sdoyle's Blog

The Batboy 

Review By Sean Doyle

For my third term book review I chose The Batboy By Mike Lupica. I chose this book because I love baseball and Mike Lupica is one of my favorite authors.

This book is about a boy named Brian who’s dad pitched in the major leagues and now lives in Japan and never see’s Brian anymore. Brian has always loved baseball and he decided to write a letter to Jim Schenkel about a batboy job for the Detroit Tigers. Six weeks later he gets a letter back that says Brian we would love to have you as a batboy but you are to young you have to be sixteen and you are only eleven. Brian was upset about this but he didn’t let it bother him. In two years Brian remembers that he didn’t put in the letter that his dad was a major league pitcher. Brian wrote back saying that I know that I am too young to be a batboy but I just want to tell you that my dad Cole Dudley was a major league pitcher and that he is now a pitching coach for a team over in Japan. A week later Brian gets another letter and it says that Brian could be a batboy as long as he acts like a responsible adult. Brian agreed to this and two months later he was a Tigers batboy. He had to fill up gatorade buckets, get water and gum for the team, and worst of all do their laundry. Good thing that he had another batboy to help him. One day when Brian’s favorite Tigers player was taking batting practice Hank Bishop he went out and watched him hit. When Hank went back to his locker Brian thought that it would be a good idea for him to say something to Hank but he was wrong. Hank flipped out on him and Brian didn’t speak to him again for three months when finally Hank asked Brian to go and get him new batting gloves from the closet and when Brian got back Hank said ” Hey man I am sorry that I flipped out on you three months ago”. The Tigers went on to win the next twenty games then lose in the final game to the Cleveland Indians.

I would recommend this book to anybody who likes baseball books or who likes books with a good story behind them.

Baseball Crazy

I just finished reading the book ” Baseball Crazy” . The book  has ten short stories that cover all the bases. They are by Jerry Spinelli, Frank Portman, Sue Corbett, Paul Acampora, Ron Koertge, David Rice, Maria Testa, John H. Ritter, Charles R. Smith JR. and, Joseph Bruchac. My favorite one is Smile Like Jeter.

It is about a little boy who plays T-Ball and his favorite baseball player is Derek Jeter. The little boy also wants to play shortstop. He never missed a Yankees game , the only reason he watched was to see his hero Derek Jeter. When he was old enough to play baseball he was a great player. Then when he showed up for Little League his coach told him that he had the body of a catcher, but he said back I’m a shortstop not a catcher.” Well you are now” said the coach, as he turned him around facing the shortstop he said that’s a shortstop. The girl had long arms, long legs, the ability to turn, leap, throw, smile and had long hair. Then it was clear to him that he was the new catcher. Later that day he found out that the shortstops name was Ruth. When they picked jerseys at the end he picked number 2 for Derek Jeter and Ruth put on a huge frown. The next weekend was the teams first game. He got so nervous when he started putting on this shin guards, chest pad, helmet and, his glove. The games and practices went good for the next two months, so good that Ruth and him got put on the All-Star team. When the All-Stars were over Ruth and him where best friends.

I liked this book because it had 10 short stories about my favorie sport. I would recommend this book to a friend because, it is a great book and a short and easy read. I would  also recommend this book to any person who likes baseball or softball.

- Sean Doyle

                 In the book Catcher with a Glass Arm  Jody is a catcher for the Dolphins baseball team. He has never throw a guy out in a game. One day at the end of a baseball practice he started to walk home when his coach came over to him and said ” would you like to stay and work on your catching”? Jody said ” sure” then they went and got there gear, gloves, and baseballs and started to practice. The coach helped him with his blocking, his receiving of the ball, and then last of all his ability to throw people out at second and third. First he had Jody get the pitch then throw it to first base for practice. He did fine at that so coach had him throw the ball to third base. He did better so then coach had him throw down to second base. He threw the ball over the base, around the base, and on a bounce to the base but he couldn’t get it right on the base. After the coach drove him home and Jody had dinner. The next 3 days the Dolphins had games. They won 2 out of the 3 games. They moved up to second place with 5 more games to play. Everyday for the next week Jody would practice either in his backyard or at practice with his coach. The next 3 days he had another set of 3 games but this time the Dolphins won all the games and are now in first place. On the next weekend they lost both there games putting them in second place but they will still be in the play-offs next weekend. In the play-offs the Dolphins were losing 3-4 in the last inning. Then there was a strike him out throw him out double play and the Dolphins were up to bat. The bases were loaded for Jody and he hit a double and the Dolphins won the game 5-4.

 - Sean Doyle