Free Baseball Turnaround by Matt Christopher Page A

mind
     a change,” he said simply. And that was that.
    Sandy was so psyched to be back in his spot that he almost decided not to follow through on telling his teammates about his
     trouble in Grantville. But one day, Perry Warden showed up at the end of practice, and Sandy’s old anxieties came rushingback. Although Perry stuck around for only a few minutes and avoided him the entire time, Sandy knew he could no longer take
     a chance with him.
    Sandy’s opportunity to tell his story came the following week. It wasn’t the way he would have chosen, however. During a practice
     game that Wednesday, Ben went chasing a wild pitch that flew near the back stand. He was so intent on the ball that he didn’t
     see the pole. Two seconds later, he was lying dazed on the ground. The coach called a time-out. Since Sandy was waiting to
     bat, he helped the coach get Ben to the bench.
    Ben lay down while the coach pressed an ice pack to his forehead.
    “Ooh, that’s cold,” Ben mumbled. “Boy, do I feel dumb. Bet you’ve never made a stupid mistake like that before.”
    Sandy chuckled. “Well, maybe not on the ball field. But I’ve made some stupid mistakes in my time. Once I made a
really
stupid mistake.”
    Ben shifted slightly and looked up at his teammate. “Oh, yeah? What was it? Come on, make a dying man feel better.”
    Sandy took a deep breath. He started out slow,faltering a little as the story spun out and not looking at Ben as he told it. But by the time he reached the part about serving
     probation, Ben was sitting up and listening intently. When he had finished, Ben whistled.
    “Man, I thought I sensed some tension between you and Perry,” he said. “But I never would have guessed that. I just figured
     he was jealous because you were in his old spot on the team.” He was silent for a moment, then turned and looked at Sandy.
    “Listen, Sandy, I appreciate your telling me this. Not because I wanted to know all your deep, dark secrets. Remember how
     I told you once that Perry had turned kind of mean last year? You found out about that firsthand, I guess, but I really want
     you to know that he wasn’t always like that. I think everything just kind of got to him all at once: his parents’ divorce,
     having to move right after being a star on the team, leaving all his friends behind, that kind of thing. And I don’t think
     he’d ever admit it, but I’m pretty sure the idea of moving from small-town Newtown to big-city Grantville scared him. So he
     just kind of took on this tough-guy image, you know?”
    Sandy was silent. He thought about how he had been before moving to Newtown: angry, defiant, and mad at his parents all the
     time. It was as though he and Perry had switched places in the past year. He wondered if Perry felt the same way. If he did,
     Sandy guessed that seeing him in the third base slot had been the last straw.
    But understanding the guy didn’t make Sandy feel much better about him. He knew they’d never be buddies — but so long as they
     weren’t enemies, he’d take it. He knew he’d do his part to make that happen.
    Over the next few days, Sandy’s story made its way around the team. To his relief, he found that most of the players were
     interested in what had happened, but not terribly judgmental. Sandy wondered if they understood because they had had some
     of their own scrapes and troubles.
    Whatever the truth was, Sandy was just glad that he had told his own story. Because now that he had, he could focus on the
     really important things — like winning baseball games!
    From that moment on, Sandy never let his focusdrift. He concentrated on doing his best, and it showed. His fielding was up to its old Raider standard, and his hitting got
     better each time he came up to bat. There was no question that he was a better center fielder than Tony. But since Tony proved
     to be a better third baseman than Sandy, everyone came out on top.

19
    T he day of the last summer league