The Big Field was another great sports novel by Mike Lupica. It takes place in present-day Florida. The main characters are 2 star baseball players and one father. They are Hutch, Darryl or “D-Will”, and Hutch’s father. Hutch had always been the star player who controlled the infield at shortstop, but on his legion team. They had the supposedly next Alex Rodriguez named Darryl. Darryl took over at shortstop, but with this and Hutch having trouble with never understanding his dad. What would come for Hutch?

It was the sectional championship; Hutch’s team was winning by one run, but the other team had the bases loaded with 2 outs and their best batter was up. Paul threw the pitch. It was hit, Hutch ran to 2nd while Darryl gathered the ball. Darryl threw it to Hutch to get the out at 2nd. Hutch looked over to see if he could turn a double play and he saw that he could. He threw it as hard as he could to first and saw the umpire signal, “Out!” The Cardinals had just won the sectional championship. They were now advancing to regionals.

Hutch and the team cheered; well everybody but Darryl. Darryl acted as if this was nothing and he had done it all before. He just went and changed into his shoes from his cleats. Now Hutch looked up to the bleachers, he saw his mom, but his dad was nowhere in sight. Hutch assumed his dad was at work because that is what he always does. He has too jobs and works the whole day almost every single day.

A few days later, they had practice for the regional championship. It seemed as if it was a normal day, but when Hutch and his best friend cod showed up to practice. He saw his dad showing Darryl some stuff about how to field ground balls. Hutch becomes extremely mad because his dad had never done that with him. Then Hutch’s team’s coach ask Hutch’s dad to come help the infielders in case they do something wrong. When Hutch’s dad gets out there, he keeps helping Darryl at shortstop and will not help Hutch. Darryl starts to tease Hutch about it by saying stuff to make Hutch mad. Then Hutch finally cracks and goes and tackles Darryl. The players and the coach run over and pull Hutch off of Darryl. While Hutch was getting off, Darryl says to him, “You got your shot. Mine is next!” Finally their coach suspends Hutch for the Regional championship. Would Hutch’s move cost his team the chance of playing at Roger Dean Jr. Stadium for the state championship?

The theme of The Big Field is that through struggles, you can still succeed. Everybody said that Hutch’s team was too young to win the league. Most people said they couldn’t beat some of the state’s top 17 year old teams and win it all. Even through all of this, they worked through it and won it all.

The Big Field is used to describe Roger Dean Jr. Stadium. It is called Big Field because of all of the big chances they have playing there. They have a chance at winning it all or going home as losers. What would the outcome be?
The Big Field is a great sports book. It is a book that will make you want to keep reading and wanting to know what will happen next. There is very unique set of characters with a wide variety of personalities. I would recommend this book to everyone who likes baseball and sports in general.