Maniac Magee Chapter 7 Summary

  • Jeffrey's next appearance is at the Little League field.
  • The game is over, but big John McNab hasn't gotten the message yet. He's set a Little League record by striking out sixteen batters in a row, and he's still going.
  • John McNab is something of a legend as well—he's only twelve, but five foot eight and a hundred and seventy pounds.
  • In other words, he's about the size of an average adult male.
  • He hit his record because the rest of the kids in Little League had no chance against his fastball.
  • McNab had extended his record to thirty-five straight strikeout by making the kids hanging out after the game get in line to take at-bats.
  • But wait! Kid thirty-six isn't cowering in fear like the rest. And he has a book. (Sound familiar?)
  • Jeffrey grabs a cap—so that he counts as a Little Leaguer—steps up to bat and hits a liner right at McNab's head. Literally blows his hat off.
  • You probably aren't surprised to hear that McNab isn't the type of kid to take this well.
  • He decides that he wasn't concentrating and threw a lollipop. But this time, he's going to throw some real heat.
  • Jeffrey wallops that real heat to deep left center.
  • McNab tries again. Jeffrey hits a homer.
  • And then? "Three more pitches. Three more home runs" (7.22).
  • McNab still isn't taking this well. Instead of trying to get the ball past Jeffrey, he tries to hit him.
  • Maniac ducks and darts and ends up hitting one aimed at his knees out to center field.
  • This strikes McNab as a good time for a pee break.
  • Several minutes later (the crowd figured it made perfect sense for a big kid to have a long pee), McNab's back.
  • He gets himself settled on the mound and fires another fastball at Jeffrey.
  • But wait—since when do baseballs have legs?
  • Since McNab threw Jeffrey a frogball.
  • Apparently Jeffrey agrees with us that trying to hit a frog for a homerun isn't very nice to the frog, so he bunts it and takes off for first base.
  • McNab certainly wasn't prepared to have to field a grounder, let alone a ground frog. Turns out that it isn't that easy to field a frog, and "that's how Jeffrey Magee knocked the word's first frogball for a four-bagger" (7.33).