Free Baseball

by Sue Corbett

Felix knows his dad was a famous baseball player in Cuba—and that his father risked everything to send Felix to America. But his mom won’t reveal anything else. When a team with Cuban players comes into town, Felix wonders if they knew his dad, and sneaks into their locker room to ask. That’s when the players mistake him for their new batboy.

To uncover his father’s story, Felix runs away from home to become the team’s batboy. His bittersweet adventure glows with the friendship of a miraculous dog, the warmth of a mother’s love, and the magic of baseball.

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Childrens, Juvenile

152 pages, Hardcover

First published February 2, 2006

About the author

Sue Corbett is the author of 12 Again, Winner of the California Young Reader Medal, and Free Baseball, a finalist for 10 state readers' choice awards. Her latest novel is The Last Newspaper Boy in America and her first picture book, The 12 Days of Christmas in Virginia, have just been released this fall. "

Reviews

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book

[Levi Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book by Sue Corbett really surprised me because what it seemed like at first was just another book about a whiner complaining about life and in love with baseball, failing school and being a mediocre ball player. But by chapter six my opinion had changed greatly. I was actually really happy that this rare occurrence happened with this book. If the great change hadn’t happened I probably would not have finished this book because I was bored with it and I had another book that I was planning on reading.


The entire first three to four chapters were, as you’ve probably felt before, boring and unclear but by chapter six things really cleared up and at one point I actually just had to stop, close the book and take a breathe because it was that emotional. This story also had some extremely funny parts as well the parts with feeling. This combination of emotions give this book a lot of character. Another reason I liked this book was that it was written relatively simply which not only makes it extremely high quality light reading, it also gives the reader the perspective of the boy in the story.

One of my favorite parts of the book is when Felix, the main character, hides on the Miracle’s team bus and leaves with them. This really surprised me because at that part in the story, the main character seems frustrated but not prepared to do something drastic like running away. It was pretty hard to judge what genre this is, I would say realistic fiction. The character is fictional but it may be based on a true story. I think the theme of the book is that if you work hard and really want something bad enough you will achieve it.









For the duration of this book I was either laughing so hard or holding my breath; never breathing heavily with droopy eyes. Which is actually very surprising because I read the majority of this book in Mr. Brown’s classroom which as anybody can attest to is usually very hot with a
peculiar smell plus many distractions caused by my peers. Very rarely do you come across a book with that much intensity.


To wrap up this review, I would like to say as long as you live, NEVER EVER JUDGE A BOOK BY IT’S COVER!! I stared out doubting it and ended up loving it!

[Gina Saenz]

Free Baseball by Sue Corbett
Realistic Fiction
This book is about an eleven year old who misses his dad, but feels a very strong connection to him through baseball. Felix and his mother left Cuba when Felix was very young. Felix is hungry to find out information about his father. Is he still alive? Does he still play ball? His mother does not have the time to help him with his search and isn’t really ready for the challenge, so Felix takes matters into his own hands. His father sent him and his mother to America and planned one day to join them, but the Cuban government had other ideas. Felix is befriended by baseball players from a minor league and hopes that he will find some answers through some of the Hispanic players.
Free Baseball is written in the third person from the viewpoint of an eleven year old boy.
The characters are: Felix, the eleven year old boy; his mother; Vic, the coach, Homer, Vic’s dog, and Vic’s father, Claudio de la Portilla. Although Mr. Portilla does not appear in the book, Vic refers to him quite often.
One theme in the book is family connection. Sometimes there is a connection that is indescribable when blood is involved. Felix feels very connected to his father even though he hasn’t heard from him in ten years.
This is a good book to use when talking about family trees and one’s heritage. I would recommend this book for readers in grades 4-8.

[Amanda Howell]

Junior Book Log: Fiction - Realistic - Sports
Recommending Source: textbook pg. 171

Everyone wants to know who their biological parents are and that is no different the main character, Felix, in this story. Felix only knows a couple things about his father: that he was a Cuban baseball player, and that he gave everything he had so that Felix could come and live in America. But that is not enough for him. He wants to know his dad, he wants to learn all about him and his mother is not giving him the answers that he seeks. Then one day he hears that there is a baseball team in town who is from Cuba, and he wonders if just maybe one of the players knows his dad. After sneaking into the locker room Felix gets mistaken for the teams new batboy, and this is where his adventure begins. All Felix wants is to learn about him father and play baseball.
Baseball has been one of my favorite sports since I was a little kid because my older brother played baseball. This is a story that the students in the classroom can really relate to because a lot of them take part in rec baseball. This book can help students learn to reach their goals. Students need to know that they are capable of anything as long as their set their mind to it. It is an important lesson that is hard to teach to students because they need to believe in themselves first.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felix loves baseball, because he's good at it but also because his father in Cuba was a famous baseball player on the national team. Felix has never met his father, and his mother is too busy to give him the attention he needs, so he takes things into his own hands. This short book teaches about the Cuban immigration experience without being preachy.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 6 year old son loves baseball and is just beginning to learn about the awesomeness of the library catalog - that you can search for a topic of interest and find books to take home on that topic - what power! So he asked me to search for a book on "minor league baseball", as he loves our local minor league team. Ding, ding! The story of how we found Free Baseball, an enjoyable middle grades book about an 11 year old boy trying to find his place in the world and deciding that the best place possible is being warmly and enthusiastically accepted into the close-knit family of a quirky minor league baseball team.

We nearly gave up on the book a few chapters in because my son found it so distressingly scary that Felix would actually run away from home, and not only run away, but dangerously stow away in the luggage compartment of a tour bus. I had to skip to the end and read him a couple of pages of the last chapter to assure him that Felix ends up safe and that his mother is reunited with him...I'm grateful that not only was my son afraid for Felix, he was equally as distressed about how much poor Felix's mother would be worried!

What my 6 year old son enjoyed: Homer the dog, the baseball scenes, the Spanish phrases, the very happy ending in which Felix gets to spend more time with his mother and gets to stay the batboy. He learned a lot about refugees from Cuba and how lucky he is to have parents who have time to spend with him. I had every expectation that it would turn out that Felix's father was dead, and so I was surprised to find out that (in some ways) the story was even more tragic, that he simply chose to lose touch with his son over the years, and my son had a really hard time with understanding that. But it expanded his idea of what families can be like, which is okay.

It was enjoyable as a read-aloud, although the chapters are long for a middle grades book. As a parent, I found it really hard to suspend disbelief that a loving mother would just allow her child to say he stayed with a friend and not go looking for him after he went missing. But as a reader, suspending disbelief, the rest of the story was entertaining, and I can see a baseball loving boy or girl really enjoying it.

[Brady Fisher]

Free baseball this is a book about a boy who has love for the game of baseball.who wants to know more about his father a famous Cuban baseball player.Felix was a good baseball player he new how to play the game and he understand the game of baseball.Another book about life lesson and how he went through difficult time in his life to get water he is now like when he was 3 he cross the board in a bout with his mom and sister.My favorite part in this book is when Felix his his home run because he was proud of himself and everybody else was to.My favorite character in the book is Felix because he had life lessons to learn and fight throw them.I would recommend this book because it a good book and it has a lot off life lesson it and like baseball and who ever like reading about sports or baseball should read this book if you don't like reading about sports it's just not about sports that's why i would recommend this book.

[Andy Mathews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for kids in the 8-14 year old range to read, especially for pre-teen boys. It tells a story of a young boy who emigrated to America from Cuba with his mother, leaving his father behind (for reasons unbeknownst to the boy - Felix - through most of the story). Felix lives out a fantasy of a lot of young boys to become a bat boy for a minor league baseball team near his hometown (for a few lively days). The title of the book - Free Baseball - means extra innings required for a tied baseball game for which you typically pay for the typical nine regulation innings. There is an overall theme of family and loving and meaningful relationships, and how families can come in many varieties.
I read this book to my three kiddos as a part of their homeschool curriculum. They enjoyed the book a lot and were able to understand and laugh at most of the humor and jokes and shenanigans that happened in this book.

[Bridget Neace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehhhhh...one of these days, someone's going to write a sports book that I like/care about. But today's not that day (or, I guess whatever day this was published back in 2008 wasn't the day) and this isn't that book.

I honestly cared more about the story Felix's mom finally told him than any other part of the plot. I had a hard time buying that a kid could just sneak away to become a bat boy for a somewhat professional team (no, that wasn't a spoiler, it says it right on the book's jacket); also, the ending might as well have had a giant glittery bow on it. That's not how real life works. I know we read books to escape real life, but that picture perfect ending did not flow with this story. Some elements of it would have been acceptable, but the move, the house, the new job, the new boyfriend...all of that together was too much .

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book Free Baseball is about an 11-year-old boy named Felix that went looking for his father. Felix heard that a Cuban baseball player came into his town. He wondered if he knew his dad. Felix, wondering if his father was ever going to move to America. So, he sneaked into the locker room. They mistake him for the new batboy. Felix found out that his father was on the Cuban National Team. Then, Santi (one of the baseball players) called his mom because he found out he wasn’t the batboy.

I chose 4 stars because I wish they would include the Felix's father more. It is still a good book.

I would recommend this book to people who like baseball or adventure books because it's talking about baseball and about a boy that runs away from home to find out more about his father.

Free Baseball 144 Sue Corbett the Penguin Group Fiction 0-525-47120-0 $15.99 USA $22.50 CAN

Soar- I would recommend Soar because it's a book about a boy who finds out that he can’t play baseball anymore, so he becomes a coach instead.
The Hero Two Doors Down- I would recommend The Hero Two Doors Down because it is a mix between baseball, and history.
Willie and Me- I would recommend this book because it's about a boy who is traveling back in time to collect baseball cards

[Zachary T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! It was about a boy who loves baseball and wants to find out about his father who he never met who was a baseball player in Cuba. I really enjoyed reading about the relationships Felix formed with the baseball players and the experiences that he was able to have with the baseball team!

[Mollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lu and I read this for school. I loved the Social Studies lesson the book encompasses, while painting a picture of refugees and the dangers they face too. Plus the story was fun.

[Josh Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short story with a different twist to an ending. ... enjoyable

[Hilda Lora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Corbett gives the reader a glimpse of the challenges of Cuban refugees, her young character and the culture of baseball.

[Grey Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved all the different settings and how there is a lot going on,but not too much.I loved the dog he was so cute.

[Eddie]

A nice book to read about baseball and Cuban baseball players.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is okay. It was kinda sad his dad left him and his mom for playing baseball.

[Salsabrarian]

Felix loves baseball. His father is a famous player in Cuba who risked everything to send his wife and infant son to America for a better life. Felix pins his hopes on meeting his dad someday and getting to know him better because his mother won't tell him much. Felix attends his first minor league game but his good time is ruined by his babysitter and her friends. Angrily he ditches the babysitter and sneaks into the locker room where the visiting team mistakes him for the new batboy. He doesn't deny it as this is his opportunity to find out if the Dominican player knows his dad. He stows away on the team bus and the next day happily but cautiously serves as the batboy until his guise is uncovered by a reporter and the team manager. Felix's mother arrives and tells him the whole story of their escape from Cuba and his father will never come to Florida. An entertaining package of sport, history and mystery; Felix is a likable and real character.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felix Piloto dreams of playing baseball like his father, a famous Cuban player who he has never met. Felix's mother works long hours to try to make a better life for Felix, but he feels neglected and misunderstood.

While attending a local game with his dreaded babysitter, Felix makes a decision that just might change his life forever. When he slips away from the babysitter and is mistaken for the visiting team's new batboy, he feels like he is part of the team. His mother won't miss him , right? So he stows away in the luggage hold and makes a journey to the team's clubhouse.

The team starts winning and quickly begin to think of Felix as their good luck charm. What will happen when Felix tells the truth--and finds out the truth about his father?

A glossary of baseball terms and Spanish words will help with some terms that may be unfamiliar.

[Josephine Sorrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The main character is Felix in story Free Baseball, by Sue Corbett. This adventure is about a boy and his love for the game of baseball. Felix is a Cuban boy who crossed borders by boat with his mother at the age of 3. When Felix enters a radio contest and wins two tickets to a local minor league baseball game his journey begins . Felix gets supposedly separated from his babysitter who took him to the game and decides to stowaway on the opposing team bus. He did this because the miracle, the opposing team, had a Cuban player on the team that might be able to tell Felix about his father, a famous baseball player on the Cuban national team that stayed back from crossing borders. Felix called his mom and told her he was staying over a friend’s house. Felix pretends to be the bat boy.

from wikipedia
I loved this book.

[Fluxbrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felix is the son of a famous baseball player in Cuba, and he knows that his father risked everything to send him and his mother to America. But he doesn't know when his father will be able to join them in Florida, and his mother won’t tell him anything. When a minor-league team with Cuban players comes to town, Felix sneaks into the locker room to ask about his father. The team mistakes him for the new batboy, and when he stows away on their bus, he finds himself miles away from home. Felix, a huge baseball fan and a great player himself, is having a great time being the team's batboy. But he knows he can't stay with the team forever, and what he really wants is to find out his father's story.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounding up from the 3.5 stars I'd give it if Goodreads allowed... This was an enjoyable, well written story about Felix, a Cuban-born boy with a passion for baseball. He dreams that his father, a star player for the Cuban National team, will defect and play for the Major Leagues in the U.S., and that Felix himself will become a great player. He resents his mother for discouraging those hopes as well as for the long hours she works to support them. Among the sports-themed fiction for this grade level that my sons have gravitated toward lately, this stands out as a good novel in its own right, with compelling characters and some deeper concerns beyond just the game. Though some turns in the plot stretch credibility, its appeal extends beyond baseball fans.

[Kate Hastings · Rating 4 out of 5]

RL 800. Felix loves everything about baseball and can't understand why his mother HATES it, even though his father is a famous baseball player. Felix and his mother have lived in the US since Feliz was a baby-- he and his mother escaped from Cuba on a small boat. Now older, Felix is determined to find out more about his father and why he never made it to America.

The writing style is simple, with Spanish words peppered in to add to the authenticity. The ending is a bit predicable--but also what I was pulling for (many Cuban-Americans never make it across the Gulf). You'll wrap this happy ending up around you like a warm blanket. Grades 4-6

[Adi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is pretty intersting cause you have a little weird feeling why felix is running away from his mother and his baby sitter. I feel kind'a bad for his mom because she might think he is really safe but he is really not. And really weird because she didn't ask to talk to his friends mom which is what would i do.
But so far i am lovin it hope you read it because super good.i finished the book his mom got a job as the miracles genaral manager then they got vics house and now they are living a happy life

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

11-year-old Felix loves baseball, and when he wins the chance to attend a local game he can't wait to enjoy the experience with his mom. Except his mom just never has time, and she ends up sending up with his babysitter. Tired of his mom's busy worklife Felix hides in the team's truck and ends up getting a position as a bat boy. During his time with the team Felix learns more about his mother's past, before she immigrated from Cuba, his father's baseball career, and himself.

This is a great read that tackles a lot of tough topics through baseball, sure to have appeal for reluctant readers.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, as I often am by sports stories. It's about the son of a Cuban baseball player who rafted over to Florida with his mother as a baby. He still hopes his father will join them someday. There's a bit of Spanish in it, but you can tell what is being said by the context, and there is a glossary of both Spanish and baseball terms in the back, for those who don't speak either language.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, as I often am by sports stories. It's about the son of a Cuban baseball player who rafted over to Florida with his mother as a baby. He still hopes his father will join them someday. There's a bit of Spanish in it, but you can tell what is being said by the context, and there is a glossary of both Spanish and baseball terms in the back, for those who don't speak either language.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be on a summer reading list for kids because it will appeal to both boys and girls. The main character Felix is missing the father he never knew, who is a famous baseball player from Cuba. Felix lives and breathes baseball and wants to be a part of the game at any cost. When he wins tickets for a minor league game, his entire world changes. This is a sports story with an interesting plot and has characters that are well developed.

[Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun, positive story about Felix, and 11-year old Cuban boy who lives in Florida with his mother, and how his love of baseball affects both their lives—in good ways. And I LOVE Homer, the dog, and the friendships and inspiration Felix gets from the ball players while being their bat boy. The Cuban government plays a role in this book, though in a way that fits perfectly with the story without being over bearing. Good story.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good for a lower-middle end 5th grade group. There's lots of Spanish in the dialogue which can make it difficult for readers who have no Spanish background. The story itself is about Cuban immigration to the States, which can be a bit hard for some fifth graders to really grasp, but they get the baseball parts of the book