A Moment to Remember My dad loved baseball. He called himself a student of the game, which meant that he was a voracious reader
of baseball periodicals, memorizing statistics for players and teams, knowing the standings for both the American and National leagues, and following his favorite team, then known as the Brooklyn Dodgers, with undying loyalty. I was 16 in 1947—a time when girls were expected to wear dresses and be demure, but I preferred to go to games with Dad. I acquired his love for baseball, and he often took me with him to see his beloved Dodgers play at Ebbets Field. True to his serious approach to baseball, Dad was reserved when he attended games, acknowledging good play with polite applause but never deriding players or chiding umpires. I suppose you could characterize him as a gentleman fan. Of all the games he took me to at Ebbets Field, one stands out among the rest. I even remember the date: Sunday, May 25, 1947, when the Dodgers played the Philadelphia Phillies. We settled into our seats, and I filled in the lineups of both teams on my scorecard. Dad had taught me the complex and symbolic task of keeping score, and I reveled in recording accurate accounts of the games as they unfolded in front of us. As the Dodgers took the field, I noticed that the cheering from the home crowd was punctuated by racial epithets directed at the rookie first baseman, Jackie Robinson, and I was bewildered by it. Robinson had broken the color line in baseball that year and was playing well, but as Dad told me, some fans and players, including some from his own team, resented the presence of an African American player in the major leagues. Responding to the unseemly comments, Dad made a succinct analysis, “I guess the fans and his teammates can’t see that his uniform is the same as the other eight men’s out there.” I thought of my own situation as Robinson warmed up. Some of my classmates ostracized me because they didn’t think I was “girlish” enough. At times, I felt alone in high school. There were no sports for girls then, but I knew that I could shoot a basketball as accurately and run as fast and jump as high as any girl in school. In gym class, I could even beat some of the boys in tennis. Feeling alone and being denied opportunities, I mused, is difficult when you are surrounded by peers. As the game progressed, I focused with greater concentration on Robinson—an intense player, not smooth and fluid but explosive and aggressive. It was as if he were playing more than a game, with a desperate desire to excel beyond his limitations, and I felt a strange kinship with him. “Silence the catcalls, silence the bigots, silence the hatred,” I rhythmically repeated to myself as he came up to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning. With the count three balls and one strike, and the Dodgers clinging to a 4-3 lead, Robinson blasted the next pitch out of the park for a home run, his third hit of the day, which I noticed on my scorecard as I recorded the hit and brushed a tear from the page, blurring the statistics for the Dodgers. I heard only cheering as Robinson rounded the bases, crossed home plate, and trotted to the dugout, where all of his teammates stood and greeted him with handshakes and pats on the back. Dad turned to me and said, “That’s the first time his teammates have all celebrated his efforts. It’s a moment to remember.” The Dodgers won, 5-3, and as we walked out together, I said, “Great win for the Dodgers, right, Dad?” He looked ahead at the horde in front of us leaving the stadium, put his arm around my shoulder, and without looking at me said, “It was an even greater win for America, Kathy.” In my heart, I hoped there would be more. ____________________________________________________________________
Choose one of the characters from the passage above (any 1 of the 3 characters mentioned) to analyze. Identify 2 words that best describe your chosen character, and explain why you picked those words, based on textual evidence from the passage. Be sure to clearly identify both examples of direct and indirect characterization that led you to your conclusions about your chosen character. Your response should be at least one full formal paragraph. Do not start off your paragraph with a question or simply by answering the prompt directly. Be sure to name the above passage you are referring to in your response when you use textual evidence from the text to support your answer. As always, answer with complete sentences, and use correct punctuation and grammar.
