Free Long Stretch At First Base by Matt Christopher

1
    B OBBY stood in the pitcher’s box in the pasture field where the kids played scrub baseball. His older brother Kirby was batting.
     Bobby took his windup, stretched, and threw a looping ball toward the plate. The grass-stained baseball arched like a rainbow.
    Tall, dark-haired Kirby yanked his bat back upon his shoulder with disgust.
    “Come on, Bobby!” he shouted. “Throw that ball faster, will you?”
    “You can’t hit it if I do!” Bobby cried.
    Kirby’s face turned red. And Bobby knew that he had said something he shouldn’t have. Kirby was older and a lot taller than
     Bobby. He played first base forthe Redbirds in the Grasshoppers League. But he was a poor hitter. He always took a hard cut at the ball, and almost always
     missed it.
    “Oh, all right,” said Bobby. “I’ll throw it faster.”
    Catcher Dave Gessini returned the ball to Bobby. Dave was the regular catcher for the Redbirds. He was wearing his mask and
     chest protector. The only three other players present were in the outfield. One of them was Ann, Bobby’s sister. She was in
     between Bobby’s and Kirby’s age, and liked baseball just as much as most boys did. She could throw as well as a boy, too.
    Bobby wound up again, stretched, and delivered. He had a side-arm delivery. The ball raced for the plate and curved in just
     a little.
    Kirby stepped into it, took a hard cut.
    Plup!
The ball landed solidly in Dave’s mitt.
    “Let somebody else bat for a while!” one of the boys in the outfield shouted.
    “Sure! He’s been up there an hour now!” the other said.
    “He has not!” Bobby heard Ann say. “He needs practice just like the rest of you do!”
    Bobby turned and looked at them. The boys didn’t say anything back to Ann. They never did dare say much back to her. She always
     had a good answer for them.
    Bobby pitched another straight ball over the heart of the plate. This time Kirby hit it on the ground. The ball hopped out
     to the outfield. One of the players fielded it and pegged it in to Bobby.
    There, thought Bobby. Finally Kirbyhad connected. Bobby could not understand it, though. He himself didn’t have much trouble hitting the ball at all.
     

    A boy in the outfield ran in to bat. Kirby replaced him. As Kirby ran past Bobby, Bobby saw the disappointed look on his face.
     Terry, their black Scottish terrier, chased and barked at Kirby’s heels.
    “Come on, Terry!” Bobby yelled. “Get back here!”
    Terry hopped around Kirby’s feet for a while, then trotted back, his inch-long tail wagging hard.
    Bobby pitched to the batter. After a while he batted and another boy pitched. He pounded out three grounders and four flies
     to the outfield. One was a poke that would have gone for a home run in a real game.
    “For a little guy you pack a lot ofpower,” Dave said, grinning behind his mask. “What a difference between you and Kirby!”
    Bobby didn’t say anything.
    Ann batted next. After she hit a few, they quit practicing.
    “Who do we play this afternoon?” asked Bobby, who seldom kept up with the schedule.
    “The Yankee Clippers,” answered Kirby, who
always
kept up with the schedule. He had on his first-base mitt, and was tossing a baseball in the air and catching it. Bobby had
     never seen anybody who loved baseball as much as Kirby did. He’d play every minute of the day if somebody played with him.
    “They’re in second place,” said Dave.
    “If we beat them, we’ll be in second,” said Kirby. “And if we win Friday, andthe Seals lose, we’ll be in first place.”
    One thing about Kirby: He knew the records of the teams, and even of the players, better than anyone.
    The game with the Yankee Clippers began at six o’clock. Curt Barrows, the coach of the Redbirds, hit grounders to the infielders
     just before game time. Then he gave a short pep talk to his team while the Clippers had the field.
    “Cappie Brennan will start pitching,” Mr. Barrows said. He had a piece of paper in his hand on