The Youngest Hero by Jerry B. Jenkins Read Free Book Online

he was hoping he wouldn’t get the take sign.
    He must have got the signal to hit away, because when the pitcher finally let one fly that came in close enough to reach,
     Elgin drove it between the first and second basemen. Each dove away from the ball as it whistled past, and the other parents
     gasped. It skipped past the right fielder and bounced, breaking a piece off the top of the snow fence and rolling all the
     way to another diamond.
    Elgin stood on second with a ground-rule double. I clapped, thrilled with his first ever official hit in a real game. But
     he looked disappointed. He couldn’t have been thrilled with hitting a double off a pitcher who could hardly get the ball to
     the plate. But what if he had pulled the ball a little more or less and hit an infielder in the face?
    One of the parents said something about his being “an older kid using his little brother’s birth certificate.” Others started
     in again about how dangerous it was to have a player like him on the field.
    It was hard to disagree with that.

7
    N o one on our team except John and me could really hit the ball, and we lost 12-2. With the ten-run slaughter rule, the game
     was called after four innings.
    I didn’t say anything to Momma all the way home, and when I got out of the car, I threw my glove on the ground and kicked
     it. I flung my bat so hard I had to crawl under the trailer to get it.
    “Stinkin, lousy, stupid stinkin team!”

    I let Elgin vent and waited to talk to him until he had flopped onto his bed.
    “Your temper reminds me too much of your daddy,” I said. “I pray you don’t inherit all his traits.”
    “Daddy woulda been disgusted today,” Elgin said. “Do you believe that team? We can’t throw, hit, run the bases, nothin.”
    “The other team wasn’t much better.”
    “They wouldn’t have been able to hit me if I’d had a catcher who could catch me.”
    Hardly any opposing hitters got the bat on the ball, but Elgin kept throwing slower and slower, hoping for some kind of anout. He allowed one hit and several grounders that should have been outs but weren’t.
    I could tell he was getting madder and madder as the score got worse, and in the third inning with two outs and the bases
     loaded, he lobbed a two-strike pitch to a decent hitter and saw him hit a sharp grounder to third. All the third baseman had
     to do was catch the ball and step on the bag for the force-out, but he bobbled it. Elgin charged over to him, yanked the ball
     from him, and fired it to first.
    The first baseman was startled and stuck his glove up in self-defense, and the throw pushed him back over the bag where he
     and the runner tumbled to the ground. Out.
    In the next inning, with a runner at first, Elgin got the next batter to hit a grounder toward the second baseman. But rather
     than let him try to catch it, Elgin darted back and snagged the ball, tagged the runner, then beat the hitter to first himself,
     even though the first baseman was standing on the bag.
    “Use your defense!” Kevin shouted.
    Neither the shortstop nor the third baseman could throw the ball all the way to first, so Kevin told them to shovel it to
     Elgin. He would then relay it across the infield.
    Because he had pitched only four innings in the first game, he started the second as well. The defense was no better, and
     the Braves were massacred again. The trouble came with Elgin’s hitting. As I feared, he hit a ground ball so hard at the second
     baseman that the boy closed his eyes and turned away. The ball hit his foot, glanced off his glove, brushed his forehead,
     and rolled to a stop between the infield and outfield.
    As the boy went down, looking more scared than hurt, Elgin never slowed, rounding first as the center fielder checked out
     the injured second baseman and the right fielder picked up the ball and froze. Elgin didn’t even turn to look.
    “Third! Third! Throw it!”
    The right fielder finally threw the ball, which bounced and