Luke Goes to Bat

Whenever the Dodgers play in Brooklyn, Luke goes up to his roof where he can see the lights of Ebbets Field and imagine each play in the game. Someday he wants to hit a homerun like his hero, Jackie Robinson. But the kids on Bedford Avenue won’t let him play. “You’re just a squirt,” they tell him. When he finally does get to play stickball with the others, he does so badly that he thinks they’ll never let him play again. But then his grandma takes him to see Jackie in a real game, and Luke discovers that part of being a hero is never giving up, even when there are two strikes against you and the game seems out of reach. Rachel Isadora offers up a touching salute to 1950s Brooklyn, baseball, and one of the most inspiring players ever to take the field.