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Miracle at the Plate
Skeeter is the best batter in the league but seems to be all thumbs when fielding or trying to make friends.
129 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
28 people are currently reading
160 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
438 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 28, 2015
I read the book "Miracle at the Plate" by Matt Christopher. I liked this book, it was well written, and I enjoyed it. Most of this authors' books are predicable though, but that is the only reason I dislike it.
This book was good, and I enjoyed it. This book was about a kid named Skeeter. He was good at baseball and enjoyed playing. He was coming home from a game one day. On his way home, he was riding his bike and was looking at something and hit his friends dog. Skeeter tried hiding it and took his dog. A report went out for the missing dog, but Skeeter wanted to get the dog to the hospital because he was injured and wanted to take it to the vet. His friend eventually figured out that he took his dog, and Skeeter was disappointed. Skeeter was down in the dumps and couldn't play well at all. But eventually, he got a hit. It was the final inning and his team needed to score a run, and he got a hit and they won! And that was a miracle at the plate.
I recommend this book to people ages 12-60. It is good for kids who enjoy sports.
This book was good, and I enjoyed it. This book was about a kid named Skeeter. He was good at baseball and enjoyed playing. He was coming home from a game one day. On his way home, he was riding his bike and was looking at something and hit his friends dog. Skeeter tried hiding it and took his dog. A report went out for the missing dog, but Skeeter wanted to get the dog to the hospital because he was injured and wanted to take it to the vet. His friend eventually figured out that he took his dog, and Skeeter was disappointed. Skeeter was down in the dumps and couldn't play well at all. But eventually, he got a hit. It was the final inning and his team needed to score a run, and he got a hit and they won! And that was a miracle at the plate.
I recommend this book to people ages 12-60. It is good for kids who enjoy sports.
May 23, 2017
The book Miracle at the plate is about a kid named Skeeter and he played baseball and really enjoyed it. He was coming home from a baseball tournament and when he got home he was riding his bike and hit his friends dog. Skeeter tried hiding the dog and taking it to a vet so they can see what happened to the dog and it turned out that the dog had a broken leg. A few days after they found out that the dog had a broken leg they were going back to the house because they could not give the dog a cast yet, while they were walking home the dog started barking and the owner of the dog was driving by and heard the dog. The owner asked if it was their dog but Skeeter said "no", the dog jumped out of the basket and Skeeter had to explain what happened and apologize and after everything was all fine. I did not really like this book because I am not into baseball and I would recommend this book to people that enjoy baseball.
May 7, 2018
this book was okay but did not enjoy as much as other funny books
October 14, 2019
I think it was very good because it had him overcoming his fears
March 4, 2023
Found this book by using ‘Skeeter’ and ‘baseball’ as a search query. Remember reading in 1971. 52 years ago it help start me on a wonderful journey of reading. However coming back to it, I found two typos, and a disjointed narrator(seems to start with an omnipresence, the seemed to be a brother (older?) and at times, Skeeter. I’m sure most 5th graders could care less. I was just beginning my fascination with baseball and this might have helped lead me down that rewarding path.
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January 24, 2020good bock
July 9, 2021
F&P Book Club book. A choppy plot around baseball games. There were a few parts where I was expecting more to develop that didn’t. Sports-loving kids will enjoy it tho.
July 22, 2023
My grandson and I each read this. I would say that it was good, but it is a bit dated.
January 16, 2014
I became an avid reader after reading Matt Christopher's books. I have only read books that were published before 1968, so I can't vouch for most of his writings. These early books consumed me one after another. I loved sports back then when I was young and these "feel" good books with detail (Sorry Jane). Play by play allowed me to visualize being there on the field or in the stands. Thanks Matt!
March 9, 2011
This book is about someone who is not very good at baseball. He bats cross handed (putting your hands like a left hander would), cant catch, and is clumsy. Some how he bats really good and has a really good batting average. I did not like it very much because it was boaring, it stated the same thing throughout the whole book. I hope you like this book more than I did
September 15, 2015
I think that it was a good book because it was a boy named Skeeter who was the best batter in his baseball league but he was not a good fielder, had a hard time making friends, was scared to slide into bases, and he is scared someone will take his place on the baseball team. It also talked about the baseball games he had and how he made friends.
September 10, 2016
My son brought this home from school--it was an original copy, from the first publication in 1967. Love the old pictures in it! We enjoyed reading this together.... it was a bit difficult for us to follow all the baseball talk, which seemed pretty authentic to me, because neither of us is really into sports. But the story itself was entertaining!
October 25, 2009
This is an uncomplicated story about young boys and their baseball teams/games. I was glad the dog and the falcon were okay....you'll have to read it to know what I'm talking about.
June 21, 2015
I liked this book. The kid was a good batter but not a good fielder.
September 14, 2015
Skeeter is the best batter in the league but seems to be not that great at getting friends or feilding. Skeeter is easily the best hitter in the league. The auther is Matt Christopher.
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February 8, 2018This book was very inspiring to me. It was the first baseball book I had ever read, because I'm not much of a baseball fan. I've been reading Matt's books for a while now, and have loved all of them.
I liked this book because of how the story escalates. It starts out like a normal story, than adds up to a more in depth story. It starts as Skeeter clips Thomas's dog, Pancho, and he takes him to the vet. At first, Thomas doesn't find out. But soon after, he finds out and doesn't trust Skeeter for a while. From there, Skeeter is away for a while, and leaves the team for a bit without him.
I'd rate this book 4/5 stars for creativity, being unique, and overall having a good story that makes sense. I'd defiantly read this book again, and more of Matt Christopher's series on sports. I would really call it my #1 book series to read
I liked this book because of how the story escalates. It starts out like a normal story, than adds up to a more in depth story. It starts as Skeeter clips Thomas's dog, Pancho, and he takes him to the vet. At first, Thomas doesn't find out. But soon after, he finds out and doesn't trust Skeeter for a while. From there, Skeeter is away for a while, and leaves the team for a bit without him.
I'd rate this book 4/5 stars for creativity, being unique, and overall having a good story that makes sense. I'd defiantly read this book again, and more of Matt Christopher's series on sports. I would really call it my #1 book series to read
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews