‘Get ready, Freddy!’ he yells. ‘Head down!’

Maine’s District 3 is so large that it is split in two. The Penobscot County teams make up half the division; the teams from Aroostook and Washington counties make up the other half. Ail-Star kids are selected by merit and drawn from all existing district Little League teams. The dozen teams in District 3 play in simultaneous tournaments. Near the end of July, the two teams left will play off, best two out of three, to decide the district champ. That team represents District 3 in State Championship play, and it has been a long time – eighteen years – since a Bangor team made it into the state tourney. This year, the State Championship games will be played in Old Town, where they make the canoes. Four of the five teams that play there will go back home. The fifth will go on to represent Maine in the Eastern Regional Tournament, this year to be held in Bristol, Connecticut. Beyond that, of course, is Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where the Little League World Series happens. The Bangor West players rarely seem to think of such dizzy heights; they will be happy just to beat Millinocket, their first-round opponent in the Penobscot County race. Coaches, however, are allowed to dream – are, in fact, almost obligated to dream.

This time Fred, who is the team joker, does get his head down. He hits a weak grounder on the wrong side of the first-base line, foul by about six feet.

‘Look,’ St. Pierre says, taking another ball. He holds it up. It is scuffed, dirty, and grass-stained.

It is nevertheless a baseball, and Fred eyes it respectfully. ‘I’m going to show you a-trick. Where’s the ball?’

‘In your hand,’ Fred says.

Saint, as Dave Mansfield, the team’s head coach, calls him, drops it into his glove. ‘Now?’