Ballpark Mysteries Super Special #3 Read online

  BALLPARK MYSTERIES®

  #1 The Fenway Foul-Up

  #2 The Pinstripe Ghost

  #3 The L.A. Dodger

  #4 The Astro Outlaw

  #5 The All-Star Joker

  #6 The Wrigley Riddle

  #7 The San Francisco Splash

  #8 The Missing Marlin

  #9 The Philly Fake

  #10 The Rookie Blue Jay

  #11 The Tiger Troubles

  #12 The Rangers Rustlers

  #13 The Capital Catch

  #14 The Cardinals Caper

  SUPER SPECIAL #1 The World Series Curse

  SUPER SPECIAL #2 Christmas in Cooperstown

  SUPER SPECIAL #3 Subway Series Surprise

  Also by David A. Kelly

  THE MVP SERIES

  #1 The Gold Medal Mess

  #2 The Soccer Surprise

  #3 The Football Fumble

  #4 The Basketball Blowout

  Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2018 by David A. Kelly

  Cover art and interior illustrations copyright © 2018 by Mark Meyers

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Ballpark Mysteries® is a registered trademark of Upside Research, Inc.

  Visit us on the Web!

  SteppingStonesBooks.com

  rhcbooks.com

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTea​chers​Libra​rians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Kelly, David A., author. | Meyers, Mark, illustrator.

  Title: Subway Series surprise / by David A. Kelly ; illustrated by Mark Meyers.

  Description: New York : Random House, [2018] | Series: Ballpark mysteries. Super special ; #3 | “A Stepping Stone book.” | Summary: In New York City for the annual series between rival teams, the Yankees and the Mets, Mike and Kate investigate a spate of pranks, thefts, and sabotage.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017048866 | ISBN 978-0-525-57892-5 (trade) | ISBN 978-0-525-57893-2 (lib. bdg.) | ISBN 978-0-525-57894-9 (ebook)

  Subjects: CYAC: Baseball—Fiction. | Conduct of life—Fiction. | New York Mets (Baseball team)—Fiction. | New York Yankees (Baseball team)—Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.K2936 Su 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v5.3.2

  a

  This book is dedicated to my wife, Alice Lesch Kelly, an original Mets fan and fellow native New Yorker, who always knows how to help make Mike and Kate better detectives and the Ballpark Mysteries more mysterious.

  —D.A.K.

  “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

  —Yogi Berra, an eighteen-time MLB All-Star, and player, manager, and coach over the years of both the New York Yankees and New York Mets

  Contents

  Cover

  Ballpark Mysteries®

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: Mets vs. Yankees

  Chapter 2: A Mysterious Mets Fan

  Chapter 3: Another Mystery

  Chapter 4: Decoding the Note

  Chapter 5: An Apple for the Yankees

  Chapter 6: A Hat in the Bag

  Chapter 7: To Catch a Thief?

  Chapter 8: A Surprise Visitor

  Chapter 9: A Home Run Clue

  Chapter 10: A Mets Fan or a Yankees Fan?

  Chapter 11: A Real Subway Series Catch!

  Chapter 12: New York, New York!

  Dugout Notes Subway Series

  Mike Walsh and his cousin Kate Hopkins stood on the sidelines of the Brooklyn Cyclones minor-league baseball game. It was the seventh-inning stretch, and they had an important job to do.

  “Bring out the hot dogs!” said a man standing near the pitcher’s mound. He wore a straw hat and bright blue jacket. “It’s Mets fans versus Yankees fans in the Subway Series Hot-Dog-Eating Contest!”

  “We got ’em!” Kate called back as thousands of fans in the stadium cheered. Kate and Mike rushed across the Cyclones’ infield, carrying huge trays of Nathan’s Famous hot dogs.

  They were headed for the two long tables on either side of the announcer. Behind each table were three Mets or Yankees fans chosen from the crowd.

  Kate ran up to the table on the left. Two women and a man, each wearing blue and orange Mets shirts, sat behind it. At the front of the table was a big banner that read GO, METS! Kate placed ten hot dogs in front of each competitor. “Good luck!” she said to the three contestants. “Try to eat fast! I want one of the Mets fans to win!”

  “And I want a Yankees fan to win!” Mike called from the other table. The sign on that table read GO, YANKEES! Mike had placed ten hot dogs in front of each person on his side. The contestants were each wearing pin-striped Yankees jerseys. The crowd cheered.

  Mike and Kate met near the third-base line to watch. It was Friday afternoon, and they were in New York City for a big Subway Series between the Mets and the Yankees that started that night. The teams would be playing each other three times in the next three days.

  The games were called a Subway Series because fans could reach both the Mets’ and the Yankees’ stadiums using the New York City subway. Before the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants moved to California from New York in the 1950s, they had also played the New York Yankees in Subway Series games.

  Kate’s mom had driven Mike and Kate down to New York City from their homes in Cooperstown, New York, the day before. She was a sports reporter and was in the press box working. Mrs. Hopkins had arranged for Mike and Kate to be part of the Cyclones’ hot-dog-eating contest.

  The Cyclones were a minor-league team for the New York Mets. Their stadium was right next to the ocean, in the neighborhood of Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. During the summer, lots of people in New York City went to Coney Island for fun. Nearby was a wide wooden boardwalk with rides, games, and food stands. Roller coasters zipped back and forth just beyond the stadium’s outfield wall, and waves broke on the sandy beach outside the ballpark.

  The announcer running the contest waved his straw hat in the air. “Whoever eats the most hot dogs wins four front-row seats to all Subway Series games!” he said.

  Mike nudged Kate with his elbow. He rubbed his stomach in a circular motion. “I’ll bet I could eat the most hot dogs if they’d let me,” he said.

  Kate shook her head. Her brown ponytail bobbed back and forth through the hole in her blue baseball cap. “It’s only for adults!” she said. “But let’s buy some hot dogs when we’re done!”

  Ball boys and girls finished bringing out bottles of ketchup, mustard, and relish and placed big jugs of water on t
he tables. According to the rules, the contestants could eat the hot dogs plain or with condiments, but they also had to eat the buns.

  Behind the tables, the contestants prepared to eat. Some took swigs of water. Others slathered their hot dogs with mustard or relish. One woman rolled her head from side to side and made chewing motions with her jaw. A man rubbed his belly and took deep breaths.

  Mike glanced at Kate. “I’m rooting for the Yankees fans to win,” he said. “Because Babe Ruth played for them.”

  “Well, I’m rooting for the Mets side because my father likes them,” Kate said. Her parents were divorced. Kate’s father lived in Los Angeles.

  “Why not root for the Yankees, like your mom?” Mike asked.

  “Because my dad works for the Dodgers!” Kate said. “After both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants moved to California in the 1950s, the Yankees were the only baseball team left in New York. So when Major League Baseball created the Mets in 1962, they wanted to honor the memory of the Giants and the Dodgers.”

  Kate pointed to a Mets logo on her program. It was a round logo that showed the outline of a bridge in front of a bunch of city buildings. “See how the Mets logo is blue and orange?”

  “Um, yeah,” Mike said. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “It’s actually Dodger blue and Giants orange!” Kate said. “The Mets used colors from the old Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants for their uniforms and logos!”

  The announcer counted down for the start of the contest. “Five…four…three…two…one…HOT DOGS!” he yelled.

  The Mets and Yankees fans behind the tables stuffed one hot dog after another into their mouths. Some dipped the hot dogs in water and swallowed them in two bites, and then stuffed the rolls in separately. Others simply took big bites of the hot dogs with the buns. Some put mustard on them, but most didn’t.

  “One minute left!” the announcer yelled.

  More hot dogs disappeared from the table. A few contestants had stopped and were holding their stomachs as if they felt sick.

  “METS! METS! METS! METS!” the crowd chanted. In the background, roller coasters zoomed up and down as their riders screamed.

  The announcer checked his watch and held up his hand. “Five…four…three…two…one…STOP!” he yelled. He swung his hand to end the contest. “Put down your hot dogs! Take your last swallow.”

  “Who won?” Kate asked.

  The announcer walked from one end of the tables to the other. He counted the leftover hot dogs in front of each person. Then he turned to the crowd.

  “We have a winner with NINE hot dogs eaten!” he said.

  “Come on, Yankees!” Mike said.

  “Let’s go, Mets!” Kate said.

  The announcer glanced back at both tables. It seemed like he was counting the hot dogs one more time. He turned to the crowd. “The winner of this year’s free tickets will be rooting for the…”

  The announcer paused.

  The fans clapped and cheered for their favorite sides.

  “Which team?” Mike yelled.

  “METS! METS! METS!” chanted the fans in the first row of seats.

  “Who won the free tickets?” Kate asked.

  The announcer held up his hand. “The winner of the hot-dog-eating contest will be rooting for the METS and the YANKEES!” he called. “This year we have a TIE!”

  “What?” Kate and Mike asked at the same time.

  “Ladies and gentlemen!” the announcer said. “We have a first! It’s a tie! One person on both the Mets and Yankees sides ate nine hot dogs! That means we’ll split up the four tickets. Each person who ate nine hot dogs will get two box seats for the Subway Series games. Congratulations!”

  A man on the Yankees side and a woman from the Mets side held up their hands in victory. The crowd cheered as they waved.

  “A tie? Are you kidding me?” Kate said. “There are no ties in baseball!”

  Mike shook his head. “Well, except for that one all-star game in 2002,” he said. “And I think there was another tie in 1961….”

  “Not today!” Kate said. “I know how to break that tie. I’m challenging you to our own hot-dog-eating contest. Mike versus Kate. We’ll see who can eat the most!”

  Mike laughed. “You know me—I’m always hungry,” he said. “Hungry for hot dogs. And hungry to win a contest!”

  “We’ll see about that,” Kate said. She gave Mike’s shirt a tug. “Let’s go get some hot dogs. Then we can go find my mom after the game. She’s interviewing people for her book on Subway Series heroes.”

  Mike followed Kate as she ran off the field. Behind them, the batboys and batgirls carried the hot-dog tables away. The Brooklyn Cyclones warmed up on the sidelines, waiting to take their turn at bat.

  The main walkway was crowded with people heading back to their seats. At the top of the stairs, Kate stopped to look for the nearest food stand. She spotted one to their right. But before she could head for it, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

  Kate whirled around.

  It was a hot-dog vendor! The woman had a big box of hot dogs on a strap around her neck. “Ah! Just the two I was looking for!” she said. “I saw you helping with the contest. You did a great job.”

  “Thanks!” Mike said. “It was fun.”

  She pulled out two hot dogs and wrapped them in napkins. “Here are some hot dogs for helping,” she said. She handed one to Mike and one to Kate. She also gave them some mustard and relish packets.

  “Enjoy!” She waved goodbye and walked away.

  Mike ripped open the foil package. “How cool is that?” he asked. “Free food for doing a good job!” He squeezed mustard and relish onto his hot dog.

  As Kate started to unwrap her hot dog, she noticed some black marks on the napkin. When she looked closer, she couldn’t believe her eyes. There was a message on her napkin!

  “Mike! Look at this!” she said.

  “Grrmph!” he sputtered. Mike had just taken a bite.

  Kate read aloud:

  “Whoa! What does that mean?” Mike asked.

  “I don’t know!” Kate said. “We’ve got to find that hot-dog lady!” She scanned the walkway. “There she is! Quick!”

  They took off running. When they caught up to the hot-dog vendor, she was about to head into a stockroom. “Hey! Excuse me!” Kate said.

  The woman turned around. “Oh! It’s you two,” she said.

  Kate waved the napkin in front of her. “Where did you get this napkin? Who gave it to you?” she asked.

  The woman shrugged. “A guy in a Mets jersey,” she said. “He paid for two hot dogs at the start of the game, but he asked me to wait and give them to you with the note after the contest. He said he had to get back to the stadium, but he wanted to leave them for you.”

  “What did he look like?” Kate asked. “What was his name?”

  “He didn’t say,” she said as she opened the door to the stockroom. “He was average size, dark hair. He was wearing sunglasses. He also had a silver watch with a blue and white band. But there was one strange thing about him. He had a blue Mets jersey on, but he was wearing a Yankees baseball hat! That’s all I know! I gotta go now! Bye!”

  “But we need to find him!” Kate said.

  BANG!

  The door of the stockroom slammed shut. The hot-dog lady was gone.

  Mike clapped his hands. “So, we just need to find the guy in the Mets jersey!” he said.

  “Mike! Look around!” Kate said. She waved her arm at the fans streaming by them. “The Cyclones are a Mets farm team! Almost everyone here is wearing a Mets jersey!”

  Mike turned and glanced at the fans nearby. Then he blushed and shrugged. “Well, maybe that’s good,” he said. “It gives us a lot of suspects to follow up on!”

  Kate shook her head. “
Are you kidding?” she asked. “We can’t solve a mystery if everyone is a suspect. We need to figure out who dropped that note off.”

  Mike snapped his fingers. “What if it wasn’t a Mets fan?” he asked. “What if the sunglasses and jersey were just a disguise? He could be a Yankees fan.”

  Kate nodded. “Maybe…,” she said. “But then who was he and why is he asking us to solve a mystery?”

  Mike shrugged again. “I don’t know,” he said. “I think my brain needs some food!” He unwrapped the rest of his hot dog and took another bite. Kate did the same. “Mmm, mmm,” Mike said when he finished. “Free food always tastes good to me!”

  “Kate! Mike!” a woman’s voice called.

  Kate’s mom was running down the main hallway. She wore a blue baseball hat with a ponytail hanging out the back. She had a black messenger bag slung over her shoulder.

  “I’m so glad I found you!” she said as she stopped in front of them. “I’ve been looking for the past ten minutes.”

  “What’s up?” Kate asked. “The game’s not over.”

  Kate’s mom nodded. “Something important came up,” she said. “We’ve got to get over to the Mets’ stadium early. Someone broke into the press box!”

  “Oh no!” Kate said. “I hope your research wasn’t stolen!” Mrs. Hopkins had spent the morning working in the press box.

  “Me too!” Kate’s mom said. “I have to finish my Subway Series book by next month. If my notes and interviews were stolen, I don’t know what I’ll do!”

  Outside the stadium, Mrs. Hopkins flagged down a taxi. She asked the driver to hurry to the Mets’ ballpark. When they arrived, Mike and Kate hopped out as Mrs. Hopkins paid.

  VOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!

  Mike and Kate covered their ears and looked up. A large airplane streaked across the sky over the stadium.