Pee Wees on First Read Free Page A

the ball so hard, it flew out of the park and across the street into someone’s backyard. Mary Beth ran around the three imaginary bases and said, “That was a home run for my team.”
    So pitching well was bad too! If Molly threw a good pitch, the other team could get a home run and win the game!
    Mary Beth ran to get the ball.
    “Now it’s your turn,” she said, handing Molly the bat. Molly swung it back and forth the way her friend had. It felt heavy. Like in her dream! And it was so thin! How could anyone hit a ball with such a thin stick?
    Mary Beth threw the ball to her. Molly swung the bat at it but missed it.
    “See?” she said. “I told you I can’t hit the ball.”
    “You just need practice,” said Mary Beth. “You are new at this.”
    Mary Beth pitched the ball again.
    Molly missed the ball again.
    Mary Beth tried once more.
    And Molly missed it once more.
    “It’s too thin!” shouted Molly. “Why don’t they make bats fatter?”
    A few people gathered around the girls to watch. Some of them were Pee Wee Scouts. One was Roger!
    “Go away!” she said to him.
    “It’s a public park,” said Roger. “You can’t make me go away.”
    He sat down on the grass as if he intended to stay for good.
    “Batter up!” he shouted. “Let’s see some action!”
    The only action Roger would see, thought Molly, was the girls leaving.
    She handed the bat to Mary Beth.
    “I’m no good,” she said.

    “Don’t give up so fast,” said Mary Beth. “We can go over to my house and play.”
    Roger got up and began to follow the girls, but Mary Beth told him her yard was private property and she would call the police if he went in it.
    “Ho, ho, I’m really scared,” he scoffed. But Molly noticed he didn’t follow them.
    In Mary Beth’s backyard Molly could not hit the ball either.
    Or in the empty lot next door. Even when Mary Beth stood really close and almost set the ball on top of her bat.
    “I’m going to get a fatter bat,” said Molly.
    “They don’t make them fatter than this,” said Mary Beth.
    “Maybe I’ll make my own,” said Molly.
    Molly said good-bye, and went home. She gave Skippy a run. She even threw him a ball.
He
caught it with no problem. Then she looked in her garage for somethingto make a fat bat out of. There were rakes and hoes and gardening shears. There was a lawn mower and a snow plow. But there was nothing to make a bat from.
    Rat’s knees, she thought. It’s not easy to find a fat bat. She would do it later. Right now she would get her notebook and go to the library. At least she could do that.
    She looked in the encyclopedia under
baseball
.
    A game has nine innings
, the article said. Molly wrote that down. She wondered what an inning was. It must be the opposite of an outing. An outing was like a picnic or a hot dog roast.
    She wrote down
home run
and
grand slam
and
rain check
.
    She wrote down
bunt
and
bench
and
bases
.
    Home plate is made of white rubber
, she read. She had never heard of a rubberplate, but the book must be telling the truth. Authors didn’t lie.
    Farther on it said that the baseball was made of leather, with twine-covered cork inside! What a funny place for a ball of yarn! She had never seen a ball of yarn anywhere but in her grandma’s knitting basket.
    Another book had lots of “amazing baseball facts.”
    Someone named Baby Ruth had hit 714 home runs. Molly didn’t remember seeing any women on the baseball teams her dad watched on TV. But Ruth must have been on a team if she hit all those home runs. And she must be very young to be called “baby.” If she could do it, maybe there was a chance for Molly herself, and for Sonny. He was a baby if anyone was! She would have to remember to tell Sonny at the next meeting. She wrote it all down in her notebook. Then she drew pictures ofballs and home plates and even some baseball players. She drew a picture of Baby Ruth. She even made up a story about a girl in a wheelchair who could not hit