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more than to take a run at the locusts.
    When I had the bat just the way I liked it—a clean, grippy layer of tape stretching from the knob to six inches below the label—I put it aside and got my glove out from under my pillow.I always sleep on my glove. It gives me good dreams. It also puts a nice hinge in the mitt.
    I pulled off the thick rubber bands that held it closed and took the ball out of the pocket. Keeping a ball in the mitt and wrapping it with rubber bands helps shape the leather. The glove gets used to holding a ball. Then, come game time, it knows what to do.
    I slipped my left hand inside the mitt and gave a few quick snaps. It clapped shut with the precision of a mousetrap. Perfect. That glove was ready to squeeze hot grounders like an alligator snaps up lunch.
    A real alligator would’ve been nice. We could’ve sent it after the locusts. Assuming gators eat grasshoppers.
    With my equipment in order, I went downstairs to the den and logged on to the computer. I wanted to find out as much as I could about our enemy.
    Not the Haymakers. I already knew those guys inside and out.
    I typed “migratory grasshopper” into the search box and hit return. Slingshot had mentioned the scientific name, but I couldn’t remember it. I knew “migrate” meant to move from place to place. That seemed to describe the Rambletown bugs. What I wanted to know was how to get them going again. Away from Rambletown.
    A second later I had about six gazillion hits. There must have been a website for practically every single grasshopper in the world. I clicked on a promising link and began reading. Almost immediately my skin started to crawl.
    Here’s what I learned:
Migratory grasshoppers are serious pests. They destroy wheat, vegetables, vines, bushes, trees, and grass.
When large outbreaks occur, the insects quickly exhaust food supplies. Then they take flight to look for fresh fields to munch.
The bugs swarm on clear, breezy days. With the wind at their backs, they fly at speeds of about ten miles per hour. They can cover sixty miles a day. Airplane pilots have encountered swarms flying as high as thirteen thousand feet above the ground.
You can use screens or cloth barriers to protect plants from grasshoppers. However, hungry grasshoppers can chew through most fabrics. If screens don’t work, you can send chickens after them. Apparently chickens are bonkers for grasshoppers.
    I clicked off the web page and shut down the computer. I didn’t want to read any more. Chickens?! Rambletown Field was a ballpark, not a farmyard.
    Plus, once the chickens got rid of the grasshoppers, how would we get rid of the chickens? It sounded too much like that song about theold lady who swallowed the fly. She eats a spider to catch the fly. Then she gulps a bird to get rid of the spider, chases the bird with a cat, and chokes down a dog to deal with the cat. Before you know it, half of Noah’s Ark has slipped down her throat. And her chances of coming out alive do not look good.
    Then again, neither did our chances of holding on to the All-Star Game if we didn’t get rid of those grasshoppers.

CHAPTER 5
    L ater that afternoon, Stump and Slingshot showed up at my house. I knew they were coming. We always got together the day after a game to rehash the action. Between the grasshoppers and Stump’s throwing error, we’d have a lot to talk about.
    But their arrival took Mr. Bones by surprise.
    When the bell rang, he raced to the door like a lifetime supply of dog treats waited on the other side.
    I opened up and he hurled himself onto the porch, his tail wagging furiously as he jumped up and licked my friends’ faces.
    The guys wore shorts and T-shirts andcarried their gloves. Their bikes lay in the driveway. I grabbed my mitt and a ball, and we went down to the front yard to play catch.
    The grass was green and soft underfoot as we spread out, not a locust in sight. Apparently the bugs