Satch & Me (Baseball Card Adventures) [Hardcover]

Dan Gutman (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Baseball Card Adventures

"You wanna know who threw the fastest pitch ever?"

Many baseball players claim that Satchel Paige was the fastest pitcher in the history of the game. Stosh and his coach, Flip Valentini, are on a mission to find out. With radar gun in tow, they travel back to 1942 and watch Satch pitch to power hitter Josh Gibson in the Negro League World Series. They soon learn that everything about Satch is fast -- whether it's his talking, driving, or getaways. But is he really the fastest pitcher who ever lived?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7–When 13-year-old Joe Stoshs coach brings a radar gun to practice, it prompts a discussion of who was the fastest pitcher in baseball history. Able to use baseball cards to go back in time, Stosh clocks the fastball of famous Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige. Since no cards were produced for those teams, he substitutes a postcard found on eBay. His coach, Flip, accompanies him on the journey to the past and they arrive in Spartanburg, SC, in 1942, a few days before the Negro League World Series. They witness racial discrimination at a local diner, and, shortly thereafter, the duo hook up with Paige and join him on the road to the big game in Pittsburgh. Gutman sketches Paiges colorful personality: confident, cocky, talkative, and undoubtedly one of the greatest talents ever to play the game. The story is lighthearted but clearly conveys the injustice that denied the athlete the opportunity to play in the major leagues for most of his career. Supporting characters border on the stereotypical and the fast-paced plot hangs heavily on coincidence. Enhancing the action-driven story are plenty of well-written baseball scenes, black-and-white photos, and the appearance of Negro League players Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and Buck ONeil. Fans will be delighted with this latest addition to the series.–Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Dan Gutman has always been a baseball fanatic. He played in Little League as a kid, and one of the first magazine articles he ever sold explained the science behind the spitball, the scuffball, and corked bats. When he thought about the T206 Honus Wagner—the most valuable baseball card in the world—he began to write honus & me, his first Baseball Card Adventure. That book introduced Joe Stoshack—Stosh—a kid who can use baseball cards to travel through time and meet the game’s greatest players. Stosh has since gone on many amazing, fast-paced adventures, most recently to try to save Roberto Clemente.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Amistad (January 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060594918
• ISBN-13: 978-0060594916
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #951,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

This is hard. I'm a pretty regular Jersey guy who spent fifteen years trying to write newspaper articles, magazine articles, screenplays, books for adults, and just about everything else before I discovered the one thing I'm good at--writing fiction for kids. I aim for kids who DON'T like to read, and hopefully the kids who DO like to read will enjoy my stuff too. For all the gory details about me, check out my web site.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Satch & Me" is great!, April 28, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Satch & Me (Baseball Card Adventures) (Hardcover)

"Satch and Me" is Dan Gutman's latest novel in the "Baseball Card Adventures" series. Once again, Stosh travels back in time to meet a baseball player. This time, he travels to 1942 to meet Satchel Paige.

Joe Stoshack ("Stosh") and his coach Flip are researching pitching statistics. They learn that Paige was a great pitcher in his time. Stosh and Flip use a Satchel Paige postcard to travel back to 1942 when Paige played. They want to use a radar gun to accurately measure the speed of Satch's pitches.

Stosh and Flip discover that it's not as easy as they expected to find out how fast Satch threw the ball. They time him at 99 mph with the radar gun, but Satch is confident that he can throw a faster pitch. Stosh and Flip try twice more to measure Satch's pitches, but something goes wrong both times.

In the end, Stosh has to return home to the present in Louisville without getting an accurate measurement of Satch's pitches. But the trip back to 1942 was still a success. Flip's life is never the same after the visit with Satchel Paige!

I enjoyed "Satch and Me" for several reasons, but the most important reason is that most of the action in the story involves baseball. Most people who like the sport would probably enjoy reading this book. I especially liked this novel because Satchel Paige was a pitcher, and I am a pitcher for my baseball team. I was surprised to find out that pitchers in the 1940s had the same kind of speed that pitchers do today. I used to think that pitchers back then could only throw about 50 miles per hour.

Read this book! You'll be glad you did.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flyin' off the Shelves, April 2, 2009

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Satch & Me (Baseball Card Adventures) (Hardcover)

I gave the book Satch and Me by Dan Gutman a four on a scale of one to five. I really liked this book because, while it was fiction, it also had a lot of interesting facts. What happens in this book is that the main character, Joe Stoschak, a thirteen-year-old boy called Stosh by his friends, has the power to travel through time to meet Leroy "Satchel" Paige. While they are there, they meet Satch and there is some action and romance.

Stosh and Flip travel back to 1942 before the Civil Rights movement. Since Satch was an African-American, Stosh saw how horribly African-Americans were treated. The book does an amazing job of describing this era and how African-Americans were treated unfairly. It's amazing because it accurately describes how Satch and other African-Americans had different restaurants, bathrooms, and even newspapers. I never thought of how bad it was for African Americans until I read this book.

The book also has a good variety of subjects. This means that the whole book isn't just baseball. There is reality, action, baseball and romance. For instance, there is a lot of baseball history but there are also fictional baseball games so you have facts and fiction. I think that having a good variety is important because if the whole book was just one subject then it would be boring. If you have a trade off of subjects then there is a goo mix of everything.

I hope you now have a good understanding of this book. Once again, the book has a good array of genre, and it accurately shows how African-Americans were treated unfairly. I hope you read Satch and Me and the you like it as much as I did. -Kevin G. (10)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Baseball Card Adventures, July 14, 2006

By 

Thomas Baldovin "Pencil artist" (Albany, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Satch & Me (Baseball Card Adventures) (Hardcover)

My son and I both really enjoyed this latest baseball card adventure by Dan Gutman. Not knowing anything about the Negro Baseball League, I found the history fascinating. Satch, as portrayed by Mr. Gutman, is a wonderful, larger-than-life character. My son was blown away by a surprise ending. We both felt this was the best of Mr. Gutman's books.