Derek stared out the car window as he sat behind his mom, who was driving. Neither of them said much. He guessed she was thinking about the promotion at work she was waiting on.
Not knowing is hard, he thought. Just like it was for him, not knowing who was going to be on his team.
Vijay, seated next to Derek, was doing most of the talking. He seemed to be in a great mood, going on and on about spring being here, and what a beautiful day it was…
Well, it was.
Derek knew his friend had the right idea. Why should he upset himself in advance? Why should anyone? There’d be plenty of time to be upset later, if things turned out badly.
Ugh. Now he felt even worse. Why was his stomach churning, anyway? He and Vijay had just had a snack before leaving.
“I’ll be back at five to pick you up,” Mrs. Jeter said as she dropped them off. “Sorry I can’t stay the whole time, but I’ve got to go down to the office and drop off some work. Have fun.”
“We will!” Vijay told her.
“Bye, Mom, see you later,” said Derek, a little less excitedly.
He spotted Pete Kozlowski first thing—big, tall, with his dad right behind him, carrying the duffel bag with the team bats and helmets. Derek shook his head. Pete should have been helping, but he wasn’t. Not a good sign, since Derek was hoping he’d changed his routine.
“Over there.” Derek pointed, and he and Vijay made for the field where Pete and his dad were unloading.
There were four fields at Westwood, and they all met in the deep outfield. Hitting a ball so far it went onto someone else’s field was something to brag about—and Pete had done it a couple times that Derek remembered.
There were three other kids there already. Two of them Derek recognized right away—and winced—Elliott Koppel and Norman Nelson. He remembered them from that same Tigers team, the one with Pete and his dad.
Elliott and Norman had been more interested in goofing around than in seriously playing the game. They always had a good time, but they sure didn’t make the team any better. In fact, they’d badly sapped team spirit. But in the last game of the season, one of them—Derek forgot which—had made a spectacular play that won them the game.
So at least there was that.
Derek wondered if Norman could possibly be related to Mr. Nelson, Saint Augustine’s hard-driving basketball coach.
No, there was no way that could be possible, he decided.
Either way, though, these Yankees were shaping up to be a bust so far.
The third kid standing with Norman and Elliott was Ryan McDonough, who had also been on that team. Ryan was a really good first baseman. He was twelve years old and already almost six feet tall. Derek could only imagine how much more power he had in his swing now that he had grown so much bigger.
Vijay greeted them all, and so did Derek—saving Pete for last.
“Jeter!” Pete said. “I knew you were gonna be here. Took a peek at my dad’s roster last night.”
“Same old Pete, huh?” Derek said, shaking his head.
“Why mess with success?” Pete shot back.
Derek nodded. “Hmm. Well, you’re a lot bigger than last time I saw you.”
“I grew six inches. Not you, though, I notice,” Pete said, giving Derek the once-over. “Still waiting on that growth spurt?”
Derek wanted to react, but just then, Mr. Kozlowski came over to say hello. “Hey! Derek! Great to see you, kid. You too, Vidgee!”
“It’s Vijay,” Vijay corrected him.
“Right. Right. I’ll get it. Give me a little time. Good to see you guys again!”
“You too, Coach!” Vijay said cheerfully.
Harry arrived, and after him, two more kids who had been part of Derek and Vijay’s championship team last year—Mason Adams and Miles Kaufman. Derek was glad to see Mason in particular. He was a speedy leadoff-type hitter and a real pest on the bases, plus he could play either second base or center field.
Miles was a good teammate, but not much of a hitter or fielder. On the other hand, he’d improved a lot with Derek’s dad and Chase as his coaches. At least he would come to play every single game and give it his all. Derek hoped both he and Mason still remembered some of the coaching lessons they’d learned.
Other kids arrived—kids Derek didn’t know, or at least not as baseball players. A couple went to Saint Augustine but weren’t in his class. Two were from public schools in the area, and one from another private school. He sure hoped they were good players. If so, there was enough talent to make up a decent team. If not… well…
Finally, their other coach arrived with his son. At least this kid was carrying the duffel bag, Derek noticed.
This coach had the roster in his hand, and was going over it carefully, while Pete’s dad looked over his shoulder, pointing out which kid corresponded to which name on the list. The other coach checked them off, then looked around in confusion, as if there were still someone missing. He looked at his watch, then started chewing on his pencil and pacing back and forth.
Meanwhile, everyone else seemed to be trying to get his attention. All the boys were throwing balls back and forth to one another—grounders, pop-ups, liners, dribblers—trying to make every play look spectacular to impress the coaches.
Pete’s dad was now focused on his own son. It was just the same as Derek remembered from three years ago.
“Atta boy, Pete! Great play, great play!” And Pete, tipping the brim of his cap like he was saluting the roaring crowd at Yankee Stadium. Derek shook his head slowly. Someone else might make a really great play, and Pete’s dad would never even notice.
Derek did a quick head count. Twelve kids. Usually, teams had thirteen, so he understood why the coach kept looking around for the missing kid.
But it was getting late. They only had two hours here, and Derek wanted to get out on that field and see what the Yankees had going!
Finally, a kid in jeans and a baseball cap hopped out of a car that had pulled up to the curb. The kid was headed straight for them, waving, and the coach was waving back. “Okay,” he said with a big sigh. “Here we go.”
As the kid approached, Derek got the sense that there was something different about him. And then, suddenly, he knew what it was—the kid was a girl!
She removed her cap, and long brown hair tumbled out. “Sorry I’m late, Coach,” she said.
Every other kid on the team stared, open-mouthed. “Okay,” the coach answered in a surprisingly forgiving tone. “From now on, everyone gets here on time, all right? You all hear that?”
Some kids mumbled “Yes, Coach,” but most were still just staring at the new arrival.
A girl! Derek thought, alarmed. And she’s on my team! How are we ever going to win now? Or even make the playoffs?
The other kids started glancing at one another, and Derek heard a few uneasy murmurs, then a tense giggle or two.
He looked back at the girl. If she heard the noise, she was doing a good job of ignoring it—concentrating instead on breaking in her mitt, grinding a ball into it and squeezing it shut with both hands. Then she adjusted her cleats, which, like her mitt, were brand-new.
Finally, the coach spoke up and broke the awkward near-silence. “Okay, gather around, everyone. Let me call the roll.”
He began calling out the names. Derek called “here” when his was called. Then he waited to hear the girl’s name.
“Avery Mullins?”
“Here,” she said.
Avery. Derek had known a boy back in kindergarten with that name. So maybe the coach hadn’t known in advance that he had a girl on his roster.
Or maybe he had. He’d sure looked nervous waiting for her to show up.
Derek wondered if her parents were in the stands. He couldn’t tell. But then the girl looked over there and waved—and two guys in their teens waved back. Her brothers? Derek had no idea, but he didn’t see anybody else waving.
“Okay. I’m Coach Jay Stafford. Some of you know my son JJ….” The coach’s son, a kid Derek didn’t know at all, held up his hands as if to say, No applause, please.
“And this is Mr. Kozlowski. He’ll be my assistant.”
“Call me Coach K,” said Pete’s dad.
“I’ve coached a few of you before, but most of you are new to me,” Coach Stafford resumed. “So, let me see, by a show of hands—how many of you have played Little League ball before?”
A sea of hands went up. In fact, there was only one kid whose hand remained down—Avery Mullins.
All eyes swung to her. Derek could see that her cheeks were red with embarrassment. She sat there, staring at the ground, until the coach continued his speech.
“All right, that’s no problem,” he said cheerily, clapping his hands together. “You’ll get the hang of it, kid—I mean, we all have to start somewhere.”
Soft groans went up all around Derek. The coach ignored them.
“Okay, are you guys ready to show me and Coach K what you can do out there?”
“YEAH!” everybody shouted.
It was the first real enthusiasm all day.
Derek noticed that his coaches acted as if everything was normal—as if this was just a normal team having a normal practice.
Only there was nothing normal about any of it.
Most girls he knew played softball—with other girls. Nothing wrong with that. Derek liked a good game of softball himself. In fact, he knew a few girls who could throw a softball faster than he could throw a baseball.
His grandma had told him that years back, a law was passed that said girls were allowed to play sports on any team they qualified for—even boys’ teams.
But he had never met a girl who actually played baseball. Until now.
If the Yankees were the only team in the whole league with a girl on its roster, it wasn’t really fair, Derek thought. How were they supposed to compete with teams that didn’t have any?