The Mystery of Babe Ruth Baseball

Table of Contents

 

When Cam got to the door she told the guard, “You have to stop him!”

“What are you talking about?”

“That boy in the green jacket. He was there when a valuable baseball was stolen. The baseball was in the exhibit, and I'm sure that boy took it. That's why he's in such a rush to get out of here.”

“Just because he's leaving the hall doesn't mean he's a thief,” the guard said.

The boy in the green jacket turned and saw Cam talking to the guard. He started to run.

“Did you see that!” Eric said. “He saw us talking to you and he started to run.”

The boy ran around the corner of the building. He was out of sight.

“We'll never catch him now,” Cam said.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE YOUNG CAM JANSEN SERIES FOR YOUNGER READERS!

PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group,
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn, Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
First published in the United States of America by The Viking Press, 1982
Published by Puffin Books, 1991
Reissued 1998
This edition published by Puffin Books,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2004

Text copyright © David A. Adler, 1982

Illustrations copyright © Susanna Natti, 1982
All rights reserved

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE 1991 PUFFIN BOOKS EDITION
UNDER CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 90-53037

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-07598-2

 

 

RL: 2.7

To Bette and Simeon Guterman with love

It was a Sunday afternoon at the end of May. Cam Jansen and her friend Eric Shelton were in the local community center. A hobby show was being held there, and Cam's parents had brought their collection of circus posters.

Cam's father fixed his bow tie. He looked at his watch and said, “It's almost time.”

“You should go now, before you miss it,” Cam's mother added.

Cam and Eric rushed to the clock corner, where there were more than twenty cuckoo clocks hanging on the wall. It was almost four o‘clock. Cam and Eric waited. Then the noise started. When the minute hand of each clock reached twelve, a tiny door opened and a small wooden bird popped out. “Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo,” it chirped.

All the birds seemed to be coming out of all the clocks at once. People in the large room turned to look at the clocks. Many of them looked at their watches to see if it really was four o‘clock.

After the clock doors had closed, Cam and Eric looked at some of the other exhibits. They looked at needlepoint pillows, the Collins Coin Shop exhibit, a display of old toys, and at a large collection of baseball cards, yearbooks, and posters.

“Look here,” Eric said. “There's a whole section about Babe Ruth.”

There were a few Babe Ruth baseball cards, some photographs, a baseball the Babe had autographed, and a large poster of Babe Ruth hitting a home run. The poster also listed his record as a player.

“Test my memory,” Cam told Eric. “Ask me anything about Babe Ruth's playing record.”

Cam looked carefully at all the numbers on the poster. Then she closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”
Cam always says,
“Click,”
when she wants to remember something. When people ask her why, she points to her head and tells them, “This is a mental camera. Just like any camera, it goes
‘click'
when it takes a picture.”

“What was the Babe's real name?” Eric asked.

“George Herman Ruth,” Cam said with her eyes still closed.

“How many games did he play in 1924?”

“One hundred and fifty-three.”

Cam has what people call a photographic memory. Her mind takes a picture of whatever she sees. When she wants to remember something, even a detail such as how many games Babe Ruth played in any one year, she just looks at the photograph stored in her brain.

Cam's real name is Jennifer Jansen. But when people found out about her amazing memory, they called her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” was shortened to “Cam.”

“When did Babe Ruth get the most hits?” Eric asked.

“In 1923. He had two hundred and five hits that year. And he hit the most home runs in 1927. That's when he hit sixty,” Cam said, with her eyes still closed.

The owner of the collection was listening. He was an old man. He had a bushy white mustache, and he was wearing a baseball cap.

“You really know all about baseball,” the old man said.

Cam opened her eyes and said, “No, I don't. I just remember everything on that poster.”

Then Eric told him, “She has a mental camera. Why don't you test her?”

The old man picked up a box of baseball cards. “Take a card,” he called to the people around the exhibit. “We'll see how good this girl's memory
really
is.”

Two people reached into the box and took out a card. Cam looked at the people. Then she looked at the cards they were holding. She said,
“Click,”
and closed her eyes.

“What card am I holding?” a teenage boy wearing jeans and a bright green jacket asked.

“You're holding a Reggie Jackson card.”

“That's right,” the boy said. Then he looked at his card and asked, “How many doubles did he hit in 1977?”

“Thirty-nine.”

A girl with long brown hair, holding a large gym bag, asked, “What card am I holding? When was the player born and what's his middle name?”

“It's a Stan Musial card. He was born in 1920, on November twenty-first, and his full name is Stanley Frank Musial.”

“Amazing!” the man said as Cam opened her eyes. He told her that his name was Henry Baker, and he asked Cam and Eric if they could come back later. He wanted his wife to meet Cam and test her memory.

“Sure, I can come back,” Cam told him.

“Oh, good. Now let me show you my collection.”

Mr. Baker showed Cam and Eric his favorite baseball cards. He showed them cards of Billy Martin, Fernando Valen zuela, Ron Guidry, and Satchel Paige. After that, he led Cam and Eric to the Babe Ruth corner.