Ballpark Mysteries #11: The Tiger Troubles Read online

  “I don’t know,” Mike said. “That note in the car seemed pretty serious. ‘Three strikes’ doesn’t seem like a joke.”

  Mr. Hopkins was waiting for them outside the locker room. “There you are,” he said. “I was just going to come looking for you. Tony’s in here.” Mr. Hopkins led them into the locker room. The wide wooden lockers stood along the outside walls, with a black chair in front of each one. The room was filled with baseball players as well as press and other media people. Mr. Hopkins, Kate, and Mike made their way over to Tony’s locker. The sign above it read TONY MALONEY.

  Tony looked just like his picture on Mike’s baseball card. He was tall, with frizzy hair, and was wearing his Tigers uniform. He had a black baseball glove on his left hand. With his right hand, he was snapping a baseball into the glove. Pop! Pop! Pop!

  “So you’re Mike and Kate,” he said. “Nice to meet you. I’m Tony Maloney. But everyone calls me Tony the Tiger.”

  Mike smiled. “We know.” He pulled Tony’s baseball card out of his pocket and held it up. “It says that on your baseball card. Could you sign it for me?”

  Tony stopped throwing the baseball and glanced at the older man standing next to him. He was also wearing a Tigers uniform. “I’m afraid you need to ask my coach about that,” he said, nodding at the man.

  The coach shook his head. “Tony injured his wrist. I told him he’s got to save his hand for baseball,” he said. “No more autographs until after the season. Sorry, kids!”

  The coach patted Tony on the shoulder and started toward the dugout. “See you on the field, Tony,” he said. “Go, Tigers! We’re going to eat ’em up today!”

  Mike lowered the card. “But we just saw—” Kate elbowed him in the side. Mike cleared his throat. “Um, we just saw some really cool cars at the car show,” he said. He slipped the baseball card back into his pocket.

  “Oh yeah,” Tony said. “Sorry. I know we were supposed to meet there, but I had to leave early. Something came up, and I had to get back here in a hurry.”

  Mike and Kate exchanged glances.

  Kate pulled out the letter they had found in the car. “We know. We found this note in the front seat.” She held the note up.

  Tony took the piece of paper. He removed his baseball cap and ran his fingers through his hair. “I must have dropped this when I left,” he said.

  “It looks like someone’s giving you trouble,” Kate said.

  Mr. Hopkins held his hand up. “Kate, hold on a minute,” he said.

  But Kate continued. “Is that why we saw you hide a stuffed tiger?” she asked.

  Tony dropped his hat. He looked confused. “What do you mean?” he asked. He let his hand with the glove fall to his side.

  Mike stepped forward. “We saw you carrying a stuffed tiger a little while ago,” he said. “You put it down behind the pillar. We picked it up to take a look at it and found a whole bunch of signed baseballs!”

  Tony’s eyes opened wide. “Did you put it back?” he asked. “Please tell me you put it back.”

  Kate nodded. “We put it back just the way we found it. Then we came to talk to you,” she said. “To find out what’s going on.”

  Tony hung his head. “I’ll tell you what’s going on,” he said. “I’ve got big problems.”

  Chasing a Tiger

  “Someone’s blackmailing me,” Tony said.

  “You mean that someone’s threatening you?” Mr. Hopkins asked. “What do they want?”

  Tony leaned against his locker. “They want signed baseballs and other stuff,” he said. “I don’t know who it is. The only person I can think of who might be doing it is Roger, our pitcher.” Tony pointed to a tall redheaded baseball player. “He’s famous for playing practical jokes on new players. But he’s been nice to me as far as I know.”

  “What if you stop signing things?” Mr. Hopkins asked.

  Tony shook his head. “Whoever is sending the notes has a trophy of mine. If I don’t do what the notes tell me to, I’ll never get it back.”

  “Wow,” Mike said. “Like a World Series trophy?”

  Tony laughed. “No,” he said. “It’s a little silly, but it’s my Little League MVP trophy. It’s really important to me. I got it when I was twelve. It’s always brought me good luck. I want the trophy back, but I don’t want anyone on the team to know about it because it’s kind of personal.”

  Tony pulled out his phone. He tapped it with his finger a few times. A picture of a gold trophy popped up on the screen. “That’s it,” he said.

  “How did the thief get the trophy?” Kate asked.

  Tony shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve been missing it for three weeks. I usually kept it in a safe place, but they were redoing the locker room, so I put the trophy in my bag. After that, I went to a meeting. When I got home, it wasn’t in my bag! A couple days after I lost it, I started getting threatening notes. The notes told me to drop off signed baseballs and T-shirts at different places around the stadium. That’s why I left the car show early. I needed to drop off more signed baseballs.”

  Tony explained that each time he left the stuffed tiger, it came back empty. Usually, he’d find it in a blue Tigers shopping bag outside the locker room.

  “Whoever has it must be making lots of money selling my signed stuff. I’m not supposed to autograph things, so they’re worth a lot of money,” Tony said. “But I’m going to do whatever it takes to get my trophy back.”

  Kate stepped forward. “What if you just hide somewhere and wait to see who picks up the tiger?” she asked. “Then you’d be able to catch them.”

  Tony popped a baseball into his glove. “Good idea,” he said. “But one of the first notes told me not to go to the police or try to watch. If I do, I’ll never see the trophy again. And I can’t tell anyone else about this, because I’ll get in trouble if Coach knows I’m signing autographs.”

  “Can you show us the rest of the notes, since we already know?” Kate asked. “Mike and I are pretty good at solving mysteries.”

  Tony nodded. “Sure thing.” He rummaged through his locker and pulled down a pile of papers from the top shelf. “Here they are,” he said. He handed them to Kate and then checked his watch. “I’m afraid I’ve got to get ready for the game now. Let me know if you figure anything out.”

  Mike, Kate, and Mr. Hopkins left the locker room and headed to their seats. They were near the Tigers’ dugout on the third-base line. Since it was close to game time, the seats around them were starting to fill up with fans.

  Mr. Hopkins sat down. He pulled out a notebook that he used to keep track of baseball players. Whenever he went to a baseball game, he took lots of notes for work. Sometimes, Kate even helped him by pointing out certain players or helping him grade how well a player hit or fielded.

  Mike reclined in the chair and swung his feet back and forth. “These seats are great!” he said. “I really like this ballpark!”

  When the Detroit Tigers ran out to the field a short time later, Mike and Kate stood up and cheered. The first New York Mets batter walked up to the plate.

  As they sat back down, Kate nudged Mike and pointed toward the pitcher’s mound. “There’s Roger, the player who Tony suspected,” she said. “Let’s keep an eye on him.”

  “As long as we can watch Tony, too,” Mike said. “I hear he’s a great outfielder!”

  From their seats, Mike and Kate had a good view of Tony in center field. Detroit got off to a good start when Roger struck out the first two Mets batters. But when the third Mets batter connected with a fastball, Tony took off running like a shot. He dashed back toward the outfield wall as the ball flew high over second base. It looked like an easy home run. The batter rounded the bases on his way to home.

  But Tony didn’t give up. He raced to the wall and leapt up just as the ball was flying over the fence. His arm dropped down behind the fence, and the crowd let out a big “Oh no!” But then Tony pulled his arm back up in the air and waved the glove around
. Clenched in its webbing was the baseball. He had caught the ball and made the out!

  The fans went wild. A woman next to Kate and Mike whistled loudly while other fans cheered and waved their Tigers baseball caps.

  “Woo-hoo! Way to go! Nice catch!” Mike yelled. “Go get ’em, Tigers!” He stamped his feet and clapped a few times and then sat down.

  “That’s it,” Kate said. She pulled out the stack of papers from Tony. “Tony made a catch. Now we need to make a catch. Let’s look through these notes that Tony gave us for clues.”

  Some notes were on plain pieces of notebook paper. Others looked like they had come from a Tigers program, since there were facts about the team on the back. Mike and Kate spent two innings looking at the notes but came up empty.

  “Well, that’s a dead end,” Kate said. “Those notes don’t tell us anything.”

  Mike stared at the last note. There was a cartoon tiger printed in the bottom right corner. He tapped the tiger on the nose and stood up. “That’s it!” he said. “The notes can’t lead us to the blackmailer, but maybe something else can. We need to go search.”

  “What?” Kate asked. “What are we going to look for? There’s no trail to follow.”

  Mike smiled. “We’re not looking for a trail, Kate. We’re looking for a tail! A stuffed tiger’s tail. Come on, we’re going tiger hunting!”

  Too Many Pandas

  Mike bounded up the aisle toward the main walkway around the ballpark. Kate told her father they were going to explore a little and then followed Mike. She caught up to him at the top of the stairs. Mike had stopped in front of a food stand that was selling sugar-coated roasted almonds. He was watching as the woman at the stand mixed cinnamon and sugar with the warm nuts.

  Mike took a long breath through his nose. “Smells like snickerdoodle cookies,” he said when Kate arrived. “Maybe we should get some of these nuts so we have enough energy to chase the tiger.”

  “Um, Mike, we’re not going to need that much energy,” Kate said. “I’m not sure you know this, but stuffed tigers aren’t real. If we found the tiger, I don’t think it would run away from us.”

  Mike tapped his head with his finger. “I know that, Kate,” he said. “But I thought we could try to figure out where the stuffed tiger came from. And that might lead us to the blackmailer.”

  Kate nodded. “Okay, good idea,” she said. “Where do we start?”

  “Let’s walk around the park and check each souvenir shop for stuffed tigers.” He pointed to the other side of the walkway. “You take the ones over there. I’ll take the ones on this side.”

  For the next half hour, Mike and Kate circled the stadium. They checked one shop after another. They saw lots of Tigers bobbleheads, Tigers caps, Tigers baseball pillows, and even Tigers dog beds. But no stuffed tigers that matched the one they were looking for.

  The closest they came was a stuffed panda with a big D on its chest and a large stuffed baseball with a tiger’s face. The only stuffed tigers they found were small and cute, with googly eyes. The tigers wouldn’t even be able to hold one baseball. At each new place, the salesperson pointed Mike or Kate to the googly-eyed tigers or the black and white stuffed pandas.

  They had almost made it back to where they started when a huge cheer rose up from the crowd. Mike ran over to the railing and looked out at the field. It was the bottom of the fourth inning, and the Tigers had just scored a run!

  “The Tigers are ahead by one now,” Mike said as Kate joined him at the railing.

  “I wish we were ahead by one tiger,” Kate said. “Or maybe a hundred pandas.”

  Mike clenched his teeth and made a fist. He pretended to be mad. “If I see one more panda…,” he said.

  Kate pushed Mike’s fist down. “I know, I know,” she said. “I kinda like the pandas. But maybe it’s time to go to our seats and figure out where else we can look.”

  As they turned to head back, Mike spied a huge baseball floating in the air. And then another and another. They were all mounted on a big, spinning wheel over the nearby food court.

  “Wow! A Ferris wheel!” Mike said. “Come on. Let’s ride it. Maybe we can spot something new from the air!”

  Mike and Kate ran across the walkway to the end of the food court. At the end was a big Ferris wheel with a dozen cars shaped like giant baseballs! Each one was white with red stitching, and they had little doors and windows so riders could look out.

  Mike and Kate waited in a short line while the operator loaded other fans into the baseball-shaped cars. When it was their turn, Mike hopped in first and slid across the plastic seat. Kate sat on the other side. As soon as the attendant closed the car’s door, they were off. The car climbed high above the ballpark and rocked gently back and forth. Mike and Kate looked out the windows.

  “This is amazing!” Mike said. “Look, you can see the street outside the ballpark. And over there are the food stands.”

  In the distance, Mike and Kate could hear fans clapping and cheering.

  “Maybe Tony’s coming up to bat,” Kate said. “Too bad the stadium is in the way. Otherwise we could watch the game from here.”

  Mike’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t mind missing the game,” he said. “I just wish we could find out who’s threatening Tony.”

  Kate nodded. “I know. It feels like we’re letting him down. When we’re done, let’s go check on Roger, since Tony said it might be him.”

  “Good idea,” Mike said. “Maybe we can sneak into the clubhouse and check out his locker!”

  As the Ferris wheel circled around, Mike and Kate watched the fans visiting the food stands below. After two more circles, Kate nudged Mike and pointed to a walkway on the upper level of the stadium. “Look, there’s a souvenir shop that we missed,” she said. “Let’s check it out after the ride.”

  The Ferris wheel circled a few more times and then it stopped. Mike and Kate hopped off. They ran through the stadium and up the stairs to the souvenir shop they had spotted from the Ferris wheel. There was no line, so they both stepped right up to the counter and scanned the shelves. There were lots of orange T-shirts, blue baseball caps, bobbleheads, and even big orange foam claws. But no tigers.

  An older woman with long brown hair leaned over the counter. “Can I help you?” she asked. “Looks like you have something specific in mind.”

  Kate nodded. “We do,” she said. “We’re looking for a stuffed tiger. It’s orange and black and about this big.” She motioned with her hands to show how wide and tall the tiger was. “Our friend has one, and we really like it. We’ve looked all over, but nobody has them.”

  The woman tapped her index finger on the counter. She had long red fingernails. “I know exactly what you’re talking about,” she said. “The tiger has a big smile and a Tigers baseball cap on?”

  “Yes,” Mike and Kate said together.

  “Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t have them, either,” the saleswoman said.

  Kate frowned. “You don’t?” she asked. “Why not?”

  “We had problems getting more of them, so the team stopped selling them,” the woman said. “I had one left over from last year, but I just sold it a few weeks ago. How about one of these cute pandas instead?”

  Kate tried not to laugh as Mike clenched his teeth. He took a breath and shook his head. “No thank you,” he said. “We need the tiger.” He and Kate turned to head back to their seats.

  They had only taken a few steps when Kate turned around. “I just thought of something,” she said. “Do you remember who bought the tiger?”

  “Yes, I do,” said the woman. “I don’t know her name, but I’d recognize her because she works at the ballpark. She runs the hot dog stand near the merry-go-round.”

  A Furry Backpack

  “Thanks!” Kate and Mike called. They wound their way through the crowds of fans toward the merry-go-round.

  Halfway there, Mike stopped at a railing overlooking the field to check the score. “Yippee!” he said as he caug
ht up to Kate. “It’s the top of the seventh inning, and the Tigers are still ahead by one!”

  When they reached the merry-go-round, the area was crowded with fans. Some waited in line for the ride. Others were at the condiment stations, squirting mustard or ketchup onto hot dogs.

  Kate twirled around to check out the shops. Her long brown ponytail trailed out behind her head. “There it is,” she said. She pointed to a hot dog stand on the other side of the food court. Five people were standing in line for hot dogs. She and Mike walked over.

  It wasn’t until they got close that the hot dog vendor turned around to hand a hot dog to the first person in line.

  Mike grabbed Kate’s arm. “Do you see who it is?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Kate said. “It’s Jane, the girl who told us about Tabby when we came in today.”

  Mike and Kate waited for the line to disappear and then stepped up to the counter. Jane looked at Mike and Kate and then glanced at Kate’s L.A. Dodgers baseball hat. “Oh, hey, it’s you guys again,” she said. She pretended to swipe at them with her hand. “I hope you haven’t been attacked by any other fearsome cats since you came in the park. There sure are a lot of them around here.”

  Kate smiled. “No, no more problems,” she said. “But we were getting hungry.”

  Jane stepped back and motioned at all the food in the stand. “Well, you’ve come to the right place,” she said. “What do you want? I’ve got it all.”

  Mike’s eyes grew wide as they darted over all the options.

  “How about some apple slices?” Jane asked.

  “No,” Mike said.

  Jane held up a shiny blue bag. “Peanuts?” she asked.

  Mike shook his head. “No.”

  Jane smiled. “Watch out,” she said. “Three strikes, and you’re out! I’ll give you one more choice. How about a hot dog?”