr. Tanaka explained. “I want you to give one to each person who comes in.”
“This is great,” said Henry. “It’s a foam glove shaped like a cog!” Henry put a hand into a glove and waved it around.
“The fans love these free gloves,” Mr. Tanaka said. “When the Cogs are winning, everybody wears a glove and waves it in the air.”
Benny could see that the word Cogs was written on the orange shape. “What’s a cog?” he asked.
“A cog is a gear,” Mr. Tanaka answered. “It’s a circle made out of metal. Old cogs used to be made out of wood.”
Benny looked at the foam shape. “What are all those bumps sticking out around the cog?”
“Those are called teeth,” Henry explained. “If you put two gears together, the teeth of one slide into the spaces of the other. That way, one gear turns the other gear.”
“Like on our bikes!” said Benny excitedly.
“That’s right,” said Mr. Tanaka. “Many, many years ago the town of Clayton was a cog-making center. That’s why my team is called the Clayton Cogwheels. ‘Cogs’ for short.”
Mr. Tanaka spoke to Jessie and Benny. “We’ll leave Henry and Violet here to hand out foam gloves. The two of you follow me, please. I’ll take you to where you can help.”
Henry and Violet watched Jessie, Benny, and Mr. Tanaka walk through the crowd. Then they began to give out free foam gloves as the fans came through the turnstile.
“Oh, thank you!” said one fan. “My son and daughter love the Cogs.” Violet watched the mother, son, and daughter each put on a Cogs glove and wiggle it.
“This is fantastic!” another fan said to Henry. “The Cogs finished first last year. And it looks like they’ll win the pennant again this year.”
“That’s for sure,” said the next fan in line. “Only five games left to go, all of them here in Cogwheel Stadium.”
Violet knew that was good news. When a team played on their home field, they had a better chance of winning.
“How many games do the Cogs have to win in order to win the pennant?” she asked Henry.
“Only two,” Henry answered. “If the Cogs win two of these last five games, they win the pennant.”
“The Cogs aren’t going to win two of the last five games,” called out a young man who had overheard them. He wore a Hatters baseball cap. “The Hatters will win all five and win the pennant. Go, Hatters!” he shouted as he walked by.
“Look at all the Hatters baseball caps coming our way,” whispered Henry. “There are as many Hatters fans here as there are Cogs fans.”
A young woman taking tickets at the turnstile smiled at Henry and Violet. “The Hatters are from Madison, which is the next town over. The Hatters and Cogs have been rivals for over a century.”
“Wow!” breathed Henry. “These should be very exciting games!”
Violet watched a young woman come through the turnstile.
The woman had long blonde hair that she wore in braids. She was dressed in a white T-shirt, denim shorts, and white sneakers. Was she a Cogs fan or a Hatters fan? She wore a visor instead of a cap. The visor didn’t say anything. Around her neck the young woman had a pair of binoculars.
Violet held out a free glove.
The woman took the foam glove from Violet and tore it in half. Then she threw the two halves on the ground and stomped on them. “I hate the Cogs!” she shouted. “They’re a rotten, no-good team! I hope that Cody Howard hits four home runs! I hope the Cogs lose every one of the five games!” The woman stomped away, into the crowd.
“Whoa!” said Henry. “She’s a Hatters fan, for sure.”
Violet picked up the two halves of the foam glove and threw them into a trash barrel. “Who’s Cody Howard?” she asked her brother.
“He plays center field for the Hatters,” Henry answered. “He’s a great hitter. He might win the league batting title this year.” Henry explained to Violet that each year the batting title was won by the player who had the highest batting average.
“Does that mean the player who has the most hits in a season?” asked Violet.
“Yes,” answered Henry.
“Whoever wins the batting title wins a brand new car,” said a man with a Cogs baseball cap. “I hope it’s not Cody Howard,” he said.
“Because he’s a Hatter?” Henry asked the fan.
“Yeah,” answered the fan. “I’d like to see the Cogs catcher, Reese Dawkins, win the title and the car.”
Henry and Violet handed out free foam gloves until there weren’t any left. |