The Winning Edge

The Odyssey Girls Softball League is back, and Traci Needlemeyer is stuck on the Stingrays - a team she calls a bunch of losers - until her new coach, Bart Rathbone, promises to teach her how to win, no matter what it takes. Suddenly the Stingrays can't lose, but Tom Riley notices strange things happening to their opponents: bugs in batting helmets, salt in the soft drinks, honey poured over the bats. Meanwhile Robyn Jacobs slugs the Coyotes into the championship game against Traci's team. With the score tied, Bart orders a runner to take Robyn out at second base... and the crash knocks her flat while Whit rushes onto the field. The Stingrays win, but Traci walks off the field rather than play Bart's way, and she brings Robyn the game ball signed by every player on both teams. Because as Whit reminds Robyn, the Coyotes only lost the game - only the game.

Found on Beyond Expectations Album 08 · 14 episodes

The run See every episode

0118 What Happened to the Silver Streak? When a prized model train engine vanishes from Whit's End, an amateur investigation puts a girl with a troubled past under suspicion - but the truth is harder to find than anyone expects.

0119 Better Late than Never A girl notorious for being late to everything gets one unforgettable night to discover just how much her habit could cost her.

0120 Pranks for the Memories Odyssey's self-proclaimed prank master is so sure no one can fool him that a simple act of kindness sends him spiraling into an elaborate counterattack of his own making.

0121 Missing Person When the town bully vanishes on the morning of the state fair, the search for him uncovers more than one secret - and puts his least likely rescuer on the trail.

1 of 2 0122 Castles and Cauldrons A summer visit from Jimmy's cousin Len turns unsettling when the "game" packed in his suitcase demands secrecy, incantations, and total trust.

2 of 2 0123 Castles and Cauldrons When Jimmy's out-of-town cousin introduces him to a fantasy role-playing game that demands ever-deeper commitment, the line between make-believe and something far darker begins to blur.

0124 The Winning Edge When a win-at-all-costs new coach takes over a girls' softball team, his hunger for a championship pushes two young friends on rival teams toward a collision neither of them wants.

0125 All's Well with Boswell Robyn's first babysitting job takes an unexpected turn when her charge turns out to be a giant, spoiled cat with a talent for chaos.

0126 Wishful Thinking When her little brother's constant pestering pushes her past her limit, a teenage girl makes a careless wish that shows her exactly what life would be like without him.

0127 Have You No Selpurcs? When a quiz at Whit's End exposes very different ideas about honesty, Mr. Whittaker invents a mysterious game called Selpurcs to teach two kids a lesson neither of them sees coming.

0128 One Bad Apple When several Odyssey children fall ill after eating at Whit's End, Whit and Tom Riley trace the trouble upstream to a source no one in town would ever have suspected.

0129 Not One of Us A young reporter's assignment on bigotry takes an unexpected turn when her search for people who've experienced discrimination leads her to a strange little town off the interstate.

1 of 2 0130 Bernard and Joseph While washing windows at Whit's End, Bernard Walton helps a boy fed up with his six siblings by recounting the story of Joseph, whose troubles with his own brothers make any family squabble look small.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 3 more roles

3 supporting roles

Coach Fred Zachary David Lipson Traci Needlemeyer Brooke Bellessi Umpire (b) Hal Smith

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Phil Lollar Writer · Director Dave Arnold Sound Designer · Producer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

The McAlister Recreation Center is packed the day the rosters for the Odyssey Girls Softball League go up, and John Avery Whittaker stops by to see what all the noise is about. As a board member of the Odyssey Parks and Recreation Department, he tells Tom Riley, he ought to know what is going on. Robyn Jacobs is thrilled to be back on the Coyotes with Coach Riley for a second year, playing second base and swinging a bat that Tom says only needs a little polishing. Traci Needlemeyer is less thrilled. She has been assigned to the Stingrays, a team she flatly calls a bunch of losers, and she cheers up only a little when Tom mentions that the Rays have a new coach this season.

The new coach turns out to be Bart Rathbone, and he has plans. He corners Traci at practice and tells her that hard work and talent and skill are all fine, but the thing that really separates winners from everybody else is thinking like a winner. Coach Riley has always told his players that doing their best and having fun matter more than the score, and Traci says so, but Bart brushes that aside. Having fun, he insists, does not get a player onto the front page of the sports section or hand her a championship trophy. He makes her repeat it out loud: she is going to win this game, no matter what it takes. Then he promises to teach her all the little tricks that give a team the advantage.

The season belongs to the Stingrays. Fred Zachary calls the games for Kids Radio, and Traci strikes out batter after batter as her team upsets the Mudhens and takes the Western Division. The Coyotes claim the East on a game-winning home run by Robyn, who is named Most Valuable Player and collects a triple thick chocolate malt at Whit's End. But Tom has been watching the Stingrays from a distance, and what he tells Whit is troubling: bugs in batting helmets, salt in the soft drinks, honey poured over the bats. None of it breaks a rule. All of it is meant to rattle the other team. That night Traci turns up at the Coyotes' party, says she only came to congratulate Robyn, and somehow Robyn's malt ends up all over her.

The playoff is tied three to three at the seventh inning stretch, with Whit up in the booth beside Fred. Bart, furious that Robyn is hitting and fielding better than he counted on, sends in a substitute with orders to steal second and take Jacobs out any way she can. Traci begs him not to. He tells her that is how the game is played. The collision at second base leaves Robyn on the ground and Whit off the air and out on the field.

Robyn is bruised but unhurt, her father Dale reports, and the Stingrays have won the game. Traci, who pulled herself out rather than finish it, comes to apologize, and Robyn forgives her. The gift Traci brings is the game ball, signed by every player on both teams, because even the winners know who really won. When Robyn protests that the Coyotes lost, Whit has an answer ready: only the game, Robyn. Only the game.