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Peach Street Mudders
Centerfield Ballhawk (Peach Street Mudders)
Jose Mendez wants to be a great batter just like his father was when he played in the minor leagues. But every time Jose picks up the bat, disaster strikes. Will Jose ever be able to match his dad's .375 batting average?
- GenresSports
59 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
2 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
467 books142 followersMatt Christopher is the writer young readers turn to when they're looking for fast-paced, action-packed sports novels. He is the best-selling author of more than one hundred sports books for young readers.
Matt Christopher is America's bestselling sports writer for children, with more than 100 books and sales approaching six million copies. In 1992, Matt Christopher talked about being a children's book author.
"I became interested in writing when I was 14, a freshman in high school. I was selling magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Country Gentleman, and Liberty, and I would read the stories, particularly the adventure and mystery stories, and think how wonderful it would be to be able to write stories and make a living at it. I also read detective, horror, aviation, and sports stories and decided I would try writing them myself.
Determined to sell, I wrote a detective story a week for 40 weeks, finding the time to marry, work, and play baseball and basketball before I sold my first story in 1941, "The Missing Finger Points," for $50 to Detective Story magazine.
After writing and selling children's sports stories to magazines, I decided to write a baseball book for children. I was living in Syracuse, New York at the time, working at General Electric. I spoke about my idea to the branch librarian. She was immediately interested and told me that they needed sports stories badly. So I came up with my first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat. I submitted it to Little, Brown, and the book was published in 1954.
I'm sure that playing sandlot baseball and then semiprofessional baseball with a Class C club in the Canadian-American League influenced my writing. I had my own personal experiences, and I saw how other players reacted to plays, to teammates' and fans' remarks and innuendoes, to managers' orders, etc. All these had a great influence on my writing. My love of the game helped a lot, too, of course.
Out of all the books I've written, my favorite is The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. It's a fantasy, but the main character in it could be real. There are a lot of boys who would love to play baseball but, for some reason, cannot. The only difference between a real-life boy and Sylvester Coddmyer III is the appearance of a character named George Baruth, whom only Sylvester can see and who helps Sylvester become a good ballplayer.
I've written many short stories and books for both children and adults, and find that writing for children is really my niche. Being the eldest of nine children (seven boys and two girls), I've lived through a lot of problems many children live through, and I find these problems excellent examples to include in my books.
Sports have made it possible for me to meet many people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill. I'm far beyond playing age now, but I manage to go to both kids' and adult games just to keep up with them, and keep them fresh in my mind.Very few things make me happier than receiving fan letters from boys and girls who write that they had never cared for reading until they started to read my books. That is just about the ultimate in writing for children. I would never trade it for another profession."
Matt Christopher died on September 27, 1997. His legacy is now being carried on by his sons, Duane and Dale Christopher.
Matt Christopher is America's bestselling sports writer for children, with more than 100 books and sales approaching six million copies. In 1992, Matt Christopher talked about being a children's book author.
"I became interested in writing when I was 14, a freshman in high school. I was selling magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Country Gentleman, and Liberty, and I would read the stories, particularly the adventure and mystery stories, and think how wonderful it would be to be able to write stories and make a living at it. I also read detective, horror, aviation, and sports stories and decided I would try writing them myself.
Determined to sell, I wrote a detective story a week for 40 weeks, finding the time to marry, work, and play baseball and basketball before I sold my first story in 1941, "The Missing Finger Points," for $50 to Detective Story magazine.
After writing and selling children's sports stories to magazines, I decided to write a baseball book for children. I was living in Syracuse, New York at the time, working at General Electric. I spoke about my idea to the branch librarian. She was immediately interested and told me that they needed sports stories badly. So I came up with my first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat. I submitted it to Little, Brown, and the book was published in 1954.
I'm sure that playing sandlot baseball and then semiprofessional baseball with a Class C club in the Canadian-American League influenced my writing. I had my own personal experiences, and I saw how other players reacted to plays, to teammates' and fans' remarks and innuendoes, to managers' orders, etc. All these had a great influence on my writing. My love of the game helped a lot, too, of course.
Out of all the books I've written, my favorite is The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. It's a fantasy, but the main character in it could be real. There are a lot of boys who would love to play baseball but, for some reason, cannot. The only difference between a real-life boy and Sylvester Coddmyer III is the appearance of a character named George Baruth, whom only Sylvester can see and who helps Sylvester become a good ballplayer.
I've written many short stories and books for both children and adults, and find that writing for children is really my niche. Being the eldest of nine children (seven boys and two girls), I've lived through a lot of problems many children live through, and I find these problems excellent examples to include in my books.
Sports have made it possible for me to meet many people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill. I'm far beyond playing age now, but I manage to go to both kids' and adult games just to keep up with them, and keep them fresh in my mind.Very few things make me happier than receiving fan letters from boys and girls who write that they had never cared for reading until they started to read my books. That is just about the ultimate in writing for children. I would never trade it for another profession."
Matt Christopher died on September 27, 1997. His legacy is now being carried on by his sons, Duane and Dale Christopher.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 6, 2009
I didn't like All Star Fever (read that review for more detail) and I didn't like this one either. Too much gratuitous heaping of kid-level tragedy to more intensely illustrate the morality. Jose screws up constantly and it just gets more heartbreaking when we find out his sister Camen is the "spitting image of their mother, who hard died two years earlier." Ugh.
October 21, 2014
"Centerfield Ballhawk" is a fictional book that not many people have read. "Centerfield Ballhawk" is about Jose Mendez a young kid that is nine, and he plays little league baseball.He wants to hit like his dad who hit a .375 in the minors.
Jose Mendez is a centerfielder for the Peach Street Mudders. He is a ballhawk. Otherwise known as a very good outfielder who can not catch anything hit to him. Jose is sad because he thinks that if he hits a .375 he can make his dad respect him. Jose proceeds to practice at the batting cage hitting the ball, but still can not improve his game. Jose the first game he plays goes one for four, with that one hit being a homerun. Jose does the same thing his last game and his dad comes up after the game and apologizes for disappointing him. Mr. Mendez says that Jose is a ballhawk and its not all about hitting the ball. It is defense that wins games.
Jose Mendez Character is a nine year old kid who just wants to make his dad happy. Jose's Character doesn't really change throughout the book. Jose is just really worried that his dad will be disappointed with him no matter what.
This book would be appropriate for any ages from third grade and up. This depends on your interest in baseball. The topics in this book are all about baseball. It is also about the fundamentals and training for baseball.
I give this book a three out of five stars. I enjoyed the baseball part of the book , but it is a very short book and nothing is explained very well. I would still recommend this book for those people who think that they need to prove something to their parents. You should just do your best at what you are good at.
Jose Mendez is a centerfielder for the Peach Street Mudders. He is a ballhawk. Otherwise known as a very good outfielder who can not catch anything hit to him. Jose is sad because he thinks that if he hits a .375 he can make his dad respect him. Jose proceeds to practice at the batting cage hitting the ball, but still can not improve his game. Jose the first game he plays goes one for four, with that one hit being a homerun. Jose does the same thing his last game and his dad comes up after the game and apologizes for disappointing him. Mr. Mendez says that Jose is a ballhawk and its not all about hitting the ball. It is defense that wins games.
Jose Mendez Character is a nine year old kid who just wants to make his dad happy. Jose's Character doesn't really change throughout the book. Jose is just really worried that his dad will be disappointed with him no matter what.
This book would be appropriate for any ages from third grade and up. This depends on your interest in baseball. The topics in this book are all about baseball. It is also about the fundamentals and training for baseball.
I give this book a three out of five stars. I enjoyed the baseball part of the book , but it is a very short book and nothing is explained very well. I would still recommend this book for those people who think that they need to prove something to their parents. You should just do your best at what you are good at.
November 9, 2017
I loved this book and how Jose tries to make his farther proud of him even though his farther is already proud of him.
November 14, 2017
This book was childish.But it was funny.It has lot of pictures.
December 15, 2017
Really short. Read because i am waiting for a book in the library and need something short so i thought this would be great like the other one and it was.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews