Free Extra Innings by Ronde Barber and Paul Mantell Tiki Barber

was just trying to get the ball over the plate so he didn’t walk in a run!
    It was no surprise when the hitter launched a screaming line drive in Ronde’s direction. Ronde took off at a run, never taking his eyes off the ball. Luckily, he’d been playing deep, just in case. He reached the fence a second before the ball did. Planting one foot on the fence, he used the leverage to leap high in the air and grab the ball. The force of the line drive almost pulled him right over the fence, but he came down back on the field, with the ball still in his mitt. He turned and threw, but the runners were retreating anyway.
    He’d saved the game! But there was still one out to get—the Mountaineers’ cleanup hitter
    The kid swung so hard at Tiki’s first pitch that he nearly came out of his shoes. His second swing was evenharder—the bat flew out of his hands and nearly hit the third base coach!
    Now, they needed just one more strike. “Come on, Tiki . . . ,” Ronde breathed. “Come on. Just . . . one . . . more . . .”
    Ronde tried to visualize a fastball zipping past the bat and into the catcher’s mitt. But Tiki had an even better plan. He acted like he was throwing his best fastball as hard as he could—but instead, he lofted a slow, lazy floater toward the plate.
    The batter, who had started to swing at what he thought would be fastball, had to stop midswing. As he hesitated, the ball dropped in past him for a called strike three!
    Ronde and the rest of the Eagles ran to the mound and mobbed Tiki. “I didn’t know you had a trick pitch!” Ronde told him as they celebrated and their hard-won victory.
    â€œHey, bro,” Tiki said with a huge smile, “neither did I!”
    The final score was Eagles 5, Mountaineers 4. They’d gotten their second straight weird, strange, and thrilling extra-inning victory, and were back to .500 at last!

9
BROTHERS IN THE OUTFIELD
    Tiki and Ronde arrived for practice, changed, and were ready to hit the field when Coach Raines called out from the door of his office, “Hey, Tiki, got a minute?”
    Tiki and Ronde exchanged puzzled glances. Tiki said, “See you out there,” and turned back toward the office. Coach Raines closed the door behind him and said, “Sit down.”
    Uh-oh, thought Tiki. He sure hoped this wasn’t going to be another chewing-out session. He racked his brains to try to think of anything he’d done wrong. Other than a couple shaky throws from second that had almost sailed over the first baseman’s head, he couldn’t come up with anything.
    â€œNice job pitching the other day,” the coach began. Suddenly Tiki had the weird thought that maybe Coach was going to make him a pitcher . Tiki barely had time to savor this enticing idea when the coach added, “You’ve got a strong arm. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’mnot happy with Chris’s arm strength in right. Too many teams are going first to third on us. How would you feel about switching positions for the next game?”
    It wasn’t really a question—it was a decision the coach had already made. That much, Tiki was clear on. He’d played on enough teams to know when coaches were really asking your opinion and when they were just trying to seem democratic.
    â€œWhatever’s good for the team, Coach,” Tiki said, giving the correct answer to all such questions from coaches.
    â€œAttaboy. Be sure you get some outfield practice before the next game. I’m excited to see how many long flies you and your brother can run down between you. And with that arm of yours, we’re going to get some outfield assists from you, too, I’m sure.” He offered Tiki his hand to shake, then said, “See you out there.”
    That was Tiki’s cue to go. Back on the field, he met Ronde’s inquisitive look. “He switched me to