#129: Kristy at Bat

 

Thoughts before reading:

The plots about sports/softball are my least favorite, so it's too bad that Kristy's last series book is one of them. Hopefully it'll be better than some of the others.

I like this cover though. Kristy looks really good on it, definitely one of her best ones.

The basics:

Spring break has arrived again, and Watson and Kristy are taking a vacation together to Bill Bain's Baseball Dream Camp. (Basically, a camp where you go and pretend to be a major league ball player.) They'll be attending a special father-daughter session. Bill Bain is Watson's childhood hero, and his favorite ball player since then, so it's extra special for him. 

Right before camp and the end of school, Kristy learns she's been demoted to the second string team (the middle school version of JV, sounds like). She's stunned, until the coach explains that other players had just shown more skill and determination than her. Then she realizes she didn't really try her best during tryouts, because she'd just assumed she would make it. Now that she feels like she's only "second best", Kristy loses all her excitement for Dream Camp. (Pretty ungrateful if you ask me.)

Shortly after Kristy and Watson arrive at the camp, he sees his idol, Bill Bain, in the dining area. After working up his courage, he goes up to him and introduces himself during lunch, only to have Bain say he doesn't like to be bothered at mealtimes, and not very nicely, either. Humiliated, he quickly returns to his own table. After this incident, Watson seems down, and Kristy's not sure how to help.

Spending time with Watson at the camp also makes Kristy think a lot about her dad, which in turn makes her feel guilty. She's still in a slump too, and not playing her best, but she does make an amazing hit one of the days, and she really wishes her dad had seen it. 

Bill Bain continues to be unfriendly, and is rarely around. When he is, he doesn't participate in anything. He even comes to a drill practice and snaps at the instructor. Kristy snaps back at him and tells him that he's let everyone who wanted to meet him down. She expects Watson to be proud of her, but instead he's angry that she was "rude to a legend like Bill Bain". 

On the last day of camp, everyone has a big final game together. Bill Bain shows up to coach, and he apologizes for being rude. Kristy hits a home run, Watson gets a run, and their team ends up winning.

At the final awards dinner, Kristy wins Best Coach.

Side plot: David Michael gets really into trading baseball cards.

Timeline:

It's early April.

Misc. thoughts:

*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles.

*As much as this plot didn't interest me at all, it was nice that Kristy's last book was about her taking a trip with Watson. How far we've come since #1!

*The Brewer/Thomas clan has a baseball diamond in their side yard? Those are usually tiny! They must have some serious acreage, lucky kids...

*Abby's president of the BSC for the week that Kristy's gone. I'm surprised they tried this again after it led to the collapse of the BSC before.

*First base is Kristy's favorite position. 

*There's so much talk about Bill Bain in here, which was really boring since he only appears for the first time in this book, and he's a fictional player.

*Is Dream Camp a real thing? I've never heard of it before.

*Claudia appreciates baseball cards only as art objects, to David Michael's dismay, haha. 

*After all her years of playing and coaching, it really doesn't make any sense that Kristy would suddenly think she's a bad player just because of one tryout. Plus all her moping about it in here makes her seem like a bad sport.

*Leave it to Kristy to jump in and tell off Bill Bain, as well as help organize things at camp, make decisions, and call for votes. Hence the win for best coach at the end.

*I felt really bad for Watson after Bill Bain blew him off... he was all excited to meet him, like a little kid, and then he got so embarrassed.

*I liked that we saw more of Watson in here, and a different side of him as well. I just wish that it was in a more interesting plot.

*I wonder how old Watson is? The books never say, and Kristy makes him sound ancient, but then she says he's probably only a few years older than her mom! Her mom's only 37! So, since this is the perspective of a 13 year old, he's probably only like 40, haha. 

*This is Kristy's last regular series book, but of course she returns in Friends Forever. She also narrated 28 books, same as Claudia. 

*The time loop is more painfully obvious than normal in here, as we have a whole storyline about Kristy, an 8th grader, trying out for next year's softball team at SMS. She'd theoretically be in high school. I could be wrong about this, but it's already April, so I don't think it could be for the current school year.

Books mentioned:

None

My rating:

2 stars. Another dud of a last book for me.