Baseball DIY

If you've been watching American Chopper lately (and if you haven't how can you call yourself an American?!), then you saw the Teutels build a wickedly cool chopper with a NY Yankees theme last night. It was all for charity and included a gas tank signed by the entire team and coaches - which raised a cool $150,000. It's a nice souvenir for some Yankees fan! I was impressed by how good it came out though and it was pretty neat seeing all the Yankees step up to plate and do what they could.

There are a couple of new books coming out from Penguin next year for young adult readers that have piqued my interest. Mike Lupica did the outstanding Travel Team last year and has returned with Heat about a Yankees fan who dreams of playing in the Little League World Series. It has a twist or two from a family drama standpoint and should be considered an easy choice for baseball fans. Lupica is a great writer and he clearly knows his audience.

I'm also looking forward to Sue Corbett's Free Baseball. In this title, Felix knows his father played ball in Cuba and gave up everything to send Felix to America. But he doesn't know anything else about his dad and ends up running away with a visiting team of Cuban players in order to learn more.

I'm hoping Free Baseball will touch a bit on the hypocrisy of US/Cuban relations. I'll report back in the Spring with how it turns out!