Fast Pitch

Content Warning: This section of the Guide discusses themes surrounding racism and sexism in sports, including intimidation.

Though baseball has changed in the years between JonJon’s and Shenice’s times, Stone challenges how much the games of baseball and softball have changed by examining how racism and sexism influence players today. She uses two scenes to highlight the challenges Black and women players experience today. The first scene occurs in Chapter 11, where two boys believe they can play better than the girls because of their race and sex; the second happens in Chapter 12, when Shenice loses her focus, questioning whether an opposing player shares her experiences.

After the Firebirds win against a team whose fans display the Confederate flag, two boys mock the girls’ softball team, saying, “half of you can’t even swing. Maybe you’d be decent with a basketball, but don’t let the Hank Aaron guy fool you: this sport isn’t for your people” (98). The boy refers to Black people in his reference to “your people,” suggesting that talented Black players like Aaron are anomalous exceptions. In addition to expressing a racist sentiment, he also expresses the sexist sentiment that women don’t belong in sports like baseball. That Shenice plays fastpitch softball—rather than baseball—highlights a prevailing social attitude that suggests that baseball is a men’s sport, and softball is for women. While Title IX gives women the right to play on “men’s” teams that are affiliated with schools, independent leagues—such as the Dixie Youth—often continue to segregate players into separate but similar sports along these gendered lines. When the boys call the girls’ team’s skill into question, Stone uses the Firebirds to demonstrate how an individual’s response says more than what others believe about them. Rather than having the girls take the bait verbally, Stone pits the overconfident boys against the girls’ skill. When the boys strike out without a single hit, Shenice calls after them, “You know what your problem is? [...] You swing like a boy—all force and no finesse” (101). Only after the Firebirds demonstrate their skill does Stone allow Shenice to retort verbally, illustrating the author’s message that words have little impact relative to the overpowering display of skill.

The second significant scene occurs a few pages later. As Shenice watches the opposing pitcher and the only Black player on the team, Tanisha, prepare to throw, she observes that “the questions I typically try to shove down rise right on up. Do people mispronounce her name? Or say things like ‘Wow, you’re great at softball for a girl like you’?” (106). Rather than focusing on the game, Shenice focuses on what makes her and Tanisha stand apart from the majority of softball players in their league. Stone thus highlights the impact of both overtly racist comments as well as racist microaggressions on Shenice, illustrating how they impact her ability to focus. Shenice’s distraction could be problematic for the Firebirds if not for Teamwork and Effective Leadership, which plays into her team’s victories.

The scene mentioned above, where Shenice considers Tanisha’s feelings, ends with a line that best explains Stone’s stance on racism and sexism in ball sports. At the end of the scene, Shenice asks, “does she feel like an outsider on her team the way I did? The way Great-Grampy JonJon must have at that life-shattering plantation house supper?” (106). Though attitudes toward non-white and non-male players have changed since Jackie Robinson’s time, Stone acknowledges that Black and women players can and do still feel like outsiders because of their limited presence relative to white men.