The Boy Who Saved Baseball

At lunch the next day, Helen finds Tom. He writes in his notebook about running down the mountain with María, to whom he has become partial. Helen explains to her son that, years before he was born, she had been riding their horse, Pronto, and got caught in a thunderstorm. Lightning struck nearby, and she fell off the horse. She woke to discover that Dante had found her and taken her to Doc. Tom asks why they didn’t tell everybody about it so Dante could be known as a hero. She replies that it is complicated. She says, “…many times over the years I wished we had let the whole world know. But it wasn’t up to us” (99).

Dante takes over as team manager. He assigns everybody a particular position to play and says they must learn everything about their position before the game. They have four days to prepare. Dante tells María to pitch batting practice. She is a softball pitcher and pitches underhanded. No one can hit her pitches except Cruz, who grows in his insight into what it takes to hit the ball. They hit and catch extensively. As the day wears on, Tom begins to catch and field the ball cleanly.

When the day is over, the players are exhausted. Cruz grabs his laptop and says he will talk to Del Gato because he has figured out the secret of hitting.

As the players eat the supper prepared for them by the ever-present volunteers, the mayor and a financier named Alabaster Jones arrive in a Cadillac with cow horns on the front. They greet the gathered citizens jovially and initially come across as if wishing them well. The mayor and Alabaster quickly begin to criticize Dante and the team’s practice routine, making derogatory references to Dante. Rather than arguing with them, Dante gets in his truck and drives away.

The players worry that he has abandoned the team just as he did the Padres before the World Series and is not coming back. As they consider this during the evening, Tom and Cruz see Dante’s truck at Doc’s house, and they go there. When Doc goes inside to make some orange juice, Cruz confronts Dante: “Mr. Del Gato, are you still going to coach our team?” (113). Dante explains that he didn’t want to get into an argument or a fight with the mayor or Alabaster and that he has no intention of quitting.

Cruz opens his laptop, attempting to display the video game he created based on Dante’s hitting method. Cruz says it can teach the players how to be great hitters. Dante says he would like to see it, and then he begins to talk about how he learned to be a great hitter. He explains his reason for leaving the game before the World Series. Hitting had become too simple for him. He felt it would have ruined the game for him to have gone on playing knowing what he could do. He leaves abruptly.

Tom and Cruz discuss what they can do to train the other kids to become outstanding batters in the three days before the game. Tom stands outside the shower stall, talking to Cruz. They discuss taking his video game, which he has almost perfected, and using it to teach the others to bat.

They find all the players lying on the ground, taking turns looking through Ramón’s telescope at Saturn. Cruz opens his computer and tells them about the video game. Everyone is enthusiastic until some point out the limitations of not knowing whether you hit the ball. Suddenly, it occurs to Tom to look at the simulation not from the batter’s point of view but from the pitcher’s, which would allow the hitters to see whether or not they’re hitting the ball: “Suddenly he bolted straight up. ‘That’s it!’ he whispered. ‘I think I got it’” (125).

Tom wakes early, full of thoughts he wants to write everything down before others awake. He takes care of the horses, does his chores, and then goes to Doc’s porch with his newspaper. Doc comes out, sits down, and apologizes to Tom for putting the burden of saving the ballfield on him. He talks about how nostalgic he feels with all of the activity and baseball excitement. He says what’s happened is reminiscent of how things used to be. Doc says, “We live a life out here that only poor, simple folks can enjoy. Rich people can’t afford to live like us. They don’t have the time” (127). He asks for Tom’s forgiveness and for permission to write something in the back of Tom’s book for him to read when he fills it up. Tom collects oranges while Doc writes in the back of his book. Tom wonders if Doc read what Tom had written about him in the Dreamsketcher. Doc asks if Tom will write for a living, and Tom says it’s very difficult for a person to make a living as a writer.

They call Tom to come back down the hill. Camera operators and reporters from a TV station are there to watch practice. The Wildcats start their practice in the barn.

Several media outlets show up for the practice. Dante brings the players inside the Gallaghers’ barn and makes them focus on lights that cascade forward and back, like Christmas lights. He makes them focus on one light at a time to help their perspective as a baseball comes at them. He says that, after practice that afternoon, they will go to the library and view Cruz’s video game.

Outside, they discover that even more media outlets have appeared. The word is circulating that the town’s future rests on one youth baseball game and that Dante has resurfaced after 20 years of absence. Reporters shout questions at Dante, who ignores them. Like many other citizens, the mayor shows up to watch the practice and speak to the media. A local radio personality, Dodge Bullit, begins his call-in radio program in the stands. He talks to the mayor and residents, who take different sides about whether it’s a good idea for the developers to bring in the new subdivision. Bullit asks for a ballplayer to speak: “He scanned the crowd, settling his eyes on Tom. ‘What about you down there?’” (138). When Tom fearfully cannot speak, Cruz approaches Bullit and speaks very eloquently about what it means to drive people from the land, which happened to his ancestors.

Following lunch, the players resume their best positions for practice. Cruz shows Tom how to throw his crossfire hurricane pitch.

The team relocates to the library, carrying bats and other supplies. Helen has set up computer stations with multiple cameras. Tom explains to the players how to set up the cameras and adjust the computers so they will look exactly the way they will when they face the other team. After hours of refining the system, they begin to hit the pitch coming at them from the computer screen. When he first tries, Cruz hits a home run, which he repeats again and again, exciting the other players.

The kids wake to the sound of hammers and nails at 6:30 a.m. Volunteers have shown up to transform the aged ballfield into a new venue. The mayor stands outside the dugout and announces that the workers will not be reimbursed for their efforts. María climbs out of the dugout and confronts the mayor and Alabaster, who decries the game as a waste of time. María says, “…there is something amazing happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” (149). With that, she runs onto the field and then up the mountain, joined by her teammates. Tom has a feeling unlike anything he has ever felt as he runs down the mountain. Their workout is transformed by a sense that what they are doing is incredibly important, and the feeling is almost the same as if they were playing the game.

On the last day of practice, Dodge Bullit, the broadcaster, returns, asking people who they think will win the game. The team plays exceptionally well, showing the polish acquired. In particular, they are exceptional at the plate. Everyone makes contact with the pitches. The last batter is Cruz, who puts on a show, hitting the ball exactly where he wants and calling his shots. The fans in the bleachers watch in silent awe.

An ESPN reporter sees Tom sitting on the back of the outfield wall and asks him questions about who he is and what he thinks. Tom asks the man if he is present because Dante has resurfaced. The reporter answers, “Oh, no. Don’t you see, kid? This Big Game, your whole situation here, has caught the attention of the entire nation. It’s David versus Goliath! It’s loyalty versus the big bucks” (156). As the team leaves after practice, Tom remains behind in the dugout and takes his Dreamsketcher. As he begins to take notes, he sees Alabaster watching him.

Alabaster Jones descends into the dugout alone with Tom. When Alabaster insults Dante, Tom pushes his fear aside and responds, “Mr. Del Gato is not a disgrace. He has a lot of grace” (160). Alabaster threatens Tom, grabbing his T-shirt and turning his fist to tighten it on Tom’s neck. He spells out a list of dire things that will happen to Tom, his parents, and the town if the Wildcats win. Tom says that he is not trying to hurt Alabaster and asks why Alabaster wants to hurt him. Alabaster responds that money is more important than talent or brains and that, if it had not been a search for money, Columbus would never have come to the United States, and where would we be in that case?

That evening after they eat, the players lie in the backyard with their heads together like the spoke of a wheel. They ask one another if they think they can win. Tom does not participate, remembering the threats of Alabaster. One after another, they talk about whether they think they can win. Although they know the odds are against them, they also know how much they have improved. Rachel says that if they don’t act in fear, they will do their best and can live with whatever happens. Tom realizes that he cannot let Jones dictate his actions and will play to win the next day. Cruz de La Cruz ends the comments that night: “‘Rachel,’ he whispered. ‘Will you run away with me?’” (166).