A High Five for Glenn Burke

Silas is at his baseball game. His team is called the Renegades. Silas and his teammates in the dugout call out encouraging words to their teammates on the pitch, while also heckling the opposing team players. Silas leads these chants; he and his teammates imitate animals like monkeys, fish, and cats to taunt the other team and keep their own players “loose and fired up” (13). Glenn Burke also used to have an affinity for leading such chants for the Los Angeles Dodgers. One of Silas’s coaches, Coach Webb, does not like it when the Renegades taunt other teams.

Silas does not go to school with any of his teammates, so they do not know about his presentation on Glenn Burke. There is something else about Glenn Burke that Silas knows and wants to tell his best friend Zoey, but he has not done so yet. The Renegades win their game.

Silas is at home in his bedroom. His mother Erica comes into his room. She is exhausted and overworked; she recently opened a coffee shop and performance space and has been working practically non-stop ever since. Erica asks Silas how his presentation at school went, though it happened three days ago.

Before she can ask more about it, Silas’s four-year-old sister, Semaj, runs into the room, followed by Gil, their father. Semaj screams, and Erica scolds Gil for encouraging her. Silas’s other sister, Haley, starts to do cartwheels in the hallway to distract her parents from their argument. Gil calls Silas “Swade,” a nickname that Silas hates. Erica reminds Gil to pick up Semaj’s medication tomorrow. Silas cannot remember the last time he heard his parents talk about anything besides daily logistics and work.

Zoey’s older sister Grace drives Silas to his baseball practice. Zoey is also in the car; afterwards Grace will drop her at her robotics club. Grace works at the local theater, which is putting on a production of Bye Bye Birdie. Silas is wearing his baseball uniform “inside out, backward, and upside down” (25), with his pants over his head and his jersey over his legs. He explains to Grace and Zoey that Glenn Burke used to do things like this when he played for the Dodgers.

Silas wears the number three on his baseball uniform, just like Burke did, but he originally chose the number three because “Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez wore number three when he played for the Dodgers in The Sandlot” (27), his favorite movie. Silas tells Grace and Zoey that The Sandlot made a mistake: It depicts characters giving high fives, even though it is set in 1962, 15 years before Burke invented them. Grace and Zoey wish Silas luck with his prank.

Silas hides until he can see that all of his teammates and coaches have arrived for practice. He tells himself that tomorrow is the day that he is going to tell Zoey the secret he has been keeping. When all of his teammates have arrived, Silas runs onto the field in his inside out upside down and backwards uniform. He also has his cleats on his hands. All of Silas’s teammates and coaches laugh in delight. When Webb gives him a gentle push, Silas falls over dramatically. He loves making his teammates laugh.

When practice starts, Silas puts his uniform on properly. He and his teammate Malik do their stretches together. Malik catches Silas staring at him. Silas dodges his questions by goofing off. Silas has feelings for him. After stretches, Coach Webb gathers the team and gives them a pep talk about their upcoming game. He also tells them about some changes he wants to make. If players have to miss a game or practice, they have to call Webb themselves, rather than having their parents call. Coach Noles, one of the assistant coaches, questions Webb about this decision. Silas is uncomfortable with the power struggle he notices between the two coaches.

Webb makes one more change: He tells the team that while he knows he cannot stop them from taunting other teams, he wants them to stop the taunts where they call the other team monkeys, as people might think they are being racist. Webb says that he does not want it to become an issue, so they will stop doing it altogether. To lighten the mood, Silas imitates Webb ordering them to do laps around the field.

Later, after practice, Silas reads an article about Glenn Burke. Burke was not married when he played for the Dodgers, even though the coaches wanted everyone on their team to be married. Burke told his coach that he was not going to get married anytime soon. This was because he was gay. The Dodgers did not want a gay player on their team, as anti-gay bias in sports was widespread at the time, and the Dodgers did not want Burke to negatively impact their reputation. Silas did not mention Burke’s sexuality in his presentation.

Silas is at Zoey’s house. The two are singing karaoke together. Silas asks Zoey to sit because there is something he wants to tell her. At first, Zoey is impatient because she wants to keep singing. Silas has a hard time speaking, so Zoey starts talking about how she is missing so much school because of her upcoming robotics tournament. Finally, Silas tells her that Glenn Burke was gay, and he thinks he might be gay, too. Silas breaks down crying and Zoey comforts him. He tells her that this is the first time he has ever told anyone about himself. Zoey is supportive, but she seems slightly uncomfortable. She assures him that everything is okay. He asks her to keep his secret just between them, and Zoey promises not to tell anyone.

The next evening, Silas calls Zoey. They have not spoken since the day before because Zoey missed school for her robotics club. Silas tells Zoey he feels “so much lighter” since telling her he is gay (51). He explains that he has been watching videos on YouTube of kids talking about their coming out stories, which helped him figure out his own identity. Zoey asks Silas how he knows for sure, and Silas feels like Zoey does not believe him. He assures her that it is not something he would make up. He also worries that Zoey thinks he is overreacting, despite her protests that she does not. Silas feels like there is something weird between him and Zoey, like part of Zoey does not “know what to do with what [he is] telling her” (52).

That weekend, Silas and the Renegades play a game against the Thunders. Silas is the first batter up during the game, and he hits a home run. As he runs home, Malik greets him with a double high five.

In the fifth inning, Silas and Webb sit in the dugout, shouting encouragement at Ben-Ben, one of Silas’s teammates. They talk strategy and joke around. Webb tells Silas that Ben-Ben has been learning about the physics of baseball in his robotics club, and Silas replies that his best friend Zoey is also in a robotics club.

Later in the game, Silas and his teammates are out in the field while the Thunders are up to bat. Under Silas’s direction, the Renegades play well together and win their game.