by Derek Jeter
“Grandma?”
“Derek! I thought you and your friend would sleep in this morning. You were up so late last night.”
Derek glanced up at the wall clock that showed it was seven in the morning. “Dave’s still sleeping. So’s Sharlee, of course.”
“Did you come down to get an early breakfast?”
“Um, not exactly. I’m not hungry yet.”
“Oh. I see. Then . . . ?”
“I wanted to talk to you about something. Before I talk to Dave about it.”
She rinsed off her hands and dried them, then sat him down at the table and took a chair next to him. “All right. What’s on your mind this morning?”
“Something that happened the other day,” he said, looking at his hands like there was something on them that he needed to examine. “It was while I was playing ball with the kids in the Bronx. . . .”
“Yes?”
“One of them wanted me to . . . to do something that . . .”
“Something you didn’t want to do?”
Derek nodded. “And I didn’t do it either. But . . .”
“But it took you until now to tell me about it.”
“Uh-huh.” Derek bit his lip. “I thought if I said anything, you might not let Dave and me play there next week.”
“What was it that this boy wanted you to do?”
Derek told her, then watched for her reaction. Grandma nodded slowly, staring into space, as if she were imagining the scene. Then she shook her head. “I’m sorry that happened to you, Derek—and I’m very glad you said no.”
Derek hadn’t exactly come right out and said no. but he hadn’t done the deed either. So he didn’t interrupt her.
“What concerns me most,” she continued, “is that you didn’t come to me right away. Grandpa and I are in charge of your care, and so was Uncle Ernie that day. You could have told him, too. In fact, you should have.”
“I know, Grandma. I’m sorry. I just . . .”
“You just didn’t want to have to stop playing with those boys,” she finished for him. “I understand.” She heaved a big sigh. “Derek, if I trust you to go off and mingle with boys we’re not well-acquainted with, it’s only because you’re a good boy and you usually make good decisions. But if you want the grown-ups who are responsible for you to keep on trusting you, you’re going to have to trust them enough to be honest, and not keep things secret—especially uncomfortable things.”
Derek nodded. “I know, Grandma. I should have told someone. I will from now on, I promise.”
“Hmm. All right, then. I suppose I can let it go, just this once. Especially since you did come and tell me about it in the end. Besides, next week I’ll be there myself to keep an eye on things.”
“Thanks, Grandma!” Derek said, getting up and throwing his arms around her. “Thank you soooo much!”
“Now, calm down!” she said, peeling his arms off her shoulders. “I will expect you to be watching out for your friend, making sure he’s having fun. I’m sure a lot of those boys are perfectly nice, but it only takes one bad apple . . .”
Derek thought about Jumbo. Certainly he was a great shortstop, and Derek wanted to imitate his play out in the field. But Jumbo hadn’t been a very good role model when he’d tried to get Derek to do graffiti, had he?
“You know, Derek, as you get older, you’ll find yourself in other situations like this. The important thing you have to remember is to always do the right thing, no matter how much peer pressure you’re under or how much you want to hang out with certain people.”
“Don’t worry. I will, Grandma. And I’ll look out for Dave, too,” Derek promised.
“Good. Then I think we can go ahead with our plans for next week. But you know, you won’t always have someone there on the spot watching over you. In the end the courage to do the right thing has to come from you.”
“Sure, Grandma. I understand—and I promise.”
He would have promised her the moon at that moment. He was so glad she hadn’t called the whole thing off!
But as the week wore on and their day in the Bronx loomed closer, Derek began to feel more and more nervous about how things would actually go down.
He knew that Jumbo would have that spray can waiting for him the minute he and Dave showed up at the field. And if Derek had to run straight to Grandma and report what was happening, those kids would all think he was a tattletale and a baby! They’d call him all kinds of names, right in front of Dave, and they wouldn’t let him hang out with them anymore.
• • •
“We’re almost there!” Derek said excitedly. “This is the George Washington Bridge. See the city over there?”
“Sure do!” Dave said. “But where’s Yankee Stadium?”
“That’s in the Bronx. A little bit farther.”
Derek could hardly believe that it had already been five days since Dave had arrived. They’d been so busy having fun that the time had flown by!
They’d gone to the driving range, played mini-golf, and even nine holes of real golf, not to mention swimming down at the lake every day, and hanging out with Derek’s dozens of cousins. They’d seen a movie, had cookouts, gone bowling, and practiced their baseball skills too, because Derek had wanted to make sure they both played well in their game today.
Derek was so excited, he’d forgotten all his worries for the moment. But if he wasn’t worried, Dave certainly was. “What if I mess up out there?” he asked nervously. “What if I make an error or something? What if I strike out three times and cost our team the game?”
“Come on, Dave,” Derek said, making a face. “You’re a good ballplayer! I taught you myself, right?” He elbowed his friend playfully. “Besides, you’ve been coached by my dad and Chase, the best coaches in the world!”
Chase was Dave’s family’s driver, and he was the one trusted to take care of Dave whenever his parents went away on business, which was often.
“It’s going to be fine. You’re going to be fine,” Derek told him.
Derek could understand why Dave was so nervous. All week long Derek had been telling Dave what good players the Bronx kids were. “You’re going to want some of their autographs, I’m telling you,” he’d said. “Because they’re going to be famous someday.”
“I can’t believe I’m going to get to see the Yankees, live!” Dave said. “I’ve never been to any kind of baseball game outside of Little League, let alone to Yankee Stadium!”
“The cathedral of baseball. Once you see it, you’ll never forget it,” Derek promised.
“I just hope I can get through this game first, without anything bad happening.”
“Nothing bad is going to happen. It’s going to be fine, I’m telling you!”
But even as he said it, Derek’s own fears returned. Jumbo would be waiting, with his spray can of black paint. And what was Derek going to do then?
Chapter Fourteen
THE ULTIMATE TEST
“Yo, yo, yo! Jersey’s back, and he’s not alone!”
Yo-yo directed everyone’s attention to the two boys from Kalamazoo as they entered the sandlot through the gap in the chain-link fence.
“Lookit, they’ve both got their Yankees gear on,” said Pokey. “Man, I’d like to get me one of those!”
“Who’s your friend?” T-Bone asked, looking Dave up and down. Derek knew T-Bone was just being curious, but he could also see that Dave was a little nervous because of the attention.
“This is my buddy Dave, “ Derek said, putting an arm around Dave’s shoulder. He had to reach up to do it, because Dave was about five inches taller.
“Where’d he get all those freckles?” asked Yo-yo. “Or are they the stick-on kind?”
That made everyone laugh—even Dave. A couple of the kids clapped him on the back, as a kind of salute for being a good sport and letting them goof on him.
Dave had passed his first test, Derek was relieved to see. Now all Dave had to do was play his best baseball, and h
e’d really have made the grade.
Jumbo and Tiny were captains, as usual. Tiny chose Derek first. And then, after Jumbo chose Pokey, Tiny, with a glance at Derek, took a chance and chose Dave. Dave looked relieved to be on Derek’s team, and of course Derek could understand why.
As different as these kids were from Derek and most of his friends back home, they weren’t that different. Dave, though, was different from everybody else Derek knew, even back in Michigan. His family was rich, and his house wasn’t near any other houses, so Dave had to be driven everywhere by Chase in the family’s Mercedes.
Derek would have bet that if these kids found out Dave was rich and into golf, they’d be teasing him about it from now until forever.
Still, kids were kids, and baseball was the great unifier. Derek had faith that Dave would improve his game for the occasion, and that the two of them would represent Kalamazoo well here in New York City.
“Hey, Jersey.” It was Jumbo, coming up behind Derek and tapping him on the shoulder. Derek turned to him, saw that Jumbo was holding his backpack in his hand, and froze.
“I’ve got something for you, like I promised.”
Derek had a feeling he knew what was in that backpack. But he didn’t want to know for sure, because if it was what he thought it was, he’d have to go straight over and tell Grandma. And that would be the end of everything, before the game even got started!
“Uh . . . show me later, okay, Jumbo?” he blurted out in a near panic, before Jumbo could actually reach into the backpack and show him what was inside. “After the game, okay? I’ve got to keep an eye on my friend.”
There. He’d put off his moment of reckoning. Jumbo let out a quick, scornful laugh. “Yeah, right. Sure thing. I’ll hit you up after. But don’t go running off, Jersey. I’ll be looking for you.”
Derek got his meaning. Either he hung around after and did what Jumbo was asking him to, or he wouldn’t be welcome to join them again.
“Whoa,” Dave said as they got ready to start the game. “This sure is different from our league in Kalamazoo. These kids can really be tough on you, can’t they?”
“Don’t take it the wrong way,” Derek advised him. “They mess around that way with each other too all the time. It’s their way of having fun. Just go with it, like you were doing, and you’ll be fine.”
Derek started the game at shortstop, with Dave playing left field behind him. Dave’s usual position was third base. But luckily, Derek’s dad had insisted the previous season that everyone on the team spend time playing different positions, just to have the experience, in case they needed it down the road.
Hopefully that experience would come in handy today.
Derek got ready, and his team’s pitcher, a pudgy kid nicknamed Baby, wound up and fired a fastball for a strike to start the game.
Derek turned around to see Dave out there, pounding his glove and bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, just like Derek’s dad and Chase had taught all their players to do.
On the second pitch the hitter rifled a line drive over Derek’s head that curved toward the foul line. Dave got a good jump on it, dived headlong, and grabbed it! He slammed to the ground and slid another three feet in the dirt, kicking up a dust storm.
“Whoo-eee!” Baby yelled, along with the rest of them. “Way to go, Spots!”
“Kid can play!” Tiny shouted, pointing out at Dave from the catcher’s position behind home plate.
Spots, huh? Derek thought. Well, considering Dave’s freckled face, they could have thought of worse nicknames.
Derek turned around and gave Dave a thumbs-up as Dave got up and dusted off his jeans and Yankees jersey.
Derek knew they were expensive too. Dave’s jersey was brand-new, and his jeans were always pricey and in the latest style. But it didn’t matter now. Once you covered them with dirt, fancy new clothes looked the same as crummy ones.
Dave shot Derek a big grin in return and pointed with his glove. Clearly he was feeling a lot better now about being a part of this whole new adventure.
Their team got out of the top of the inning without giving up a run. Then, after a leadoff double, Derek found himself at the plate, with a man on second and nobody out.
He swung at the first pitch and fouled it back, right into the catcher’s mask. The catcher staggered backward and fell against the backstop, stunned.
Tiny rushed out from the bench and squatted down next to the catcher. Derek too came over to see if the kid was okay.
“You don’t look so good,” Tiny told the kid. “Go sit down for a while. I’ll sub for you.”
Derek was puzzled. Tiny was on the opposing team and was a fierce competitor. But in this “league,” where the only rules were the ones the kids decided to play by, it was obviously okay to switch teams for a while, in case of an emergency.
The catcher who’d taken the hit protested that he was okay, but Tiny insisted that he sit down for this inning, or at least until it was Tiny’s turn to bat. Then Tiny put on the catcher’s mask, got his own mitt, put on the shin guards and chest protector, turned to Derek, and told him to get back in the batter’s box.
Derek took a couple of pitches. Then, with a count of 1–2, he laced a single to right that scored the runner from second!
On the first pitch to the next hitter, Derek decided to spring a surprise and steal second base. Tiny was startled at first but recovered quickly and fired a laser beam to nail Derek by a hair for the out.
“Oh! What a play! Yes!” cried Jumbo at short, pumping his fist.
“Yo, what’d you do that for?” Yo-yo complained from the bench. “You’re supposed to be on our team, Tiny!”
“I’m on their team right now,” Tiny shot back. “Whatever team I’m on, I do my best. You got a problem with that?”
Yo-yo didn’t answer.
“That’s what I thought,” said Tiny.
Derek got up and dusted himself off, then pointed in to Tiny and clapped his hands in front of him, saying “Great play!”
Tiny pointed back at him and nodded, and Derek felt they understood each other. Derek couldn’t help feeling that he and Tiny thought alike, and that Tiny was the kind of kid he would want to be friends with, no matter where they ran into each other.
The hitter struck out, and now it was Tiny’s turn to hit. He took off the catcher’s gear, looked over at the kid who’d been hit in the mask, and asked if he was okay to catch. The kid got up off the bench, gave Tiny five, and took the catcher’s gear from him.
Now Tiny was back on his own team, and it didn’t take long for him to make up for the damage he’d done to them while subbing for the other team. He hit a bomb to center that went way over the fielder’s head. Tiny circled the bases and scored easily to make the score 2–0.
The inning ended quietly after that, and soon the momentum swung back the other way.
Jumbo’s team kept hitting line drive after line drive off Baby. After they’d tied the game and put another man on base, Tiny made a switch and brought Yo-yo in from second base to pitch.
Yo-yo, it turned out, was a guy who liked to get hitters out with trickery rather than with speed. He threw all kinds of quirky pitches—quick pitches, slow pitches, curving and screwballing ones.
That was fine, as long as there was no one on base. But every time a runner got on, they wound up getting to second and third because Yo-yo’s pitches kept getting away from Tiny.
One kid even stole home when a pitch bounced off Tiny and up the first-base line! Soon it was 5–2, Jumbo’s team.
But Tiny’s guys came back in their half of the fourth, with five big runs, the last two coming on another long home run by Tiny himself.
If Derek thought his team was finally back in charge, he was soon shown otherwise. Jumbo started the rally in the fifth with a triple, and only a good, long throw by Dave to get the ball back in from deep left field kept it from being a home run.
Jumbo scored anyway, though, when, with two outs, another of
Yo-yo’s trick pitches got away from Tiny.
“Come on!” Baby whined from second base, where he’d been playing since Tiny had switched him out. “Put me back in, Tiny! I’m good to go!”
“Hey, that run was on me,” Tiny told him. “You just do your own job and let Yo-yo do his.”
“Man!” Baby groused, but he stopped complaining after that. And when the next batter shot a screamer his way, he calmly grabbed it for the third out.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Tiny told him when they got back to the bench, clapping him on the head with his catcher’s mitt.
The score was 7–6 when the sixth inning began, but something told Derek that the game was far from in the bag. Sure enough, with one out, Jumbo singled to right field. The next hitter hit a soft grounder to Baby, who grabbed it and flicked it to second base.
Derek, racing over from short to take the throw, knew it would be a difficult double play to turn. But if he succeeded, the game would be over!
He came to the bag quickly and grabbed the toss—but just then Jumbo came barreling into him, sending Derek into a somersault and almost causing him to drop the ball!
Jumbo was out, but the batter had made it to first base safely, and that proved to be super-important, because the next batter hit the ball high and far for the go-ahead home run!
Even though Yo-yo came back to strike out the next hitter, Derek’s team was still behind, with only three outs left to stage a comeback. But nobody was down in the dumps. In a game like this one, it wasn’t over till it was over.
Dave was leading off. He’d already walked and had an infield single, but he hadn’t really made good contact with a pitch all day.
Derek had noticed that in the weeks since they’d last played ball, Dave’s swing had gotten loopy again, like when he’d first started playing baseball. It was more of a golf swing than a baseball swing, and it had taken Derek a while to help him change it to a more level swing.
Derek wanted to remind Dave about it now, but he didn’t want to mess with his friend’s confidence in the middle of a game. Dave was already probably feeling anxious, trying to impress the other kids, just like Derek had been during his first game here.