Double Play
Page 19
Jalen gulped and clutched his bat. Daniel was beside him now, ready to take over the circle.
Jalen’s friend gripped him by the shoulders. “You got this, amigo. This is all you. It’s what you do. Hey, what’s that faraway look, dude? What are you thinking?”
Jalen forced a smile. “Be careful what you wish for.”
“What?” Daniel scrunched up his face.
“I’ll tell you later.” Jalen turned and marched toward the plate.
82
JALEN’S MIND TOOK OVER.
Everything was suddenly calm and clear. He didn’t want to have to knock one out, because if Chris was smart—a thing in question—he’d throw nothing but curveballs and let his defense win the game. Jalen wanted to move the runners into scoring position, and he knew just how he could.
Jalen stared hard at Chris, stared him right down until he saw the fury in Chris’s eyes. Then he stuck out his tongue, just for a split second, so that no one but Chris would think anything of it, but Chris knew. Jalen scratched his butt and faked a yawn, then stepped into the box, crowding the plate.
He knew he couldn’t get Chris to throw another beanball. Even Chris knew he’d be kicked out of the game, but he did send a fastball over Jalen’s head so high and so hard it crashed into the backstop. Fanny and Gertzy took off.
Dirk’s mask flew through the air, and he scrambled for the passed ball. Jalen thought Fanny might try for home plate, and he did, rounding third base at full speed. Jalen stepped back. Chris raced forward from the mound to cover home plate. Dirk got a handle on the ball and zipped it to Chris. Fanny slid face-first. Chris caught the ball on the run, stretched out his glove, and dove.
The ump hovered over the cloud of dust and hesitated before he jagged his thumb. “You’re out!”
Chris was on his feet and cackling like a madman and slapping high fives with Dirk.
“How’d you like that? Fanny.” Chris turned to Jalen. “You’re next, Little Orphan Annie.”
Chris stalked off toward the mound. Jalen knew Chris was referring to his missing mom with the insult, and it hit home. He thought of Chris’s other insults from the past, and he thought about the destroyed sandwiches his father had worked so hard to make and been so proud of, and he ground his teeth.
The tying run was still at third, but now Jalen was the winning run, and he knew it was all or nothing.
Everything Chris did, Jalen expected. His ability was in high gear, to the point where he almost felt like he’d been here before. The first pitch was a lousy curve, so low it hit the dirt. It was a brilliant play by Dirk not to let it past him.
It was a 2–0 count, and that gave Jalen some breathing room. From the dugout, Chris’s father roared, “Chris! You settle down! Settle down right now! This kid cannot hit you! Just do your thing!”
Chris’s angry look eased up a bit, and he nodded toward his father.
Jalen looked up into the stands and saw Cat, now sitting with her mom as well as JY. He felt a flood of pride and determination as he stepped up to the plate.
Chris threw a nasty curve, but it was low and outside, so Jalen let it pass.
“Strike!”
Jalen turned in disbelief but then clamped his mouth shut and focused on Chris. He was still ahead in the count, 2–1.
He saw another curve, just as low and outside as the last one. He did a quick calculation and swung, barely ticking it so that Dirk was able to catch it.
With a 2–2 count, Jalen knew that Chris would try another curve to sit him down.
Going through Jalen’s mind was the kind of hit he could get off that curve. If it was an obvious strike, he’d do his best, but he still believed the pressure of throwing all those curveballs would make the next one an errant pitch, too low and too outside for the ump to call it. Jalen hoped the ump owed him a call after that last one.
Jalen readied his bat. Chris wound up and let it fly.
The spin told Jalen he was right about the curve. He wasn’t certain about the accuracy. It would be close.
He let it go by.
The ball snapped into the catcher’s glove, and Jalen turned to the ump, who paused before barking, “Ball!”
Jalen warmed with relief.
It was a 3–2 count.
That count, and Jalen’s refusal to swing, he knew, would tempt Chris into throwing his best, hardest, fastest pitch. Chris didn’t want to risk a questionable call by an inconsistent ump, but even more, Jalen knew that Chris wanted to see him swing in futility, like a dying man’s last gasp of breath. Chris wanted to embarrass him, wanted to hurt him.
It would be a burner, right down the middle. No question about it being a strike.
Chris peeled his lips back off his teeth like a jackal over a carcass, wound up, and threw with every ounce of hatred he possessed.
In a blur, the pitch rocketed toward Jalen.
83
JALEN REARED BACK AND PUT his entire body into it.
He hit the ball on the sweet spot and blasted it into left field, right over the hedge.
He dropped the bat and raised his hands in the air but didn’t shout out. He wanted to win with class, so he dropped his hands and set off around the bases, soaking in the cheers from the stands and his dugout. When he crossed home plate, though, his team was waiting for him. They knocked him down with hugs and piled on. Daniel pulled him out from under the mountain of laughing boys and hugged him, lifting him into the air before everyone settled down to shake hands.
Neither Chris nor his dad would look at Jalen as they passed through the line, but Jalen didn’t care. In a way it made things even better.
After the trophy presentations, Coach Allen raised Jalen’s hand like a heavyweight champ. His team mobbed him again, and then Cat, her mom, and JY appeared.
“I’m so glad you made it.” JY hugged him. “And I appreciate all your help at Fenway.”
Jalen couldn’t stop grinning.
Cat’s mom hugged him next, then Cat, holding him long enough for him to feel that it was something different before they separated and she looked into his eyes. “I am so happy for you, Jalen. It was the ultimate double play.”
“Thanks to you.”
“Well,” she said, “you deserve to have your dreams come true.”
She hugged him again, and Jalen didn’t think anything in the world could ever be better, until he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around.
84
THERE SHE WAS, TALL AND upright, with skin as dark as those enormous eyes. She was elegant and majestic, wearing an electric-blue dress with an inky black flower pattern. Her cheeks had lost some of the roundness he’d seen in her picture so many thousands of times, but the thinner face made her cheekbones more pronounced, reminding Jalen of Cat’s mom.
He knew who she was. She didn’t have to say it, even though she did, and the words were the sweetest sounds he’d ever heard.
“Hello, Jalen. I’m your mother.”
About the Author
PHOTO COURTESY OF TIM GREEN
TIM GREEN was an NFL first-round draft pick and a star defensive player for eight years with the Atlanta Falcons. He is the New York Times bestselling author of dozens of books for adults and kids, including The Dark Side of the Game, The Fifth Angel, Exact Revenge, Football Genius, Football Hero, Kid Owner, and Left Out. Tim graduated covaledictorian with a degree in English Literature from Syracuse University before earning a law degree with honors. He has been an NFL commentator for FOX Sports and NPR. Tim and his family live in upstate New York.
PHOTO BY MAUREEN CAVANAGH/JETER PUBLISHING
DEREK JETER played Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees for twenty seasons, during which time he won five World Series. Considered one of the greatest shortstops of all time, Derek has been a role model to young people on the field and off—thanks largely to the work of his Turn 2 Foundation. (For more information visit Turn2Foudation.org.) Though he grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he often envisioned himself pl
aying shortstop for the Yankees. Derek knows the power of a dream.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Aladdin hardcover edition March 2018
Text copyright © 2018 by Tim Green
Jacket illustration copyright © 2018 by Tim Jessell
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Jacket designed by Jessica Handelman
Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia
The text of this book was set in Centennial LT Std.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Green, Tim, 1963- author. | Jeter, Derek, 1974- author.
Title: Double play / Tim Green, Derek Jeter.
Description: First Aladdin hardcover edition. | New York : Aladdin, 2018. |
Series: Baseball genius ; [2] | Summary: When New York Yankee James “JY” Yager strikes out on his own to show he can still hit in the majors without the help of twelve-year-old Jalen’s baseball genius, Jalen focuses on his own baseball career as he tries to carve out a spot with the Rockton Rockets.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017045564 | ISBN 9781534406681 (hc) |
ISBN 9781534406704 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Baseball—Fiction. | Racially mixed people—Fiction. |
BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Sports & Recreation / Baseball & Softball. |
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship. | JUVENILE FICTION / Family / General (see also headings under Social Issues).
Classification: LCC PZ7.G826357 Do 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045564