Dugout Jinx

Chip Hilton #8

by Clair Bee, Cynthia Bee Farley, Randall K. Farley

After graduating from high school, Chip is invited to join the Parkville Bears as a summer intern and he manages to save the Bears' season--and his own baseball future--from being spoiled by the schemes of an unscrupulous man.

Genres: Sports

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another installment in the Chip Hilton series of sports fiction and in this one, although his friends appear, the focus is on Chip. It opens with Chip and his team participating in a baseball tournament, the timeframe is the summer between high school and college. Chip is fully committed to remaining an amateur and playing college baseball among his other sports.
Chip’s team wins the tournament with Chip being the pitching star, totally baffling the opposition. Their victory in the championship game ends the first part where Chip is a member of the team. After that, Chip travels with the Bears, a professional baseball team. He does not play, although he throws batting practice and sits on the bench. The Bears are locked in a tight pennant race and there is significant dissension on the team, some of the players are friendly to Chip, while others are openly hostile.
The Bears have a significant lead in the standings, but suddenly their main opponent seems to have their measure, and no one can determine why. Hitters that could not handle the top Bears pitchers suddenly begin to hit like all-stars. Chip is the one that determines what the problem is, and he passes the word along, suddenly saving the day and the pennant.
Readers of the Chip Hilton series will find this one a bit different, for his friends play a much more secondary role. Chip is once again portrayed as a man of integrity, unwilling to speak ill of a man that generally deserves it. Since Chip is not playing in the second half, there is no big game at the end where Chip plays the role of the noble hero. Yet, it is instructive for young people to read about how Chip deals with working with adult men much older and experienced than he is. Particularly when he shows them up and remains committed to getting a college education.

[Jonathan H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Chip Hilton, a top baseball prospect that has just graduated high school, does amazing in the All-Star baseball tournament, the Parkville Bears ask Chip to come be an assistant over the summer. The Bears are a minor league baseball team and are competing in the top spot for their division with the Hedgetown Raptors. With only a few games left in the season, the Bears are struggling. Can they win? And why do they keep losing to the Raptors?
Dugout Jinx is an amazing book and is the 8th book in Coach Claire Bee's Chip Hilton series. Coach Bee is an experienced basketball, baseball, and football coach and is one of the greatest basketball coaches in college history. This book is very well written and has a nice flow. I would not recommend this book to anyone though; only baseball fans or sports fanatics should read it, because without knowledge of the game this book would be confusing. But overall this book is awesome.

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 Reread
Even though it took me quite a while to reread this because life was so busy, I enjoyed the story again.


Chip Hilton doesn’t play much in this book, but he gets to work out with a minor baseball team. There’s a situation of attempting to trick Chip into signing a baseball contract which would make him ineligible to play sports in college.There is also tension on the team he’s been with. I love how Chip is willing to do everything he can to help the team without speaking badly about someone. And the ending of makes all the troubles worth while.

Since this is a republished version of the original, there was some attempt to “modernize” it and those places just felt odd.
There might have been a euphemism or two.

[Cws]

JAR5-Bee