Free Look Who's Playing First Base by Matt Christopher Page A

moving out of Plainview,which meant that the Checkmates, the team Mike played on in the Bantam Baseball League, were losing their first baseman. Bill
     Moody was a long string of a kid and left-handed. He could scoop up low throws and pull down high ones as if he were born
     to do just that. Without Bill the Checkmates had small chance of having a decent team.
    I wonder if Yuri plays baseball
? Mike thought.
    “Yuri, did you ever play baseball?” Mike asked him a couple of days before the Moodys left.
    Yuri shrugged. “I played last year. I enjoyed it, but I am not the best player. Maybe the worst.”
    “Did you play first base? Our first baseman, Bill Moody, is moving away, and we’ll need a first baseman.”
    “No. I played outfield.” Yuri’s brows lifted. “Do you think that maybe I can play first base? It looks like a hard position.”
    “You’re tall and left-handed,” said Mike. “Lefties make the best first basemen. If you want me to, I’ll talk with Mr. Terko,
     our coach.”
    “When does the league start?”
    “We have two weeks of practice which starts next Monday. Our first game is the following week.”
    Yuri’s eyes lit up. “You think he would let me play first base, Mike?”
    “Why not? I can’t think of anybody else who’d fit there. Maybe Mr. Terko can — I don’t know. But right now I can’t.”

2
    I T WAS a perfect day for baseball. Sunny and warm. It was a day when Mike Hagin wished that everything would go smoothly.
    He was afraid it wouldn’t though. He had that feeling.
    He stood at the sixth-story apartment window and looked out at the Little League ball diamond a quarter of a mile away.
    The bleachers stretching behind third base and behind home plate to first base were empty now, but later this afternoonmost of them would be filled. The green grass and the white foul lines looked like fresh paint.
    The swimming pool in the park next to the apartment building was chock-full of yelling, screaming, happy kids. Two lifeguards
     sat in their towers on each side of the pool and watched the swimmers with close attention.
    Mike spotted his sister, Ginnie. She was wearing a blue and white striped bathing suit. Even as a ten-year-old, she could
     swim like a fish.
    He lifted his eyes and saw, far off in the distance, the hazy skyline of New York City. It was a forty-five-minute ride by
     bus from Plainview to New York.
    He heard footsteps and suddenly a hand rested on his shoulder. “Well, are you a little excited?”
    Mike turned and smiled. His father was a big man with dark hair and warm, brown eyes. He spoke often of his baseball playing
     days with the Plainview Tigers.
    “A little, I guess,” admitted Mike.
    “What kind of a team have you got this year? Pretty good?”
    “Pretty good.”
    “You don’t sound very enthusiastic.”
    Mike shrugged. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, our regular first baseman left.”
    “Bill Moody?”
    Mike nodded. “They moved out West.”
    “Yes, I know,” replied his dad. “But there must be another kid in the neighborhood who can take his place, isn’t there?”
    Mike shrugged. “Yeah,” he said halfheartedly.
    He moved away from the window. “You and Mom going to the game?”
    Dad grinned. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
    Mike started toward his room. “I’ll get dressed.”
    His mother was ironing in the kitchen. She was a fraction of an inch taller than he and wore her brown hair short.
    “Were you able to see Ginnie in that crowd?” she asked.
    “Yes. She’s the one doing the most yelling,” he said.
    He changed into his baseball uniform.
Checkmates
was printed in red script across the front of the jersey and number 12 in big print on its back. He pulled on. his cap and
     walked out, carrying his infielder’s glove and baseball shoes.
    Two floors down he knocked on a door. No one answered and he knocked again. He waited awhile, then went on down. That’s funny,
     he thought. Where was