#90 Danger On The Diamond (32nd Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: May 1988
Publisher: Minstrel Books (1988-1996?)
Reading Level: 5.7
Author: Unknown as of October 2020

Plot:  Tony Prito is accused of causing mischief at a baseball camp that is being held by a number of former Major League Baseball players in Bayport, and Frank and Joe need to clear his name.

Review:  I remember first reading this book back around the spring of 1994.  I also remember checking it out from the school library, and reading it all in one night; it was my first Hardy Boys book that I read in one day.  I've re-read it a few times since then.  But in all my re-reads, and even now, something has bothered me with the book.  And I finally figured out what it was.  During this re-read, and I guess it's because I'm reading the series in order from The Tower Treasure to Motocross Madness rather than jumping all over, but a number of regular characters just act out of charcter in this book.  First you have Tony Prito who is being a clown in this book, and at one point even tap dances on home plate while catching balls that the coach is throwing (he's suppose to be seeing how many he can hit, but the author has him start to tap dance for some odd reason after missing a few balls) to try to get the rest of the camp to laugh.  Apparently Tony's also acquired a reputation as being the "class clown", even though this clowning around has never been brought up before (it feels more like this should be Chet as he's been shown to be the clown of the series going all the way back to the 1928 version of The Shore Road Mystery with the fish in Frank's desk joke). 

Also, with Tony we get the first inkling that he's no longer working for his dad's construction company, as there's a throwaway line about Tony needing to deliver pizza's.

Then you have Biff Hooper, who, while I get he's angry at Tony for goofing off, gets way to fed up that it's beyond the normal Biff.

And then Chief Collig, reading this in 2020, comes across more as Chief Olaf from the Hardy Boys Adventures who just barely tolerates the Hardy's, and in this book Collig seems to treat them more as nuisances and maybe 12 year-olds, than experienced investigator's and 17 & 18 year-olds. 

Con Riley makes a brief cameo and he's still got his promotion, as he's referred to as Detective Con Riley. 

And Bayport---in this book it seems to be the size of Ottawa, Canada!  The author has the Hardy's driving on parkways, overpasses, and a lot more shopping malls!  Really the Bayport in this book sounds a lot bigger than the Bayport that has 50,000 residents. 

Otherwise, it was an enjoyable mystery, but clearly the author, while getting Frank and Joe accurate, and this was the first book in the Original series where Phil Cohen was described as being an electronics wizard. 

As for the crime, it was interesting that it involved gambling.  I think you would hard pressed to see this crime used as the main crime in modern Hardy Boys books.  It might be a reason a crook gives for committing his crime in the newer books, but to actually have it as the main plot of the book---yeah I don't see it happening nowadays.

Rating: 7.0/10

[MacGyver]

 Of the various Hardy Boys Digests, I remember reading and liking Danger on the Diamond quite well! This is one that does still stand out some to me, perhaps because of the sports connection. I remember that Phil plays a pretty vital role in the book. And it's nice to have Phil, Tony and Biff all in the book, along with Chet.
   It seems like this would have been a natural one for Jerry Gilroy to make a cameo too.

[MacGyver]

On another note, that's really cool that you're reading the whole series in order. I would love to do that some time. Maybe if I ever get through reading all the other books I haven't read first...

[tomswift2002]

Chet wasn't in Diamond.

[MacGyver]

Oh, okay- my mistake. Thanks for the correction.