Jack kept an eagle eye on all the players. He watched the Dodgers take their positions on the field.

He watched the Braves batter choose a bat and head to home plate.

He watched the Dodgers pitcher wind up and throw.

The Braves batter hit the ball hard. It landed outside the foul line.

“Foul ball!” called the umpire.

Jack jumped up and ran to get the ball. He tossed it smoothly to the umpire at home plate. Then he returned to his stool.

Now and then the wind gusted through the ballpark. But each time, Jack grabbed his cap to make sure it stayed on his head.

The pitcher pitched another ball.

The batter swung his bat. He missed.

“Strike!”

The pitcher pitched again.

The batter hit a ground ball. He dropped his bat and ran toward first base.

The pitcher snatched up the ball and threw it. The first baseman caught it—just before the batter reached the base!

“Out!” called the first-base umpire.

The Dodgers fans cheered. The Braves fans booed.

Annie picked up the player’s bat and returned it to the dugout.

Jack darted to home plate and gave new baseballs to the umpire.

As the game went on, Jack and Annie stayed in the center of the action. But they never got in the way.

Annie picked up bats that the players dropped and replaced them in the rack.

Jack kept a close eye on all the baseballs. He counted the ones that went into the stands. He raced after foul balls. He carried three balls to the umpire for every three lost.

Fans cheered and booed. If the musicians in the stands didn’t agree with an umpire’s call, they played “Three Blind Mice.”

Finally the Braves had three outs. It was time for the Dodgers to bat. Now their batboys would look after the balls and bats.

Jack and Annie headed to the clubhouse to get more water and towels for their team.

“Hey, kid!” A Braves coach pointed at Jack. “Move down the line.”

Jack understood perfectly. Holding on to his cap, he jogged out to center field.

Jack sat on a stool close to the stands. His job now was to retrieve ground balls outside the foul lines.

Within minutes, a foul rolled into right field. Jack ran and grabbed it. He tossed it perfectly to a Dodgers batboy.

“Yes!” Jack said to himself. He couldn’t wait to throw again. He sat back on his stool, pressed his cap down on his head, and waited eagerly for more ground balls.

But as the Dodgers kept batting, no more balls came Jack’s way. For the first time, he had a moment to think.

Why did Morgan send us to this particular game? Jack wondered. Why did she call it “a big day for baseball”? Why did Otis say it was a big day, too? So far, the game was pretty ordinary, Jack thought. It was even a little boring.

Plus, how was being a batboy supposed to make him a great player? He had only thrown a couple of balls, and he wouldn’t get to bat at all!

“Hey, batboy!” a kid called from the stands behind him.

More souvenir seekers, Jack thought.

“An autographed ball!” another kid yelled.

Jack ignored the kids’ shouting. He refused to look over his shoulder.

“A Dodgers cap!” “A Braves cap!” “Your cap!”

The begging soon turned to heckling and booing.

“Go home!”

“Go back where you came from!”

What do they mean? thought Jack. Can they tell I’m from Frog Creek?

He tried to ignore all the shouting. But the hecklers sounded different now. Their voices had grown harsh and mean. They sounded like grown-ups, not kids.

“You don’t belong here!”

“Throw him out, ump!”

Jack started to get angry. This was more than just annoying.

“Get out of here!” another heckler shouted.

Jack couldn’t help it. He whirled around and yelled, “You get out of here!”

To his surprise, Jack saw that the hecklers weren’t yelling at him—or even looking at him.

“Don’t let him bat!” someone shouted.

“Throw him out!” said another.

They were shouting at the Dodgers player who was up at bat. Many in the stands were cheering for him. But these few were yelling really mean things.

Why? Jack looked around. The batter was the black player he’d seen earlier. He seemed to be the only black player in the game. Is that why these people are yelling? Jack wondered.

The batter hit a ground ball to third base.

The third baseman grabbed it. He threw it to first.

“Out!” the umpire shouted.

“That’s right! Throw him out!” a woman shrieked.

Jack was stunned. He didn’t understand. The player ignored the jeers and walked calmly back to the dugout. He held his head high.

Jack wished he could go talk to the player. He wanted to say something kind and supportive.

Suddenly a new batter hit a ground ball to left field. It was outside the line.

“Foul!” the umpire shouted.

Jack ran to get the ball.

At the same time, a kid jumped over the wall of the stands. The kid ran to get the foul ball, too.

Jack got there first. But as he bent down to grab the ball, the wind blew his cap off. The other boy snatched Jack’s cap from the grass and took off!