Infield Hit Character Analysis

Words: 692
Pages: 3

Baseball is a game of inches, Hal Stevens would know a lot about that. In Infield Hit by Thomas J. Dygard, a boy named Hal Stevens does not want to be seen in the shadow of his dad, Ralph Stevens, who is an ex major leaguer. Hal transferred to Cannon City High his junior year and played on their baseball team. There is something more than just playing baseball. Dygard the author, illustrates the literary elements, point of view, characterization, and conflict to help put the reader in the body of Hal and experience what he is experiencing. These elements added thrill, tension, and some signs of boldness through the entire story. From the start, the book shows conflict. The conflict in the book also serves as a hook. “One thing Hal Stevens …show more content…
Hal is a character that changes a lot in the story. Between his feelings about certain people and the subject matter of his father. In the beginning, Hal was a shy kid, who loved baseball, but towards the end, Hal was a thriving student athlete that was improving on his classroom skills along with his baseball skills. “Practice sessions, games, and classroom work rolled along the next two weeks, all of them getting better with each passing day” (82). When Hal was first on the team, he was disliked because he took the starting position of one kid who has been there since freshman year. Eventually, as time, games, and practices went on, they started to like the production from Hal and started to accept Hal in their group. “After a while at practice, every time I would make a good, clean play, I would hear chatter saying “Nice play!” or “Good job!”. At that point in time, I felt like a wanted part of the team.” (112) But besides that, some others always liked him, like Don Mavis, the head coach, and Jason Hart. Without all of the characterization the reader would not have been able to really feel and put themselves in Hals shoes. The book Infield Hit really does a good job of explaining what it is like to be Hal Stevens with the three literary elements. The novel was thrilling, tense, and showed signs of boldness. He made the reader dig deep and really try to feel what Hal was going through and trying