The World Series Kids

by David A. Kelly

  The parade was huge. One team after another rode on the backs of flatbed tractor-trailer trucks. The teams sat on hay bales or stood and waved to the crowds as they drove down the main street of Williamsport. In between the team floats were marching bands, twirling troupes, tractors, and clowns. The crowds clapped for all the players but really went wild for the trucks giving out free bottles of PowerPunch, bags of potato chips, and candy bars.

  “This is great!” Mike said. He waved to the crowds on both sides of the street as he and Kate walked alongside the Cooperstown float. Then he dug into a plastic bucket that he was carrying. He pulled out a handful of candy and threw it to little kids on the sides of the street. “I’ve just got to find a way to get one of the bottles of PowerPunch. All this sugar is making me thirsty!”

  Kate waved and threw a handful of candy to the crowd. She pointed to two kids sitting on the curb and watching the parade. “Well, I’d like one of the bags of kettle corn they’re eating,” she said, and looked down at her bucket. “But I guess this will have to do for now!”

  They passed TV cameras taking in the spectacle and a raised reviewing platform with two TV anchors narrating the parade.

  At the end of the next block, the parade slowed down for a moment. Kate was waving at a group of little girls when she spotted someone near a telephone pole on a side street.

  “Mike! Look at that!” Kate said as she pointed.

  Mike followed Kate’s direction. “Wow! It’s him!” Mike said. Leaning against the telephone pole was a teenage boy wearing a neon green T-shirt.

  “Do you think so?” Kate asked. “He does look like the kid that Zach told us about who ruined the tires on the bus!”

  Mike nodded. “I think it is,” he said. “Come on! Let’s go talk to him! The float isn’t going that fast. We can easily catch up. Give me your bucket.”

  Kate handed her candy over, and Mike ran to the side of the truck, near Colin. He handed Colin the two buckets. “Hold on to these for us,” he said. “We’ll be back in a minute!”

  Before Colin could ask why, Mike jogged back to Kate. They ducked away from the float and crossed to the other side of the street. The telephone pole was set back from the street, so Mike and Kate had to wind their way through the crowds of people sitting and standing along the curb.

  But as they got closer, the boy in the neon green T-shirt spotted them. And he took off running! He ran down the side street, away from the crowd.

  “Quick! We can catch him!” Kate said. She and Mike chased the boy. They ran down the side street, past parked cars and closed stores.

  The boy darted left into an alleyway behind a convenience store.

  “We got him now!” Mike said. He and Kate ran to the alley and turned into it.

  But it was a dead end!

  There was nothing in the alley except for an apartment building with three doors.

  “Where’d he go?” Mike asked.

  Kate studied the alley. She jangled the knobs on each of the doors. They were all locked.

  “He must have ducked inside one of these apartments,” Kate said. “It’s like he disappeared!”

  “That’s too bad,” Mike said. “I’ll bet he’s the one who ruined the tires on the bus! He was probably going to do something to the team when they went by on the float! Why else would he be waiting there like that?”

  “I don’t know,” Kate said. “He sure took off in a hurry when he spotted us!”

  Mike nodded. “He wouldn’t have done that unless he had something to hide!”

  Kate backed away from the doors. “But maybe he left a clue!” she said. “We need to get back to the parade, but we can look for clues on the way.”

  “Great idea!” Mike said. He scanned the ground as they walked.

  Mike and Kate retraced their steps to the main street. They could hear the marching band in the distance. They zigzagged as they walked, looking for anything unusual on the ground.

  “I don’t see anything,” Mike said as they approached the main street.

  “Me neither,” Kate said as she crossed in front of him. The telephone pole where they’d started was ahead of them.

  “What about that?” Mike asked. An empty potato chip bag fluttered against the side of a building.

  Kate shook her head. She pointed to three little girls just beyond the building. Two of them were holding bags of chips. “Nice try!” she said. “But I don’t think it’s a clue.”

  “Maybe not,” Mike said. “But what about that?”

  Mike pointed to something white at the base of the telephone pole. He and Kate raced over.

  Kate leaned down and picked up a white Wiffle ball. Written across its face in black marker were the words Warning: Read my note!

  “Wow!” Mike said.

  Kate turned the ball around. A note was wedged into one of the holes in the ball. She pulled out the note and opened it.

  Cooperstown—Don’t bother trying!

  The harder you try, the more you’ll lose!

  Today it was the tires.

  Tomorrow it might be something bigger!

  Mike looked from the telephone pole to the parade passing by. It was about fifteen feet away. “He must have been trying to throw the Wiffle ball onto the Cooperstown float!” he said. “That kid’s out to get Cooperstown! We have to stop him!”

  Kate nodded. As she scanned the ground around the telephone pole, a small green-and-gold object caught her eye. Kate leaned down and picked up a pin in the shape of a baseball diamond. The edges were gold, and the front was bright green. There was a picture of a dog standing on its hind legs and holding a rake. Underneath were the words Super Dog.

  “Another clue!” she said. “This must be his, too.”

  Mike stared at it. “Hey, maybe we can use that to track him down,” he said. “And I know the perfect place to start!”

  “There it is!” Mike said.

  Mike pointed to a large tented area next to Lamade Stadium. It was ten o’clock the next morning, and he and Kate had just passed through the security entrance into the Little League grounds.

  They walked past the warm-up field, where batters and pitchers were getting ready and reporters were doing interviews with teams. Fans watched from the sidewalk.

  Kate checked the time. “We’ve got an hour before Colin’s team plays its first game,” she said. “Let’s get going!”

  Mike and Kate made their way to a large red tent just outside the main stadium. When they stepped inside, they saw a bunch of picnic tables in the back corner.

  “Over there!” Mike said. He and Kate headed for the pin-trading area. Small groups of kids and adults were clustered together. Some people had mats or felt rolled out in front of them, covered with multicolored pins. Others had large binders filled with pins mounted on thick pages.

  Mike stepped up to the row of tables. He stuck his fingers in his mouth and gave a short whistle. Everyone turned to look at Mike.

  “Hello!” Mike said. “I’m Mike Walsh, and this is Kate Hopkins. Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to show you all something.” He waved them over to the nearest picnic table.

  The pin traders huddled around Mike and Kate. Mike took out the pin he and Kate had received yesterday for catching the dog. He held it up so everyone could see it.

  “Ooh!” A gasp went out from the table.

  “Wow! That’s a founder’s pin! Those are really hard to get!” said one kid.

  Another kid held up his pin-trading binder. “I’ll trade you ten of these pins for that one,” he said. “You can pick any ten!”

  “That’s a super-rare pin,” said an older girl sitting at the table. “They were only given out to really important people. I’d hold on to it, if I were you.”

  Mike slipped the pin back into his pocket. “Thanks!” he said. “I’m not going t
o trade this pin, but I’ll give it away for free!”

  A murmur went up from the pin traders. “For free?” asked a girl in a blue beret.

  “I’ll explain in a minute,” Mike said. “But first I have another pin to show you.” He held up the pin he and Kate had found near the telephone pole during the parade. Its gold edges sparkled in the light.

  “Yesterday, we saw a teenager with a neon green T-shirt near a telephone pole on the main street,” Mike said. “We think he dropped this, and we want to find him to talk about it.”

  The girl nearest Mike spoke up. “Oh, that’s a Super Dog pin from last year,” she said. “It’s pretty rare, too. Only people who were on the Lamade Stadium grounds crew got one.”

  “Really?” Kate asked. “So maybe the kid who dropped it was on the grounds crew last year?”

  “Well, maybe,” the girl said. “But you can’t be sure. He could have traded another pin for it.”

  Kate frowned. “Oh, right,” she said. “Well, do any of you know a local kid who is on the grounds crew and wears a neon green T-shirt?”

  Everyone shook their heads. “No,” murmured one kid after another.

  “We need to find the teenager with the neon green T-shirt,” Mike said. “If anyone spots him, I’ll give them this pin for free!” He held out the founder’s pin, and everyone’s eyes opened wide.

  “Cool!” said the girl with the blue beret.

  “Wow, great!” said a boy in the back.

  Mike and Kate left the pin-trading area and walked outside the tent. The bright sunshine was making the day warm.

  “We should find a way to investigate the grounds crew,” Kate said.

  “Good idea, but we don’t really have enough time before Colin’s game,” Mike said.

  Kate tapped Mike on the shoulder. “Actually, we do have time—we can do both at the same time!” she said. “What if we go watch Colin’s game and then also watch the grounds crew for anyone suspicious!”

  Mike smiled. “That sounds like a plan,” he said.

  They wound their way through the crowds to the side entrance to Lamade Stadium. They walked up a long path onto the sidewalk that ringed the stadium. The thousands of seats were mostly filled. Clustered above the seats behind home plate were reporters and TV cameras. Kate spotted her mom in the press area and waved. Mrs. Hopkins waved back and smiled.

  “Wow! This stadium is huge,” Mike said. “I wish we could play a game here. It would be like playing at a real major-league park!”

  “Let’s find some seats,” Kate said.

  As they rounded the curve behind home plate, Kate spotted a man and his son getting up near the dugout. “Quick, over there!” Kate said. She and Mike darted down the aisle just as the pair walked away.

  “Score!” Mike said as he slipped down in the seat. He gave Kate a high five. “These are great!”

  “And just as the game is about to start!” Kate said.

  But it didn’t. The start time for the game came and went. The coaches walked out onto the field to meet with the umpire. The umpire kept checking his watch and finally pointed to it. Coach Caleb looked upset.

  “Welcome to Lamade Stadium,” a deep-voiced announcer said over the loudspeaker. “We’re having some technical difficulties. Please be patient while we try to fix them. The game should be starting shortly.”

  Mike turned to Kate. “I wonder what’s going on,” he said. “This doesn’t seem good.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Kate said.

  “Hey, look,” Mike said. “What’s Colin doing over there?”

  He pointed to the other side of home plate. Colin had left the dugout and was standing at the railing near the seats. He seemed to be scanning the crowd.

  “Come on. We’d better go check that out,” Kate said.

  Kate and Mike ran over to the foul ball net near Colin.

  “Colin! What’s up?” Mike asked as they skidded to a halt.

  “Oh, great!” Colin said. “I was looking for you. We need your help.”

  “What do you mean?” Mike asked. “I know I’ve got a good swing, but I don’t think I’m allowed to bat.”

  Colin shook his head. “We don’t need your baseball skills,” he said. “We need your detective skills. Someone stole all our equipment bags!”

  “A thief is trying to sabotage our team!” Colin said. “We can’t start the game until our bags are found. Nobody has their gloves or helmets or bats! If we don’t find them in fifteen minutes, we’ll have to forfeit the game!”

  “Oh no!” Kate said. “When did you have them last?”

  “About half an hour ago,” Colin said. “We left the Grove with the bags and came down to the stadium. Zach told us to pile them next to the stadium entrance while we waited for the Mexico versus Japan game to finish. We all walked over to the outfield grass and watched the end of the game. When we came back, our bags were gone!”

  “We’ll help,” Mike said. “Kate and I can look for the bags.”

  Colin’s face broke into a big smile. “That’d be great,” he said. “We really need your help. Coach Caleb got the security team to look for them, but I’m not sure they’re going to find them in time!”

  “We’re on it!” Kate said. “Come on, Mike. Let’s start looking for clues near the stadium entrance.”

  Mike and Kate brushed past the fans still streaming into the stadium. They wound down the long entrance ramp and emerged back into the sunshine.

  The outside area was filled with fans and teams in bright orange and green uniforms on their way to the second stadium. Hickory-scented smoke rose from a large barbecue food stand. And there were lines of people waiting to try out their baseball skills in the Fun Zone area.

  Mike pointed to the outside corner of the stadium near the entrance. “They must have piled their bags there,” he said. “Let’s take a closer look.”

  Mike and Kate ran over to the corner of the stadium. The red brick of the stadium wall rose up from the dark blacktop.

  Kate scanned the area. “This whole place is paved, so we can’t search for footprints,” she said. “And I don’t see any trace of the bags. Maybe someone saw the thief take them?”

  Kate looked at the stores and stands across from the stadium. “What about that girl at the cotton-candy stand?” she asked. “Let’s ask her.”

  They ran across to the food stand. A teenage girl was running the register and selling bags of bright blue and pink cotton candy. Two people were in line. When it was Kate’s turn, she stepped up to the counter and asked the girl if she had noticed anyone taking the team’s bags.

  The girl looked across the stadium and shook her head. “I’ve been so busy all morning, I wasn’t really looking up that much,” she said. The girl thought for a moment. “The only thing I can remember noticing was one of the TV reporters driving an ATV earlier this morning. But I didn’t see any baseball bags on it.”

  “Okay, thanks for the help,” Mike said. He and Kate headed back across to the stadium.

  “That’s not a very strong lead,” Mike said. “And we don’t have much time. Let’s start at the spot where the bags were and spread out to look for clues.”

  Kate nodded. She and Mike started scanning the blacktop near the stadium again. A moment later, Mike leaned down. “Hey, look at this,” he called out.

  Kate ran over. Mike knelt and pointed to something white on the ground. “A trail!” he said.

  A faint trail of white powder ran along the side of the building. It was hard to see unless you knew to look for it.

  “Let’s follow it!” Mike said. He stood up and followed the trail as it snaked along the outside of the stadium, past a few maintenance doors and a closed ticket area. The white line seemed to grow fainter in some places.

  “Where’d it go?” Kate asked. The line stopped in the middle of one of t
he wide garage doors on the side of the stadium, beneath the stands. She walked farther along the building but didn’t see any trace of the white line.

  Mike studied the stadium and the garage door. “Well, either it stopped for some reason,” he said, “or it goes under this door!”

  Kate nodded. “It definitely doesn’t go any farther that way,” she said. “So I think we’ve only got one choice. Let’s look inside. There’s no sign saying we can’t. Give me a hand.”

  Kate reached down and grabbed the handle of the garage door. Mike helped her give the handle a tug. The door rumbled and rolled up.

  Sunlight shot into a cavernous space filled with equipment and supplies for field maintenance. Mike and Kate spotted rakes, shovels, buckets, hoses, and piles of line chalk and quick-drying materials for the field.

  Mike scanned the floor for the white line. He spotted it just inside the door. He pointed it out to Kate, and they followed it to an ATV parked in the back corner.

  The bed of the ATV was covered with a big tarp.

  Kate lifted the corner of the tarp a little to peek underneath.

  “Aha!” she said.

  “What? Did you find the bags?” Mike asked.

  “No,” Kate said. “But here’s where the white line came from!”

  Mike took a look.

  An empty bag of line chalk lay on the edge of the cart. The bottom of the bag, hanging over the edge of the cart, was ripped.

  “The white line came from this bag of chalk,” Mike said. “It must have been leaking out as the ATV drove in here.”

  Kate nodded. She leaned forward and pulled back the tarp even more.

  On the back of the ATV was a huge pile of baseball backpacks! They all had Cooperstown stitched on their side in white letters.

  “We found them!” Mike said.

  “And just in time!” Kate said. She grabbed two bags. “Come on, get a couple and we’ll take them to the team!”