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Hard Drive to Short
A young shortstop ashamed of his family background learns the meaning of friendship after a motor scooter accident
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
1 person is currently reading
58 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 30, 2021
Once again, Christopher has written a sports book that is more about life than sports. Sandor (Sandy) Varga is a very good baseball player in the youth league, he excels in the field at shortstop and is a very good hitter. He is also reliable and responsible for his age. When his games are taking place on weekdays, he must leave at a precise time in order to be home to watch his younger siblings. Both his parents work, and he must be home before his mother can leave for her evening job.
Embarrassed by his need to watch his young siblings, Sandy simply leaves without telling anyone on the team the reason for his abrupt departures. This creates animosity from his teammates, and it begins to affect his relationship with his friends and his play on the field. Finally, he explains the situation to his coach and his friends and rather than making fun of him, they all support him.
Unlike other YA sports books, this one does not climax with a “big game at the end with heroics.” Yet, there is a happy ending as the revelation of his difficulties increases his bonding with his teammates.
Embarrassed by his need to watch his young siblings, Sandy simply leaves without telling anyone on the team the reason for his abrupt departures. This creates animosity from his teammates, and it begins to affect his relationship with his friends and his play on the field. Finally, he explains the situation to his coach and his friends and rather than making fun of him, they all support him.
Unlike other YA sports books, this one does not climax with a “big game at the end with heroics.” Yet, there is a happy ending as the revelation of his difficulties increases his bonding with his teammates.
December 15, 2017
I thought this was a really good book with a lot of baseball and is good for people who like sports.
May 1, 2009
I read this with my oldest. This was written in the 1970's and it's obvious - Sandy (boy) has to leave the baseball games early to go watch his sisters. He doesn't want to tell anyone - it might ruin his image! That leads the team to think he's getting special treatment. Etc. --- but the baseball passages are pretty action packed, so that's not bad. Pretty transparent book, but it did have a good moral "be yourself, don't get taken by something that may not be as awesome as it seems, etc." Short read. I don't think we'll keep it.
October 16, 2012
I thought that this book was pretty good. I would reccommend it to someone who likes baseball or knows a little bit about baseball. My favorite part of the book was when Sandy and Rod crashed Rods motorcycle and had to hike all the way back home. It was also pretty interesting when Rod lost his temper and got really mad at Sandy. After that Sandy had realize that Rod wasn't his true friend. The only parts that I didn't like was when the author descibed the baseball games that were going on. But overall the book was great!
April 15, 2007
The team's name is the Spacemen. How cool is that? (not very, in retrospect.)
December 30, 2008
This author has a TON of different books of this kind, all set with a different sport.
April 26, 2015
reviewed for Heartland School
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews