The Golden Glove (AllStar SportStory Series)

Rating:
Summary: Young Jamie Bennett learns a lesson about baseball gloves
Review: "The Golden Glove" is the new and rather expensive Cal Ripken, Jr. model that young Jamie Bennett is able to convince his parents to buy as an early birthday present. Jamie knows that if he has this glove he can be the best fielder in town, and while playing shortstop in the next sandlot game he plays it certainly seems that he is right. Everything ends up in his new glove. The only problem is that on the way home from the game Jamie manages to lose his new glove and since he has an unfortunate habit of losing things his father refuses to buy him another glove, even with tryouts for the summer league coming up.

This AllStar SportStory by Fred Bowen, illustrated by Jim Thorpe, does a nice job of working in some pertinent baseball lessons along with the story. His friend Alex has his suspicions about who took his friend's glove, but Jamie has to borrow an old glove to be able to play, but it cannot replace the perfect glove he has lost and his performance in the field suffers greatly. Then he talks to Pete, owner of Pete's Sport Shop, who gives him some fundamental tips about gloves and fielding, and imparts the key lesson of this juvenile sports story: "It's never been the glove that made the ballplayer. It's always been the other way around."

Bowen underscores that particular lesson in the back of "The Golden Glove" when he provides a concise look at "Gloves, The Real Story," explaining the evolution of the baseball glove from the early fingerless gloves to the deep pocket models of today. Bowen got his interesting facts about baseball gloves from the research department at the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Spalding company, and a "Sports Illustrated" article. I appreciate the idea that even in telling a fictional story Bowen works in the history of the game and the idea that his readers can find out such things out there in the real world on their own.

More importantly, Bowen's story is ground in the realistic world of young kids. Jamie plays baseball and other sports on and against teams on which girls play (his keystone partner in the league is named Sharon), and neither the author or his characters bat an eye at this. More importantly, when it comes to on field heroics Bowen is still providing an illustrative lesson, quite reminiscent of the point made by the Archie Graham character in "Field of Dreams." There is much to like about "The Golden Glove," whether you are a young baseball player or simply remembering being one (and, of course, had to endure the trauma of losing your new glove).

Rating:
Summary: Young Jamie Bennett learns a lesson about baseball gloves
Review: "The Golden Glove" is the new and rather expensive Cal Ripken, Jr. model that young Jamie Bennett is able to convince his parents to buy as an early birthday present. Jamie knows that if he has this glove he can be the best fielder in town, and while playing shortstop in the next sandlot game he plays it certainly seems that he is right. Everything ends up in his new glove. The only problem is that on the way home from the game Jamie manages to lose his new glove and since he has an unfortunate habit of losing things his father refuses to buy him another glove, even with tryouts for the summer league coming up.

This AllStar SportStory by Fred Bowen, illustrated by Jim Thorpe, does a nice job of working in some pertinent baseball lessons along with the story. His friend Alex has his suspicions about who took his friend's glove, but Jamie has to borrow an old glove to be able to play, but it cannot replace the perfect glove he has lost and his performance in the field suffers greatly. Then he talks to Pete, owner of Pete's Sport Shop, who gives him some fundamental tips about gloves and fielding, and imparts the key lesson of this juvenile sports story: "It's never been the glove that made the ballplayer. It's always been the other way around."

Bowen underscores that particular lesson in the back of "The Golden Glove" when he provides a concise look at "Gloves, The Real Story," explaining the evolution of the baseball glove from the early fingerless gloves to the deep pocket models of today. Bowen got his interesting facts about baseball gloves from the research department at the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Spalding company, and a "Sports Illustrated" article. I appreciate the idea that even in telling a fictional story Bowen works in the history of the game and the idea that his readers can find out such things out there in the real world on their own.

More importantly, Bowen's story is ground in the realistic world of young kids. Jamie plays baseball and other sports on and against teams on which girls play (his keystone partner in the league is named Sharon), and neither the author or his characters bat an eye at this. More importantly, when it comes to on field heroics Bowen is still providing an illustrative lesson, quite reminiscent of the point made by the Archie Graham character in "Field of Dreams." There is much to like about "The Golden Glove," whether you are a young baseball player or simply remembering being one (and, of course, had to endure the trauma of losing your new glove).