Wing Ding (11 page)

PLAYER: Ducks Bunion

POSITION: left field

THROWS: left

BATS: left

PLAYER: Stump Plumwhiff

POSITION: shortstop

THROWS: right

BATS: right

PLAYER: The Great Walloper, Banjo H. Bishbash

POSITION: third base

THROWS: right

BATS: right

PLAYER: Orlando “Velcro” Ramirez

POSITION: center field

THROWS: left

BATS: left

PLAYER: Tugboat Tooley

POSITION: catcher

THROWS: right

BATS: right

PLAYER: Gilly Wishes

POSITION: first base

THROWS: left

BATS: left

PLAYER: Slingshot Slocum

POSITION: pitcher

THROWS: right

BATS: right

PLAYER: Octavio “Ocho” James

POSITION: right field

THROWS: right

BATS: right

PLAYER: Ellis “the Glove” Rodriguez

POSITION: second base

THROWS: right

BATS: right

PLAYER: Gasser Phipps

POSITION: center field

THROWS: right

BATS: right

PLAYER: Kid Rabbit Winkle

POSITION: substitute third base

THROWS: right

BATS: right

PLAYER: Skipper Lou “Skip-to-My-Lou” Clementine

POSITION: manager

PLAYER: Flicker Pringle

POSITION: pitcher

TEAM: Hog City Haymakers

PLAYER: Charlie “Slats” Connolly

POSITION: catcher

TEAM: Bixburg Blue Bottles

PLAYER: Hoot Fewster

POSITION: first base

TEAM: Hog City Haymakers

PLAYER: Bunker Dodge

POSITION: second base

TEAM: Lumleyville Lumberjacks

PLAYER: The Great Walloper, Banjo H. Bishbash

POSITION: third base

TEAM: Rambletown Rounders

PLAYER: Stump Plumwhiff

POSITION: shortstop

TEAM: Rambletown Rounders

PLAYER: Ducks Bunion

POSITION: left field

TEAM: Rambletown Rounders

PLAYER: Choo-Choo Choo, the “Steam Engine”

POSITION: center field

TEAM: Bixburg Blue Bottles

PLAYER: Medric “Buttered Toast” Salazar

POSITION: right field

TEAM: Camden Clockers

PLAYER: Grant Vesper

POSITION: pitcher

TEAM: St. Joe Jungle Cats

PLAYER: Mudfish LaRouche

POSITION: catcher

TEAM: Pikerton Scrooges

PLAYER: Cheese Grabini

POSITION: first base

TEAM: Sand Hill Rooks

PLAYER: Cesar “Hot Pocket” Escalante

POSITION: second base

TEAM: Attitash Rowdies

PLAYER: Cannonball Crawford

POSITION: third base

TEAM: Windsor Gaskets

PLAYER: Snapper Po

POSITION: shortstop

TEAM: Pikerton Scrooges

PLAYER: Linus “Stinkeye” Boyle

POSITION: left field

TEAM: Windsor Gaskets

PLAYER: Chick Hernanski

POSITION: center field

TEAM: St. Joe Jungle Cats

PLAYER: Eddie “Gravedigger” Veach

POSITION: right field

TEAM: Laconia Poets

PLAYER: Ducks Bunion

HEIGHT: 4' 4”

WEIGHT: 75

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Ducks holds the neighborhood pogo stick record—1037.

PLAYER: Stump Plumwhiff

HEIGHT: 4' 1”

WEIGHT: 64

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Stump owns a complete set of Major League baseball cards for every year since he was born.

PLAYER: The Great Walloper, Banjo H. Bishbash

HEIGHT: 4' 5”

WEIGHT: 73

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Walloper loves to read mystery stories, particularly the Phantom Association books.

PLAYER: Orlando “Velcro” Ramirez

HEIGHT: 4' 4”

WEIGHT: 74

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: For Halloween, Orlando dressed up as the masked swordsman Zorro.

PLAYER: Tugboat Tooley

HEIGHT: 4' 9”

WEIGHT: 85

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Tugboat's favorite insect is the Madagascar hissing cockroach.

PLAYER: Gilly Wishes

HEIGHT: 4' 6”

WEIGHT: 80

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Gilly once laughed so hard he passed part of a hot dog through his nose.

PLAYER: Slingshot Slocum

HEIGHT: 4' 5”

WEIGHT: 72

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Slingshot built a model volcano for the fourth-grade science fair. It blasted the school ceiling with a stream of foamy red liquid.

PLAYER: Octavio “Ocho” James

HEIGHT: 4' 4”

WEIGHT: 74

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: When Octavio was home-schooled, he learned to count to twenty in six different languages, including Mandarin Chinese.

PLAYER: Ellis “the Glove” Rodriguez

HEIGHT: 4' 3”

WEIGHT: 69

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: With his lightning reflexes, Ellis caught a fly with his bare hand—the insect kind of fly, not the baseball kind.

PLAYER: Gasser Phipps

HEIGHT: 4' 8”

WEIGHT: 84

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Gasser can recite the entire alphabet while burping.

PLAYER: Kid Rabbit Winkle

HEIGHT: 4' 2”

WEIGHT: 67

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: After baseball, Kid Rabbit's second-favorite sport is track and field, especially the long jump.

KEVIN MARKEY
always feels a thrill when baseball spring training opens in Florida in February. Where he lives, snow usually covers the ground that time of year. The opening of the Major League camps is like the annual return of robins—it means spring is just around the corner.

Kevin is the author of
SLUMPBUSTER
and
WALL BALL
, the hilarious first and second books in his Super Sluggers series of baseball adventures, and several books of nonfiction. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children and a lovable yellow-haired dog named Happy. He bats left, throws left, and types with both hands. You can visit him online at www.kevinmarkey.com.

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Jacket art © 2011 by David Merrell

Jacket design by Ray Shappell