Steal That Base!

Sammy Solaris, the Pine City Porcupines' designated hitter, has one big goal for the season: to steal his first base! Sammy has a big, powerful swing, but as a baserunner, his speeds are slow, slower, and slowest. Chad the batboy might be able to help . . . but first he needs to consult his extensive baseball card collection. And right now he's pretty busy keeping Dylan focused on the game instead of the spider he found. Chad also has to help Spike the mascot make good on a promise of a bobblehead to a young fan—providing they can find a bobblehead
and
the fan!

For Byron, who stole our hearts.

Special thanks to Sean, T.J., and
Dylan of the Saint Paul Saints.
—K.S.

To Ethan & Abbie.
—E.W.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cataloging-in-Publication data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-1-4197-0287-7 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0262-4 (paperback)

Copyright © 2012 The Topps Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Topps and Topps League are trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc.

Book design by Chad W. Beckerman

Published in 2012 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Amulet Books and Amulet Paperbacks are registered trademarks of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

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t was five minutes before midnight and the bottom of the ninth inning, and I was about to break a promise.

I was a batboy for the Pine City Porcupines. When I took the job, I promised my parents I would try to be home by ten o'clock and would
never
work past midnight. “That's just too late for a boy your age,” Dad had said.

But there had been a rain delay and the game started late. The Porcupines were tied with the Attica Finches, 3–3. If the Porcupines didn't score here, the game would go into extra innings.