The Batboy

As Hank’s surly attitude continues, it is clear that he is having trouble Accepting Disappointments and Major Life Changes. However, Lupica balances the baseball player’s bad attitude with a few wistfully positive notes, especially when Schenkel hopes that Hank may eventually abandon his curmudgeonly façade. As Schenkel tells Brian, “I keep thinking the kid I used to know must still be inside him somewhere, but I’ll be doggoned if I’ve been able to find him” (91). His statement combines his hopes for the man Hank used to be with his morose acknowledgement that Hank’s current outlook makes him a very different person. Additionally, Finn’s provides a clearly negative opinion of Hank’s capacity for change, and by humorously calling Hank “the Crank,” he adds a schoolboy’s whimsical yet perceptive outlook on the issue. In reality, Hank exhibits both positive and negative signs, for although his harsh treatment of Brian reinforces Finn’s belief that Hank is toxic, the warmth that Hank shows Brian when Liz is there suggests that Hank still holds hidden vestiges of the sincere, friendly “kid” he used to be. Lupica therefore suggests that Brian and Liz’s positive influence can bring Hank’s better qualities back to the surface.

In the midst of this progress, The Omnipresent Influence of Baseball reveals its negative side as both Hank and Brian experience hitting slumps. Even Kenny suggests that Brian is “a little burned out,” adding, “Maybe even you can’t eat, sleep, and drink baseball every single hour of every single day of your whole life” (128). This comment drives home the point that Brian’s passion for baseball is becoming excessive and has detrimental effects on his well-being and is even preventing him from excelling. The implication is that if Brian were to take a break from baseball, he might reverse his slump. Just as Brian is having difficulties, Hank, too, sees the unfavorable consequences of existing entirely in the baseball world. His kind attitude toward Liz in Chapter 14 also suggests a romantic attraction and an awareness that because Liz is not enthralled with baseball, she can offer Hank a fresh perspective on life.

Thus, Liz continues to function as a character that represents a life beyond baseball—both for Brian and for Hank. However, her lack of regard for baseball’s omnipresence upsets Brian, who criticizes her initially negative attitude about his ambitions to become a batboy. As Brian resentfully tells her, “[W]hen I first got this job, you sounded like you’d rather have me be a bag boy in a supermarket than a batboy for the Tigers” (108-09). Ironically, however, Brian also becomes upset when Liz gradually starts to show a greater interest in baseball, thereby encroaching upon the world he has built for himself. When she begins to show a romantic interest in Hank, she brings a different perspective to his baseball-laden existence, and her presence in that world implicitly threatens the independence he has gained for himself.

To reinforce the novel’s sense of verisimilitude, Lupica deliberately mentions nonfiction baseball figures alongside his own fictitious characters. For example, the author has Hall-of-Fame catcher and former announcer Tim McCarver say, “[G]etting a fastball past Hank Bishop was like getting table scraps past a hungry dog” (116). By linking Hank to McCarver, Lupica creates a sense of the former’s authenticity and reinforces his imaginary place in the greater baseball world. The simile also reveals the difference between Hank’s previous skills and his current performance, as these days, it is entirely possible for pitchers to get fastballs past him. Similarly, the comparison between Hank and a “hungry dog” indicates that he has several off-putting personality quirks that cause people to remain wary around him.

Significantly, Lupica also uses the story to insert a deeper commentary about the unethical issues that were brought to the forefront during the steroid era of baseball. As the narrative states, “[I]t was the record books, the stats, that connected one era to another […] And Brian knew that what was now called the ‘steroid era,’ the era that pretty much took up his whole life, had made a fine mess of the record book” (117). In this passage, Lupica explicitly condemns certain players’ use of performance-enhancing drugs, asserting that their resulting performances injected skewed information into the long history of baseball statistics, ruining honest comparisons between different eras forever. As Brian himself opines, baseball players from different time frames are connected through their career statistics. However, the novel makes it a point to explain to young readers that the prevalence of steroids in the 1990s and early 2000s disrupted the data. This issue is fully illustrated when Brian agonizes over which baseball stats are “real” and which accomplishments were only achieved with the help of performance-enhancing drugs. For Brian, steroids have permanently compromised the very language of baseball, and like other fans, he views the steroid era as an aberration from the essential honesty of the game.