Pee Wees on First (2 page)

“I’ve never played baseball,” Molly confessed to her.

“My family plays on Saturdays when we have family picnics,” Mary Beth said.

Rat’s knees! Even her best friend could play! And even though Rachel and Ashley didn’t like the game, she was sure they could play. They would probably hit a home run! She would be left with Sonny, holding the bat. And holding the wrong end!

“What do we do to get the badge?” asked Rachel. “What is the other part of the news? Part two?”

“The second part,” said their leader, “is to keep a notebook or a scrapbook of baseball trivia. See how much you can find out about the history of the game, or about the players. You can save baseball cards in the book, and anything else you
can find. You can go to the library and see if you can scout out facts that no one else knows.”

Some of the Pee Wees were writing all this down in school notebooks, just the way they wrote their homework down. Molly liked lists and she liked notebooks. But she didn’t have to write this down. She’d remember this. This was the easy part. Notebooks were fun, hitting a ball wasn’t.

“I can hit a ball, but I don’t like that stuff about notebooks,” said Tim.

“Neither do I,” said Roger. “I just want to hit a home run over the top of a tree.” Roger swung an imaginary bat at an imaginary ball and spun around like the batters do on TV.

Mrs. Peters was talking about how baseball began. She told them about famous players and record-breaking home runs. She told them about outdoor games and indoor domed stadiums. And then she told them how to play the game.

“The object is to hit the ball and run around the three bases to score a home run,” she said.

She told them about pitching and scoring and strikeouts. And she held up pictures of a baseball field.

But Molly wasn’t paying much attention. She was thinking about her note-scrapbook. She could put more than facts in it. She could draw pictures of baseball players. She could make her book the best one in the troop—the fattest and longest and neatest—and then Mrs. Peters would excuse her from hitting any balls.

“I wish we could either hit the ball or keep a notebook,” said Tracy when Mrs. Peters was through talking. “Instead of doing both of them.”

“I do too,” said Roger.

Most of the Pee Wees wanted the “one thing” to be hitting a ball.

Others like Kevin couldn’t wait to do them both.

But Molly was the only one who only wanted to do the scrapbook.

She wondered how Jody was going to hit a ball. How could he run around bases? Probably the pitcher would throw the ball really slow and right to him. They would make sure he hit it! Molly wished she were handicapped too. She
was
handicapped when it came to hitting a ball! If she were in a wheelchair, and everyone made a fuss over her, she bet she could hit the ball too. Jody was lucky. Someone would probably even push his chair around the bases. Rat’s knees!

“I have some more news too,” said Mrs. Peters. “This news is even more fun.”

The Pee Wees cheered. Except Molly. She wasn’t going to cheer ahead of time.
The news could be some other fun thing that really wasn’t.

“There is a professional baseball player coming to town to scout out players for a new team,” said Mrs. Peters. “He’s retired now, and his name is Brett Brady. He’s going to watch local games and round up talent.”

“Hey, I’ve heard of him!” shouted Roger.

“Well,” Mrs. Peters went on, “he has agreed to come and talk to us about the game while he’s here! He’ll tell us about his experiences playing ball. And he’ll give us some tips.”

“Yea!” shouted the Pee Wees.

“He’s a VIP,” confided Jody.

“What’s a Vip?” whispered Mary Beth to Molly. “One of those things like Dracula that sucks blood?”

“That’s a vampire,” said Molly.

“A VIP means a very important person,”
said Ashley. “I know because my uncle is one.”

Rat’s knees, pooh to you, thought Molly.

“I’m sure Mr. Brady will be interesting to listen to,” said Mrs. Peters. “He will help us get our badge, and give us lots of inside information about baseball! And now while we have our cupcakes, let’s talk about good deeds.”

Sonny’s mother went upstairs to get the cupcakes and milk. She was the assistant troop leader.

Molly didn’t want to think about good deeds. It was hard to think about good deeds when she was worried. And part one of this badge was a big worry.

N
o one else seemed to have Molly’s problem. They all forgot about baseball and waved their hands in the air to tell about how they flattened soda pop cans and recycled bottles and got cats out of trees and raked their yards. Jody had helped wash windows at his house, but Molly didn’t know how exactly.

“I taught the twins how to read,” said Sonny, with his mouth full of chocolate cupcake. He had a milk mustache.

“You did not,” shouted Kenny. “Those babies are too little to read!”

“Are not,” said Sonny.

“Are too,” said Kenny. “They aren’t even a year old!”

“Well, they look at my books when I hold them up,” said Sonny.

“That’s not reading, dummy,” said Roger.

Mrs. Peters held up her hand for silence.

“It’s not quite reading, perhaps,” she said tactfully, “but it is a good deed to show your brother and sister a book.”

“See?” growled Sonny.

“They just looked at the pictures, that’s all they did,” growled Roger back.

More hands waved. After Mrs. Peters had called on all of them, she said, “Molly, haven’t you got a good deed to report?”

Molly was so surprised to hear her name, she said the first thing that came to her mind.

“I dusted the baseballs!” she cried.

Everyone burst into laughter. Even her best friend, Mary Beth!

“I mean baseboards,” she said with a red face. “I dusted the baseboards in the livingroom for my mom. And the table legs.”

Roger stood up and pretended to dust an imaginary baseball with his paper napkin. “Hey, you guys, look how shiny this baseball is!”

Now some of the other Pee Wees were dusting baseballs.

“What’s a baseboard?” frowned Tim.

“Baseboards go around the walls,” said Rachel. “Next to the floor.”

Playing baseball must be a bigger worry than she had thought, for her to say something so dumb! It must have been the first thing on her mind. Molly wanted to get baseballs out of her mind.

Molly noticed that when everyone else
laughed at her, Kevin and Jody didn’t. Molly liked them both. She had always planned to marry Kevin when she grew up. When the Pee Wees recycled, she had even made a wedding dress out of an old curtain.

But since Jody joined the Pee Wees, she wasn’t sure about marrying Kevin. Jody was awfully nice too, and awfully smart. She made up her mind not to rush into anything.

The Scouts joined hands and sang their Pee Wee Scout song. Molly loved the song but she didn’t hear many of the words this time. She mostly just heard Roger laughing. Laughing at dusting baseballs. Laughing when she tried to hit a ball in the park.

On the way home, good deeds were forgotten and everyone talked about the VIP.

“I’m going to make sure he sees me play,” said Roger. “Maybe I’ll get chosen
for that big-league team he’s scouting for.”

Ashley stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

“You?” she said, laughing. “It isn’t a Pee Wee team he wants! He’s looking for grown-up players!”

Roger turned red. “I knew that,” he said. “But I’m big for my age.”

That was true, thought Molly. Roger was the tallest Pee Wee Scout. But that didn’t mean he was old enough to play grown-up baseball! He was still only seven!

“Anyway, when he sees how good I am, he’ll start another team. A Pee Wee league. Or else he’ll put my name on the list for when I’m grown up.”

“I wish he’d discover me too,” said Sonny.

Now not only Ashley laughed, everyone did.

“You still can’t ride a two-wheel bike,” said Lisa. “If you play baseball like you ride a bike, you haven’t got a chance even in the baby league.”

“Baseball with training wheels!” chanted Roger. Some of the others joined in.

Poor Sonny, thought Molly. But why did he say such dumb things? Still, Molly herself said dumb things sometimes. Like dusting baseballs. Sometimes you couldn’t help it. Probably even Mrs. Peters and Brett Brady said dumb things sometimes. Maybe even her parents!

Mary Beth and Molly waved good-bye to the others, and turned at their corner.

“We can practice tomorrow after school,” said Mary Beth. “I’ve got a bat and a softball.”

“I can’t hit a ball!” said Molly.

“How do you know?” asked Mary
Beth. “You just think you can’t. You haven’t tried lately, have you?”

Molly shook her head. “I did when I was five,” she said.

“Well we’re a lot older now. Just wait and see.”

Molly said good-bye and went in the house and told her mom and dad the awful news.

“I like the notebook part,” she said.

“You’ll be able to play ball,” said her dad. “It just takes a little practice. And remember, the old Ace here can help you. I wasn’t the star pitcher in college for nothing.”

“I don’t remember that,” said Mrs. Duff, smiling.

“Well, maybe not the
star
,” said her dad.

By the time they ate dinner, Molly had forgotten baseball. Mary Beth would help her. She ate her lasagna and told her mom
and dad about Sonny teaching the twins to read. They all laughed, until her dad got the newspaper and opened it up. On the front page it said, B
RETT
B
RADY IN TOWN TO SCOUT FOR HITTERS
.

Molly helped clear the table, and then she fed her dog, Skippy. She went to her room and did her homework. Then she took out a new notebook and wrote
What I Know About Baseball
on the cover. Then she got her pajamas on and brushed her teeth. She said good night to her parents and got into bed. As soon as she went to sleep, she dreamed that Brett Brady came to her door and asked her dad to play on the new big-league team. Her mother said he wasn’t a star player, but that Molly was! Brett gave Molly a uniform and a bat and a ball and when they got to the ballpark, Roger was on first base! Mary Beth was the pitcher, and Kevin was running around all the bases pushing Jody in
his wheelchair. In her dream, Molly tried to lift the bat to hit the ball, but it was too heavy. Instead of hitting the bat, the ball hit Molly on the head!

“Rat’s knees!” she was saying as she woke up. “I
told
you I couldn’t hit the ball!”

In the morning she got up and got dressed, and hoped her dream wasn’t going to come true in the park after school.

“O
kay,” said Mary Beth. “This is the way you hold the bat.”

Mary Beth swung the bat loosely between her knees. The girls were in the park, where there was a lot of room to hit balls. There were some children in a sandbox, and some mothers pushing strollers. There was a dog chasing a Frisbee too. It felt good to be outside in spring. The sun made the top of her head warm.