A Topps League Story

These fun, illustrated chapter books for 7 to 9 year old readers feature the adventures and misadventures of the Pine City Porcupines, a hapless team, including Chad their erstwhile bat boy who's got a huge baseball card collection and sat-happy Dylan, Chad's best friend. While the team, its league and the games are fictional, the baseball cards the bat boy uses to help solve the player's problems are based on real Topps cards. Book One: Just when they seem poised to get hot as a ball team, the Porcupines have a tough series against the league-leading Heron Lake Humdingers and the entire Porcupine staff seem more prone to mistakes on and off the field. This is especially true for Chad, who feels even clumsier and more awkward than usual compared to the Humdingers' League star who's been sent down for an offensive slump and shaky defense. Mike seems to mishandle or boot every ball that bounces his way. Superstitious even for a baseball player, Mike sticks religiously to his routine and can't figure out what he's been doing differently since the jinx began.Chad finds a major league rookie card and figures out the jinx, helping Stammer settle his nerves on the field and seems to settle his own nerves on the sidelines.