The Boy Who Saved Baseball

The Boy Who Saved Baseball is a highly acclaimed middle grade novel by Southern California author John Ritter. Among other recognitions, the book received the 2004 Paterson Prize for Children’s Literature, the Child Magazine Best Book of the Year Award, and the New York Library Best Book for the Teen Age Award. Of his half-dozen middle grade sports novels, this story most closely mirrors Ritter’s upbringing. It is set in a small California town near the US-Mexico border, and Tom, the protagonist, is a daydreaming 12-year-old boy who loves baseball and wants to be a writer.

Tom’s idyllic country life is about to be upended as developers have convinced an aging doctor to sell them his family’s land, including a 100-year-old baseball field that will soon become a lake. Tom and his baseball teammates get to stage one baseball game against a superior team to save the ballfield and the entire community from redevelopment. Helping them in their struggle is a retired, reclusive baseball superhero, Dante Del Gato, and a mysterious addition to their team, Cruz de la Cruz, who rides into town on a white horse carrying a handmade bat. This guide refers to the Puffin Books 2003 paperback version of the novel.

Content Warning: The narrative contains several brief references to Dante’s struggle with excessive alcohol consumption. There is also a description of the wringing of a chicken’s neck. Ritter also refers to Indigenous citizens as “Indians” throughout.

Plot Summary

At the beginning of his summer vacation, 12-year-old Tom Gallagher visits his 87-year-old neighbor, Doc Altenheimer. Doc is glad to welcome his young friend since he finds himself at the center of controversy. Developers have offered Doc $6 million to sell them 300 acres, which includes the Lucky Strike baseball field. Tom tells Doc not to sell the land because it will result in the complete redevelopment of the area and the effective death of their shared hometown, Dillontown.

At a community meeting that evening, Doc surprises everyone by announcing that Tom has convinced him to give the town one more chance. There will be a game between the Dillontown Wildcats and their rivals, the Lakeside Vikings. If the Wildcats beat the Vikings for the first time, Dillontown will be spared.

The next day, the annual Wildcat baseball training camp begins. Many good players have defected to the Vikings, leaving just enough kids to field a baseball team. As Tom’s father, Jerry, gathers the team together, a boy rides down the mountain to the field on a horse. He introduces himself as Cruz de la Cruz. He explains that he lives 50 miles away and has come to participate in the camp.

The other players are quite curious about Cruz. Cruz commits himself to give his best to the effort and suggests they seek the help of the retired, reclusive major league star Dante Del Gato, a native of Dillontown, who lives in a walled compound nearby. On the first day of practice, a rag-tag band of local adults shows up to praise the players and pledge their support. Some of the supporters tell Jerry that they want him to step aside so they can get a better manager for the team. He refuses, saying he will step aside if someone better appears, but he is committed to the team.

The team sleeps in tents in Tom’s backyard. Cruz wakes Tom early in the morning and asks to go to Dante’s home. Riding their horses through the wilderness, they see evidence of the Indigenous people who lived in the area before Western Europeans confiscated the land. At Dante’s compound, Cruz scales the wall, inadvertently causing it to collapse. Dante appears with a shotgun and two guard dogs. Cruz explains the upcoming game and says they have come to ask for his help with the Wildcats. Dante refuses and tells them to leave.

As the Wildcats practice that morning, Dante drives up in his old pickup. He watches the players and speaks to each personally. He asks permission to run the last drill of the day. He leads the team up the mountain and tells them to run downhill without stopping and meet at second base.

The next day, Tom’s mother, Helen, privately explains that Dante once found her injured on the mountain and saved her life. Dante makes each player hit 100 balls and field 100 hits. As the players gather for supper, the town’s mayor, Oscar Calabaza, and the developer, Alabaster Jones, show up. Pretending to be concerned about the welfare of the Wildcats, they tell Dante to go back to his compound. Enraged, Dante gets in his truck and leaves without a word. Later that evening, Dante tells the boys that he left because he did not want to get into a fight with the mayor and Alabaster.

That night Tom and Cruz discuss Cruz’s computerized hitting simulator. Cruz believes it can teach batters how to hit any pitcher. They involve the whole team in the discussion, trying to figure out how to perfect the simulation. The answer comes to Tom in a moment of revelation.

The next morning Tom visits Doc, who apologizes for dropping the fate of Dillontown on Tom. Tom accepts his apology. Doc sends Tom to gather oranges from his tree while he writes words of encouragement on the last page of Tom’s journal, the Dreamsketcher. Back at practice, Tom finds TV reporters and journalists. The reemergence of Dante spurs great media interest. A radio commentator, Dodge Bullit, sets up a live broadcast on the grandstand steps and fields calls about whether Dillontown should be redeveloped. The team goes to the town library to work on their hitting software. The program helps them see the pitched ball accurately and make contact.

At the field the next day, many townspeople show up to help renovate the park, and more reporters also arrive. The mayor informs the volunteers there is no money in the town budget to reimburse them for the improvements.

At the end of the day, Alabaster confronts Tom alone in the dugout, grabbing him by the shirt and threatening the loss of his parents’ job and Tom’s school if the Wildcats win. Lying under the stars with the team that night, Tom feels inspired by the other players and realizes he will play to win regardless of Alabaster’s threats.

When the team arises on game day, they find that Cruz and all his belongings are gone. Dante encourages them not to linger on Cruz but to live up to their newly acquired potential. The team takes the field to thunderous applause. The game remains a 0-0 tie through the first three innings. Though María, the pitcher, injures her leg, through five innings, the Wildcats lead 3-1. María’s injury worsens in the last inning, allowing the Vikings to get three runs. Tom pitches for María using the special crossfire hurricane pitch Cruz taught him and gets three outs. In their last at-bat, the Wildcats miraculously escape three outs several times and win the game 5-4.

During the final inning, Doc suffers a fatal heart attack. It comes to light that his property legally must be sold at auction, meaning the developers get it. The team celebrates their win soberly. Awakened by something in the middle of the night, Tom sits at the kitchen table. He and Helen discuss Doc, reminding Tom of the inscription he wrote in his journal. It turns out to be Doc’s last will and testament, leaving all his property to Tom.