A Big Day for Baseball Read online

  Dear Reader,

  Did you know there’s a Magic Tree House® book for every kid? From those just starting to read chapter books to more experienced readers, Magic Tree House® has something for everyone, including science, sports, geography, wildlife, history…and always a bit of mystery and magic!

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  “Oh, man…the Magic Tree House series is really exciting!” —Christina

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  #1: DINOSAURS BEFORE DARK

  #2: THE KNIGHT AT DAWN

  #3: MUMMIES IN THE MORNING

  #4: PIRATES PAST NOON

  #5: NIGHT OF THE NINJAS

  #6: AFTERNOON ON THE AMAZON

  #7: SUNSET OF THE SABERTOOTH

  #8: MIDNIGHT ON THE MOON

  #9: DOLPHINS AT DAYBREAK

  #10: GHOST TOWN AT SUNDOWN

  #11: LIONS AT LUNCHTIME

  #12: POLAR BEARS PAST BEDTIME

  #13: VACATION UNDER THE VOLCANO

  #14: DAY OF THE DRAGON KING

  #15: VIKING SHIPS AT SUNRISE

  #16: HOUR OF THE OLYMPICS

  #17: TONIGHT ON THE TITANIC

  #18: BUFFALO BEFORE BREAKFAST

  #19: TIGERS AT TWILIGHT

  #20: DINGOES AT DINNERTIME

  #21: CIVIL WAR ON SUNDAY

  #22: REVOLUTIONARY WAR ON WEDNESDAY

  #23: TWISTER ON TUESDAY

  #24: EARTHQUAKE IN THE EARLY MORNING

  #25: STAGE FRIGHT ON A SUMMER NIGHT

  #26: GOOD MORNING, GORILLAS

  #27: THANKSGIVING ON THURSDAY

  #28: HIGH TIDE IN HAWAII

  For a list of Magic Tree House® Merlin Missions and other Magic Tree House® titles, visit MagicTreeHouse.com.

  This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2017 by Mary Pope Osborne

  Cover art copyright © 2017 by Sal Murdocca

  Interior illustrations copyright © 2017 by AG Ford

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Magic Tree House is a registered trademark of Mary Pope Osborne; used under license.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  Trade Paperback ISBN 9781524713089 — Ebook ISBN 9781524713102

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v4.1

  a

  To Jenna Lettice and her family

  Cover

  Magic Tree House® Levels

  Other Titles

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  1. Fly Ball

  2. Opening Day

  3. Take Me Out to the Ball Game

  4. Good Job, Boys!

  5. Foul Ball!

  6. Go!

  7. Shortcut to a Good Place

  8. Safe!

  9. The Oldest Fan of All

  10. Home Run

  Excerpt from Baseball

  About the Author

  One summer day in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, a mysterious tree house appeared in the woods. It was filled with books. A boy named Jack and his sister, Annie, found the tree house and soon discovered that it was magic. They could go to any time and place in history just by pointing to a picture in one of the books. While they were gone, no time at all passed back in Frog Creek.

  Jack and Annie eventually found out that the tree house belonged to Morgan le Fay, a magical librarian from the legendary realm of Camelot. Since then, they have traveled on many adventures in the magic tree house and completed many missions for Morgan.

  Now Jack and Annie are about to find out what their next magic tree house mission will be!

  The early Saturday-morning air was damp and chilly. Jack sat on his front porch steps. His chin was cupped in his hands.

  Annie came out the front door.

  “Do you want Mom to take us to the rec center now?” she asked. It was the day for baseball tryouts.

  “I’ve decided not to go,” said Jack.

  Annie sat down next to him. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I can’t stop thinking about last season’s tryouts,” said Jack. “I fell down when I swung the bat. Everybody laughed.”

  “Yeah, well, everybody laughed at me, too,” said Annie. “Remember, I threw the ball to the wrong team.”

  “So maybe neither of us should go,” said Jack.

  “But our whole family loves baseball,” said Annie. “We read about it. We watch it. We learn batting averages. We—”

  Before Annie could finish, something dropped from the sky and rolled across their front yard.

  “What’s that?” said Jack. He and Annie ran down the steps.

  A small white ball lay in the grass. Annie grabbed it.

  “It’s a baseball!” she said.

  “Where did it come from?” said Jack.

  He and Annie walked to the sidewalk and looked up and down their street. No one was there.

  “Maybe it’s from another world,” whispered Annie. She handed the ball to Jack.

  “That’s crazy,” said Jack. “What other world?”

  “Think about it,” said Annie. “One second, we’re talking about baseball—and how we don’t want to go to tryouts. The next, this baseball drops from the sky!”

  “Oh. You mean—” said Jack.

  “Morgan!” Jack and Annie said together.

  Annie took off down the sidewalk. “Let’s go!” she called to Jack.

  “Hold on!” Jack shouted. He put the mysterious ball inside his backpack and raced after Annie.

  Jack and Annie crossed the street and dashed into the Frog Creek woods. They hurried between the trees until they came to the tallest oak.

  The magic tree house was back.

  “Yay, team!” said Annie. She grabbed the rope ladder and climbed up. Jack followed her into the tree house.

  Leaf shadows danced on the wooden floor. Two gray baseball caps sat in the dappled light.

  Next to the caps was a book: HISTORY OF BASEBALL. A red leather bookmark was sticking out from the pages.

  Jack picked up the book and opened to the bookmark. The page showed a photo of a baseball stadium. The caption
beneath it said:

  EBBETS FIELD,

  BROOKLYN, NEW YORK,

  APRIL 15, 1947

  “Ebbets Field?” said Jack. “I’ve heard of that. It was a famous ballpark.”

  “Look, there’s a message on the bookmark,” said Annie.

  Jack held the bookmark up to the light.

  “It’s Morgan’s handwriting!” he said. He read aloud:

  ’Twas a big day for baseball

  So many years ago.

  Journey to Ebbets Field

  To learn what you should know.

  “Learn what we should know?” repeated Jack. “To become better ballplayers?”

  “Sounds like it!” said Annie. “Morgan must have known about the tryouts.” She read the next verse:

  These caps are magic

  Made only for you

  To give you the skill

  To know what to do.

  “Oh, man, it sounds like these caps will make us great players!” said Jack.

  “Yay!” said Annie. She read on:

  As long as you wear them

  All others will see

  The skillful people

  You’re pretending to be.

  “I get it! Everyone else will see us as great players!” said Annie.

  “In a Little League game?” said Jack.

  “Why not?” said Annie. “Little League teams must have played at Ebbets Field, too.”

  “Yeah, probably all kinds of teams played there,” said Jack.

  Annie read more:

  When you hear the final score,

  Give the ball with the name

  To the one who knows best

  The rules of the game.

  “Our baseball has a name?” said Jack. He pulled the ball out of his pack and turned it over in his hands. “No name here.”

  “Well, maybe we’re supposed to give it one,” said Annie. “How about Ballee?”

  “Ballee?” said Jack. “I don’t think so.”

  “Okay, okay. How about Fly Ball?” said Annie. “It flew down to us.”

  “Fine, whatever,” said Jack. He put Fly Ball back into his pack. “Ready?”

  “Yes! This is going to be so much fun,” said Annie.

  Jack pointed at the photo of Brooklyn, New York. “I wish we could go there!” he said.

  The wind started to blow.

  The tree house started to spin.

  It spun faster and faster.

  Then everything was still.

  Absolutely still.

  A spring breeze blew into the tree house. The sky was cloudy.

  “Hey, baseball uniforms!” said Annie.

  Their clothes had magically changed. They were wearing baseball shoes, long socks, and baggy gray pants. Jack’s backpack had turned into a leather bag.

  “Look at that!” said Annie. She pointed at the word batboy stitched on the front of their jerseys.

  “Oh. So we’re going to be great batboys,” said Jack with a frown, “not great players.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Annie. “I’m sure Morgan thinks that being great batboys will help us become great players.”

  “But you can’t be a batboy,” said Jack, “and there was no such thing as a batgirl back then.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Annie. “If we wear these caps, everyone will see what we’re pretending to be. Remember?”

  “Oh, right…,” said Jack.

  Annie and Jack picked up their caps and put them on.

  “Wow!” Annie said with a big grin.

  “Yeah…WOW!” said Jack. He felt a surge of excitement and confidence. “I feel like I know everything about baseball now!”

  “Me too!” said Annie.

  “I can’t wait to get to Ebbets Field!” said Jack. “Let’s go!” He shoved the baseball book into his backpack. Then he led the way down the rope ladder.

  Jack and Annie stepped onto the ground. They’d landed in a small grove of trees. Nearby were stone benches and a fountain. Children were playing on the grass and walkways.

  “Looks like a city park,” said Jack.

  “Let’s ask directions,” said Annie.

  As they headed toward the kids, a gust of wind blew through the park.

  “Watch out!” said Jack, grabbing his cap.

  Annie held on to her cap, too.

  “We can’t lose these!” she said.

  “No kidding!” said Jack.

  They passed a man playing guitar and singing in Spanish. They passed some girls playing jacks. They passed a group of noisy kids shooting marbles.

  “Hey, two batboys!” one of the kids shouted.

  The others looked up and waved at Jack and Annie.

  Annie smiled at Jack. “See? They think I’m a boy,” she said. “The magic’s working.”

  “Cool,” Jack said with a grin. “You look the same to me, though.”

  “And you look the same to me,” said Annie. “Maybe we always look like our true selves to each other.”

  Annie turned back to the kids playing marbles. “Excuse me, how do we get to Ebbets Field?” she called.

  “That way!” shouted one of the bigger kids. He pointed across the park. “When you get to the street, it’s just a few blocks east.”

  “You’d better hurry!” yelled a small girl. “The game starts at two-thirty!”

  “What time is it now?” Jack called.

  One of the boys looked at his watch. “It’s one-thirty!” he shouted.

  “Oh, man, we’re late!” said Jack. “We should’ve been there at one o’clock to start our chores! Run!”

  “Fast!” said Annie. She and Jack held on to their caps and they began running across the windy park.

  “Batboys! Batboys! Wait for us!” someone shouted.

  Jack and Annie looked back.

  The two smallest kids from the marbles game were scrambling after them. Jack thought the boy and girl looked about six years old.

  “Sorry! We have to hurry!” Jack yelled.

  “But we can help you!” the girl said. “We know a shortcut!”

  “You do?” said Annie.

  “Yes!” said the boy. “We go to Ebbets Field a lot! This way!”

  The small kids turned and started down a dirt path. Annie and Jack ran after them.

  “What are your names?” the girl called.

  “Jack and—Andy!” Annie yelled back. “What’s yours?”

  “I’m Olive!” said the girl. “This is my twin brother, Otis!”

  “Twins? Cool!” said Annie.

  “It’s a big day for baseball!” said Otis.

  “That’s what we hear,” said Jack.

  “I wish we could be batboys like you!” said Otis.

  “We know all the rules!” said Olive.

  The twins led the way to a busy street at the edge of the park. Old-fashioned cars rattled down the broad avenue. The huge cars had long rounded hoods and lots of shiny silver chrome. Alongside the cars, a trolley clattered over tracks.

  Jack and Annie stood at the corner with the twins and waited for the light to change. Nearby, a newsstand was selling the Brooklyn Eagle. Jack read a headline:

  OPENING DAY AT EBBETS FIELD

  BROOKLYN DODGERS VS. BOSTON BRAVES

  “Annie, look!” he said, pointing at the newspaper. “We’ll be working at a big-league game!”

  “Big-league? Wow!” said Annie.

  “You didn’t know that?” said Olive.

  “I thought the Braves were from Atlanta,” Annie said to Jack. “And the Dodgers from L.A.!”

  “Not in 1947!” said Jack.

  “You didn’t know that?” asked Otis.

  “Light’s red! Let’s go!” yelled Jack.

  “Hold hands!” cried Olive. She grabbed Annie’s hand, and Otis grabbed Jack’s. “Watch out for the trolley!”

  Jack and Annie ran with the twins across the avenue to the opposite corner.

  “Good job!” said Otis.

  “Where now?” Jack as
ked breathlessly.

  “We’ll take you!” said Olive. “Run!”

  “Thanks!” said Jack. He liked the friendly kids.

  Jack and Annie held on to their caps as they ran against the wind. They followed Otis and Olive down one street, then another.

  “Turn at the corner!” said Olive.

  They all turned onto a busy, crowded street.

  “There!” the twins said together.

  In front of them was the tall brick wall of a stadium. The words EBBETS FIELD curved around the wall. A huge crowd was headed inside.

  “Yay!” said Annie, panting. “Thanks for showing us a shortcut, guys!”

  “We’re not there yet! Come on!” said Olive.

  “It’s a big day for baseball!” said Otis again. “A really big day!”

  The twins led Jack and Annie to the entrance of the stadium. They all joined the crowd streaming into a huge round lobby. The room had marble walls and a ceiling lamp made of baseball bats.

  A sign over the ticket windows said:

  $1 GENERAL ADMISSION

  “Uh-oh,” said Jack. He and Annie reached into the pockets of their uniforms.

  “We don’t have money,” said Annie.

  “We don’t, either,” said Otis. “But we don’t need it because—”

  “Batboys!” A tall man in a uniform rushed over to them. His badge said SECURITY GUARD.

  “That’s us,” said Jack.

  “You’re late!” said the guard. “The manager of the visitors’ clubhouse is looking everywhere for you! Get over there!”

  “Yes, sir!” Jack knew just what the guard meant. The visitors’ clubhouse was the place in the stadium where the out-of-town team prepared for the game.

  “Wait, can our two friends come watch the game for free?” said Annie. “They helped us—”

  “Of course not!” said the guard. “Everyone has to pay—unless they’re part of the game. Come on.” The guard headed to a turnstile.