Lupica explores rivalry in his new kids’ book

Mike Lupica’s new children’s book, “Summer Ball,” is the sequel to his bestseller “Travel Team.” The main character is Danny Walker, the smallest kid playing a big man’s game. Danny led his basketball travel team to the national championship. But now that he’s at the top, his competition is trying that much harder to knock him off. In “Summer Ball,” Danny goes to Right Way basketball camp with the country’s best players. Lupica, a sports columnist for the Daily News in New York City and a host on ESPN's “The Sports Reporters,” has also written several non-fiction books as well as some novels. Read an excerpt of his latest book:

Chapter One
Danny Walker said to his parents, “You know that growth spurt you guys have been promising me my whole life? When does that kick in, exactly?”

They were all sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast: Danny, his mom, his dad. Richie and Ali Walker were finally back together, after having been apart for way too much of Danny’s life, for reasons he always said he understood but didn’t.

None of that mattered to Danny now. The three of them having breakfast like this had become strictly regulation, instead of something that felt like it ought to be a family holiday.
Richie Walker put down his newspaper and said to his wife, “Which growth spurt do you think he’s talking about?”

Ali Walker, chin in her hand, frowning at the question, a real Mom pose if there ever was one, said, “It can only be the big one.”

“Oh,” Richie said, “the big one.”

“Not to be hurtful,” Danny’s mom said to his dad, “but it’s the growth spurt you never really had, dear. Whatever the nice people listing your height in the programs always had to say about you.”

“Came close,” he said.

Ali grinned. “Missed it by that much.”

Now Richie looked at his son. “And despite being the size that I am, I still managed to be All-State at Middletown High, get a scholarship out of here to Syracuse, get to be All-America there and become a lottery pick in the NBA.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Danny said.

“Excuse me?” his dad said.

“Kidding.”

There was no stopping his dad on this one. It was like he was driving to the basket. You just got out of the way.

“And,” Richie Walker said, “though my memory gets pretty fuzzy sometimes, I believe before I did all that, I was the point guard on the Middletown team that won the nationals in travel ball when I was twelve. Like another twelve-year-old I know.”

“I get it, Dad,” Danny said. “Seriously. I get it, okay? I know this act you and Mom like to do the way I know my Boy Meets World reruns.”

His best bud, Will Stoddard, had gotten Danny hooked on the show. Will knew more about television shows, old and new, than about any school subject he had ever taken in any grade with any teacher. Danny thought Will secretly wanted to be an actor someday; he might as well get paid for performing, since -he’d been doing it his whole life.

Ali said, “I thought Saved by the Bell was your fave.”

“I go back and forth.” Now Danny was the one grinning. He didn’t know if other kids liked just sitting around with their parents this way. But he never got tired of it.

“Hello?” Richie said. “I wasn’t quite finished.”

“Sorry, dear,” Ali said.

“Missing my own big growth spurt and never actually growing to the five-ten they always listed me at in those programs also didn’t prevent me from getting the girl.”

Girls.

It was the absolute, total, last thing on earth he wanted to talk about today. Or think about. Today or ever again, maybe.

One girl in particular, anyway.

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