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Authors: David A. Adler

The Mystery of Babe Ruth Baseball (2 page)

BOOK: The Mystery of Babe Ruth Baseball

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He showed them his Babe Ruth cards. Then Mr. Baker said, “Wait till you see this. I have a baseball that Babe Ruth signed for me almost fifty years ago.”

Mr. Baker turned around. The wooden stand the baseball had rested on was there, but the baseball was gone.

Chapter Two

“Someone stole my baseball!” Mr. Baker cried out.

A woman nearby looked at him. She laughed and said, “Ask your mommy to get you another one.”

“This wasn't just any baseball. Babe Ruth signed it. He gave it to me when I was a boy. It's very valuable.”

Mr. Baker ran from one person to the next, asking, “Have you seen my baseball? Did you see it rolling on the floor? Did you see someone take it?”

Eric looked on the floor for the ball. Cam stood on a chair to watch what Mr. Baker was doing.

“He's so upset,” Cam told Eric. “He's stopping everyone. Most of them think he's crazy.”

While Cam stood on the chair, she looked across the exhibit hall. She saw her parents with a large circus poster hanging behind them. She saw the wall of cuckoo clocks. Then she saw someone leaving the exhibit hall. It was a teenage boy wearing a bright green jacket. Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”

“Let's go!” Cam shouted to Eric when she opened her eyes. “Someone's leaving the hall, and he might have the baseball.”

Cam ran between two women trading rare postage stamps. She crawled under a few tables and almost knocked over a small boy looking at some old toys.

Eric followed Cam. “I'm sorry. Excuse me,” he said to the two women and the small boy as he hurried past.

When Cam got to the door she told the guard, “You have to stop him!”

“What are you talking about?”

“That boy in the green jacket. He was there when a valuable baseball was stolen. The baseball was in the exhibit, and I'm sure that boy took it. That's why he's in such a rush to get out of here.”

“Just because he's leaving the hall doesn't mean he's a thief,” the guard said.

The boy in the green jacket turned and saw Cam talking to the guard. He started to run.

“Did you see that!” Eric said. “He saw us talking to you and he started to run.”

The boy ran around the corner of the building. He was out of sight.

“We'll never catch him now,” Cam said.

“Yes, we will,” the guard said.

He ran after the boy. Cam and Eric followed him.

They ran to a crowded playground on the other side of the building. Two young children were playing catch with a baseball. Others were jumping rope or playing basketball. In one corner of the playground some parents were watching very young children playing in a large sandbox, on seesaws, or on swings.

The guard ran with Cam and Eric until they got to the other end of the playground.

“He's gone,” Cam said. “I don't see him anywhere.”

They looked down the street leading from the playground. A few children were walking there. A man was pushing a baby carriage, and there were some people waiting at the bus stop. But no one was wearing a bright green jacket.

“There's another way out of the playground,” the guard said. He turned and started to walk toward the other exit. Then he stopped.

“Is that him?” the guard asked, pointing to a boy sitting on one of the park benches.

Chapter Three

The boy sitting on the bench was wearing jeans and a bright green jacket. He was sitting behind the two children who were playing catch.

“Yes, that's him,” Cam said.

Cam, Eric, and the guard ran to the bench. The boy looked up at them. He smiled and said, “Well, look who's here. It's the girl with the amazing memory and her quiet friend.”

“A valuable baseball is missing from one of the exhibits,” the guard told the boy. “We're looking for it.”

“I'm sorry, but I don't know where it is.”

Cam looked at the boy. There was something in one of his jacket pockets. It was round and about the size of a baseball.

Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”
She looked at the picture in her mind of the boy when he was holding the Reggie Jackson baseball card.

Cam opened her eyes and said, “What's that in your pocket? It wasn't there before.”

“Oh, this,” the boy said, and reached into his pocket. “You just didn't notice it.”

He took out a baseball and showed it to the guard.

“This can't be the missing baseball,” the guard said. “It's not signed by Babe Ruth. It says âLittle League Slugger.' ”

The guard turned to Cam and Eric and said, “I don't know why I listened to you. Maybe there never was any Babe Ruth baseball. Now I have to get back to the exhibit hall. But first I think you owe this boy an apology.”

Cam and Eric told the boy that they were sorry. The guard walked back to the exhibit hall. Cam and Eric walked to a bench on the other side of the playground and sat down.

Cam and Eric lived next door to each other. They were in the same fifth grade class, and they spent a lot of time together. Eric knew that Cam wouldn't give up the search for the missing baseball so quickly. She didn't.

“Where did he get that ball? He didn't have it when we saw him at Mr. Baker's exhibit.”

“Maybe he found it,” Eric said.

“Maybe.”

Cam closed her eyes. She said,
“Click.”
Then she added, “I'm trying to remember everything I saw at the exhibit.”

While Cam's eyes were closed, Eric looked around the playground. He saw a side door to the exhibit hall open.

“Cam, look! Isn't that the girl we saw at Mr. Baker's exhibit?”

Cam opened her eyes. She looked at the girl leaving the exhibit hall. The girl had long brown hair and was carrying a gym bag.

“Yes. That's her. And there's enough room in that gym bag for twenty baseballs. I'll bet she left through the side door so no one would see her.”

The girl walked past Cam and Eric, but she didn't notice them. She walked out of the playground. At the corner she crossed the street and walked toward the bus stop.

“Come on,” Cam said. “Let's follow her.”

Cam and Eric had to wait at the corner for the traffic light to turn green. As they waited, the girl got farther and farther ahead. When the light changed, Cam and Eric ran to get closer. The girl turned and saw them. She began running, too.

The girl held the gym bag with both hands as she ran. She ran past the bus stop. She turned and saw Cam and Eric behind her. She looked scared.

At the corner the girl quickly looked to see if any cars were coming. Then she ran across the street.

“Let's rest,” Eric said to Cam when they reached the corner.

“No. We have to catch her. I'm sure she took the baseball. That's why she's running.”

Cam and Eric crossed the street and chased the girl. She was halfway down the block when her gym bag dropped from her hands. The girl tripped over the bag and fell.

Cam and Eric caught up with the girl. She was still lying on the sidewalk. The girl held her gym bag up and said, “Here, take what you want. Just don't hurt me.”

Chapter Four

“We're not going to hurt you,” Eric told the girl.

Cam took the bag from the girl's hands and said, “We're just going to take the Babe Ruth baseball you stole and give it back to Mr. Baker.”

“I didn't steal any baseball.”

“Then why were you running?”

“I was running because you were chasing me.”

“We'll see,” Cam said as she opened the bag.