Middle Grade Baseball Stories

The Little League World Series is going on now!  Here are ten middle grade baseball stories for young baseball fans and players.

Baseball Genius by Tim Green & Derek Jeter - Jalen DeLuca loves baseball. He's playing for his summer travel team and trying to win a regular spot in the rotation. But Jalen's got more than talent on the field. He's a baseball genius who can analyze and predict almost exactly what any pitcher is going to do with his next pitch. He can't quite explain how he knows, he just does. His unique ability helped him save the career of New York Yankee star baseman James "JY" Yager, and now Jalen figures he'll be almost part of the team. Or will he?
After a power struggle with the Yankees GM and a failed negotiation with Cat, JY strikes out on his own to show he can still hit in the majors without Jalen's help. Disappointed, but focused on his own baseball career, Jalen tries to carve out his own spot with the Rockton Rockets.
When things go wrong for both of them, JY works out a deal with Cat, bringing the pair together again. With JY's help, Jalen and Daniel are able to join a travel team from a nearby rival town who will face off against the Rockets in the championship game of an elite tournament in Boston. With the pressure mounting for JY to perform at the Green Monster and Jalen intent on paying back his former team, they'll have to pull off the ultimate double play if they're both going to succeed. Book 1 of 3 in the Baseball Genius series

Change-Up by John Feinstein - When teen sports reporters Stevie and Susan Carol are sent to cover the World Series, the talk of the tournament is Norbert Doyle--a late call-up for an underdog team. But the more they learn about him, the more conflicting stories they hear. Bit by bit they piece together the shocking truth about this rising star, but once the secret's out, there's no going back. . . . Book 4 of 6 in the Sports Beat series

The Distance to Home by Jenn Bishop - Last summer, Quinnen was the star pitcher of her baseball team, the Panthers. They were headed for the championship, and her loudest supporter at every game was her best friend and older sister, Haley.
This summer, everything is different. Haley's death, at the end of last summer, has left Quinnen and her parents reeling. Without Haley in the stands, Quinnen doesn't want to play baseball. It seems like nothing can fill the Haley-sized hole in her world. The one glimmer of happiness comes from the Bandits, the local minor-league baseball team. For the first time, Quinnen and her family are hosting one of the players for the season. Without Haley, Quinnen's not sure it will be any fun, but soon she befriends a few players. With their help, can she make peace with the past and return to the pitcher's mound?

The Fenway Foul-Up by David Kelly - Thanks to Kate's mom, a sports reporter, cousins Mike Walsh and Kate Hopkins have tickets to the Red Sox game and All Access passes to Fenway Park. But as they're watching batting practice before the game, the lucky bat of Red Sox star slugger Big D is stolen . . . right in front of dozens of people. Without the bat, Big D can't seem to hit a thing. Can Kate and Mike figure out who pinched the bat before Big D and the Sox chalk up a loss? Book 1 of 16 in the Ballpark Mysteries

A Long Pitch Home by Natalie Dias Lorenzi - Ten-year-old Bilal liked his life back home in Pakistan. He was a star on his cricket team. But when his father suddenly sends the family to live with their aunt and uncle in America, nothing is familiar. While Bilal tries to keep up with his cousin Jalaal by joining a baseball league and practicing his English, he wonders when his father will join the family in Virginia. Maybe if Bilal can prove himself on the pitcher's mound, his father will make it to see him play. But playing baseball means navigating relation-ships with the guys, and with Jordan, the only girl on the team-the player no one but Bilal wants to be friends with.

A Rambler Steals Home by Carter Higgins - Garland, Derby, and Triple Clark spend each season traveling highways and byways in their Rambler--until summer, when small-town Ridge Creek, Virginia, calls them back. There they settle in, selling burgers and fries out of Garland's Grill after each game the Rockskippers play in their battered minor-league baseball stadium. Derby's summer traditions bring her closer than she's ever been to a real home that isn't on wheels, but this time, her return to Ridge Creek reveals unwelcome news. Now the person Derby loves most in town needs her help--and yet finding a way to do so may uncover deeply held stories and secrets.

The Rhino in Right Field by Stacy Dekeyser - Nick wants to change his life. For twelve years, he's done what his hard-working, immigrant parents want him to do. Now he's looking for his own American dream and he thinks he's found it. The local baseball team is having a batboy contest, and Nick wants to win.
But the contest is on a Saturday--the day Nick has to work in his father's shop. There's one other tiny--well, not so tiny--problem. A 2,000-pound rhinoceros named Tank. Nick and his friends play ball in the city zoo--and Tank lives just beyond the right field fence. Nick's experience getting the ball out of Tank's pen has left him frozen with fear whenever a fly ball comes his way. How's a lousy fielder going to win the contest?
Nick practices every day with his best friend, Ace, and a new girl who has an impressive throwing arm! But that's not enough--to get to the contest, Nick has to lie to his parents and blackmail his uncle. All while dodging the school bully, who's determined to win even by playing dirty. Nick will need to keep his eye on the ball in this fast, funny story about a game that can throw you some curveballs--just like life! 

Soar by Joan Bauer - Jeremiah is the world's biggest baseball fan. He really loves baseball and he knows just about everything there is to know about his favorite sport. So when he's told he can't play baseball following an operation on his heart, Jeremiah decides he'll do the next best thing and become a coach.
Hillcrest, where Jeremiah and his father Walt have just moved, is a town known for its championship baseball team. But Jeremiah finds the town caught up in a scandal and about ready to give up on baseball. It's up to Jeremiah and his can-do spirit to get the town - and the team - back in the game.

The Way Home Looks Now by Wendy Wan-Long Shang - Twelve-year-old Peter Lee and his family are baseball lovers, who bond over back lot games and talk of the Pittsburgh Pirates. But when tragedy strikes, the family flies apart and baseball no longer seems to matter. Is that true? Peter wonders if just maybe the game they love can pull them together and bring them back, safe at home.

Wild Pitch by Cal Ripkin Jr with Kevin Cowherd - Robbie Hammond is the hardest throwing pitcher in the Babe Ruth League. But what good is all that heat when he can't seem to find the plate? With Robbie struggling, the Orioles are suffering through a nightmare season, still looking for their first win. Robbie's teammates are whispering that the only reason he's even pitching is because he's the coach's kid. They've even given him a new nickname: Ball Four.
What the other Orioles don't know is that Robbie is still haunted by a fastball that got away from him and injured a batter in last year's All-Star Game. Now, with the pressure mounting, he's willing to try anything to get his control back, including listening to a mysterious boy who just might hold the key to helping Robbie and the Orioles save their season. Part of the All-Stars series

Baseball Fiction

April 8th, 1974 - Hank Aaron sets a new home run record.  Here are 10 novels that involve America's favorite pastime, baseball.

Bucky F*cking Dent by David Duchovny - Ted Fullilove, aka Mr. Peanut, is not like other Ivy League grads. He shares an apartment with Goldberg, his beloved battery-operated fish, sleeps on a bed littered with yellow legal pads penned with what he hopes will be the next great American novel, and spends the waning malaise-filled days of the Carter administration at Yankee Stadium, waxing poetic while slinging peanuts to pay the rent.When Ted hears the news that his estranged father, Marty, is dying of lung cancer, he immediately moves back into his childhood home, where a whirlwind of revelations ensues. The browbeating absentee father of his youth is living to make up for lost time, but his health dips drastically whenever his beloved Red Sox lose. And so, with help from a crew of neighborhood old-timers and the lovely Mariana - Marty's Nuyorican grief counselor - Ted orchestrates the illusion of a Sox winning streak, enabling Marty and the Red Sox to reverse the Curse of the Bambino and cruise their way to World Series victory. Well, sort of. 

Calico Joe by John Grisham - In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen.  The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered all rookie records.
 Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his Dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever... 

Changing the Game by Jaci Burton - Hotshot baseball player Gavin Riley has it all: talent, looks, money, gorgeous women, and hardworking agent Elizabeth Darnell to make sure it stays that way. But things with Liz have been off ever since Gavin's brother Mick fired her for interfering with the athlete's love life. Liz has been avoiding Gavin, and he's determined to find out why. Little does he know that fierce, independent Liz has more than one reason to keep her distance. When Gavin and Liz give in to the chemistry between them, both get a whole lot more than they bargained for. Can they overcome their complicated past to pursue a future together?  Book 2 of 14 in the Play By Play series

Diamond Ruby by Joseph Wallace - Seventeen-year-old Ruby Thomas, newly responsible for her two young nieces after a devastating tragedy, is determined to keep her family safe in the vast, swirling world of 1920s New York City. She's got street smarts, boundless determination, and one unusual skill: the ability to throw a ball as hard as the greatest pitchers in a baseball-mad city.
From Coney Island sideshows to the brand-new Yankee Stadium, Diamond Ruby chronicles the extraordinary life and times of a girl who rises from utter poverty to the kind of renown only the Roaring Twenties can bestow. But her fame comes with a price, and Ruby must escape a deadly web of conspiracy and threats from Prohibition rumrunners, the Ku Klux Klan, and the gangster underworld.

The Essential by W. P. Kinsella - This career retrospective celebrates the 80th birthday of baseball's greatest scribe, W. P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe), as well as the 25th anniversary of Field of Dreams, the film that he inspired.
In addition to his classic baseball tales, W. P. Kinsella is also a critically-acclaimed short fiction writer. His satiric wit has been celebrated with numerous honors, including the Order of British Columbia.
Here are his notorious First Nation narratives of indigenous Canadians, and a literary homage to J. D. Salinger. Alongside the "real" story of the 1951 Giants and the afterlife of Roberto Clemente, are the legends of a pirated radio station and a hockey game rigged by tribal magic.
Eclectic, dark, and comedic by turns,The Essential W. P. Kinsella is a living tribute to an extraordinary raconteur.

Field of Schemes by John Billheimer - When a hotshot minor league outfielder asks his trainer, Dale Loren, for steroids, Loren supplies a harmless mixture of cold cream and lemon juice, telling him it's a brand-new steroid that can't be detected by baseball's drug testing regimen. Believing the mixture gives him an illegal edge, the outfielder goes on a hitting spree and is called up to the majors where, cut off from his supply of "steroids," he falls into a deep slump. Then he tests positive for drugs and names Loren as his supplier. Loren is fired and, shortly afterward, the outfielder is found dead under mysterious circumstances. Local sportswriter Lloyd Keaton --who lost his money, marriage and a major-market career to a gambling addiction --sets out to clear Loren's name. In the process he is threatened by mobsters, shot at, and learns his teenage son is hooked on steroids. Keaton soon discovers that the highest stakes are off the field and he'll risk more than he ever imagined to protect his family and find the truth. Book 1 of 2 in the Lloyd Keaton Mysteries

Gods of Wood and Stone by Mark Di Ionno - Joe Grudeck is a living legend--a first-ballot Hall of Famer beloved by Boston Red Sox fans who once played for millions under the bright Fenway lights. Now, he finds himself haunted by his own history, searching for connection in a world that's alienated the true person behind his celebrity facade. He'll step back into the spotlight once more with a very risky Cooperstown acceptance speech that has the power to change everything--except the darkness in his past. Horace Mueller is a different type altogether--working in darkness at a museum blacksmith shop and living in a rundown farmhouse on the outskirts of Cooperstown, New York. He clings to an anachronistic lifestyle, fueled by nostalgia for simpler times and a rebellion against the sport-celebrity lifestyle of Cooperstown, struggling to bring his baseball prodigy son to his side.

The Man With Two Arms by Billy Lombardo - He even turns the basement into an indoor stadium. Enthralled by possibility, Henry begins guiding every instance of Denny's behavior, ensuring that every action performed on one side is matched by an equal action on the other-whether it's throwing a ball, swinging a bat, brushing his teeth, coloring, and even wiping his ass.Denny quickly distinguishes himself from his peers, most conspicuously by his ability to throw perfectly with either arm, a feat virtually unheard of in baseball. But he also possesses a visionary gift that not even he understands. Denny becomes a superior athlete, skyrocketing through the minor leagues and into the majors where he experiences immediate success, breaking records held for decades.When a journalist, a former student of Henry's hungry for a national breakout story, exaggerates the teacher's obsession and exposes him to the world as a monster, all hell breaks loose and the pressures of media and celebrity threaten to disrupt the world that Henry and Denny have created. 

Never Back Down by Ernest Hebert -  Jack Landry, a promising high school baseball player, and his best friend, Elphege Beaupre, live by the motto 'Never back down, never instigate'. It's a rule of stubborn passivity that Jack will follow to the end of his days. Unconsciously burdened by his heritage, the church, and a life of hard work, young Jack still has big dreams. 

The Powers by Valerie Sayers - 1941 is a year of drama and spectacle for Americans. Joe DiMaggio's record-breaking hitting streak enlivens the summer, and winter begins with the shock and horror of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The news from Europe is bleak, especially for the Jewish population. Joltin' Joe, possessing a sweet swing and range in center, also has another gift: he can see the future. And he sees dark times ahead. In her inventive illustrated novel ... Sayers transports the reader to an age filled with giants: Dorothy Day and Walker Evans appear beside DiMaggio. The problems they face, from Catholic antisemitism to the challenge of pacifism in the face of overwhelming evil, play out in very public media, like the photography of Evans and Yankees baseball on the field.