The Colorado Curveball Read online

  Kate picked up the big feet and hands. Mike picked up Dinger’s large purple head. He held it up over his head and let out a roar.

  “ROARRRRRR!” he said. “I know that Dinger’s a Triceratops, but I think you scared Regina and her crew so much, you looked like a terror-dactyl!”

  Kate laughed. She pulled the stadium door open. “Come on,” she said. “We’ve got to put this away and get back to our seats before the Rockies’ game goes extinct!”

  A few moments later, Mike and Kate had put Dinger back in the mascot room and made their way to their seats.

  The sun shone brightly on the Rockies’ stadium. It had warmed up enough that many of the fans had taken off their hats and gloves. Dinger—the real one—danced on top of the dugout roof. The Rockies fans rocked the house because it was the eighth inning and their team was ahead by four runs!

  “I’m glad the Rockies are ahead. But what I really want to see is a home run, since it’s supposed to be easy to hit one here!” Mike said. “Maybe I could help the Rockies out by going down to the humidor and turning it off. That would make the baseballs drier and lighter. They’d be flying out of this park like popcorn out of a pan!”

  “Let’s just stay here and watch the rest of the game,” Kate said. “Then we’ll meet up with George and my dad at the stadium office.”

  Mike took a sip of PowerPunch and a bite of his hot dog. They had stopped to fuel up on the way back to their seats. “Okay,” he said. “Sounds good to me!”

  Marco Jackson from the Rockies stepped up to the plate. The Rockies fans cheered. Mike and Kate clapped along. “Let’s go, Rockies!”

  Marco swung at the first pitch that crossed the plate.

  WHAP!

  The ball sailed high into the Rocky Mountain sky. Mike and Kate leapt up from their seats and yelled “Go! Go! Go!” as the ball flew higher. The fielders ran back to the wall as fast as they could.

  Marco ran for first. The ball started to drop back down. Marco rounded first and headed for second base as the ball dropped over the wall. The fielders stopped and turned around.

  “Home run! Home run!” Mike shouted. “Woo-hoo!” He gave Kate a high five. “That’s exactly what I wanted to see. I guess a good hitter can send even a waterlogged ball out of the park.”

  The fans roared when Marco crossed home plate. The Rockies were now ahead by five.

  Mike and Kate dropped back down into their seats. The rest of the game went quickly. The Rockies didn’t score any more runs in the eighth. The Dodgers tried to catch up in the ninth inning but only got one runner on base before the Rockies’ pitcher struck out three batters in a row.

  Game over. The Rockies had won!

  Mike and Kate cheered with the rest of the fans as the players jogged off the field.

  “That was a great end to the game!” Mike said.

  “It was, if you’re a Rockies fan,” Kate said.

  “And we’re Rockies fans today!” Mike said.

  Mike and Kate stood up as the fans around them started to leave. Kate led the way to the stadium office.

  They met George in a conference room with trophies and medals on display. A security guard with a name tag that read PAM sat next to him. Shortly after Mike and Kate walked into the room, Mr. Hopkins arrived.

  “What’s this I’m hearing about you two and a dinosaur?” he asked.

  Kate gave her dad a hug. “Hi, Dad,” she said. “We weren’t digging for trouble today! We just happened to find a multimillion-dollar dinosaur theft in progress!”

  George laughed. “I’m not sure if those dinosaur bones will be worth millions of dollars, but they are worth a lot of money,” he said. “And Kate’s right. She and Mike were the only reason that Regina and her crew didn’t escape with expensive bones.”

  “How did they even know there were dinosaur bones under the field?” Mike asked.

  “Well, you’ve heard the story about how they found dinosaur bones when they built the stadium, right?” George asked.

  Mike, Kate, and Mr. Hopkins nodded.

  “Turns out, this is related to that,” George said.

  “Regina confessed the whole plan,” Pam, the security chief, said. “Her father installed the field heating system when the stadium was first built. He’s the one who found the original fossil. But what he didn’t tell anyone was that he also found a whole dinosaur skeleton.”

  “He wanted to dig it out himself and get rich by selling it,” Pam continued. “Since it was near the field heating system room, he thought he would go back sometime and get it. But he became too sick to work and never made it back. Instead, he left Regina a letter about it when he died and told her how to find it. She waited until the system needed repair and planned on digging it out then. That’s what she and her crew have been doing all week. They just didn’t think they would be caught by two kids!”

  Mike and Kate smiled.

  “We were only trying to figure out who spilled the baseballs,” Kate said. She nudged Mike with her elbow. “But I guess we uncovered a lot more than that!”

  “Hey! I’m the one who does the puns,” Mike said.

  “Sorry!” Kate said. “You’re not the only one who has a sense of humor. If you’re so good, you do one!”

  “Okay,” Mike said. “I will. What do you call it when a dinosaur has a car accident?”

  “I’ll bite,” Mr. Hopkins said. “I don’t know, what?”

  “A Tyrannosaurus wreck!” Mike said. “Get it? Like a Tyrannosaurus rex?”

  Mr. Hopkins laughed. “Yes, Mike, I get it,” he said. “And it sounds like Regina and her crew are going to get it, too, for trying to steal the dinosaur. What’s going to happen to it?”

  “We’ve already called the museum,” George said. “They were thrilled. They’ll be here tomorrow to help us figure out what to do with it.”

  “Great!” Kate said.

  “Yes, it is,” George said. “We really appreciate you and Mike helping the Rockies today, so we wanted to give you a token of our thanks.”

  Pam stood up and opened the door.

  And in walked a dinosaur!

  “Dinger!” Mike said.

  Dinger came over and gave Mike and Kate fist bumps. He motioned for them to hold out their hands and reached inside a box that Pam held. Then he lifted up a reddish-brown object and dropped it in Kate’s hands.

  “Is it a dinosaur bone?” Kate said. She held it up and looked at it more closely.

  Dinger nodded.

  “Cool!” Mike said. “We’re rich!”

  George laughed. “Not so fast, Mike,” he said. “It is a real dinosaur bone from sixty-six million years ago, but it’s not going to make you rich. We found a few bones last year when we did some work on the stadium. The museum didn’t want them, so we held on to them. We knew we’d find an important use for them. It’s your payment for being such awesome detectives!”

  “Thanks!” Kate said. “This is amazing!” She handed the bone to Mike.

  Mike took it and held it up in front of him.

  “Wow, this is so cool, I dino what to say!” Mike said.

  George laughed. “We’re glad you like it,” he said.

  “Like it?” Mike asked. “We love it. This gift is dino-mite!”

  Stadium. The Rockies’ stadium opened in 1995. It’s located in downtown Denver, near a beautiful old train station and lots of restaurants and shops. You can’t escape the Rocky Mountains at the Rockies’ stadium—they are visible in the distance over the outfield, the scoreboard is shaped like a mountain, and the batter’s eye area behind center field is designed like the Rocky Mountains, with a waterfall, fountains, pine trees, and rocks. The fountains blast water after a Rockies home run!

  Dinosaurs. The Colorado Rockies really did find a dinosaur rib bone under their ballpark when it was being built. Millions
of years ago, dinosaurs roamed all over Colorado, especially ones like Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and some long-necked dinosaurs. Today, there are lots of places visitors can experience dinosaurs in Colorado. Dinosaur National Monument has trails and fossils. Dinosaur Ridge, west of Denver, has self-guided tours of exposed dinosaur fossils (like dino footprints!).

  Mining. Colorado was built in large part by people coming to mine its land for valuable minerals and rocks. Gold and silver were found in large quantities in the mid-1800s. In addition, over the years, people have also mined for copper, uranium, iron, and coal. Visitors to the Denver area can tour real gold and silver mines, climb through long dark tunnels, and even dig for gold in some locations!

  Trains. Trains are an important part of Colorado history. There are train tracks just outside the Rockies’ stadium. Fans sitting near the top can watch (and hear) trains as they go by the ballpark. Railroads are important for moving people and goods, but they also served the mining industry. About an hour west of Denver, visitors can ride trains that snake through the Rocky Mountains and over tall, thin bridges.

  One Mile High. Denver is known as the “Mile High City” since it is approximately one mile (5,280 feet) above sea level. As a result, the Rockies’ ballpark has the highest elevation in Major-League Baseball. The stadium even has a special row of seats that’s exactly one mile above sea level! Almost all other major-league ballparks are fewer than a thousand feet above sea level. Baseballs hit at the Rockies’ stadium travel farther than at other stadiums because the air one mile up has less resistance. According to MLB, a baseball can travel 9 percent farther at one mile up than at sea level. A ball hit 400 feet at Yankee Stadium (close to sea level) might travel 440 feet in Denver! The thinner air also means that it’s harder for pitchers to control the ball. For example, curveballs will curve less at the Rockies’ stadium because there’s less air resistance.

  Heated field. The Rockies’ field was the first major-league field to have a heating system installed under the grass. Sometimes spring comes late to the Rocky Mountains, and the team needed a way to let the grass grow long enough for opening day. They installed a heating system with wires that can heat the soil, so the grass warms up and starts to grow earlier than it otherwise would. It can also help melt the late-spring snowfalls.

  Humidor. The humidor at the Rockies ballpark stores baseballs at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent relative humidity, similar to the factory environment. For a long time, the Rockies were the only team that kept its baseballs in a humidor. But now the Arizona Diamondbacks do, and other teams might also. Regular baseballs in drier climates like Colorado and Arizona can be too slick from lack of moisture. Putting the balls in the humidor and adding moisture gives the pitchers more control over them.

  Cheap seats. In Denver you can still go to the baseball game for a dollar! Fans under twelve or over fifty-five can buy a ticket for a buck! The seats are in a special section called the Rockpile, behind center field. Everyone else can sit there for $4.

  Sherlock Holmes. Part of the idea for this Mike and Kate mystery came from a Sherlock Holmes story called “The Red-Headed League,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In that story, a man is hired to do a pointless job (copying an encyclopedia) because robbers want him out of his shop during the day so he won’t hear them digging a tunnel to the bank next door. I used that concept to help shape what Regina does to George in this story with the note about the scoreboard.

  Catch the next baseball mystery in

  Mike and Kate are in Minnesota for a big Twins game. They’re especially excited to see the Torres twins (Marco and Pedro) play! But when Marco starts acting strange and takes off before the first inning, Mike and Kate get ready to investigate. Can the super sleuths reunite Marco and Pedro before it’s time to play?

  Coming in 2021!

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