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Shortstop from Tokyo
When the new boy from Tokyo takes over Stogie Crane's position as shortstop, the two boys encounter the first of several barriers to their friendship.
68 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 1970
1 person is currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
437 books141 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 19, 2017
The moral of this simple and fast moving story is one that could be expressed outside the realm of sports. Stogie Crane is slated to be the starting shortstop for the Mohawks, a little league baseball team. However, Sam Suzuki’s family moves into the area from Tokyo, Japan and Sam is faster with a stronger arm. Sam is also a more solid hitter than Stogie, so he is afraid that he will lose his position.
Rather than be philosophical about the change, Stogie expresses a great deal of jealousy, even to the point of playing a dirty trick on Sam. As is so often the case, the trick just makes Stogie feel bad and does not really have the intended effect. Furthermore, Stogie’s focus on his emotions leads to a decline in the quality of his play and he loses his starting position. After some realistic reappraisal, Stogie swallows some pride and makes apologies and amends. The team comes alive once more and wins the big game in the last inning.
This story features the destructive nature of emotions more than it is about competitive sports. Life is full of situations where there is the real or only perceived threat of being replaced by someone better. How you cope with these situations will do a lot to determine how successful you manage to be. This is a lesson in working with people rather than being angry about what they do, especially when they are only doing their job.
Rather than be philosophical about the change, Stogie expresses a great deal of jealousy, even to the point of playing a dirty trick on Sam. As is so often the case, the trick just makes Stogie feel bad and does not really have the intended effect. Furthermore, Stogie’s focus on his emotions leads to a decline in the quality of his play and he loses his starting position. After some realistic reappraisal, Stogie swallows some pride and makes apologies and amends. The team comes alive once more and wins the big game in the last inning.
This story features the destructive nature of emotions more than it is about competitive sports. Life is full of situations where there is the real or only perceived threat of being replaced by someone better. How you cope with these situations will do a lot to determine how successful you manage to be. This is a lesson in working with people rather than being angry about what they do, especially when they are only doing their job.
August 30, 2019
My summary is when this new kid called Sam ones to play baseball for the Mohawks, but his favorite position Is taken by Stogie. While Stogie and and Sam and another friend were about to leave, Sam forgot his glove. Stogie saw it and did nothing because it wasn’t his problem. The next day Sam’s globe is all damaged but, Sam blames Stogie for doing it because he was jealous. Then, in a night Stogie and Beak noticed something was moving and it was porcupine who had chewed up Sam’s glove. Stogie has plans of telling Sam about his glove but, Sam hadn’t showed up for practice and that made Stogie feel guilty. Eventually, Sam shows up for the 7th inning of the game. I learned that sometimes are choices affects what other people think just like Stogie didn’t try to keep the glove and just leave out in the open.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2020
Nice little story about a kid being delegated to second base after a superstar shortstop from Japan joins the team and takes his position. The kid has to deal with acceptance/best for the team type of stuff in order to mesh with his new infield partner.
The book is perfect for a kid who likes sports.
The book is perfect for a kid who likes sports.
June 4, 2018
Matt Christopher books are awesome for young sports fans! Reading this with Sam was a lot of fun. I wonder how many Christophers he'll read.
April 15, 2007
My first lesson in race relations. Also, dealing with backyard pests.
October 27, 2010
good details.
June 19, 2014
This was a great Matt Christopher book, but all of them are, so I didn't expect anything less than good. I recommend this book for anyone who like baseball.
May 6, 2015
I like how this book had a character that came all the way from Japan, will this cause problems to the people who want his position in baseball, read to find out !
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews