Book 3 SAMPLE CONTENT: Book 3 - Chapter 1: Jenny Carson, the Flames’ center fielder hustles out to the batter’s box. She bats in her usual spot – the number six batter. The Flames jumped out to an early lead in this game and have held it ever since. The Flames have six runs and the East End Rockets only have one, in game three of the seeding round of the Junior League, Long Island Section 5 summer tournament. The Flames won the previous two games, giving them an undefeated summer streak. It’s late afternoon on this very warm and humid late June day. The sun is starting to fall from its midday peak and is behind the backstop from the pitcher’s perspective. This gives the batters an advantage as it’s harder for the pitchers to see their targets. Jenny looks over to Coach Margo who is coaching third base for her sign. Jenny waits for the indicator sign of Coach Margo touching her left elbow with her right hand. The next sign is the one to follow……. and it’s…… take the pitch. Jenny steps into the batter’s box with her back hand up toward the umpire indicating she needs a few seconds to get situated. Once her feet are ready, she drops her hand and grips her bat. The umpire signals to the pitcher that she can throw her pitch. The Rockets are dressed in their mostly all-white uniforms. Some kids think they are dressed like the ice-cream man, except the Rockets have a thin red double pinstripe down the side of their white pants. They are also wearing red socks and red belts. The Flames are wearing their red, white, and blue uniforms: red jersey top, white softball pants with red and blue stripes, blue socks and a blue belt. The pitch comes in and as expected by Coach Margo, it’s a ball. The Rockets’ pitcher has not been throwing many strikes on her first pitch. Coach Margo picked this up and is playing the odds that most of the first pitches will not be strikes. This strategy has been paying off since the fourth inning. Taylor Meyers screams out, “That’s it kiiiiiiiiidddd. We don’t swing at bad pitches. Stay in there two seven. You got this kid!” Jenny looks back over to Coach Margo and swings her red pony tail out of her way. She waits for the indicator sign and the next sign is sneaky bunt. Jenny steps back into the box with her back hand up. She situates herself near the front of the batter’s box. She stands tall with a regular stance. Taylor screams out from behind the dugout fence, “Here we go kid. Smash that ball. Stay hot kiiiiidddd. You got this!” Once the pitcher begins her wind up, Jenny slides her top hand off the grip and onto the barrel of the bat. She crouches down and turns to square up her shoulders with the path of the pitch. The pitch comes in as a fastball. This is just what Jenny was hoping for. She pulls her lower hand in toward her waist and angles the bat toward third base. The third baseman did not run up when Jenny squared up and is only now starting to move from her original position. Jenny adjusts her height by crouching slightly lower and taps the ball down the third base foul line. The ball dies about six feet down the line – far enough away that the catcher can’t easily get it and far enough from the third baseman that she needs to hustle to even have any chance of a play. Jenny drops her bat right in front of the plate and takes off like a sprinter for first base. The catcher and third baseman both arrive at the ball at the same time. Neither calls the ball and both bend down to pick it up. They end up clunking heads together. The Rockets’ catcher falls over and the third baseman eventually picks up the ball and throws it to her pitcher. The play is over with Jenny on second base! Alyssa and Taylor shout out almost in unison, “Yeah that’s it Jenny!” Alyssa continues, “Way to go kid. Turn a bunt into a double!” The Rockets’ coach calls over to the umpire, “Blue, time please.” The umpire grants the request. The Rocket’s coach, dressed in tan shorts, boat shoes with no socks, and a white polo shirt with the Rockets’ logo embroidered on the left breast charges out to the pitcher’s circle. He motions for his infield to join them. The coach doesn’t wait for everyone to arrive for the quick meeting, before starting to yell at a very loud volume at his players. “Girls you need to communicate. You need to do a better job. These Flames are beating you badly. We need to hold them here and try to get some runs going. We only have a half inning to try and get some runs back. Letting them get on base like that is unacceptable. Everyone here is responsible. You must communicate better – starting right now!” The Rockets’ coach storms back to the dugout and kicks the bucket of balls he was previously sitting on. The bucket goes flying into the dugout and the softballs go in every direction as the lid pops off. The coach goes to retrieve his seat but finds that he broke the side of the bucket where he kicked it! Julia Philips the Flames’ third baseman steps out of the on-deck cage and onto the field. As she heads toward the batter’s box, she looks over at Coach Margo, who gives her the take pitch sign. She enters the batter’s box and looks ready to kill the ball. Julia, who has been one of the most consistent hitters on the team all summer has to hold back her instinct to swing at the pitch. She makes herself ready and watches the pitch go by. It was most certainly a ball, but the umpire calls it a strike. Julia puts her hand up and steps out of the box. She looks pleadingly over to Coach Margo, who seeing the look on Julia’s face, shouts, “That’s OK Julia. That was not your pitch.” This tells Julia that the umpire got it wrong. She relaxes a bit and waits for her sign. This time it’s hit away. Julia re-enters the box with her hand up, looks toward the sky and spins the bat. She gets her feet set and takes a deep breath. Here comes the pitch, low in the zone but close to down the middle. Julia loves low pitches and she starts to smile. She gets ready for the low pitch and lines it up fairly well. She gets her swing timing very close to perfect. She makes contact and drives the ball on an upward trajectory. This ball could go all the way over the two-hundred-foot fence in center field. After she wraps the bat around completing her swing, she quickly takes off and drops the bat on the first base line. Julia is very athletic and a very fast runner. She has recorded times under three seconds running to first base. She pumps her arms – hips to lips with her fingers pointed straight out. She keeps her legs pumping and lengthens her stride as she comes up to speed. As she approaches first base, she looks toward Coach Matt. He has been watching the ball and gives Julia the “keep going” sign accompanied by shouting, “C’mon kid all the way to third!” Coach Matt watches the ball drop in just at the fence. In fact, it smacked right into the fence… just a foot or two short of a homerun. Jenny scores from second as the ball is thrown from centerfield to the cutoff. Julia rounds second and is just over halfway to third as the cutoff makes a fantastic throw to third base. Coach Margo has her hands up trying to tell Julia to stop and go back to second, but Julia is too focused on starting her slide to even see Coach Margo. The third baseman, who made an error before, now is correctly positioned, straddling the bag for the tag. If she can receive the ball and tag Julia down low on the leg before she touches the bag, Julia will be out. Julia starts her slide and tucks her leg underneath her. The ball is on its way to the third baseman. Julia’s foot kicks up a lot of dirt. Her foot is now inches from the bag. The third baseman receives the throw down low. All she has to do now is hang on to the ball and drop her glove to tag Julia. The ball hits the webbing in her glove. She squeezes her fingers to hold on and starts moving lower to make the tag. She tries to focus in on Julia’s foot and leg, but there is so much dust that is being kicked up. She tries anyway and lowers her glove down to where she approximates Julia to be. She touches Julia, then turns her head to see if she can see if she tagged Julia before her foot touches the bag. The third baseman can’t see anything. There’s simply too much dust kicked up! The trailing umpire struggles to see the play as well. A second after Julia stops her slide, the trailing umpire instructs the third baseman, “Show me your glove and the ball.” The third baseman lifts her arm up to show the umpire her glove. Carefully, she comes around with her throwing hand and removes the ball from the glove. The trailing umpire shouts, “She’s out!” He pumps his arm indicating the runner is out for those who can’t hear his call. Julia stands up, disappointed she was tagged out. She trots back to home plate and retrieves her bat and then enters the dugout. Coach Matt lightly taps Julia on top of her batting helmet and says, “Hey that was a beauty of a hit. That call could have gone either way. Great job with the hit and with hustling over to third. You also brought Jenny home!” Julia nods her head and changes her attitude from disappointment into being happy she brought Jenny home. One run closer to winning this game. Mary Mooney, the left fielder goes down in four pitches. Two out. Next up is Sue Stone the second baseman. Sue has performed well all summer and hits just like a cleanup hitter. She is big and strong and can really punch a ball. Sue steps onto the field and immediately looks over to Coach Margo for her sign. Breaking with her pattern, Coach Margo gives Sue the sign to hit away. Sue continues moving toward home plate and enters the batter’s box with her back hand up. She checks the position of her feet. She bounces a few times to get loose and then drops her hand to finalize her grip on the bat. Alyssa cheers her on, “That’s right Sue, just like last game! Good as gold! We should call you ‘Sure Thing’ Sue.” The pitcher winds up and throws a pitch that is low and outside. Sue lets it go by. Ball one. Sue steps one foot out of the batter’s box and takes her sign from Coach Margo – as expected it’s hit away. Sue re-enters the box. She checks her feet and bounces. This is her normal ritual. She makes herself ready and waits for the pitch to be thrown. The pitcher releases the ball and it’s an inside off-speed pitch that is about five miles per hour slower than the previous pitch. Sue adjusts her timing and swing for the inside pitch. She starts her swing with great bat speed and makes contact near the middle of the bat – right on the sweet spot. The contact makes a loud noise. The ball is hit to the left of the third base foul line and easily goes over the two-hundred and twenty foot fence. Sue took off on contact and is halfway to first base when the umpire calls the ball foul. She turns around and jogs back to home plate. She picks up her bat and immediately sees something is wrong. Her new DeMarini composite bat has a huge crack in it almost all the way through the barrel. Sue’s face and mood quickly turn from one of pride at hitting the ball over the fence to one of absolute horror. My brand-new bat is cracked! It’s broken! I can’t use this thing. That was my favorite bat. It’s the best bat I ever owned! Penny Porter runs out from the dugout and hands Sue her bat. It’s also a DeMarini and is the same length, only one-ounce lighter in weight. Penny sees the look on her friend’s face, “Hey Sue, it’s OK. It happens. Composite bats break all the time. Don’t sweat it. My bat is pretty good too. Hit us a dinger.” Sue, still in shock over her bat breaking, looks over at Coach Margo for her sign. The sign is the same as before – hit away. Sue is clearly still in shock and can’t seem to focus on her at bat. I can’t believe that happened. What am I going to do for a bat now? I can’t keep borrowing Penny’s bat. It’s the wrong size. Besides I like my bat better – it’s my bat. How does this happen? The count is now one ball and one strike. Sue gets herself set in the batter’s box and grips her bat waiting for the pitch. The pitch is another inside pitch, only this one is at the top of the strike zone. Sue mentally adjusts for the pitch and starts her swing. She makes contact with the ball and pops it up to the left fielder. Three outs. Well that certainly wasn’t what I was hoping for! Sheesh.  
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Book 3 SAMPLE CONTENT: Book 3 - Chapter 1: Jenny Carson, the Flames’ center fielder hustles out to the batter’s box. She bats in her usual spot – the number six batter. The Flames jumped out to an early lead in this game and have held it ever since. The Flames have six runs and the East End Rockets only have one, in game three of the seeding round of the Junior League, Long Island Section 5 summer tournament. The Flames won the previous two games, giving them an undefeated summer streak. It’s late afternoon on this very warm and humid late June day. The sun is starting to fall from its midday peak and is behind the backstop from the pitcher’s perspective. This gives the batters an advantage as it’s harder for the pitchers to see their targets. Jenny looks over to Coach Margo who is coaching third base for her sign. Jenny waits for the indicator sign of Coach Margo touching her left elbow with her right hand. The next sign is the one to follow……. and it’s…… take the pitch. Jenny steps into the batter’s box with her back hand up toward the umpire indicating she needs a few seconds to get situated. Once her feet are ready, she drops her hand and grips her bat. The umpire signals to the pitcher that she can throw her pitch. The Rockets are dressed in their mostly all-white uniforms. Some kids think they are dressed like the ice-cream man, except the Rockets have a thin red double pinstripe down the side of their white pants. They are also wearing red socks and red belts. The Flames are wearing their red, white, and blue uniforms: red jersey top, white softball pants with red and blue stripes, blue socks and a blue belt. The pitch comes in and as expected by Coach Margo, it’s a ball. The Rockets’ pitcher has not been throwing many strikes on her first pitch. Coach Margo picked this up and is playing the odds that most of the first pitches will not be strikes. This strategy has been paying off since the fourth inning. Taylor Meyers screams out, “That’s it kiiiiiiiiidddd. We don’t swing at bad pitches. Stay in there two seven. You got this kid!” Jenny looks back over to Coach Margo and swings her red pony tail out of her way. She waits for the indicator sign and the next sign is sneaky bunt. Jenny steps back into the box with her back hand up. She situates herself near the front of the batter’s box. She stands tall with a regular stance. Taylor screams out from behind the dugout fence, “Here we go kid. Smash that ball. Stay hot kiiiiidddd. You got this!” Once the pitcher begins her wind up, Jenny slides her top hand off the grip and onto the barrel of the bat. She crouches down and turns to square up her shoulders with the path of the pitch. The pitch comes in as a fastball. This is just what Jenny was hoping for. She pulls her lower hand in toward her waist and angles the bat toward third base. The third baseman did not run up when Jenny squared up and is only now starting to move from her original position. Jenny adjusts her height by crouching slightly lower and taps the ball down the third base foul line. The ball dies about six feet down the line – far enough away that the catcher can’t easily get it and far enough from the third baseman that she needs to hustle to even have any chance of a play. Jenny drops her bat right in front of the plate and takes off like a sprinter for first base. The catcher and third baseman both arrive at the ball at the same time. Neither calls the ball and both bend down to pick it up. They end up clunking heads together. The Rockets’ catcher falls over and the third baseman eventually picks up the ball and throws it to her pitcher. The play is over with Jenny on second base! Alyssa and Taylor shout out almost in unison, “Yeah that’s it Jenny!” Alyssa continues, “Way to go kid. Turn a bunt into a double!” The Rockets’ coach calls over to the umpire, “Blue, time please.” The umpire grants the request. The Rocket’s coach, dressed in tan shorts, boat shoes with no socks, and a white polo shirt with the Rockets’ logo embroidered on the left breast charges out to the pitcher’s circle. He motions for his infield to join them. The coach doesn’t wait for everyone to arrive for the quick meeting, before starting to yell at a very loud volume at his players. “Girls you need to communicate. You need to do a better job. These Flames are beating you badly. We need to hold them here and try to get some runs going. We only have a half inning to try and get some runs back. Letting them get on base like that is unacceptable. Everyone here is responsible. You must communicate better – starting right now!” The Rockets’ coach storms back to the dugout and kicks the bucket of balls he was previously sitting on. The bucket goes flying into the dugout and the softballs go in every direction as the lid pops off. The coach goes to retrieve his seat but finds that he broke the side of the bucket where he kicked it! Julia Philips the Flames’ third baseman steps out of the on-deck cage and onto the field. As she heads toward the batter’s box, she looks over at Coach Margo, who gives her the take pitch sign. She enters the batter’s box and looks ready to kill the ball. Julia, who has been one of the most consistent hitters on the team all summer has to hold back her instinct to swing at the pitch. She makes herself ready and watches the pitch go by. It was most certainly a ball, but the umpire calls it a strike. Julia puts her hand up and steps out of the box. She looks pleadingly over to Coach Margo, who seeing the look on Julia’s face, shouts, “That’s OK Julia. That was not your pitch.” This tells Julia that the umpire got it wrong. She relaxes a bit and waits for her sign. This time it’s hit away. Julia re-enters the box with her hand up, looks toward the sky and spins the bat. She gets her feet set and takes a deep breath. Here comes the pitch, low in the zone but close to down the middle. Julia loves low pitches and she starts to smile. She gets ready for the low pitch and lines it up fairly well. She gets her swing timing very close to perfect. She makes contact and drives the ball on an upward trajectory. This ball could go all the way over the two-hundred-foot fence in center field. After she wraps the bat around completing her swing, she quickly takes off and drops the bat on the first base line. Julia is very athletic and a very fast runner. She has recorded times under three seconds running to first base. She pumps her arms – hips to lips with her fingers pointed straight out. She keeps her legs pumping and lengthens her stride as she comes up to speed. As she approaches first base, she looks toward Coach Matt. He has been watching the ball and gives Julia the “keep going” sign accompanied by shouting, “C’mon kid all the way to third!” Coach Matt watches the ball drop in just at the fence. In fact, it smacked right into the fence… just a foot or two short of a homerun. Jenny scores from second as the ball is thrown from centerfield to the cutoff. Julia rounds second and is just over halfway to third as the cutoff makes a fantastic throw to third base. Coach Margo has her hands up trying to tell Julia to stop and go back to second, but Julia is too focused on starting her slide to even see Coach Margo. The third baseman, who made an error before, now is correctly positioned, straddling the bag for the tag. If she can receive the ball and tag Julia down low on the leg before she touches the bag, Julia will be out. Julia starts her slide and tucks her leg underneath her. The ball is on its way to the third baseman. Julia’s foot kicks up a lot of dirt. Her foot is now inches from the bag. The third baseman receives the throw down low. All she has to do now is hang on to the ball and drop her glove to tag Julia. The ball hits the webbing in her glove. She squeezes her fingers to hold on and starts moving lower to make the tag. She tries to focus in on Julia’s foot and leg, but there is so much dust that is being kicked up. She tries anyway and lowers her glove down to where she approximates Julia to be. She touches Julia, then turns her head to see if she can see if she tagged Julia before her foot touches the bag. The third baseman can’t see anything. There’s simply too much dust kicked up! The trailing umpire struggles to see the play as well. A second after Julia stops her slide, the trailing umpire instructs the third baseman, “Show me your glove and the ball.” The third baseman lifts her arm up to show the umpire her glove. Carefully, she comes around with her throwing hand and removes the ball from the glove. The trailing umpire shouts, “She’s out!” He pumps his arm indicating the runner is out for those who can’t hear his call. Julia stands up, disappointed she was tagged out. She trots back to home plate and retrieves her bat and then enters the dugout. Coach Matt lightly taps Julia on top of her batting helmet and says, “Hey that was a beauty of a hit. That call could have gone either way. Great job with the hit and with hustling over to third. You also brought Jenny home!” Julia nods her head and changes her attitude from disappointment into being happy she brought Jenny home. One run closer to winning this game. Mary Mooney, the left fielder goes down in four pitches. Two out. Next up is Sue Stone the second baseman. Sue has performed well all summer and hits just like a cleanup hitter. She is big and strong and can really punch a ball. Sue steps onto the field and immediately looks over to Coach Margo for her sign. Breaking with her pattern, Coach Margo gives Sue the sign to hit away. Sue continues moving toward home plate and enters the batter’s box with her back hand up. She checks the position of her feet. She bounces a few times to get loose and then drops her hand to finalize her grip on the bat. Alyssa cheers her on, “That’s right Sue, just like last game! Good as gold! We should call you ‘Sure Thing’ Sue.” The pitcher winds up and throws a pitch that is low and outside. Sue lets it go by. Ball one. Sue steps one foot out of the batter’s box and takes her sign from Coach Margo – as expected it’s hit away. Sue re-enters the box. She checks her feet and bounces. This is her normal ritual. She makes herself ready and waits for the pitch to be thrown. The pitcher releases the ball and it’s an inside off-speed pitch that is about five miles per hour slower than the previous pitch. Sue adjusts her timing and swing for the inside pitch. She starts her swing with great bat speed and makes contact near the middle of the bat – right on the sweet spot. The contact makes a loud noise. The ball is hit to the left of the third base foul line and easily goes over the two-hundred and twenty foot fence. Sue took off on contact and is halfway to first base when the umpire calls the ball foul. She turns around and jogs back to home plate. She picks up her bat and immediately sees something is wrong. Her new DeMarini composite bat has a huge crack in it almost all the way through the barrel. Sue’s face and mood quickly turn from one of pride at hitting the ball over the fence to one of absolute horror. My brand-new bat is cracked! It’s broken! I can’t use this thing. That was my favorite bat. It’s the best bat I ever owned! Penny Porter runs out from the dugout and hands Sue her bat. It’s also a DeMarini and is the same length, only one-ounce lighter in weight. Penny sees the look on her friend’s face, “Hey Sue, it’s OK. It happens. Composite bats break all the time. Don’t sweat it. My bat is pretty good too. Hit us a dinger.” Sue, still in shock over her bat breaking, looks over at Coach Margo for her sign. The sign is the same as before – hit away. Sue is clearly still in shock and can’t seem to focus on her at bat. I can’t believe that happened. What am I going to do for a bat now? I can’t keep borrowing Penny’s bat. It’s the wrong size. Besides I like my bat better – it’s my bat. How does this happen? The count is now one ball and one strike. Sue gets herself set in the batter’s box and grips her bat waiting for the pitch. The pitch is another inside pitch, only this one is at the top of the strike zone. Sue mentally adjusts for the pitch and starts her swing. She makes contact with the ball and pops it up to the left fielder. Three outs. Well that certainly wasn’t what I was hoping for! Sheesh.