Free The Contract by Derek Jeter, Paul Mantell

pitch, Derek was on his way to third. “Safe!” called the umpire. Derek got up and dusted himself off. He could hear Coach clapping and saying, “Automatic!” meaning that anytime Derek got on base, he was going to steal successfully. To this point in the season, it had been true.
    In fact, so far Derek was the hero of the game—but not for long. He was about to give way to an even bigger hero. Pete took the next pitch way deep, and there was no doubt about this one. He jogged around the bases while Derek stood on home plate, waiting to high-five him. 3–0, Tigers!
    These Mets were obviously not the previous year’s championship version. Still, three runs was all the Tigers got that inning, in spite of a double by Ernesto. And in the bottom of the first, the Tigers gave the lead right back.
    Pete started the damage by muffing an easy grounder. He had it in his mitt but lost control of the ball when taking it out to throw it. “Arrrghhh!” he groaned, covering his head with his mitt. But this time, there was no one to blame but himself.
    Ernesto didn’t seem to have his best stuff on the mound. He walked two hitters to load the bases, and even though he got the next two on strikeouts, he gave up a three-run double before getting out of the inning.
    Derek doubled again with two outs in the second, scoring Norman, who’d walked ahead of him. Norman whooped it up, deliriously happy, when he crossed the plate. “That’s my first run scored!” Derek heard him saying. “EVER!”
    Derek felt happy for him, all the more so because he was the one who’d driven Norman in. He hoped he could do it again this season, for every one of those kids on the Tigers who’d never scored a run in a real Little League game.
    Pete came up again, waggling his bat, glaring at the pitcher as though he were ready to knock his head off. Derek tried to distract the pitcher, who paid no attention because he was so intimidated by Pete.
    The pitcher threw him a big fat fastball—and Pete swung right through it. Derek shook his head. Pete might have hit that one if he hadn’t closed his eyes, he thought.
    On the next pitch Derek took matters into his own hands, breaking for third. He made it easily, and as he got up, he heard his teammates chanting his name. “Der-ek! Der-ek!”
    Pete singled on the next pitch, and the Tigers were up 5–3. Derek came back to the bench and high-fived his teammates. But now the Tigers were chanting, “Pete! Pete! Pete!”
    â€œYo, Pete! You’re the man!” Chris shouted out. “Woo-hoo!”
    â€œGo, Pete!” Isaiah echoed.
    â€œYeah, Pete!” Coach added his voice to the chorus.
    Ryan hit a grounder to second to end the inning, but at least the Tigers were up.
    After his poor first inning, Ernesto struck out the side in the second, third, and fourth. Ryan replaced him in the fifth and allowed only one hit. But in all that time the Tigers didn’t score either. In the sixth, Derek hit a screaming line drive that made the second baseman duck for cover.
    Derek stopped at first when the right fielder made a good throw into second, but he took second on the next pitch, when the ball got past the catcher. Then Pete smacked another homer, and the Tigers went up by four runs, 7–3!
    All they had to do now was hold on to their lead. But the Mets weren’t giving up, and rallied in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with two out. Then their cleanup hitter hit a line drive to Pete’s left. He leapt into the air and made a great play to knock it down. All Pete would have had to do was hold on to the ball—only one run would have scored. But he tried to make a spectacular play at first. He had no chance of catching the runner, even if the throw had been on target. But it wasn’t. It went off into right field, and two more runs scored!
    The tying run was now on third. Ryan reared back and threw