A Ted Wilford Mystery, no. 11 - The Baseball Mystery

Up until this point, I have more or less enjoyed the Ted Wilford series.  While I'm not much of a fan of the "boys' mystery series" books, since first buying these reprints of the series written by Norvin Pallas, I have been pleasantly surprised by how good the books have been.  While not full of danger and adventure like the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys series, the mysteries have been more cerebral, and the fun has been in following along with Ted and Nelson as they methodically follow up on clues and use their brains to unravel the truth.  But this eleventh mystery in the series left me feeling a bit let down.

The Baseball Mystery gave me the impression that Pallas was more interesting in writing a baseball story than a mystery.  There's very little mystery and more of Ted and Nelson trying to manage the statewide baseball tournament that is being held in their small hometown of Forestdale.  Between scheduling the games, arranging accommodations for all of the players of the various teams, setting up people for intake, tracking the scores, and taking photographs, Ted and his best friend are left very little time for anything else.  Especially when there are problems that arise that must be handled with delicate care so as to not offend anyone and give Forestdale a bad name.  

The small mystery that comes in to play starts with a break-in at the headquarters for Ted's team of workers.  Nothing is stolen, leaving Ted to wonder exactly what it was someone was looking for.  Then a couple of kids break the window to the local jewelry store, and once again, nothing is taken.  After that, a model airplane is stolen from a small show that takes place during the baseball tournament.  Everyone is convinced that some of the young men who have come to town to play ball are behind all of these crimes, but Ted isn't quite ready to blame the baseball players.  He thinks something else may be going on.  Of course, he has next to no time to really think about it or investigate, because all of his attention is spent monitoring the baseball games, ensuring all of the players have accommodations, and that complaints are handled quickly and efficiently.

For anyone who ever wanted to learn everything about baseball, this book is it.  Either Pallas was well-versed with the game and how it is scored and how the players' averages are determined, or he did considerable research - because he writes about all of it in excruciating detail in this story, making it somewhat difficult to read at times.  I'll be honest and admit that I skimmed over some of the pages when Nelson starts explaining how the averaging works for the various player positions.  I did not see how it was important to the story, and quite frankly, it wasn't.  Yes, the mystery was ultimately revealed to be about some men who were gambling, placing bets on the game and trying to control the outcome of the games in order to make more money - but the overly detailed facts about baseball where not truly necessary in order to enjoy the story.  I have to wonder if perhaps that was used as filler, in order to pad out the story to fill the page count.

Ken Kutler does make a brief appearance in the story, although it seems for no other purpose than to push Ted into suspecting the whole gambling side of things.  Margaret shows up in a scene or two as one of the people helping Ted check in the baseball players as they arrive in town.  Ted's mother is on hand to help house and feed a couple of the baseball players, and even Mr. Dobson, whose newspaper is the one that petitioned to have the baseball tournament held in Forestdale, is barely in the story.  It seems the entire supporting cast has been pushed aside to focus on the baseball (which is why, you'll notice, my post here is focusing on the baseball element of this book - I figure if the book can do it, then so can I!).

I will give Pallas some credit here - he does introduce two young boys that stay at the Wilford house, Larry Dodge and Cal Farmington, who manage to make their presence known throughout the story and play a part in the final revelation about the gambling element.  These two boys are rather likable, and it's almost a shame they won't be sticking around to be regular members of the supporting cast.

Not much else I can really say about this book, other than the fact that I'm glad it's behind me, and I can only hope the next book in the series will be better than this one.

RATING:  5 perfect little bunts down third out of 10 for at least changing things up a bit and not writing the same old mystery plot in each book.