Story #10: "The Knuckleball Artist" (Chapter 27)

The small print, the sweetest little bark, a kitten, trophies, a barber's chair, and a $500 small claims limit.

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CHAPTER 27

A Small Claims Court Judge

After all the hullabaloo and Cracker Jack, Reginald returned from Yankee Stadium and slow-walked out to the mound.

Phineas dug into his back pocket and handed his coach his tattered rule book.

The kid was practically tickling himself. He was giddy.

“5.09(2)(b)!”

Reginald had barely started reading from section 509, when Pinball fired up on all cylinders out in right.

“When a runner abandons their position and the base paths, they shall…”

He sounded like Moses out there.

Reginald picked up where Pinball left off, no further along understanding any of this, but he read out loud where Phineas was stabbing away like a woodpecker.

“… be ruled out…” Reginald continued.

“Now… right there… Subsection 2,” Phineas chimed in. “Read that.”

Reginald: “unless there is a mitigating circumstance…”

Phineas couldn’t wait for Reginald to sort it out. He butted in. “Like, say, for example, a three-legged greyhound happened to run ou…