Baseball Card Adventures #1
With more than 2 million books sold, the Baseball Card Adventures bring the greatest players in history to life!
With historical photos and back matter to separate the facts from the fiction, New York Times bestselling author Dan Gutman takes readers on a page-turning trip through baseball’s past. Perfect for young readers who love time travel stories and dream about meeting history’s greatest baseball players!
Joe Stoshack lives for baseball. He knows everything there is to know about the game—except how to play well. His specialty is striking out.
Stosh feels like a real loser, and when he takes a low-paying job cleaning a bunch of junk out of his neighbor's attic, he feels even worse—until he comes across a little piece of cardboard that takes his breath away. His heart is racing. His brain is racing. He can hardly believe his eyes. Stosh has stumbled upon a T-206 Honus Wagner—the most valuable baseball card in the world!
But he's about to find out that it's worth a lot more than money. Because it turns out Stosh has the incredible ability to travel through time using baseball cards—and now he’s headed back to 1909, when Honus Wagner played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in a World Series for the record books. But will the legendary Honus Wagner be able to teach Joe how to be a better baseball player?
PLAYING HARDBALL
1
“HEY! ELEPHANT EARS! WHEN YOU WALK DOWN THE street, Stoshack, you look like a taxicab with both doors open!”
The words burned in my ears, which do stick out a little from my head, I must admit.
I was at the plate. It was two outs in the sixth inning, and I was the last hope for the Yellow Jackets. We were down by a run, and the bases were empty. Their pitcher was only eleven, but he’d already whiffed me twice.
That crack about my ears threw me off, just enough so that I tipped the ball instead of hitting it with the meat of my bat. That was strike two.
Behind me, I could hear some of the kids on my team already packing up their equipment to go home. There wasn’t much chance that I was going to smack one out of the park. I hadn’t hit one out of the infield all season.
It’s not that I’m not strong. My arms are really big, and people tell me my chest is broader than any other seventh grader they’ve seen. I’m short for a twelve-year-old and a little stocky.
I’m actually a pretty good ballplayer. But those insults really get to me. The last time up, I struck out when they said my legs looked like a pair of parentheses. You know—(). Bowlegged? I guess I’m kinda funny-looking. If I wasn’t me, I’d probably be making fun of me, too.
Nobody likes to make the last out. I sure didn’t want to strike out looking at the last pitch whiz past me. I was ready to swing at just about anything. The pitcher went into his windup again, and I stood ready at the plate. The pitch looked good, and I brought back my arms to take a rip at it.
“Hey Stoshack!” their shortstop shouted as the ball left the pitcher’s hand, “Is that your nose or a door-knocker?” I’d never heard that one before. It threw off my timing. It felt like a good swing, but I hit nothing. As usual.
“Steeerike threeeeeeeeeeeee!” the ump yelled as the ball smacked into the catcher’s mitt.
Again. My third strikeout of the game. Did I swing over it? Under it? Too early? Too late? I couldn’t even tell. All I know is that I wanted to shrivel up and fade away. The other team hooted with glee. Even some of my teammates were snickering.
THROWING MONEY IN THE GARBAGE
2
“JOEY, I’M HOME!” MOM SHOUTED AS THE SCREEN DOOR slammed behind her. “How was the game?”
“Lousy,” I reported honestly. “I fanned three times and let a grounder go between my legs to let the winning run score.”
Mom threw her arms around me and ran her fingers through my hair.
“You’ll get ’em next time, slugger.”
She flopped down in a chair. I could tell she was exhausted. Mom is on her feet most of the day. She works as a nurse in Hazelwood Hospital here in Louisville.
“So what did you make me for dinner?” she asked with a smile, “I’m beat.”
“Oh, Mom, let’s go out to eat tonight.”
“Negative,” she replied. “When you sign your big league contract, you’ll take me out on the town. ’Till then, we’re on a tight budget.”
“Fast food?” I suggested hopefully.
“Ugh!” she replied, holding her nose. “I’d rather starve.”
I wouldn’t say we were poor, but I sure wouldn’t say we were rich either. We never had a lot of money, but things got really tough after my parents split up two years ago. My dad lived in Louisville too, in an apartment. He came over to visit from time to time.
Money was always a problem. When I was a little kid my folks used to argue a lot about it. Dad always seemed to have a tough time landing a job. When he found one, he never seemed to be able to hold on to it very long.
I’ve always thought that if only my parents had had more money, they wouldn’t have split up. Mom said that was ridiculous. Money had nothing to do with it, she told me. Besides, she said, money doesn’t make you happy.
But how would she know? She never had any.
I always wished I had a million dollars. At least I could see if she was right or not. Even a half a million would have been nice.
Until we win the lottery, I’d try to make a few dollars here and there doing odd jobs. Yard work. Raking leaves and stuff. The winter before, Kentucky got a lot more snow than usual, and I made a bunch of money shoveling people’s sidewalks and driveways. I gave some of the money to my mom. The rest of it I spent on baseball cards.
Dad gave me his baseball-card collection and got me started collecting cards when I was seven. I may not have been a great hitter, but I knew more about cards than any kid around. I put together a complete set of guys who played shortstop. That was always my position.
Mom says buying baseball cards is like throwing money into a garbage can. But I figure a kid should be allowed to have one harmless vice. It’s not like I drink or take drugs or anything.
And besides, my baseball cards actually saved us money. When I got holes in my sneakers, I would slip a card inside so I didn’t need to buy a new pair right away. I always used lousy cards, of course. I wouldn’t think of stepping on a card that was worth anything.
“I got you some work today, Joe,” Mom said as we chowed down on leftovers.
“Oh, yeah? What?”
“Miss Young needs her attic cleaned out. She’ll pay you five dollars. I told her you’d take it.”
“Oh, man!”
Amanda Young is this really old lady who lives next door. I know she’s way over one hundred, because my mom showed me an article from the paper that talked about Louisville’s Century Club. She’s pretty peppy for an old lady. Her skin is really wrinkly, though.
Miss Young never had any kids, and she was never married. I don’t even think she has any relatives who are still alive. She’s been living by herself in that dilapidated old house for as long as anybody can remember. She never comes outside. Her groceries are brought in.
My mom stops over to Miss Young’s now and then to see if she’s okay. I guess that’s how I got this job.
It’s not like I don’t appreciate the work or anything. It’s just that Amanda Young is kinda weird. I’ve run a few errands for her, and she starts talking to me about nothing and she goes on and on. I can’t understand what she’s saying half the time. I nod my head yes to be polite.
Sometimes, I must admit, I pretend my mom is calling so I can go home. Miss Young doesn’t hear very well, so she can’t tell I’m lying.
I’ve never seen Miss Young smile. She seems really sad, as if somebody did something terrible to her a long time ago and she never got over it.
I’ve heard kids say that Amanda Young is a witch, and that she murdered some kid once. Kids always make up stories like that. I think she’s just a lonely old lady. I feel a little sorry for her.
Cleaning out Miss Young’s attic isn’t my idea of a fun afternoon, but five bucks is five bucks. Fleer is coming out with a new set of baseball cards next month, and I can use the money to buy a few packs.
I’m sure I would have felt differently about the job if I’d known what Miss Young had up in her attic.
Release Date: April 4, 2004
Release Time: 93 minutes(TNT)
Director: John Kent Harrison
Cast:
Matthew Modine as Honus Wagner
Kristin Davis as Mandy
Shawn Hatosy as Joe Soshack
William Lee Scott as Ty Cobb
Samantha Weinstein as Reeny Soshack
Matt Aquin as Owen Wilson
Sharon Bajer as Flo
Chad Bruce as Photographer
Jackie Burroughs as Mrs. Young
Rebecca Gibson as Flora
Michal Grajewski as Viv
Kjartan Hewitt as Program Boy (as Kerr Hewitt)
Ryan Hollyman as Babe Adams
The author of over 80 books in a little over a decade of writing, Dan Gutman has written on topics from computers to baseball. Beginning his freelance career as a nonfiction author dealing mostly with sports for adults and young readers, Gutman has concentrated on juvenile fiction since 1995. His most popular titles include the time-travel sports book Honus and Me and its sequels, and a clutch of baseball books, including The Green Monster from Left Field. From hopeful and very youthful presidential candidates to stunt men, nothing is off limits in Gutman's fertile imagination. As he noted on his author Web site, since writing his first novel, They Came from Centerfield, in 1994, he has been hooked on fiction. "It was fun to write, kids loved it, and I discovered how incredibly rewarding it is to take a blank page and turn it into a WORLD."
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EMAIL: dangut444@gmail.com
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