Kate was still tasting soup. Mike pointed to a hot dog cart a little farther down the hallway and motioned for her to meet him there.
A few moments later, Mike opened the plastic bag for Kate.
“You found the glove!” Kate whispered.
“Yes!” Mike said. “We’ve got to tell Flaps right away. I bet he’ll pitch better knowing we’ve found the thief. Then we can turn it in to security and have them arrest the soup man.”
Mike and Kate raced through the stadium and down the escalators to the lower level, where they ran to the aisle leading to the dugout. As they scrambled down the steps toward the field, a huge roar rose up from the Orioles fans. Many sprang to their feet to cheer and clap.
It was the bottom of the sixth inning. Flaps had gotten out of the last inning without giving up any more runs. And better yet, the Orioles had two runners on base and no outs. But they were still four runs behind Seattle.
All the clapping and cheering made it easy for Kate and Mike to jog to the very end of the aisle. It ran right next to the edge of the Orioles’ dugout. Kate leaned over the small railing and waved her hands for attention. Finally, she caught the eye of an Orioles batboy and called him over.
“Please tell Flaps we found Babe Ruth’s missing glove!” Kate said above the noise of the fans.
“Sure,” the batboy said. He walked to the far side of the dugout, where Flaps was keeping his pitching arm warm in a jacket. The batboy whispered something in his ear.
Flaps looked over at Mike and Kate. He had a huge smile on his face and gave them a thumbs-up.
As the batboy was walking back, the fans exploded in cheers. The Orioles batter had hit a home run! Mike and Kate turned and watched as the ball sailed over the wall and landed in the Flag Court. The runners circled the bases and high-fived as they crossed home plate. With one hit, the Orioles had cut Seattle’s lead to one run!
Kate felt a nudge on her arm. “Flaps says thanks!” the batboy said. “Because of you two, he’s ready to get out there and shut Seattle down! He also said to meet him by the statue of Babe Ruth an hour after the game.”
“Sure,” Kate said. “Thanks for helping.”
Mike and Kate stepped away from the dugout. The next Orioles batter walked up to the plate, and the fans settled back into their seats. “Come on,” Kate said to Mike. “Let’s turn the glove in and tell security about the soup man so they can arrest him.”
“Okay,” Mike said. “But then I want to head back to our seats to watch the game. Maybe Flaps will pitch just like Babe Ruth now!”
Mike was right. For the rest of the game, Flaps pitched perfectly! He took out one batter after another, with strikeouts, pop-ups, and short hits to infielders. It looked like Seattle had lost its way. Or that Flaps had found his spot.
In between innings, Kate and Mike ran over to the barbecue stand. Mike bought a big pulled-pork sandwich, while Kate had a barbecue beef sandwich. As they munched on their food back at their seats, Mike pointed to the smoke from the barbecue stand.
“I don’t know whether that’s going east or west,” he said. “But I think it’s pointing to an Orioles win!”
In the top of the eighth inning, the Orioles knocked in one more run to tie the game. Seattle was hoping for a go-ahead run in the ninth, but Flaps shut them down by striking out the first three batters!
Now it was the Orioles’ turn. The crowd roared to life as the Orioles batter stepped up to the plate. He watched two balls go by for strikes, but unloaded on the third. The ball flew high over the first baseman’s head. It climbed higher and higher. The batter dropped the bat and started to run for first.
Then the stadium exploded in cheers as the ball sailed over the wall. It was a walk-off home run! Flaps and the Orioles had won the game in the ninth inning! They had made it into the playoffs!
Mike and Kate cheered with the rest of the fans as the Orioles celebrated on the field. When Flaps came out and waved his hat at the crowd, the team quickly surrounded him and lifted him up for photos.
After the field cleared and fans started leaving, Mike and Kate met Kate’s mom near the Kids’ Corner, and they walked to the exit together as they told her what happened with the glove.
“There’s the statue where we’re supposed to meet Flaps!” Mike said. He pointed to a life-size statue of Babe Ruth just outside the main entrance to the Orioles’ ballpark.
Kate studied the metal statue. It showed a young Babe Ruth staring straight ahead, with a glove hanging from his right hand and a bat steadied against the ground in the other.
“It really looks like him,” Kate said. She read the statue’s title on the granite base. “Babe’s Dream. I guess he’s dreaming of winning a World Series.”
“Or maybe he’s dreaming of getting a left-handed fielder’s glove!” Mike said. “Look at the glove he’s holding. It’s a right-handed fielder’s glove. That means it’s worn on the left hand. But Babe Ruth was a lefty! He would have had a left-handed fielder’s glove, which is worn on his right hand! I can’t believe they made such a huge mistake with this statue!”
“Good point, Mike,” said a man’s voice from behind them. “But he was a great pitcher, in any case!” Mike, Kate, and Mrs. Hopkins whirled around.
It was Flaps! He was still dressed in his uniform. Behind him was one of the Orioles clubhouse assistants carrying a cloth bag.
“You helped us make the playoffs!” he said. “I was so worried about the glove that I didn’t pitch well until you found it!”
Flaps reached over and gave Mike and Kate dual fist bumps.
“The Old Cove Crab Soup man confessed after the police arrested him,” Flaps said. “He told them he snuck into the stockroom just before lunch and stole the glove. He planned to sell it for lots of money. He left one of my gold coins in the hopes that the police would suspect me!”
Mike pointed to the glove on the statue. “At least we found the right glove,” he said. “Or, should I say, the left glove!”
Flaps laughed. “Well, Mike,” he said, “you’re right. They did make a mistake with this statue. Apparently, they gave the artist the wrong glove to use as a model, and when they found out it was wrong, it was too late to change it!”
Flaps turned to the clubhouse assistant.
“But it’s not too late to share something with you,” he said to Mike and Kate.
The assistant handed Flaps three pairs of white cotton gloves. Flaps gave Mike and Kate each a pair.
Mike pulled his gloves on. “Cool!” he said. “I can direct traffic now!” He made waving motions with his hands as though he were a policeman telling cars where to go.
“Mike, you might want to slow things down to get a look at this,” Flaps said. He reached into the assistant’s bag and pulled out something brown.
“How would you like to try on Babe Ruth’s baseball glove?” Flaps asked. He held up the glove that Mike and Kate had rescued from the pizza stand.
“Wow-wee!” Kate said. “I’d love to!”
“Oh, cool!” Mike said.
“Since you and Mike found it, I thought you should both have a chance to try it on before it’s put on display,” Flaps said. “The white cotton gloves protect it from the oil on your hands. Go ahead, put it on!”
Kate gingerly slipped her hand into the glove. She tried to wiggle the fingers of the glove, but her hand wasn’t quite big enough. She held up the glove and pretended to catch a ball. “This is great!” she said. “I feel like Babe Ruth! Thanks, Flaps.”
She kept the glove on for a second, and then handed it over to Mike. He slipped it on carefully and felt the inside of the stiff, hundred-year-old glove.
“Hey, that reminds me,” Mike said. “What did Babe Ruth’s glove say to the baseball?”
Flaps shrugged. “I don’t know,” Kate said. “What?”
Mike held Babe Ruth’s
glove up like he was making a play. “Catch you later!”
Railroads and baseball. The proper name for the Orioles’ ballpark is Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Originally, the Orioles played at Memorial Stadium in North Baltimore, which was also home to the Baltimore Colts football team. In 1992, the Orioles moved to a new ballpark in downtown Baltimore. Camden Yards was the name of the old railroad terminal where the new ballpark is located. The team wanted to call the new stadium Oriole Park, but the governor of Maryland wanted to call it Camden Yards. They compromised, and the ballpark was named Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
State birds and giant birds. The team is named after the state bird of Maryland, the Baltimore oriole. The team’s mascot is a giant black-and-orange oriole. Its name is the Oriole Bird, but it’s usually just called the Bird.
Lots of Orioles. Baltimore has had a number of baseball teams called the Orioles. Back in the early 1900s, there were two minor-league Baltimore teams called the Orioles at different times. Babe Ruth played on one of them. Today’s Orioles moved from St. Louis (where they were the St. Louis Browns) after the 1953 season and changed their name to the Baltimore Orioles.
Babe Ruth and Baltimore. Babe Ruth only played baseball in Baltimore for about half a year before he was traded to the Boston Red Sox. His parents and grandparents lived in Baltimore, but Ruth lived at the St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. His parents sent him to the school because Ruth got into too much trouble at home. He went there from age seven until he left to become a professional baseball player at age nineteen.
The mystery of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar, the parrot in the story, is named after the great writer Edgar Allan Poe. He lived in Baltimore in the early 1830s, and he died mysteriously in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, after he was found outside, confused and in someone else’s clothing. Poe is buried at the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, near the ballpark. Poe is credited with inventing the detective story.
There’s a street in the ballpark. Eutaw Street (pronounced Utah, like the state) is the street that runs along the giant B&O warehouse. But when the Orioles built their ballpark, they blocked off the area to traffic, so now it’s part of the stadium and filled with fans during games. On non-game days, people can still walk down Eutaw Street and look in at the stadium through tall iron fences.
Eutaw Street home runs. If you walk down Eutaw Street, watch the ground! Sprinkled across the sidewalk are round bronze markers showing where really long home runs have landed. Usually a few new home runs land on Eutaw Street each year.
A national treasure. Baseball teams can thank Baltimore for the United States’ national anthem. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was written in Baltimore by Francis Scott Key, who saw the American flag flying above Fort McHenry, in Baltimore Harbor, as the British bombed the fort in the War of 1812.
Statues and more statues. There really is a statue of Babe Ruth just outside the main gate of the stadium, with the wrong type of glove. But the Orioles also have other statues inside the park. Orioles Legends Park has six large statues of famous Orioles: Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Earl Weaver, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, and Cal Ripken Jr.
The Iron Man. One of the Orioles’ most famous players was Cal Ripken Jr. Ripken’s nickname was the Iron Man because he set the record for playing the most consecutive (which means “in a row”) baseball games ever—2,632! As a shortstop and third baseman he was a nineteen-time All-Star and won two Gold Glove Awards. Many people think his record for most consecutive games will never be broken.
Pancakes for pitchers. While the character Flaps isn’t real, Jim Palmer was a famous Orioles pitcher who always tried to have pancakes for breakfast on the days that he pitched, giving him the nickname Cakes. Palmer played his entire nineteen-year career for the Orioles and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1990. When he was twenty, he pitched a complete-game shutout in the World Series!
The B&O warehouse. Behind the outfield and across Eutaw Street is the giant B&O warehouse. Railroads used to store goods there, but now it houses team offices, kitchens for the ballpark, restaurants, the Orioles’ gift shop, and more. The 1,016-foot-long warehouse is the longest building on the East Coast, but it’s also narrow, only fifty-one feet wide. So far only one batter has hit the building with a baseball. It was Ken Griffey Jr., the former Seattle Mariners outfielder, during a Home Run Derby in 1993. Make sure to look for a plaque on the warehouse that shows where he hit it. Nobody has broken a window yet.
A really long day. The Baltimore Orioles had a really bad day on August 22, 2007. That’s because they lost a baseball game to the Texas Rangers by a score of 30–3! The Rangers scored the most runs in a major-league baseball game in 110 years!
Orange seats. The Orioles’ stadium has two special orange seats in it that show where important home runs landed. One marks Eddie Murray’s 500th home run. The other marks where Cal Ripken’s 278th home run landed. It broke the record (set by Ernie Banks) for home runs by a shortstop.
Flags a-flying. Overlooking the Orioles’ right field is a large patio area filled with flag poles, called Flag Court. The flags represent the other American League teams and are flown in order of the divisional standings.
Crab Shuffle. During each game, the Orioles play Crab Shuffle on the giant video screen. One of three animated crabs grabs a baseball and hides it as the three crabs are shuffled around on the screen. Fans need to pick which crab is hiding the baseball!
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
* * *
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.
Ballpark Mysteries #15 Page 4