Baseball John Updike Analysis

In life, everyone finds a passion, a hobby, an outlet that brings them joy, and often that pastime can be taken to the extremes where their infatuation gets the best of them. A significant example is baseball and its vigorous fans cheering and booing at an athlete’s encounter with the flying ball. Will he hit it or strike out? How far will he hit it? Will someone catch it? Can he make it to that base before the ball does? This excitement of fans translates as if they are a part of the team and they desire to see their team succeed. In the introduction of a new season of baseball, John Updike, with his remorseful yet hopeful tone, appeals to baseball fans by describing the opening of the season, reflecting on the past season, and analyzing attitudes …show more content…
He describes how there had been no losses and how the audience was waiting for the Yankees to drop one and with that he adds emphasis by the rhetorical fragments, “which they did” and “enough.” This allows the reader to understand the audience’s frustration with the Red Sox and the comma in the sentence also adds a pause for dramatic effect. He also uses rhetorical fragments to add a sense of satire when he says, “we loved it.” The “we” he is referring to is the baseball fans and he describes how the audience falls for the high notes that are snag at the “Star Spangled Benner”. Throughout, he also uses short sentences like “This is fun,” “The season had begun,” and “So let’s play ball,” at the end to provide emphasis and a final …show more content…
“The many headed monster,” which he refers to, is Fenway Faithful, and he comes back to this metaphor of monsters at various points in his writings to compare the people to monsters as he expresses how in the last season the Red Sox “broke its monstrous heart,” and this season was the “first kiss of another prolonged entanglement.” He portrays the game of baseball as a “fling” with “ups and downs” to describe the relationship between the fans and baseball as they cheer and boo on the events that occur. The fans get disappointed, boo, and hate on the players when the season isn’t going quite right, however, Updike describes that monsters also have “short memories, elastic hearts, and very foolable faculties,” meaning they are forgiving and hopeful for the next season. He also includes that baseball is about the fun of the game, not anything else, which is difficult for the “hungry monster” to understand whilst the fans be dedicated to their pastime and yearn for “their team” to play