Fast Pitch

As the novel’s rising action continues, Shenice finds herself entangled in a complex web of history and generational challenges. When she tries to learn more about the history of the Negro Leagues in the United States, she finds that there are no “complete Negro League team rosters. There are websites that mention and handful of names—usually just the ‘top players’—but none with a year-by-year list of who was on what team” (77). Stone connects Shenice’s search for a specific type of Black history to the overarching challenges Black Americans often face when researching their roots. Because enslavers did not maintain accurate records of who was brought to the United States and when—and, at the time, did not feel it necessary to, because enslaved people were considered “property”—many stories became lost and would only be recoverable if an individual followed JonJon’s approach of recording their lives in some way. When Shenice questions whether the evidence of JonJon’s innocence exists, she more broadly questions the existence of evidence that Black Americans had a history that mattered enough to record. Since it can no longer be traced, families and later generations must fill in the gaps, such as Shenice does by investigating her great-grandfather’s innocence.

Shenice experiences an emotional growth spurt in this portion of the novel when faced with explicit displays of bigotry. After Coach Nat and Ms. Erica give their pep talks, Shenice steps in and lifts the team’s spirits, overcoming her personal challenges for the benefit of the team. When she looks back at the game, she states, “I played the best game I have in multiple seasons: four for four, with two doubles and three RBIs, and I threw not one, but two people out, including a player who was trying to steal third” (93). Her record on the field parallels her inner emotional state. When she does what she enjoys without considering the expectations everyone else places on her, Shenice plays effectively; when she burdens herself with others’ expectations, her skill decreases, and she cannot lead her team effectively. Part of what contributes to Shenice’s shift in Chapter 11 is the conversation she has with Scoob in Chapter 8, where she acknowledges that her game would have been off “even if she hadn’t been there [...] because of all the other stuff on my mind” (73). By speaking her problems into existence and confiding in another person, Shenice takes the first steps to grow and accept help from others, whereas she had previously tried to carry everything herself.

While many moments demonstrate the impact of the theme of Racism and Sexism in “Base-related Sports,” Chapter 12 examines a specific incident that highlights how impactful these biases are in the game. Instead of focusing, Shenice fixates on the lone Black player on the opposing team, wondering,

Do people mispronounce her name? Or say things like ‘Wow, you’re such a great softball player for a girl like you’? Do they touch her hair without permission or make comments about her edges when she sweats and they get frizzy? (106).

While these experiences are not exclusive to sports, Stone’s including these experiences illustrates the impacts of shared encounters with racism and sexism. Shenice further emphasizes this by wondering if “she ever felt like an outsider on her team” (106). The author uses Shenice to illustrate that while the United States has made strides in improving racial equality, it still has work to do. Black Americans and other people of color are still marginalized and treated as outsiders in some contexts. Stone raises awareness of these experiences by putting them in the spotlight in a context that a middle-grade audience can understand. Stone makes concepts like racism and sexism accessible to a younger audience by creating relatable characters who illustrate both the experiences of racism and sexism as well as how to cope with them and push back against injustice.