But this wasn’t official pitching now, not against Manny and Kel and Anthony. This was just pure fun, from his first pitch, which he _______ up there to Kel.

Manny was _______ for someone with a body shaped like a fire hydrant. Only Michael, of all his friends and teammates, knew about the dance classes he took.

The blond-haired kid didn’t like looking foolish, and even tried to convince the home plate ump that the dribbler he’d hit back to Michael had _______ off his foot first.

Father Montoya came and gave him the last _______.

“You should see the two of them eat my _______,” she said.

It was as if she had been waiting patiently for him to look over at her. As if she knew he would. As if they really did have some kind of mental _______ going.

Before Manny could answer, she said, “He works for the Bronx _______ president, Mr. Amorosa. I forget his exact job.”

“This time a fine young man from our borough mowed down a _______ criminal who had preyed on this sweet old woman standing next to me.”

And Mr. Minaya said he had talked to Mr. Gibbs, the ACS man, about maybe contacting the Little League in Havana, finding someone sympathetic to what Mr. Minaya called Michael’s “_______.”

Sixty for Mr. M, who always said he was never going to put a twelve-year-old pitcher’s arm in _______, was as much a magic number for him as eighty—as in miles per hour—was for Michael and Manny.

By the time he crossed the Macombs’ basketball courts, he could hear the PA music from inside. And could see people who had gotten caught in traffic or had just come late to the ballpark running for the _______.

That was when Officer McRae was still playing the part of what Carlos called “bad cop,” acting for all the world as if Carlos was going to be _______ as an adult.

Ramon, he said, had showed him the moves, how to _______ hold up two fingers, as though making an old-fashioned peace symbol, looking for the eye contact that meant somebody was interested.

They had decided to send him back to New York to see the Yankee team doctors and have an MRI, which would show whether he had done some _______ damage.

...his batting helmet, taking it off his head like he planned to slam-dunk the sucker. Michael thought: Do it. Because it would have meant an automatic _______.

“I just want to tell you I’m sorry I didn’t know about your _______sooner,” Mr. Kain said. “We want our best players on the field, not the sidelines.”

They’d reshaped the field so that the Clippers and Fordham Road could use the regular infield, just putting the bases closer together; and how they’d cut down the regular pitcher’s mound to make it _______ to Little League standards.

“Okay,” Manny said, “but let me do the talking.” Michael said, “What’s that supposed to mean?” “It means that you do not possess the ability to talk to girls in any sort of _______ manner.”

Michael knew Papi sure had been as a young man, could never think about escaping to America, the way others would later, the most _______ lately being the Yankee pitcher Ricardo Gonzalez.