Babe Ruth’s Ghost

Kate sprang up and pulled the door to the storeroom open. She clicked on the light. The room was empty.

“Hey, look at that,” Mike said. He pointed to the fresh bits of dirt leading from the back wall to the door.

“What are you kids doing in here?” asked a deep voice.

Mike and Kate whirled around. “Mr. Williams!” they said.

“Didn’t I tell you two to leave the ghosts to me?” Mr. Williams asked.

“But …,” Mike started. “We were—”

“Never mind,” Mr. Williams said. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“You have?” Mike asked. “Why?”

“Bud told me you were still hunting for ghosts,” Mr. Williams said. He frowned. His eyebrows drew together in a dark line.

“Yes, we were,” Kate said. “But we just figured out who the ghost is!”

Mr. Williams’s eyes opened wide. “You did?” he asked.

Kate explained quickly what they had seen.

Mr. Williams rubbed his mustache. “Of course!” he said. “That’s why the ghost stories here were confusing. This is important information you’ve found out. We should tell security.”

Mike looked at his feet. “I don’t want to get Sammy in trouble,” he said. “But I guess you’re right.”

Mr. Williams led them to the stadium’s security office. There, for the second time, Mike and Kate explained the mystery of the ghost.

“You two are real ghost hunters,” the security chief said. “But we’ll take it from here. Why don’t you go enjoy the game? I’ll meet you in the pressroom afterward and give you an update.”

Mike and Kate went to their seats. The Yankees were behind by two runs. With all the excitement, the cousins found it hard to concentrate on the game. But they cheered along with the other fans when the Yankees hit three home runs to come back and win.

After the game ended, Mike and Kate went to the pressroom. The security chief was there with Kate’s mom, Bud, and Mr. Williams. Most of the reporters and photographers had already left. Mike and Kate sat down in two dark blue chairs near the front windows.

“What happened?” asked Mike.

“After you told us about the ghost, our ushers found Sammy and his friends,” the chief said. “We brought them to the security office and called their parents. They admitted to sneaking into Yankee Stadium through the air vent.”

Mike swiveled around in his chair and nodded at Kate.

“I knew it,” Kate said. “Once I saw Sammy with the punch on his shirt, I knew it had to be him.”

“How were they getting into the vent?” Mr. Williams asked. “Aren’t the vents usually covered?”

The chief held up a small, shiny gold object. Kate leaned forward to get a good look at it.

“Sammy’s father has keys to all of our air-conditioning systems,” the chief said. “Sammy took this one. He used it to unlock a special access closet on the outside of the stadium. It’s right behind the bushes near the parking garage. The boys climbed into the vent there. We’re going to give it back to his father.”

“That’s where the dirt and wood chips were coming from,” Mike said.

Just as Mike and Kate had figured out, the ghostly events were caused by Sammy. The chief said that since it was spring, the air-conditioning wasn’t on yet, so Sammy wasn’t in any danger. But when he opened the outside vent cover, the cold spring air came rushing in all at once.

“Like this?” Mike asked. He spun his chair around and reached for the handle of one of the big pressroom windows. With a small nudge, he slid the window open. A rush of cool air blew into the room. It swept stray scraps of paper from the nearby desks.

“Mike! You’d better shut that window,” Mrs. Hopkins said. “Look at the mess you’re making!”

“That’s exactly what the ghost felt like!” Bud said.

Mike and Kate laughed. Mike closed the window and took one last look at the stadium. On the field, men and woman in blue shirts were raking the infield dirt and removing the white bases. He swiveled back to face the room.

“Sammy seemed nice,” Kate said. “He even gave away that ball he caught. It’s too bad he was sneaking in without paying.”

“He is a good kid,” the chief said. “He’s been working here with his dad, and people like him a lot. But he made a bad decision about using the key to sneak in.”

“Why didn’t he just buy tickets?” Mrs. Hopkins asked.

“He loves the Yankees, but didn’t want to spend money on tickets. He’s trying to save for college,” the chief said. “He was working with his father during school vacations and the summer to earn extra money.”

“Are you going to arrest him and his friends?” Mike asked.

“No. But they are going to have to pay us back for all the games they sneaked into,” the chief said. “Sammy has already agreed to work on Saturdays until the tickets are paid off. He’ll help out around the stadium.”

The security chief rustled around in his front pocket and pulled out two shiny white strips of paper with gold writing on them. They looked like some type of special ticket.

“I wanted to thank you for solving our ghostly mystery,” he said. He handed a white-and-gold ticket to Mike and Kate. “Without your help, the stadium would still be haunted! Next time you’re here, let me know. You can use these special passes to see the game from the owner’s box.”

Mike and Kate turned the tickets over in their hands. The front of the tickets had a special hologram image of Yankee Stadium and the words OWNER’S PASS written in bright gold letters. The back of each ticket was stamped VALID FOR ANY GAME.

“Wow! That would be great,” Mike said. “Does that mean we can tell the manager who to put in the game?”

The security chief laughed. “No, I don’t think so. I’m afraid not even our owner can do that. But you could say hello to the manager instead.”

Mike smiled. “I’ve never watched a game from a luxury box before,” he said.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Mr. Williams said. “I was looking for you earlier because I had something for you.”

He reached into a bag and pulled out two copies of Ghosts in the Ballpark. He handed one each to Kate and Mike. “But maybe you don’t need any advice on ballpark ghosts anymore,” he said. “You two seem to be doing pretty well on your own.”

“Thanks,” Kate said. “But I do have a question. One of the ushers told us she’s seen a strange man dressed in pinstripes around the stadium before games. Whenever she goes over to get a better look, he’s gone.”

“I think I saw him before yesterday’s game,” Mike said. “He was in Monument Park. He tipped his hat toward the field and then disappeared up the stairs.”

“I haven’t heard about that one,” Mr. Williams said. “Maybe we have another ghost on the loose!”

“At first we thought it was the same ghost that Bud was talking about,” Mike said. “But it can’t be Sammy, because he’s outside the stadium before the games. Who do you think it is?”

“Well, I don’t know for sure,” Mr. Williams said. He tugged on his mustache. “Maybe it’s the real ghost of Babe Ruth!”