The Boy Who Saved Baseball

Dante walks around the field, watching the players practice. He asks each of them their name and their best position. He also asks each where he can find a red-tailed hawk. Ramón points one out and eventually, they discover that there are three red-tailed hawks in the area, each with its own place.

Dante asks Jerry if he can run the last drill, and he leads the team up the mountain behind the stadium. He asks them to look at the ballfield below and instructs them to run down the mountain to second base. Tom’s father is reluctant to let the players do this, fearing player injuries and damage to the disappearing habitat. Dante replies, “Yeah, well, I heard that preserving habitat is what this Big Game’s all about. Reason I’m here” (94). Helen surprises Tom by volunteering to go first, running downhill and picking up speed. One by one, they all go down. The first to arrive, the one who has the best sense of natural terrain, is Cruz.

At lunch the next day, Helen finds Tom. He writes in his notebook about running down the mountain with María, to whom he has become partial. Helen explains to her son that, years before he was born, she had been riding their horse, Pronto, and got caught in a thunderstorm.