Free The Spy on Third Base by Matt Christopher Page A

Bucky Neal would pitch to
     him, but he couldn’t. Not this first time, anyway.
    “Strike!” the ump boomed as Bucky steamed in a knee-high pitch.
    Bucky’s second pitch was almost in the same spot.
Crack!
T.V. corked it to right center field for a double.
    He felt better. The hit made up for that wild throw.
    Chuck Philips flied out to left field. Then Alfie sparked up the team by smashing a ground-ball single through second base,
     scoring T.V. Bus walked. And Rudy Calhoun,with three balls and a strike, blasted a triple to the left field fence.
     

    The fans loved it.
    Watching them closely from second base, T.V. had figured out almost exactly where the batters were going to hit the ball.
     He hadn’t figured on Bus getting a walk — that was the pitcher’s doing, not the batter’s — but his guesses about Chuck’s and
     Alfie’s hits were right on the button.
    Guesses? No. He studied the way they stood at the plate and the way they swung at the pitches, and he knew. He didn’t have
     to guess.
    Both Zero and Barry popped out, ending the half-inning. But the Mudders had chalked up three runs to go into the lead, 3 to
     2.
    The Green Dragons picked up a run during their turn at bat, then held the Mudders scoreless in the top of the third.
    Eddie Kolski led off in the bottom of the third and connected with a triple. It landedin almost exactly the same spot where he had hit his first three-bagger. Again Alfie had ignored T.V.’s advice to play close
     to the foul line.
    What do I have to do to make you believe me? T.V. felt like shouting at him.
    Andy Jackson drove a sharp liner over Chuck’s head, a hit that T.V. hadn’t counted on. He predicted Cush Boochie’s ground
     ball to short, which was an out. But he failed to read Beans Malone’s buntlike hit toward third base correctly. Both were
     hits he never could have predicted, even if he’d been able to read a crystal ball.
    “Closer to second, Chuck!” T.V. cried to his friend at second base as the Green Dragons’ first baseman, Lefty Cash, stepped
     up to the plate. “Stay in center, José!” he yelled to the center fielder, José Mendez.
    This time T.V.’s prediction was almost perfect. Lefty slammed a pitch directly at Josébut slightly over his head. José ran back, reached for the ball, had it for a moment, then dropped it!
    “Oh, no!” T.V. moaned.
    Bucky Neal doubled, scoring two runs.
    The inning ended with the Dragons leading, 6 to 3.
    “Hey, T.V.,” the man in the red sweatshirt said as T.V. headed for the dugout. “You can really read those batters.”
    The boy with the glasses, who was eating a hotdog now, smiled. “Yeah. What are you, a spy?” he said, then chuckled.

3

    A
spy?
T.V. wondered what he was talking about.
    Then he realized the kid must have meant that T.V. seemed to know a lot about the Green Dragon batters.
    He gave the sod a hard kick as he headed for the dugout. Spy! That kid made it sound as though T.V. had done something sneaky.
    “What’s the matter?” asked Mickey Stanner, the team’s scorekeeper, as T.V. sat down beside him.
     

    T.V. wedged his glove between them. “A guy in the stands called me a spy.”
    Mickey chuckled. “So, what’s so bad about that? I wouldn’t mind being compared to James Bond.”
    T.V. had to smile. “Yeah, I guess there are worse things than being a spy.”
    “Yeah, like having to move,” Mickey grumbled.
    T.V.’s eyes followed Chuck Philips as he stepped up to the plate. “What did you say, Mickey?”
    “Nothing. Just that I’m moving away.” Mickey pushed his sunglasses up on his nose.
    “Oh? Have you told Coach Parker?”
    “Not yet,” Mickey said.
    “Better tell him,” T.V. suggested. “We can’t play ball without a scorekeeper. Especially a good one like you.”
    Mickey grinned. Few guys paid any attention to the scorekeeper. He just did his joband hardly ever said anything. The coach might have a tough time finding a replacement for him, T.V.