This question refers to the novel "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt.
In this text, we learn that the protagonist, Holling, does not appreciate his teacher, Mrs. Baker, much. Holling believes that she resents him for not being either Catholic or Jewish, like most other students.
However, in December, as the students prepare to perform a play, Holling learns to see a different side of Mrs. Baker. She decides to bring two baseball players to the school as a gift to her students: Joe Pepitone and Horace Clarke, two Yankees players. Mrs. Baker does not care about baseball. However, she cares about her students, and the fact that she arranged this meeting shows that not only does she not hate Holling, but that she values all of her students much more than Holling expected.