The bases were loaded with two out in the ninth.
Of course, any inning could've been the ninth,
since there were only three guys on each team,
and if someone's mother called him home
they didn't have enough kids left to play.

The whole game rested on Kevin Cline.
It didn't rest on Billy Balinski anymore;
he stood behind home plate hating Mrs. Hobson
for causing him to make an out.
If her backyard hadn't been there,
he would have just hit a foul,
but since it took so long
to walk around and go through Mrs. Hobson's gate,
it was an out if you hit it in her yard,
and Billy didn't get another chance.
So instead of being the hero,
Billy had to catch.

Kevin Cline swung at the ball
like he was trying to kill it,
knocking at a whole four feet,
and Mike Maloney came running off the mound like crazy,
making a mad dive for the ball,
because if he got it
before Kevin reached first base,
then Kevin would be out.
But Kevin said it was headed towards foul territory,
so it didn't matter.
All the guys came in from the outfield
and were all yelling
about how Kevin should've been out,
and all the guys on Kevin's team
were all yelling about how he was safe.
It was finally decided that he was safe,
since everybody on Kevin's team
said they'd go home if he weren't.

So all the ghost runners
went back to where they were,
the guys went back outfield,
and Kevin went back to try again.
He waited and waited
and didn't swing at four or five balls,
and when everybody was getting really mad,
he finally hit one Randy Anderson
really thought he could catch,
but he missed it anyway,
and the ball went into Mr. Ballow's garden,