Things Stay the Same All the Time, Things Change All the Time

From William Maxwell's The Folded Leaf (thanks Serge! 🤗), which is set in 1920's Illinois:

Since he was not any good at sports, the best Lymie could do was to efface himself. In gym class, on the days when they played outdoor baseball, he legged it out to right field and from that comparatively safe place watched the game. Few balls ever went out there and the center fielder knew that Lymie couldn't catch them if they did.

Sounds like the ol' "kid stands in right field begging that the ball wouldn't be hit to him" meme has been around for over a hundred years.

Meanwhile:

He stood apart from the others, a thin, flat-chested boy with dark hair that grew down in a widow's peak on his forehead

I've never heard of boys being flat-chested as today that's always used in reference to girls; if this was set in today's times I believe you'd use "bird-chested" instead.