Nancy Krulik - Major League Mess-Up

Major League Mess-Up

by Nancy Krulik illustrated by John & Wendy

Grosset & Dunlap

For my parents, Gladys and Steve, baseball fans since the Ebbets Field days!N.K.

For Sarah, a most valuable player: Were glad were on her team!J&W

GROSSET & DUNLAP

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Text copyright 2008 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright 2008 by John and Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Printed in the U.S.A.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007039736

eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-17387-3

Version_1

Take me out to the ball game! Take me out with the crowd, Katie Carew sang out with her dad and her friends during the seventh inning stretch. At the end of the song, she plopped down in the hard blue seat at Cherrydale Stadium right between her two best friends, Suzanne Lock and Jeremy Fox. I love baseball games, she told them.

Me too! Jeremy exclaimed. Especially when the Cherrydale Porcupines are on a winning streak.

The Porcupines are really sticking it to the competition, Katie agreed. She pointed to the hat she was wearing. It was a baseball cap with blue and green rubber porcupine spikes all over.

I cant believe you are wearing that thing on your head, Suzanne said. Its hideous.

No its not, Katie insisted. It shows I have team spirit.

Weve got that spirit, Jeremy cheered.

Come on, lets hear it! Katie echoed.

Go Porcupines! Suzanne and Jeremy shouted.

A little louder, Katies dad sang out, joining in on their cheer.

GO PORCUPINES! the kids screamed.

Katies father laughed. Say it loud. Say it proud! he cheered.

Katie smiled. They were definitely loud. But not nearly as loud as the guy in the green and blue striped shirt selling popcorn.

Popcorn! Get your popcorn here! he called out.

Are you kids hungry? Mr. Carew asked Jeremy, Suzanne, and Katie.

Id like some popcorn, please, Suzanne said.

Me too, Jeremy agreed.

Make it three, Katie chimed in.

As Mr. Carew paid the man for the three cartons of popcorn, Jeremy looked down at the baseball field. We can see every player perfectly from here, he said.

I always get seats near first base, Katies dad told him. Its where my dad and I sat when I was a teenager.

Katie giggled. It was kind of hard to imagine her grown-up dad as a teenage boy.

Did you really go to college with Jim Borden, the old shortstop? Jeremy asked Mr. Carew. Katie told us you did.

Katies dad nodded. He was a couple of years ahead of me in school, but I saw him around campus. He was amazing back then. He didnt hit anything but home runs!

Just like Mike Reed now, Jeremy said.

Katie frowned. Mike Reed was the Porcupines new starting shortstop. Because of him, her favorite player, Jim Borden, had to sit on the bench.

I think Jim Borden should still be the starting shortstop! Katie exclaimed.

He cant play as well as he used to. This is probably his last season, Katies dad explained. Age catches up with athleteseven the great ones.

But you are always saying how important experience is. And Jim Borden has plenty of that, Katie reminded her father. Then she turned to Jeremy. And besides, hes so nice. Remember back in second grade when he came to school on career day? He talked about being a baseball player. At recess, he even showed us how to catch fly balls. And helped us with our batting, too. You should be more loyal, Jeremy.

Jim Borden was a nice guy, but Mike Reed is going to take us to the championships, Jeremy insisted. Do you know how many home runs hes hit this season?

Do you like Jim Borden better than Mike Reed? Katie asked Suzanne.

Suzanne just shrugged. I dont care who plays, she said. Im just here because it gave me an excuse to wear my green and blue glitter shirt.

Katie rolled her eyes. Well, I care! she insisted. Jim Borden is a much better player than Mike Reed.

You wish, Jeremy told her.

Katies face turned beet-red. I do not! she shouted angrily. I do not wish anything!

Mr. Carew, Jeremy, and Suzanne all looked at Katie as though she were nuts.

But Katie wasnt nuts. Not at all. She just hated wishes.

Katie had learned all about wishes last year, when she was in third grade. It started one terrible, horrible day when Katie had missed the football and lost the game for her team. Then shed fallen in a big mud puddle and ruined her favorite pair of jeans. Even worse, shed let out a huge embarrassing burp in front of the whole class.

That night, Katie had wished she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star overhead or something, because the next day the magic wind came.

The magic wind was a superstrong, tornado-like wind that blew only around Katie. It was so powerful that every time it came, it turned Katie into someone else.

The first time the magic wind came it turned Katie into Speedy, the class 3A hamster. Shed been stuck in Speedys cage all morning with nothing to do but run around and around on his hamster wheel and eat wooden chew sticks. When she had finally escaped she wound up hidden inside George Brennans stinky sneaker! Yuck!

Katie was so glad when the magic wind returned and changed her back into herself. But that wasnt the end of it. The magic wind kept coming back.

One time it turned her into Suzanne right before a big fashion show. What a disaster that had been! Katie had no idea how to model. She put on Suzannes outfit backward and almost fell off the runway.

Poor Suzanne. Her first fashion show had been a disaster. And she had no idea how or why that had happened.