The Rookie Blue Jay Read online

  #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

  Also by David A. Kelly

  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 © 2015 by David A. Kelly

  Cover art and interior illustrations copyright © 2015 by Mark Meyers

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

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

  Visit us on the Web!

  SteppingStonesBooks.com

  randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at

  RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kelly, David A.

  The rookie Blue Jay / by David A. Kelly; illustrated by Mark Meyers.

  pages cm. — (Ballpark mysteries; 10)

  “A Stepping Stone book.”

  Summary: While staying at a hotel built as part of the Toronto Blue Jays’ baseball stadium, where guests can watch games from their room, cousins Mike and Kate spot strange blue lights flashing across the bull pen and decide to investigate.

  ISBN 978-0-385-37875-8 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-0-385-37876-5 (lib. bdg.) —

  ISBN 978-0-385-37877-2 (ebook)

  [1. Baseball—Fiction. 2. Toronto Blue Jays (Baseball team)—Fiction. 3. Cousins—Fiction. 4. Toronto (Ont.)—Fiction. 5. Canada—Fiction. 6. Mystery and detective stories.]

  I. Meyers, Mark, illustrator. II. Title. PZ7.K2936Ro 2015 [Fic] — dc23 2013045713

  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.

  v3.1

  This book is dedicated to my father, Kevin Kelly, who sneaked me into a hotel restaurant when I was ten to meet Hank Aaron and get his autograph. —D.A.K.

  To the Garvonsons. —M.M.

  “If my uniform doesn’t get dirty, I haven’t done anything in the baseball game.” —Ricky Henderson, outfielder on the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays team, which won the World Series

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1 Over the Falls

  Chapter 2 A Hotel Mystery

  Chapter 3 Midnight Lights

  Chapter 4 Trouble Sleeping

  Chapter 5 A Surprise Find

  Chapter 6 The Streak

  Chapter 7 The Glowing Light

  Chapter 8 Slap Shot

  Chapter 9 Time Travel

  Chapter 10 A Confession

  Chapter 11 Rookie of the Year

  Dugout Notes

  Toronto Blue Jays Ballpark

  Over the Falls

  Mike Walsh grabbed the railing at the front of the sightseeing boat. The boat surged against a strong current, and a spray of water shot up and drenched his blue poncho. Mike took a deep breath. Then he yelled as loudly as he could, “MIKE WALSH IS THE BEST BASEBALL PLAYER EVERRRRRRRR!”

  Lots of people stood near Mike, but no one noticed. They were too busy snapping pictures of Niagara Falls. Millions of gallons of water crashed down with a thundering roar in front of the boat. Clouds of mist rose up from the base of the falls.

  Mike’s cousin Kate Hopkins leaned in close to him. “I DON’T THINK THEY CAN HEAR YOU!” she yelled. “THE FALLS ARE TOO LOUD!”

  Mike, Kate, and Kate’s mother were taking a ride on the Maid of the Mist, a boat that took tourists to the bottom of one of the largest waterfalls in the world.

  Mrs. Hopkins worked as a sports reporter. She often took Kate and Mike with her to baseball stadiums. They had stopped to see Niagara Falls on their way from Cooperstown, New York, to Toronto, Canada. In Toronto, they were going to go to a Blue Jays baseball game. Just after lunch, they had crossed the border into Canada.

  Up close, the rumble of the waterfall was so loud that Mike and Kate stopped trying to talk. Instead, they watched the flood of water crash down in front of them. After the boat cruised close to the base of the falls, it headed back downstream.

  As the noise of the falls died away, Mike and Kate slipped off their dripping ponchos. Mike put on his brand-new blue and white Toronto Blue Jays baseball cap. He had bought it at a shop before they boarded the boat.

  Kate tossed her long brown hair to fling off drops of water. “Wow, that was cool!” she said.

  “It sure was,” Mike said as he tightened his cap. “And just think, my mom gets mad when I leave the water running while I brush my teeth!”

  Mrs. Hopkins smiled. “How about I take a picture of you with the falls in the background?” she asked. “You can show it to your mother next time you leave the water on.”

  Mike and Kate stood against the boat’s railing while Mrs. Hopkins took a picture. A few minutes later, the boat docked. After they got off, Kate, Mike, and Mrs. Hopkins caught a trolley back to the welcome center at the top of the falls.

  Outside the welcome center stood a tall red, white, and blue barrel. Nearby was a large, round metal tank and a bunch of black inner tubes roped together. They were part of a Niagara Falls exhibit that showed different things people had used to ride over the falls.

  “Those inner tubes don’t look safe,” Mike said. “I’d take them down a hill in the winter, but definitely not over those falls!”

  Kate studied the barrel. “When I did that school report on Canada, I read a book about Niagara Falls. It said that Annie Edison Taylor was the first person to go over the falls in a barrel and live,” Kate said. She was always reading. “She did it on her sixty-third birthday in 1901.”

  “Now that’s a birthday present!” Mike said. “I was thinking of going on a roller coaster for my birthday. Maybe I should try that instead!”

  “I don’t think your mom would like that,” Kate’s mother said. “But these falls do attract daredevils. Just a few years ago, a man walked across them on a tightrope!”

  Behind the exhibit, a sidewalk ran next to the river above the falls. Nearby was a white tent with open sides. Inside three men sat behind a long table. A line of kids waited to get in.

  “Hey, Aunt Laura, can we go check that out?” Mike asked.

  “Sure,” Mrs. Hopkins said. “Stay together, and I’ll meet you by the falls in a few minutes.”

  Mike and Kate ran over to the tent. The sign next to it read HOCKEY AT THE FALLS. MEET A HALL OF FAME HOCKEY PLAYER!

  “Neat!” Mike said. He pointed to his hat. “Maybe I can get one of them to sign my new Blue Jays hat.”

  Kate shook her head. “These are hockey players, not baseball players, Mike,” she said. “Remember, we’re in Canada now. They’re crazy for hockey here.”

  “That’s all right,” Mike said. He leaned over and pretended to hit a hockey puck with an imaginary stick. “I like all sports, especially one
s where you can score!”

  Mike and Kate lined up behind the other kids. It only took five minutes to go through the tent. Mike and Kate met the players and came out holding hockey pucks. Both were signed in bright silver marker. When Mike spotted Kate’s mom at the railing near the river, they ran over to show her.

  Mrs. Hopkins studied the signed hockey pucks. “Very nice!” she said. “Maybe we can get some signed baseballs at the Blue Jays game. Then we’ll have something from America’s and Canada’s favorite sports!”

  They leaned over the railing to get a better look at the river rushing by. The water seemed to speed up as it got closer to the falls.

  A swirling gust of wind blew by. It whooshed past Kate’s hair, swirling it all around her face. It swept by Mike and lifted the brim of his Blue Jays baseball cap.

  “Hey, my hat!” Mike yelled. The wind had blown it right off! It fluttered end over end, then landed in the rushing Niagara River.

  His baseball cap was headed straight for the falls!

  A Hotel Mystery

  Just twenty feet downstream, the water poured over the lip of Niagara Falls and crashed to the rocks at the bottom. Mike ran along the edge until he found another open spot at the railing. The hat was swirling along the shoreline. He leaned over to grab the hat when it went by, but Kate’s mother pulled him back.

  “That’s not safe,” she said. “I don’t want you falling in, too!”

  “I could have had it!” Mike said. The hat was directly in front of him.

  Suddenly, a bald man stepped up to the railing next to Mike. He swooped the blade of a hockey stick underwater. In one quick motion, he snagged Mike’s hat and saved it from the falls!

  The hat dangled at the end of the stick. When it was safely over the railing, the man grabbed the dripping hat.

  “Wow, thanks!” Mike cried. “That’s what I call a hat trick!”

  The man took off his sunglasses. He had deep blue eyes and bushy eyebrows. He wore a white and blue hockey jersey with a maple leaf on the front. Mike recognized him—he was one of the hockey players from the tent.

  The man tossed the Blue Jays cap to Mike. “You’re lucky,” he said. “I almost didn’t rescue it because it’s a baseball hat. The only sport that really matters around here is hockey!”

  “Thanks for saving it,” Mike said. “You’re one of the Hall of Fame hockey players, right?”

  “That’s right,” the man said. “I’m Buck. Used to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs.” Buck pointed at Mike’s hat. “You like baseball?”

  “Yup,” Mike said. “It’s my favorite sport.”

  Buck let out a big sigh. “You sound like my son. Always loved baseball more than hockey,” he said. “The Blue Jays are a good team, but if you ask me, hockey’s the real deal.” Buck gave Mike a nod and walked back to the tent.

  Mike, Kate, and Mrs. Hopkins headed off to explore the town. It was filled with fun things to do. Mike and Kate had never seen so many T-shirt shops, fudge stores, and arcades. At the end of the street they went into a museum of oddities. Inside were lots of strange exhibits, including mummies, a stuffed dog with extra feet, and pictures of super-tall people.

  They made it back to the car just as it was getting dark. Their hotel in Toronto was an hour and a half away.

  “I forgot to tell you that there’s something special about our hotel,” Mrs. Hopkins said when they reached the highway.

  “Is it really tall?” Mike asked.

  “Does it have a water park in it?” Kate asked.

  “Maybe it has an ice cream sundae bar in every room!” Mike said.

  “Or how about a batting cage?” Kate put in.

  Mrs. Hopkins laughed. “No, it doesn’t have any of those, but Kate’s batting cage guess is a good idea. Keep trying!”

  Kate and Mike kept throwing out guesses as they drove. But everything they suggested, from an animal park to slides going out the windows, was wrong. When they ran out of ideas, Mrs. Hopkins played an audiobook of folk tales and ghost stories.

  Mike especially liked one story about ghost lights. According to the legend, ghost lights were spooky glowing lights that floated in the air and led people into trouble. Mike liked the story so much he made Mrs. Hopkins play it a second time. After that, Mike imagined he kept seeing ghost lights in the car’s windshield, until Mrs. Hopkins finally pointed out they were just the reflections of the headlights from other cars.

  By the time Mrs. Hopkins, Kate, and Mike pulled up to the door of the hotel, it was late. Mrs. Hopkins checked in at the front desk, while Mike and Kate circled around in the revolving door. When they got to the door of their room a few minutes later, Mrs. Hopkins paused. “Any last guesses as to what’s special about this hotel?” she asked.

  Mike grabbed an imaginary pole in front of him. “Maybe the room has two floors and there’s a fire pole we can slide down to get from one to the other!” he said. “That would be cool!”

  “Or hot,” Kate said, “since it’s a fire pole!”

  Mrs. Hopkins laughed. “It would be,” she said as she unlocked the door. “But that’s not it. Take a look.”

  Midnight Lights

  Mike and Kate rushed into the room. They dropped their suitcases and scrambled around. Kate checked out the bathroom. Mike looked under the beds and in the closet. But they didn’t find anything unusual.

  “We give up, Mom,” Kate said. “What’s so special about the room?”

  Kate’s mother smiled. “I’ll show you,” she said. She led them to the window and opened the curtains.

  The hotel room was inside the Toronto Blue Jays’ baseball stadium! Through the window, Mike and Kate could see the green grass of the outfield just below them. On the other side of the field, thousands of empty blue seats curved around home plate and the infield.

  “You’re kidding!” Mike said. “We’re staying inside the ballpark?” He pressed his nose against the glass to get a better look.

  “Wow!” Kate said.

  “It’s one of a kind,” Mrs. Hopkins said. “The Blue Jays thought it would be really neat to have hotel rooms with a view of the baseball diamond, so they built this hotel as part of the stadium. You can even watch baseball games right from the room if you want!”

  Mrs. Hopkins unlocked a latch on the window. The top half of the window slid wide open. Mike and Kate rested their arms on the edge and looked out into the stadium.

  Mike stuck his hand through the window and waved it around. “Hey, maybe I could catch a home run up here,” he said. “Or get the players to throw me a ball. If I lived here, I’d never leave!”

  Kate and Mike spent the next few minutes gazing out at the stadium. The field below was set up for the next day’s batting practice, with screens in front of the pitching mound and second base.

  “Time for bed,” Mrs. Hopkins said as she finally shooed Mike and Kate away from the window. “The ballpark will still be here tomorrow.”

  Mike and Kate put on their pajamas. Mike’s pajamas were white with baseball bats, balls, and gloves all over them. Kate’s had red stripes and a number on the back, like a uniform. Kate brushed her teeth first. Mike pretended to lose his toothbrush. But Mrs. Hopkins found it under Mike’s suitcase and sent him in next.

  Mrs. Hopkins rolled out a sleeping bag near the window. “There are only two beds. You’ll have to decide who gets the bed and who gets the sleeping bag,” she said.

  “Let’s flip a coin,” Mike said. He pulled out a quarter from his pants pocket. Since it was a Canadian quarter, it looked different. He looked closely at the coin. One side had an image of the queen of England. The other had a picture of an animal with big antlers. “I call the moose,” he said.

  Kate grimaced. “It’s a caribou, you moose-head!” she said. “But that’s okay, I’ll take the queen.”

  Kate took the quarter from Mike and flipped it into the air with her thumb. She caught it in her right hand and smacked it down on her wrist. Then she lifted her hand. The face of the
quarter stared up at her.

  “Heads! It’s the queen,” she said. “I call the bed.”

  Mike dropped onto the sleeping bag and crawled inside it. “I didn’t want the bed, anyway,” his muffled voice called out. “I’d rather sleep on the floor, since it’s closer to the field.”

  Mrs. Hopkins turned off the light. A few minutes later, Kate and Mike were fast asleep.

  Just before midnight, Mike woke up thirsty. He climbed out of his sleeping bag and got a drink of water from the bathroom sink. On his way back, he paused to sneak a look at the stadium.

  Mike opened the curtains just enough so he could see out. The stadium was completely empty and dark, except for a few red EXIT signs. Mike stared at the field. It would be so cool to run around the bases of the empty stadium in the dark! Then he noticed a strange blue flicker in the Blue Jays bull pen, right below their hotel room.

  At first he barely saw it. But when Mike leaned forward and pressed his face against the window, he saw it again. A blue flicker streaked from one end of the bull pen to the other!

  Mike raced over to Kate’s bed and shook her arm until she woke up. He put his finger to his lips to signal that Kate should keep quiet.

  “You’ve got to see what’s happening in the bull pen,” he whispered.

  Mike led Kate to the window.

  A streak of blue light flashed across the bull pen again.

  Kate’s sleepy eyes popped open. She stood on her tiptoes to get a better look. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered.

  One streak of blue light followed the other. They zipped across the bull pen. Sometimes they’d linger at the far end and then slowly move back to the other end.

  Kate nodded knowingly. “Do you know what that is?” she asked.

  “No, what?” Mike asked.

  “It’s a ghost light!”

  Trouble Sleeping

  From the floor-to-ceiling windows in the hotel restaurant the next morning, Mike and Kate scanned the stadium. But all they saw were row after row of empty blue seats and the green turf of the field.