MMGM- The Right Call

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Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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Unleashing Readers

Greenwald, Tommy. The Right Call
April 15, 2025 by Amulet Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this companion to Dinged (2022), Rivals (2021) and Game Changer (2018) set in the same Walthorne community, Cal Klondike is a fifteen years old pitcher who has recently been making the news with his skills. His father, who has always been supportive, has become a little too intense, and Cal is feeling a lot of pressure. The book starts with information from a police scanner that a man has been attacked; we then flash back five months. Through local news articles, transcripts of Cal's meetings with a school counselor, Mr. Rashad, interviews, texts between Cal and his friend Luis, and poems that Cal writes, we see how the growing interest in his baseball career is making Cal dislike the sport more and more. He is glad to be doing well, and helping out his team, and enjoys perfecting his "slurve" (slow curve) ball with Luis, who is the team's catcher, but doesn't care for dealing with scouts or his father's increasingly volatile behavior towards Mr. Tedesco, the coach, or the umpires. After his father loses his temper with Cal for going to the batting cages at the fair with his friends, Cal has even less patience. Still, when he is pitching a crucial game, he ignores his body's hints and continues to pitch hard, partially tearing a muscle in his shoulder. He's out of the game two months, and has to spend time doing physical therapy. He's back in time for the fall season, but his father is increasingly worried about Cal's scholarship opportunities. During a game where Mr. Klondike thinks the umpire is unfair, he gets thrown out of the game for repeatedly arguing with the very level headed older umpire. It doesn't help that Mr. Tedesco has been ribbing the ump about his poor eyesight and age. After the game, there is an altercation in the parking lot, and Cal and his mother arrive just after Mr. Klondike has pushed the umpire, Mr. Goshen, who falls, hits his head, and is badly injured. The police get involved, Mr. Goshen is hospitalized, and has a long recovery. Cal quits playing as his father's legal case proceeds, but eventually connects with Mr. Goshen, who is a Vietnam vet who served during the Fall of Saigon, and makes peace with his father and baseball in general. 

While I find it harder to follow a story in a variety of formats (especially texts),  my students love this shorter, more varied form, and Mr. Greenwald has really perfected it. There is a lot of suspense and tension in the way the story is told, and it's a relief when Cal is able to see another perspective on his sport through Mr. Goshen's eyes. I was surprised at how much Luis' humor and support for his friend came through his texts! 

There's plenty of baseball descriptions for players and fans, and Greenwald's support of umpires and his concern for the growing number of altercations that they are dragged in to is fantastic to see. Carl Deuker (Night Hoops, Swagger, Golden Arm, Shadowed) has always been my go to for sports stories that include serious issues, but Greenwald is now right up there on my list of sports novels that are great choices for middle school and high school readers who have moved beyond the simple problems of Fred Bowen and Matt Christopher books and are willing to give serious thought to more complex ones. 

Myer's Monster is a book that is frequently used as a class novel; teachers love the social justice themes as well as the format that engages deeper levels of thinking. I'd love to see Greenwald's Walthorne books used in a similar way; they would certainly be a hit with the athletes in the classes.