<h2 id="c12"><br/><i>THE BIG SPACE BALL GAME</i></h2>
<p>It was an unusual setting for
baseball. Instead of a blue sky, there was the
darkness of space and the brilliance of stars
overhead. The light of Earth flooded the scene,
and surrounding the oversized diamond were
the walls of Copernicus crater, over fifty miles
across.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_159">159</div>
<p>On the mound, Bill Cherry was pitching
practice balls to his catcher, Ollie Taylor.
Only underhand throwing was allowed in
baseball on the Moon, for the ball was exceedingly
fast in the light gravity and airlessness.
Bill, in snug-fitting space gear, was standing
farther than the regulation ninety feet from
the plate. This was because of the pitcher’s
advantage over the batter in Lunar ball.</p>
<p>Bill wound up and threw. The ball shot like
a bullet into Ollie’s double-padded mitt.</p>
<p>“Thatta boy, Bill!” Ollie’s voice came over
Bill’s space suit radio. “If you’re this sharp
when we meet the Comets this afternoon,
we’re bound to win our first championship!”</p>
<p>“That’s enough practice, fellows!” Coach
Lippert called, coming out of the dugout. “No
use giving our best before the game!”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_160">160</div>
<p>It was the <i>big</i> game for the team from Plato,
which was tied with the league leaders in this
last game of the season. Plato was the farthest
colony on the Moon and was named for the
big crater in which it was located. Copernicus
colony, the baseball leader, had won the championship
every year since the school league had
been formed. As a prize, the champions were
always given a free rocket trip to Earth.</p>
<p>The Plato Rocketeers were homesick for
their mother planet. One of them, little Pete
Irby, had never set foot there. He had been
born on the Moon.</p>
<p>“It must be wonderful to go around without
even a space suit on like they do on Earth!”
Pete said wistfully to Bill.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry, Pete,” Bill said confidently.
“I have a feeling that this is our year and that
we’re all going to Earth.”</p>
<p>“I sure hope you’re right,” Pete replied,
with great feeling. “I can’t wait to see the great
national parks and rivers and all the other
wonderful things there!”</p>
<hr /><p class="tb">At game time the grandstand was filled and
some people were standing. It was the largest
crowd ever to see a ball game on the Moon.
Much of the crowd was made up of hopeful
parents from the Plato colony who had come
seven hundred miles by rocket plane to see
their boys play.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_161">161</div>
<p>The champion Copernicus Comets ran out
onto the field in big bouncing strides. For on
the Moon a person was capable of jumping
and running in great leaps because of the low
gravity, only one-sixth of Earth’s.</p>
<p>The Plato Rocketeers were the visiting
team would bat first. When the outfielders
had taken their positions, they were tiny forms
far out in the distance with nothing but gray
wilderness behind them for a backstop. There
were eleven men in Moon baseball because
of this greater outfield range. Two extra fielders
played behind the shortstop and second
baseman and were called “short fielders.”</p>
<p>Bill noticed a wheel chair below the railing
of the grandstand. His mother and dad had
brought his crippled younger brother Skippy
to see the game! Bill had known his parents
were going to rocket over from Plato in time
for the game, but they had not said Skippy
would come along. Bill gave Skippy a wave
and his little brother waved back.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_162">162</div>
<p>The lead-off batter for the Rocketeers
walked to the plate swinging a bat, padded to
keep it from hitting the ball too hard and
far. The Comets’ ace pitcher, Carl Cadman,
hurled three fast strikes over almost before the
batter had gotten a good foothold. Carl struck
out the next batter as well and then forced
little Pete Irby to loft a high infield fly for the
third out.</p>
<p>“Let’s get ’em, Bill!” Ollie said excitedly as
the Rocketeers took the field.</p>
<p>“We’ll sure try,” Bill promised his catcher.</p>
<p>Bill took the mound. With his space gloves
he massaged rosin into the baseball. After getting
the signal from Ollie, Bill swung his arm
down and around. The batter swung sharply,
driving the ball toward third. The baseman
made a dive for the ball, but he missed it. His
body seemed to glide in slow motion in the
light gravity.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_163">163</div>
<p>Bill walked the next batter, making two on
and none out. Jack Brenna, the Comets’ heaviest
hitter, was up. Bill got two strikes on him
and then Jack took a better toehold. As Bill
saw bat and ball connect solidly on the next
pitch, his heart fell.</p>
<p>The ball arched like a comet across the dark
sky. The left fielder took a dozen giant steps
after the ball but then gave up. The ball
seemed to be going for miles. It was a home
run.</p>
<p>The Comets did not score anymore that inning,
but the damage seemed to be already
done. The champions were leading 3-0.</p>
<p>Bill was first up for the Rocketeers. As he
went to the plate swinging a bat, his eye caught
Skippy’s wheel chair, and he saw his game
little brother waving encouragement. It made
him want to try even harder to put his team
out in front. Bill knew he would have to do it
with his hitting, since he had failed as a
pitcher.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_164">164</div>
<p>But Bill got no closer to a hit than a long
foul into the stands. Then he struck out. The
two teammates following him also failed to get
on base.</p>
<p>The game moved along with no more scoring
for the next five innings. It was still 3-0.</p>
<p>In the last of the seventh inning the Plato
Rocketeers had more trouble. The first Comet
batter topped the ball slowly to Pete at shortstop,
who tried too hard to make the play.
The ball rolled between his legs and the runner
went all the way to second.</p>
<p>Pete was so busy grumbling about his last
error that he muffed the next play too. He
jumped ten feet into the air trying to reach
the high, bounding ball, but he misjudged it
and it went on past. The runner on second
loped down to third in long strides. Bill called
time in order to give Pete a chance to settle
down.</p>
<p>“We’ll never win this game!” Pete groaned.
“Why don’t you fellows say I’m not any good—like
you’re thinking!”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_165">165</div>
<p>“Stop talking like that!” Bill told him over
his suit radio. “You’re thinking too much
about going to Earth, Pete. You’re trying <i>too</i>
hard!”</p>
<p>“I’ll try to do better,” Pete promised.</p>
<p>The next batter drove a high fly to center,
sending the runner in from third and making
the score 4-0. Bill walked the player following,
but then he was lucky enough to strike out the
hard-hitting Jack Brenna.</p>
<p>The next Comet drove a hard liner to Pete.
Pete scrambled for the ball, but once again
he muffed it and it went on into the outfield.
The shortfielder recovered it quickly but
threw wide to third, sending the runner into
the plate with the Comets’ fifth run.</p>
<p>When Bill looked at Pete, the little fellow
had thrown his big fielder’s glove into the air
and was beginning to walk broken-heartedly
off the diamond.</p>
<p>“Pete!” Bill heard Coach Lippert call
sharply over his suit radio as he ran onto the
field. “Get back to your position, son! I don’t
like a quitter on my team.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_166">166</div>
<p>Players and coach huddled in the infield.
They looked like a gathering of teddy bears
in the space suits. Bill could see tears of bitterness
inside Pete’s plastic helmet.</p>
<p>“Fellows,” the coach said, “what did we
come seven hundred miles across the Moon to
do?”</p>
<p>“To play ball,” someone answered, “—and
win.”</p>
<p>“All right, then. What do you say we start
doing it? Pete, I’m going to send you to left
field where you used to play. Dan, in left field,
will take your place at shortstop.”</p>
<p>The Rocketeers retired the side without
further scoring. Then as though to prove that
the pep talk had helped, the team came up
with three big runs of their own!</p>
<p>Pitching with all his skill, Bill was able to
set down the Comets in order. It was now the
top half of the ninth inning, the last chance
for Plato to win the game. They were still behind
5-3, and the two-run lead seemed as big
as the Milky Way to Bill.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_167">167</div>
<p>Dan started it off by walloping a double
down the right field line. Pete followed with a
single that bounced high over the right shortfielder’s
head. The fielder behind him took the
ball and threw quickly to his catcher to keep
Dan from scoring off third. But then the
Rocketeers’ luck seemed to have run out as the
next two players struck out.</p>
<p>“It’s all up to you, Bill,” the coach told his
pitcher as Bill selected his favorite bat.</p>
<p>“I’ll be swinging, coach,” Bill said determinedly.</p>
<p>He looked toward the stands as he walked to
the plate. Skippy was waving encouragement
again.</p>
<p>“This one is for you, Skippy,” Bill murmured,
stepping up to the plate.</p>
<p>Carl tried to make him swing on two bad
pitches.</p>
<p>“Careful,” Bill warned himself. “There are
two outs—only one more left to us in the whole
game!”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_168">168</div>
<p>The next ball was just the one Bill wanted.
He swung with all his might. He saw the ball
rise and lose itself in the white dust of starlight
overhead. And then he was off!</p>
<p>Loping past second, he saw the left fielder
still bounding like a rabbit after the ball. The
coach slowed him up on third base.</p>
<p>“Take it easy, Bill,” he said with a happy
grin. “That ball is on the dark side of the
Moon by now!”</p>
<p>Bill could see the Plato rooters waving their
arms wildly in glee, and his radio picked up
their loud cheers. As he crossed the plate with
the leading run, he waved to Skippy who was
almost out of his wheel chair in his excitement
over his big brother’s tingling homer.</p>
<p>The score: Plato 6, Copernicus 5. The game
was far from over, though. The Comets still
had their last turn at bat.</p>
<p>Bill got the first player to raise a high infield
pop-up. In the Moon’s light gravity it
seemed as if the ball would never come down.
But it finally did, and Dan took it for the first
out.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_169">169</div>
<p>Bill walked the next Comet, to put one on
and with one out. The following batter forced
the runner at second, making it two out and
giving Bill a much more confident feeling.</p>
<p>But then up to the plate walked Jack
Brenna!</p>
<p>Bill swallowed hard and began to sweat inside
his space suit. He failed to get the ball
over the plate on the first two pitches. Jack
swung on the next pitch and sent a hard foul
ball behind third base.</p>
<p>“Must be careful,” Bill thought. “A homer
with the man on base will win the game for
the Comets.”</p>
<p>Bill came though with a fast ball. Jack met
it squarely and as the ball towered high over
the infield, Jack felt all quivery and weak. He
turned his head regretfully and saw the ball
rising high and far against the midnight black
of space. He saw little Pete Irby galloping
away from the diamond as fast as he could go.</p>
<p>“Get it, Pete!” Bill pleaded under his
breath. “Please get it!”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_170">170</div>
<p>Everybody in the stands was on his feet.
This was the play that would decide the game—and
the championship.</p>
<p>Pete finally made a last second leap that
brought him twenty feet off the ground. Bill
could hardly see ball and glove meet. But they
did meet and Pete had done the impossible!</p>
<p>They had won!</p>
<p>The Rocketeers whirled the coach and Bill
easily up on their shoulders, because of the
light Lunar weight. Then they began parading
happily around the diamond to celebrate
their very first championship. When Pete had
made the long trip in from the outfield, he too
was carried around on his teammates’ shoulders.</p>
<p>“That was a swell catch, Pete!” Bill called
out to the little fellow. “You sure saved the
day for us!”</p>
<p>“You know what, Bill?” Pete said, grinning.
“If I’d missed that ball I would have kept on
running—yep, right into space! I was determined
to make that trip to Earth one way or
another!”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_171">171</div>
<div class="fig"><ANTIMG src="images/chapter.jpg" alt="" width-obs="400" height-obs="27" /></div>
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