# Identify these juvenile sports series!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-juvenile-sports-series/407213>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 8, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-juvenile-sports-series/407213 "2007-06-08T02:30:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-juvenile-sports-series/407213/1 "2007-06-08T02:30:55Z")

</div>

Please help me remember some of these juvenile sports series I read back in the 1970s. Some may date from the 1960s or even 1950s.

1. A series featuring an athlete called Bud Baker.

2. A series featuring a pitcher called, “Lefty.”

3. A series with different characters, usually a “story with a meaning.” For example, I remember one called Crackerjack Halfback about a kid who wasn’t a good football player, but he helped his coach when they were in an auto wreck.  
Do they even write juvenile sports stories any longer?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-juvenile-sports-series/407213/2 "2007-06-08T03:59:11Z")

</div>

#3 sounds like a Matt Christopher book. I think I read all of his books when I was a kid.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-juvenile-sports-series/407213/3 "2007-06-08T04:15:20Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Kid\_A]  
#3 sounds like a Matt Christopher book.  
[/QUOTE]

You’re correct. [This page](http://www.amazon.com/Crackerjack-Halfback-Christopher-Sports-Classics/dp/0613005635) features a list of other Christopher titles. Matt also wrote [_Little Lefty_,](http://www.amazon.com/Little-Lefty-Christopher-Sports-Classics/dp/0316141003) for what that’s worth.

C. Paul Jackson wrote at least two Bud Baker books – one in which the hero was a high school pitcher, as well as one in which he was a “T quarterback” (as in the T formation of American football).