40 Fun Facts About The Big Field

In The Big Field, which position does Hutch move to when Darryl Williams takes over at shortstop?

Second base is where Hutch lands, and the shuffle pushes his best friend from the infield to the outfield. Hutch still thinks like a shortstop, which causes trouble later.

Hutch wears number 2 in The Big Field to honour which star shortstop, his baseball hero?

Derek Jeter is the model for everything Hutch does on a diamond. After Hutch's game-saving play in the finals, a local newspaper even dubs him Jeter Junior.

Which famous 2001 playoff play by his baseball hero does Hutch rewatch and later copy in The Big Field?

The Flip saw the shortstop relay an off-line throw to his catcher to cut down a runner at the plate. Hutch makes the same play to save game two of the finals.

Which real Florida ballpark hosts the state finals Hutch's Cardinals chase in The Big Field?

Roger Dean Stadium is the big field of the title. Hutch and his best friend used to buy $10 tickets to sit on the grass beyond its outfield.

In the deciding game of The Big Field, what does Hutch's father signal him to do at bat?

Bunt for a hit is the surprise call: his father drops his hands in the crowd, and Hutch pushes one toward third and reaches safely. The next batter wins the title.

How does Darryl Williams win the deciding game of the state finals for the Cardinals in The Big Field?

A home run in the bottom of the ninth ends a tied game and the series. Moments earlier Hutch had reached safely on his father's advice.

After the Cardinals celebrate their state title in The Big Field, Hutch climbs into the stands to do what?

Hug his dad is all he wants: the embrace ends a summer in which father and son barely spoke about the game they both love.

Hutch's mother in The Big Field, born Consuela Valentin, came to Florida from where?

Puerto Rico is where Connie, as everyone now calls her, is from. Hutch gets his dark eyes from her and his baseball from his father.

Which Cardinals right fielder has been Hutch's wisecracking best friend since they were five in The Big Field?

Cody Hester is more like a brother to Hutch than a friend. He lost his own infield spot in the reshuffle that made room for Darryl Williams.

Every Cardinal except Darryl Williams backs Hutch for which role early in The Big Field?

Team captain is the job, decided by a vote after batting practice. The lone holdout soon turns the title into a taunt.

Hutch is the nickname of the 14-year-old hero of The Big Field; what is his real first name?

Keith Hutchinson is his full name. The nickname comes from a surname he shares with a father once billed as a can't-miss prospect.

Hutch's Post 226 Cardinals in The Big Field represent which South Florida city, their home town?

Boynton Beach is where the Cardinals come from. The win that opens the book, which sends them on to the regionals, is played in Lantana.

The spring-training ballpark that gives The Big Field its title stands in which Florida town?

Jupiter is the town, and two major league clubs train at its ballpark each spring. Playing there, on television, is the dream that drives Hutch's whole team.

The stadium Hutch dreams of in The Big Field is the spring home of the St. Louis Cardinals and which other club?

Miami Marlins has been the club's name since 2012; when the novel appeared they were the Florida Marlins, the team Hutch follows on his bedroom radio.

Hutch's father in The Big Field climbed as high as Triple-A in which major league club's farm system?

Minnesota Twins affiliates were as far as he got. He had also played in the Braves system, and by 24 his career was over.

Besides driving airport passengers for a limousine firm, how does Hutch's father earn a living in The Big Field?

Caddying at a golf club, Emerald Dunes, fills his days. Before that he sold cars, tried landscaping and ran a snack truck.

How does Hutch's father usually watch baseball games on television at home in The Big Field?

With the sound off, and a beer in hand, he sits through games in silence. Hutch aches to talk baseball with him but rarely dares.

Before his father admits he was simply not good enough, what does Hutch think ended the man's career in The Big Field?

An arm injury was the story Hutch grew up with. In the car after the practice blow-up, his father says the truth broke him, and that he fears the same for his son.

Which former Red Sox minor league pitcher manages Hutch's Cardinals in The Big Field?

Ken Cullen threw only in the 80s, so he came home to Florida and went into business. His TV adverts have made him a local celebrity.

Why is Hutch suspended for the game that decides whether his Cardinals reach the state finals in The Big Field?

Fighting a teammate costs him the game: he goes for Darryl at practice after a taunt about which of them Hutch's father prefers.

Suspended for a must-win game in The Big Field, Hutch still helps his Cardinals to victory in which role?

Bench coach Hutch spots a gap and moves a fielder to shut down a rally. Later he tells Darryl what the pitcher is planning, and Darryl delivers the winning hit.

Which team do Hutch's Cardinals meet in the three-game state finals of The Big Field?

Orlando Astros pitching is led by a hard thrower nicknamed The Rocket, and the series goes the full three games.

After Hutch's finals error in The Big Field, his manager cites which Red Sox player's World Series miscue?

Bill Buckner let Mookie Wilson's slow roller get through his legs in 1986. The manager's point is that plenty had to go wrong for Boston before that ball was hit.

Darryl Williams is billed in The Big Field as the best ballplayer out of Florida since which superstar?

Alex Rodriguez is the yardstick. People already hand Darryl free shoes and sunglasses, hoping he remembers them once he reaches the majors.

Which St. Louis shortstop, famed for acrobatic defence, is on a poster in Hutch's bedroom in The Big Field?

Ozzie Smith won 13 Gold Gloves in a row at the position. Hutch's wall is a shrine to shortstops, which is why giving up the job hurts so much.

Driving to a game in The Big Field, the Cardinals pass a children's hospital named for which Yankees great?

Joe DiMaggio gives the hospital its name. Hutch's father, though, insists that Giants outfielder Willie Mays was the better player.

After his pitching career stalled, the Cardinals' manager in The Big Field built which kind of Florida business?

A real estate company made him comfortable, and unlike Hutch's father he came away from the game without bitterness.

Hutch hopes baseball will win him a place at the Hun School, a boarding school in which state, in The Big Field?

New Jersey is the goal: the Hun School is in Princeton, and Hutch believes his best chance of getting there is as a shortstop.

How does Darryl Williams get to practice in The Big Field when his mother's friend fails to give him a ride?

By bus, and he still turns up late. The manager believes his story and simply makes him wait his turn in batting practice.

In The Big Field, Hutch has thrown alone against what since he was eight, hoping his father would join in?

A pitchback, the sprung net that returns the ball, stood in for a partner. Every night he hoped his father would come out and play catch.

Hiding behind a palm tree late in The Big Field, Hutch secretly watches his father doing what?

Hitting in a batting cage, his father smiles and dares the machine to throw harder. Hutch feels they are sharing the game at last, though his father never knows he is there.

Mike Lupica, author of The Big Field, joined which newspaper in 1977 and became its star sports columnist?

New York Daily News readers got his weekday sports columns plus a signature Sunday column that ended in a run of short, sharp observations.

Which 2004 basketball bestseller was the first novel for young readers by Mike Lupica, author of The Big Field?

Travel Team follows Danny Walker, cut for being too short, whose father builds a rival squad. Kirkus found the same father-son heart in The Big Field.

Before The Big Field, which Mike Lupica novel followed Bronx pitcher Michael Arroyo to Yankee Stadium?

Heat centres on a 12-year-old Cuban-born pitcher who throws so hard that rival coaches question his age.

Mike Lupica, author of The Big Field, later continued the Jesse Stone novels of which crime writer?

Robert B. Parker's estate picked him, a longtime friend of the late novelist, and he has since written new Spenser mysteries as well.

The 2001 playoff play Hutch studies in The Big Field came with his hero's team down two games to which club?

Oakland Athletics runner Jeremy Giambi was thrown out at the plate to protect a 1–0 lead, and Oakland went on to lose the series from two games up.

In The Big Field, the manager admits lifting a finals pep talk from which hockey film?

Miracle, the 2004 film about the United States' 1980 Olympic win over the Soviets, supplied the speech. Hutch's best friend is the one who spots the borrowing.

From which narrative point of view, staying close to Hutch's thoughts, is The Big Field told?

Third person narration sticks so closely to Hutch that the opening chapter lets readers assume he is still the shortstop, until someone else makes the play.

During a drill in The Big Field, what does Darryl Williams do that gets Hutch flattened by a runner?

Holds on to the ball, smiling, instead of feeding Hutch for the double play. Hutch lands hard on his shoulder, and Darryl offers only a mocking apology.

In The Big Field, Hutch's father once led his boyhood team to which televised youth baseball tournament?

Little League World Series cameras from ABC caught him at his peak, and announcers called him a sure thing. His team lost, but Hutch still watches the tape.