41 pages • 1 hour read
Nic StoneFast Pitch
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Trunk
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses themes surrounding racism and sexism in sports, including intimidation. Additionally, the source text uses outdated and offensive terms for Black people, replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.
When Shenice’s father unveils her great-grandfather’s trunk full of baseball equipment and memories, she discusses how she came to believe that “the trunk wasn’t an actual trunk. It was a symbol of my grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s legacies. And I held the literal key” (26). Before seeing it with her own eyes, Shenice didn’t believe it existed, despite having received its key after her grandfather’s death. Stone draws explicit attention to the symbolic nature of the trunk: To Shenice, the trunk symbolizes her family’s legacy in baseball, but in the narrative structure, the trunk represents her family’s secrets.
She first investigates the trunk and notes two specific items: “1. A framed black-and-white photo of who I assume is Great-Grampy JonJon [...] and 2. What looks like a fancy leather journal” (27). The photo—a memory of JonJon and Jack—holds the secret to finding the missing Joe DiMaggio glove; the journal holds JonJon’s firsthand accounts of his experiences. All the keys to the Lockwoods’ secrets are within the trunk, but Shenice must gather more information and learn how to approach the information she acquires.
Not only does the trunk symbolize the family’s secrets, but its location also holds a significant role in foreshadowing the novel’s conclusion. When Shenice discovers the trunk exists, her dad reveals it is hiding at home in an area she did not know existed, paralleling the discovery of the hidden DiMaggio glove at JonJon’s old house. These revelations highlight the need for Shenice to return to the roots of her family’s legacy to uncover the history behind what happened—a truth found at home, where nobody would expect to find it.
Joe DiMaggio’s Glove
When Jacob Carlyle steals Joe DiMaggio’s glove and accuses JonJon Lockwood of the crime, it leads to the end of JonJon’s baseball career. When the glove goes missing with Carlyle’s belongings, so does any chance of JonJon’s name being cleared and his legacy restored. Seventy years later, Shenice is driven to find the glove and prove her great-grandfather’s innocence. The glove symbolizes both the truth and JonJon’s legacy, as well as Shenice’s desire to give Jack peace. Without finding the glove, the Lockwood family will always live with questions.
The glove also reflects the challenges Black people faced during JonJon’s time. Jack had all the evidence to prove JonJon’s innocence, but faced a catch-22 situation regarding turning in the glove: “Couldn’t’ve. That woulda made JonJon look guilty, his brother suddenly turning up with the contraband. No one was gonna take the word of a Negro batboy over that of a white man” (83). The glove thus becomes a complicated symbol because while it symbolizes the Lockwood family truth, it also represents the systemic challenges that prevent the truth from coming forward. Jack could have proven JonJon’s innocence 70 years prior, but nobody would believe him because of the color of his skin. That Jacob Carlyle’s granddaughter does believe him, and makes a reparative gesture on her grandfather’s behalf, illustrates the impacts of time and social progress on the acceptance of such truths. The glove takes on a cultural and societal meaning of progress to be prepared to hear the truth about all people, not just certain groups.
Dad’s High School Championship Ring
After the Firebirds win a match in which Shenice feels disappointed in herself, her father gives her his high school baseball championship ring. It is a small object that Shenice feels unworthy of possessing due to its symbolic weight. Symbolically, the ring represents Shenice’s expectations as part of the Lockwood sports legacy and as the captain of her district’s only all-Black girls’ team. She carries a heavy burden, and the ring symbolizes that burden.
The ring works in conjunction with the brown journal and the newspaper clipping, which create layers of duty and expectations for Shenice. The “combination of Great-Grampy JonJon’s brown book [...] that little newspaper clipping, and Daddy’s ring [...] makes me feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders” (57). The burden feels heavy because shoulders expectations from multiple people: She expects herself to lead her team to victory, Jack hopes she uncovers the truth and restores JonJon’s name and career record, and her father passes the proverbial torch, expecting her to follow the Lockwood family tradition of champions. As she learns to navigate each of the expectations and how to balance what she wants with what others desire from her, the objects feel lighter. The only object whose expectations she fails to fulfill in the narrative is the championship ring. Her team does not win the championship baseball match, but they feel like winners because they come together, advancing Teamwork and Effective Leadership.
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