The Hit-Away Kid (5 page)

“Not good enough,” Barry muttered.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Alec said, as he drew something out of his pocket. “What do I want with this thing, anyway?”
He held out the figurine. “Here,” he said, glancing briefly at Susan, then back at Barry. “It’s yours. You won it fair and
square. I have to hand
it to you for telling the coach you missed second base. And if it wasn’t for that wind blowing your ball foul, it would have
been a home run easily. Here, take it.”

Hardly believing his ears, Barry accepted the figurine from Alec and handed it to Susan. Then he stared at Alec, who had already
turned and was running back toward his team.

“I guess he’s more honest than we thought he was,” Susan said.

Barry nodded. “I guess a person can change, if he does the right thing — can’t he?” he said softly.

“Sure, he can,” Susan said, winking at Barry. “And a person can get in trouble if she doesn’t get this doggie back to her
little brother real soon.”

“Right! Let’s go!” said Barry, and they raced each other all the way home.

Left-fielder Barry McGee enjoys being the Peach Street Mudders’ hit-away batter. In fact, maybe he likes being a hero too
much. He doesn’t mind bending the rules a little to help himself out. But when a pitcher from a rival team finds him out,
Barry faces his toughest challenge yet — does he play along with the pitcher’s “deal” or does he play fair?

“Christopher’s usual deft handling of good sportsmanship is apparent.”

— ALA Booklist

Matt Christopher
is the name behind more than seventy-five sports novels for young readers, including the Soccer ’Cats series of chapter books.
For a complete listing of all the books in the Peach Street Mudders series, please see the last page of this book.