The Sluggers Club: A Sports Mystery

Tony and his friends play for the Halbertson's Flowers little league team and they are good. They hit well and play very good defense, so they have won the title for the first half of the season. However, when the favorite bat of superstitious Medgar Washington, their best hitter, is stolen he goes into a terrific slump. The slump spreads suspicion and the slump among the teammates and the suspicion extends to players on the other teams. However, when additional equipment from other teams disappears the plot deepens. The players form the sluggers club in order to investigate the mystery. Their suspicions fall on Crazy Pete, a homeless and alcoholic Vietnam veteran who lives under the bleachers of the stadium. This is an interesting character to include in a youth sports book, although it is an all too unfortunate reality. When the people on their initial list of suspects all prove to be innocent, their suspicions turn to the Black Scorpions, a gang of older Cambodian youths. Their investigations take them across the river to the poorer side of town where they see firsthand how the poor immigrants live. Finally, they discover the truth; one of their own players was stealing equipment to outfit a group of young Cambodians so that they could also play baseball. This motivates the sluggers to conduct a used equipment drive and has the added benefit of breaking them out of their slump. This is a sports mystery well set in the modern world. The teams contain players of many ethnic groups and Emily Kravitz is a good stick at the plate. Including the homeless Vietnam veteran and the poor immigrants who want to become Americans add a realistic aspect that could be true in any small city in America.