46 pages • 1 hour read
Mike LupicaThe Batboy
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: The Role of the Batboy
Batboys originated in the Major Leagues during the early 1900s, and their role was problematic; at that time, baseball teams often hired people from marginalized backgrounds, fetishizing them and turning them into mascots. In an article titled “The Disturbing History of Baseball’s Mascots” (The Philadelphia Inquirer, 22 June 2014), sports journalist Frank Fitzpatrick discusses the Tigers’ batboy and mascot Ulysses Harrison, a Black man who endured considerable racism at the hands of the team. The Tigers called him “Li’l Rastus” and engaged in highly inappropriate behavior, such as rubbing his head for good luck. In Lupica’s novel, Brian does not face such dehumanization from the Tigers, but it is nonetheless important to note that the cultural history of the batboy is fraught with problematic details that complicate the history of Major League Baseball.
While popular culture often romanticizes the role of the batboy, Lupica counters such idealized depictions by inserting a more realistic description of the duties involved. As the narrative states, “Brian realized he’d never really understood as a fan what the job meant. The hours you had to put in every day—eight usually and sometimes nine” (16). Being a batboy is hard work and has much in common with being a domestic worker. Brian and Finn take a very down-to-earth approach to their many duties, as they are expected to clean the dugout, shine the players’ shoes, prepare the coffee, and perform a wide range of game-related roles, including collecting the bats, bringing new balls to the umpire, and capturing foul balls. Nevertheless, Brian remains ecstatic over “doing his dream job” (22), and throughout the novel, his enthusiasm for the sport of baseball takes center stage.
Historical Context: The Steroid Era and the Prevalence of Cheating in Baseball
The era of widespread steroid usage in baseball spans from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, and this trend was a poorly kept secret. However, the issue came to a head during the 1998 home run race when an Associated Press reporter named Steve Wilstein recognized a steroid cream in the locker of Mark McGwire, a prominent baseball player. Although McGwire later admitted to using steroids when he broke baseball’s home-run record in 1998, fans at the time villainized Wilstein for writing about it. In Lupica’s own account of the season, Summer of ’98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1999), there is notably no mention of steroids.
McGwire played first base for the St. Louis Cardinals, and in 1998, he and Sammy Sosa, an outfielder for the Cubs, were known as the two players who were trying to break Roger Maris’s single-season home-run record. (In 1961, Maris hit 61 home runs.) The shy McGwire and the outgoing Sosa captivated baseball fans and the general public alike, and their endeavor helped the sport of baseball regain the popular support it had lost when players and owners failed to agree on a labor contract, causing the 1994 season to be cut short and the World Series to be cancelled.
McGwire ended up breaking Maris’s record with 70 home runs. Within the context of The Batboy, Brian mentions McGwire, Sosa, and other notable players who either tested positive for steroids, admitted to steroid use, or were the target of a credible accusation. These players include the star shortstop/third baseman Alex Rodriguez, as well as the star outfield Barry Bonds, who broke McGwire’s record by hitting 73 home runs in 2001. Bonds then broke Hank Aaron’s all-time home-run record when he hit his 756th career home run in 2007. In the novel, Lupica uses Brian’s perspective to articulate one of the issues of the steroid era: the inflated statistics in the record books. As the narrative states, Brian understands that the steroid era “made a fine mess of the record books and of history, especially when it came to home runs” (117). For Brian, the steroid era corrupts the purity of baseball statistics. This issue becomes relevant to the novel because Brian’s hero, the fictitious player Hank Bishop, began his career for the Tigers as an MVP but was suspended twice for steroid use. His fraught history links the novel to the steroid era and creates an educational discussion for younger readers. Even so, Brian overlooks Hank’s steroid use and eagerly cheers him on throughout the novel. By the end of the story, Hank becomes a father figure and a positive role model for Brian.
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By Mike Lupica
