Fast Pitch

Stone uses the novel’s first three chapters to introduce the narrative arc, called the exposition. The author takes readers directly into Shenice’s perspective and presents the first primary conflict: the Fulton Firebirds chasing their league championship. When they lose the opening game, Shenice establishes the high stakes as she reflects on how “[a] team with a Black player—let alone an all-Black team—has never made it through the district tournament. Even making it to State would be huge: a message that girls like us do belong on the field” (8). The significance of the accomplishment and the observation of her team’s skin color initiate the theme of Racism and Sexism in “Base-related Sports.” Stone draws attention to a cultural issue—that people of color still do not hold equal standing in all spaces. She sets the novel’s tone by making the first chapter about how the Fulton Firebirds feel they must be better than—not simply as good as—their peers to prove they deserve their spot in baseball history.

The novel’s opening chapters also establish the characters’ starting points, preparing them for growth arcs throughout the narrative. Stone primarily explores the arc of the novel’s protagonist, Shenice Lockwood. Stone sets up Shenice as a serious player who has “been playing base-related ball—first tee, now soft—since the minute [she] could hold up a bat” (1). She not only takes the game seriously but also wants to serve her team well. In her role as team captain, she places the pressure on herself to “lead [the team] to victory,” but she asserts that she “clearly failed at that” (8). This establishes her overarching internal conflict—her struggle between being the best captain for her team and honoring her heritage and her duty to her ancestors by learning more about her great-grandfather JonJon’s past. Shenice starts the novel as a lone wolf and must internalize the theme of Teamwork and Effective Leadership to accomplish her goals. To grow as a person and succeed in her journey to clear JonJon’s name, she must learn the value of teamwork and how to lead her team effectively and internalize two other themes the novel makes its forefront.

Beyond the theme of teamwork and effective leadership, Stone also introduces two other themes: Racism and Sexism in “Base-related Sports” and Sports’ Connection to Personal and Familial Identity. Chapter 1 makes both themes apparent through how Shenice discusses varying aspects of her life and the game. When her team loses their first scrimmage, a match that does not matter for their district tournament record, Shenice carries the weight of that loss. Stone uses middle-grade level humor to cheer Shenice up by having her best friend joke about her “eyesight is ruined from the sun glistening off all that shiny golden hair” (9). Though the comment has humorous intent, it reveals the girls’ underlying understanding of the game and the other players—they all see that the majority of other players are white and each feels the significance of their team potentially winning the tournament. They each carry the generational trauma and United States history in which Black people were not welcome on the field. By placing this at the end of the first chapter, Stone progresses the narrative while leaving the systemic racism of the game in the reader’s mind.

Finally, Stone sets up the theme of Sports’ Connection to Personal and Familial Identity by characterizing Shenice as a baseball player “[just] like my daddy. And his daddy before him. And his daddy before him. It’s in my blood” (1). The connection between Shenice, her ancestors, and baseball develops and traces the significance of generational duty, accountability, and trauma. Her family’s history with the game plays a significant role in the theme and Shenice’s character arc; when she later discovers the possibility that someone erased her family’s history with baseball, she becomes aware that her connection to the game can be erased.