INDIAN SOFTBALL SUMMER: or ""Kickapoos Never Say Good-Bye.

Met fan Rand is packed off to exotic Kansas for his summer vacation where -- in short order -- he is converted to slow pitch softball, weathers a tornado and learns to accept a Kickapoo Indian named Leaping Frog as a teammate. . . accept her first as a boy which it turns out (incredibly after an entire season of comradeship) she is not, and then again as a girl when Leaping Frog suits up for the State Tournament in a long deerskin dress (!). Leaping Frog plays well depiste her costume, but Rand is so muddled by an impulsive kiss that he misses an important play, loses the final game for his team and, presumably, will never quite recover his fanatical devotion to sports. Even readers who have no trouble forgiving Leaping Frog's deception will be convinced that anyone who breaks his concentration on a game for something as trivial as a kiss ought to be sent down to the minors. But then, the Lubell Leapers are about as Minor League as you can get.