Customer Reviews

Free Baseball

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you will love this book. Young baseball player Felix Piloto runs away from his annoying babysitter to become the batboy of a minor league team, The Miracle. In his journey, he learns more about the father he never knew, becomes friends with the entire baseball team, and meets a magical dog, Homer. This is a really good book and you've got to read it. It is a little sad sometimes but it is funny too like when Felix has to go to the store for the team to buy a bat stretcher!

I am both a baseball fan and a fan of Sue Corbett, and she does not disappoint with Free Baseball. It is not so much a baseball story as it is the journey of Felix Piloto as he struggles to reconcile his feelings for his father, a baseball hero in Cuba who Felix has not seen since he and his mother escaped Cuba to make a home in Florida. Felix has inherited his father's passion for baseball, and that takes Felix on a difficult journey when he becomes the batboy for a minor league team.

Sue is a baseball fan and it shows in the way she accurately depicts the action on the field, but it is the richly drawn characters who really shine. My favorites are Homer, the highly intelligent dog who serves as team mascot; and Vic, the team president, a character I suspect was inspired by Mike Veeck, a colorful minor league baseball executive known for his wild promotions.

Free Baseball is a terrific read, both fun and heartwarming. It kept me up far too late as I could not put it down until I reached the end. Now comes the hard part: waiting for Sue's next book to arrive.

Felix Piloto is the son of a famous baseball player in Cuba. He knows that his father risked everything to send him and his mother to America, but he doesn't know when his father will be able to join them in Florida. One day Felix wins free tickets to a minor-league game. He sneaks into the locker room to ask one of the Cuban players about his father and is mistaken for their new batboy. He impulsively stows away in the luggage compartment of the bus and wakes up in West Lauderdale, Florida, miles away from home.

Felix, who is a huge baseball fan and a great player himself, is in heaven. He endears himself to the entire team and even helps them break their losing streak. He wants to stay with the team forever, but knows he can't.

Sue Corbett, the author of 12 AGAIN, delivers a home run with her second middle-grade novel. Felix Piloto is a richly drawn character, full of contradictions; vulnerable yet assertive, agreeable yet stubborn. The book even contains a helpful glossary of baseball terms and Spanish phrases.

I am not a huge baseball fan, but I loved this story. Corbett has hit the ball out of the park with FREE BASEBALL.

--- Reviewed by Renee Kirchner (renee.kirchner@usa.net)

My 13-year-old son and I both deeply enjoyed this book.
There's much to take from Free Baseball -- a peek behind the scenes of a minor-league team, reminders on the sacrifices that people make from freedom, tips on taunting umpires, insight into relationships torn by immigration and politics.
Tightly written and fast-paced, it's amazing that Free Baseball can construct such a vivid world in such a short book. Our only criticism is that we would have been happy to have read twice as much about Felix and The Miracle.

This is a good story on several levels. First, of course, you have, as the title suggests, baseball. I'm always up for a good story revolving around baseball. Second, you have an introspective boy who has unanswered questions and goes on a daring quest of self-discovery. Third, the reality that the boy discovers may not always be exactly what he wants to hear, but that is what makes the story resonate in a very real way. The book could have gone the route of being a total downer, or completely the opposite, been sugar-coated, but it is neither. It is a nicely balanced, satisfying read.

This is one of the most touching and interesting books I've read....I have this book at the top of my list! It contains the action of baseball (from the point of view of a young boy) with the struggles of Cuban life. I would recommend this book to young teens, and/or those interested in baseball.

Free Baseball By: Sue Corbett

Free Baseball was I warm story about I Cuba boy who escaped. Felix, the boy, was the main character in this great story. Felix was a boy whose dad was a Cuba baseball star, and dreamed about nothing but baseball. Sue Corbett wrote this story well, and I really treasured it.
One part I liked was the part where Felix had just escaped on the bus. He ran away from his "evil" babysitter and was named the new ball boy of the opposing team. Felix slides in a small compartment and hides till the bus stops. Felix realizes it was foolish to do it because it got hot and un-cozy.
The next part I really liked is when he met the team mascot who was a dog named Miracle. Miracle was really important to the team because he was the only reason fans came to the games. He would run around the bases when one of the players hit a homerun. He also lived right in the stadium and could catch fly balls.
The last part was when Felix met a Cuban named Diaz. Diaz didn't speak much English but understood what people were talking about. Felix and Diaz became kind of best friends while Felix was a run away. Diaz was known as the team slugger and was one of the newer players. Diaz also said he met Felix's dad.
In conclusion Free Baseball was an about a boy named Felix who ran away from home during a baseball game. Felix was soon known to be the ball boy while he traveled with the team. He met a man named Diaz and met a "miracle" of a dog on his journey. Free Baseball was one of the best books I ever read.

D. Williams

She read it to us at school, and it was really great. It made our teacher cry. I loved it.

Sue Corbett's middle-grade book Free Baseball is the story of Felix, an eleven-year-old Cuban-American who stows away on a minor league team bus and steps in for the new bat boy who never showed up for work. It's sort of a Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler-kids-hiding-overnight-in-the-museum for the sports set. Typically, I have a hard time swallowing such fantasies as realistic, and thus my enjoyment of these kind of stories is always muted. But as charming or as impossible as the idea of living in a ballpark and working behind the scenes at a professional baseball game might be, there is so much more to this story that such issues are quickly left behind.

At the heart of this story are the diplomatic issues between America and Cuba, and the social turmoil those politics leave in their wake. Felix and his mother were "boat-people," Cuban immigrants who took a secret, overcrowded, and ultimately perilous boat ride to seek refuge in America. They left behind Felix's father, a star outfielder on the Cuban National Team, thinking he would be able to defect and join them during the team's travels. But it's been years now - Felix was an infant during the night-crossing - and he despairs that his father will never be able to join them.

The book then becomes something of a father quest - always a good pairing with baseball (see Field of Dreams, et al.) - as well as an exploration of Felix's strained relationship with his mother and his world. Yet despite settling into these well-worn spots in the outfield, Free Baseball stays on its toes and keeps the reader there too, managing to be pleasingly predictable and surprising at the same time. It's an atypical baseball book for this age group - it's not about winning a big game with a clutch hit, but instead about finding one's home in the dugout, and one's family in the stands. A story about that oddly redemptive power of a simple yet multi-faceted game, and the many ways in which it can touch all those who come into contact with it.

Highly recommended for all readers, but particularly those who have already tasted the magic of baseball.

Felix Piloto misses his dad so much. He thinks about his dad all the time. He feels close to his father when he is playing baseball. Felix and his mother are refugees from Cuba. His father, a famous baseball player for the Cuban national team, did not escape with them to the U.S.

Living in Florida, Felix's mami is working long hours at a computer company help desk and going to school. Felix is alone a great deal of the time. His mom does not have time to come to his baseball games or even take him to the hometown team's season opener when he wins free tickets. He is so anxious to go to the game that he agrees to the supervision of a loathsome teenage babysitter whose goonish boyfriends pick on Felix all night. When the game is over, he gets to go down on the field and run the bases. Curiosity leads him into the visiting team's dugout where he is mistaken for their new batboy. Felix seizes this opportunity to make a change in his life and stowsaway on the team bus.

This is such a warm-hearted story. The reader aches for Felix and his mom. As he finds acceptance and happiness with the team, he must reconcile with his mother and learn the real story about his family and his father.

I loved this book. It will have huge appeal to elementary and jr. high readers. Your heart does not have to thrill to baseball to enjoy this beautiful story but if you are a fan, you will enjoy it even more.