He said "it doesn't matter much either way. If they don't..." he pointed to the back of his new children's book. There, the venerable old poem stood. The catchy cover illustration shows what's important, which isn't that this is a sequel to "Casey at the Bat," but a book about a girl pitching on an all-boy's team. "Joy in Mudville" refers to a girl named Joy.
In Bob's re-write, all that happened when Mighty Casey struck out, was to drop the Mudville team to second place! No joy in Mudville? Not so fast, Mr. Thayer. According to Bob, they still have a chance at the pennant, because Casey came through in the next game. The big question: in this final game, can relief pitcher Joy hold Mudville's slim 1-0 lead? In the ninth inning?? With the bases loaded???
Like a typical little league diamond full of smooth dirt patches and bumpy weeds, the rhyming stanzas in this tense tale vary in texture. A young reader might speed easily through one section and stumble a bit on another. Here are two stanzas in a row, one speeding easily to first base and rounding to second, the other more awkward, like a heavy set player rounding third and tangling his feet a bit in reaching home:
As Joy, the rookie hurler
took the mound to pitch relief,
Some twenty thousand fans
stared down in silent disbelief.
What struck them dumb
was not the unknown's anonymity
It was the fact that Joy
(the rookie's first name) was a she.
A she, indeed. The male author and illustrator both dedicated the whole she-bang to their daughters. Thus they enable all girls (and boys, and educators) who aren't sure about co-ed baseball. One thing about baseball…it's one of the few sports where all sizes of kids can find a position and succeed, so why not both sexes?
Joy may not have the strongest arm in Mudville, but in fact, finesse often beats brute force. In the real world, knuckleball pitchers can go into their 40's because it's guile, not strength that helps them. As for the tricks that clever Joy uses, well, they aren't far-fetched. Some old-time fans might remember Steve Hamilton's wacky "Folly Floater." Steve just tossed the ball high in the air, surprising and frustrating batters who were prepared to fungo the ball into the seats when it landed in front of them…only to swing and miss.
Little boys, who might not like girls at this age, and might resent a girl on the team, might learn a lesson in tolerance here, and girls will of course find the book inspiring. Happily, the story is big on action, not preachy feminism, and there's no scene where anyone sulks about having a female on the team. Bottom line as the reader heads into the bottom of the ninth? This book's a great pastime, and the time passes quickly with a nice dash of humor.
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