Ballpark Mysteries #12: The Rangers Rustlers Read online

  Kate followed Mike as he ran. She dodged fans finding their seats until Mike stopped at the landing at the end of one of the aisles in the left-field corner. The nearby seats were filled with fans. Mike and Kate peeked over the railing that overlooked the outfield. Buddy and his horse were right below them!

  Mike took the coil of rope from Kate’s shoulder and handed it to her. “Quick,” he said. “Tie one of the special knots and start swinging the rope. To stop Buddy, all we have to do is lasso him!”

  Kate’s eyebrows tightened, and then a smile crossed her face. “That’s a great idea!” she said. “I can do that!”

  She uncoiled the rope and quickly tied a knot and made a lasso. A minute later, she had it whirling in circles over her head.

  Wuuuu…wuuuu…wuuuu…

  The rope circled faster and faster. Kate inched to the edge of the railing and looked down. Buddy was almost directly below her. She’d only have one chance to lasso him.

  Wuuuu…wuuuu….wuuuu…

  The fans nearby thought that Kate was part of Old West Night and started clapping. Mike’s freckled face turned red, and he backed away a bit. But Kate hardly noticed. She was too busy trying to get the throw right. She waited for Buddy’s horse to stand still.

  Wuuuu…wuuuu…wuuuu…

  SNAP!

  Kate flipped the rope forward.

  Mike ran to the railing to watch. The spinning circle of rope flew a few feet forward and then dropped down. Kate let the rest of the rope slip through her hands. She watched as the lasso fell toward the field. But it looked like it was too far back. It was going to hit the end of the horse, not Buddy!

  “Oh no!” she cried. But there was nothing she could do. The extra rope continued to slip through her hands. Kate wished she could do it over again.

  But just as the rope neared its target, the horse pranced backward a couple of steps!

  Instead of just hitting the back end of the horse, the lasso dropped almost perfectly over Buddy’s head and down around his arms and chest. Kate let out a little gasp.

  “Now!” Mike cried.

  Kate quickly pulled the rope taut! The fans watched as the lasso tightened around its target. All at once, a round of applause went up for cowgirl Kate!

  Down below, Buddy sputtered, “What in tarnation? What’s goin’ on here?”

  Mike stepped up to the railing and looked down at Buddy. Then he turned around and gave Kate a high five.

  “Way to go, cowgirl Kate!” he said. “You’ve nabbed your first rustler!”

  “Yee-haw!” Kate yelled.

  “Get this rope off me!” Buddy yelled from below. “I’m not a cow!”

  A few seconds later, a security guard came running up to Mike and Kate. “This isn’t a rodeo, miss,” he said. “That was some mighty fine roping, but you can’t do it here. Somebody could get hurt!”

  The security guard took the rope from Kate’s hand and looked down at Buddy. A second security guard had just run up next to him. She helped Buddy climb off his horse. Then she slipped the lasso off. The security guard near Mike and Kate coiled the rope back up.

  “We weren’t trying to hurt anyone,” Kate said. “But the man I lassoed is a rustler! He stole a whole truck of Texas Rangers shirts.”

  “That sounds a little like a Texas tall tale,” the security guard said. He radioed down to the guard next to Buddy. “We’ll have to straighten this out back at our office.”

  But as soon as Mike and Kate started to follow the security guard, they heard a ruckus from below. They raced back to the railing. Buddy was swinging his cowboy hat around, swatting it at the two security guards who were trying to take him back to the office.

  “Git your hands off me!” Buddy snapped. “I ain’t stolen nothing!”

  After a minute of wrestling, a third guard showed up and finally escorted Buddy off the field.

  The security guards led Mike, Kate, and Buddy back to their office. Mike and Kate had them call Ranger Jimmy. When he showed up, Mike and Kate told him all about Buddy’s warehouse of stolen goods.

  “Great work, y’all!” Jimmy said. “I’ll have the police check this out and take care of Buddy. Y’all should be gettin’ back to your seats. I’ll find you later on.”

  By the time Kate and Mike sat down, it was the third inning. The Rangers were ahead 3–0. It sure seemed like the Rangers wouldn’t need Kate’s help lassoing their rivals!

  Both the A’s and the Rangers scored a run in the sixth inning. In the eighth inning, the A’s had a chance to tie the game. They had the bases loaded, and their best batter was up. But instead of a home run, he hit a long, high pop fly that the Rangers right fielder easily caught to end the inning.

  A short while later, the Rangers won the game, 4–1. The fans clapped and cheered as the team ran off the field. After a few minutes, people started to leave. Mike and Kate waited in their seats as the other fans left. The stadium was nearly empty when Kate’s mother made it to their seats. She had a black messenger bag filled with work papers slung over her shoulder.

  “I hear you’re quite the cowgirl!” Mrs. Hopkins said to Kate as she gave her a hug. Mrs. Hopkins picked up the coil of rope. “Maybe when we get home you can teach me how to lasso someone to take out the trash.”

  Mike and Kate laughed. “I can teach you how to lasso,” Kate said. “But what you lasso will be up to you.”

  “Well, from what I heard, I think that Kate could lasso just about anything,” said a voice from behind them.

  It was Ranger Jimmy. He clasped his hands on Mike’s and Kate’s shoulders.

  Mike pointed to the seats near the first row. “We didn’t see you down there today,” he said. “We thought you’d be back after we saw you in the security office.”

  “I was in one of the suites upstairs,” Ranger Jimmy said. “Sometimes the former president sits up there with his friends.”

  “What happened to the cowboy that Kate lassoed?” Mrs. Hopkins asked. “And what about all the stuff that was stolen?”

  Jimmy smiled. “I have to say that Mike and Kate did an amazin’ job today. They cracked a case we’ve been workin’ on for months,” he said. “After the police found the stolen shirts in his warehouse, Buddy fessed up to everythin’. His gang of rustlers have been stealin’ trucks and moving the goods to different places. That is, until y’all came along.”

  “Does that mean I can get my shirt back?” Mike asked.

  Ranger Jimmy shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you wanted it, but we have to continue to hold on to it as evidence until the case goes to court.”

  Mike’s shoulders slumped. He nodded slowly. “Oh…okay, I get it,” he said. “I was hoping I could get it before we went home.”

  “I’m ’fraid we can’t do that,” Ranger Jimmy said. “But I talked with the owners of the team and told them how we took your shirt for evidence. And they came up with a good idea.”

  Ranger Jimmy reached into a bag he had set on the nearby seat. He pulled out two Texas Rangers jerseys and tossed one to Mike and one to Kate. “Since you helped the Texas Rangers—the officers of the law—catch the rustlers with a whole warehouse full of stolen goods, the Texas Rangers—the baseball club—came up with these special team jerseys for each of you!” he said.

  Mike and Kate held up their jerseys. They were just like the ones the players on the team wore. The word TEXAS was stitched in thick letters across the front of each shirt. And MIKE and KATE were written on the backs.

  “Wow! These are great,” Kate said. “Thank you so much!” She unbuttoned her Rangers jersey and put it on over her shirt.

  “That looks great on you,” Mrs. Hopkins said. “Maybe you can try out for the team!”

  “Thanks for the jersey,” Mike said to Jimmy. “It looks really neat. Can you sign it for me? You were going to sign my shirt before we knew that it was stolen.”

  Jimmy sighed and shook his head again. “I’m ’fraid I’m not going to do that, either, Mike,” he sa
id.

  Mike’s face darkened. “Why not?” He fished around in his back pocket and pulled out a black marker. “I’ve even got a marker with me.”

  Jimmy waved his hand at the marker and tipped his cowboy hat back. “Well, why don’t you hold on to that? I know someone else who’s really impressed with how you caught the rustlers,” he said with a smile.

  “What do you mean?” Kate asked. “Is it someone from the team?”

  “No, but I think it’s someone even more interestin’,” Jimmy said. “And after I told ’em what you two did, he couldn’t wait to meet you. If y’all come with me, the former president of the United States is waiting to sign your Rangers jerseys for you!”

  Dugout Notes

  The Texas

  Rangers’ Ballpark

  Long horns. The horns on longhorn cattle can be up to six feet wide! The cattle use the horns to protect themselves against predators like coyotes.

  Barbecue. Barbecue is a favorite Texas food. It is meat that is cooked over an open fire. Different types of wood can give the meat different flavors. Wood from a mesquite tree gives the meat a sweet and spicy flavor.

  Greene’s Hill. Greene’s Hill is a wide slope of grass behind the center-field wall. It looks like a nice place to have a picnic, but it’s there as a “batter’s eye.” A batter’s eye is something that is put behind the center fielder so that the batter won’t get distracted by movement or colors that might be in the background behind the pitcher. Batter’s eyes allow the hitter to see the ball better when it’s released by the pitcher.

  Statues. The Rangers’ ballpark has two big statues. One statue honors Nolan Ryan. Ryan was a famous Texas Rangers pitcher. He holds the record for most no-hitters in a career—seven. The other statue honors Tom Vandergriff, a former mayor of Arlington, Texas.

  Hall of Fame. The Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame, inside the stadium, has plaques of important Texas Rangers players, photographs, and other pieces of Texas Rangers history.

  Texas leaguer. A Texas leaguer is a blooper (or softly hit ball) that lands in between the infielders and outfielders for a single.

  Mini-stadium. About one block away from the Rangers’ ballpark is the Texas Rangers Youth Ballpark. It’s made for kids and even has a large seating area that looks like the inside of the Texas Rangers’ ballpark!

  Texas tidbits. The outside of the ballpark has thirty-five steer heads and twenty-one stars carved on its walls. Texas is called the Lone Star State because its state flag has a single star on it.