(urth) Short Story 200*: The On-Deck Circle

[Marc Aramini]

THE ON DECK CIRCLE


 “The On Deck Circle” first appeared in the Autumn 2008 edition of *Postscripts
Magazine*. It has never been collected.


 SUMMARY

In a future where sensationalism is the only thing that keeps ratings, a
new sport which was once a television hit involving cruise ships and
boating uses the rules of baseball, but has been slipping in the ratings
because of its low scoring nature and the absence of dramatic home runs.
The minds behind the show get aging retired baseball stars like Pittsburgh
Pirate player Scooter Scarlata to bat for them, assuming their previous
sports experience will produce more dramatic entertainment.

In this sport, the batter on the deck of a ship throws a kind of bat at an
approaching boat. If a hit is made and remains undeflected by the crew of
the boat, the batter jumps with his team overboard and boards the “ball”,
where he or she will then attempt to navigate it to a scoring position on
land past the defending yachts and cruise ships.

The game begins at night as the fog is starting to close in, so that the
live audience can experience it during prime time TV (normally 8 to 10 pm,
and the Caribbean is on Eastern Standard Time). An attractive blond girl
who speaks with a lisp named Lisa Locklin goes up to bat before Scooter.
The pitching ship, the *M.S. Charlotte Amalie*, prepares the next boat to
be “pitched”. The assistant director says that Lisa is “window dressing …
You can't have a hit show without sex.” When Scooter tries to claim that
the World Series didn't need sex to appeal to its audience, he is shut
down. The director only cares about ratings, and they are slipping because
the game is too difficult to get hits. The director commands Scooter to
score, saying that the pitches will be predetermined, a slider, a
change-up, and then the pitch of Scooter's choice. Scarlata wants a
fastball. He is introduced to the “ball boy”, a man named Jack Keech who
has worked on all the boats serving as balls, having extensive speed boat
experience. After the hit, the director wants Scarlata to take the wheel of
the ball for a shot and then relinquish control to Keech to steer the ball.

Spitting at the rail, but wishing that it would hit the director's face,
Scooter complains that he has been called a singles hitter all his life
even though he hit for the cycle in '46. (See Cultural Allusions below). He
then asks Keech if he has ever been to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and
if Keech saw his picture, then admits he isn't in it at all because he
didn't hit enough home runs. Reinforcing the idea that if the ball boat is
caught in the infield then the ship *Sunrise* for which Scooter bats will
be declared out, the director demands a home run, which means that the ball
boat or a member of his team must touch land beyond the “fence” and past
the blocking ships.

The bat Scooter uses is papier-mache, with a firework in the tip. He tosses
the bat from his batter's box at the approaching ship, first missing by a
few yards and then having his bat deflected by the crew of the oncoming
ball. He sends his bat directly at the third boat, the “fast ball”, as it
passes the water highlighted gold to represent the plate, and the bat
explodes in glittering confetti to signify the hit. His team jumps into the
Caribbean and, though he has not swum for years before the three days
practice he was afforded in the lead up to the event, Scooter also dives
into the water, “knowing that some two hundred million watched.”

As he is helped aboard the boat, he comments, “I been picked up by a ball a
lot … only this is the only time it's happened after I got a hit.” (A ball
is a pitch which does not enter the strike zone and is not swung at by the
player, indicating that Scooter probably doesn't usually swing at things
outside his range – 4 balls will grant the player a “walk” to first base.
If the player swings and misses, even if the ball is not in range, it is a
strike.) Scooter takes the wheel of the ball and accelerates it recklessly,
refusing to relinquish control to Keech. He heads for the third base line
as he watches several of the ships closing in towards where they expected
him to pilot the boat at the infield. When Keech declares that they have
lost two or three people, Scooter responds that they have life jackets and
that the “Umpire'll pick 'em up.” Lisa Locklin takes his arm and he asks if
she has ever seen a ball split short and third. He knows that the larger
ships will be afraid of running into each other and darts between them,
saying, “I never hit lots of homers! Only this is the first hit I could
steer!”

 Keech attacks him to regain the wheel as Scooter accelerates dangerously
between the larger ships, and Scooter knees and punches him, then heads
directly toward the infield ship *Martinique* as the cruise ships playing
field positions collide behind them. The boat serving as the ball dashes
under the glove the *Martinique* shoots at them.

 Keech makes one more attempt to regain the wheel as Scooter aims at a
rocky shore behind a line of breakers and fails, and Scooter thinks:

*A home run! He had hit a home run. What did the Hall of Fame matter now?
Yet he would be in the Hall of Fame. He would be there because he would
have to be there. He would have to be there because every visitor would
want to know where he was. *

 It seems to Scooter that the water is sinking below him, and that far
below, he can see his teaammates stumbling ashore and his own body rolling
in the surf. Yet he hears cheers. He goes higher, “until the circle of the
horizon was visible on every side. Had he not waited in circles like this
before?” He sees figures coming for him:

and they shone, filled with a white radiance brighter than their spotless
uniforms. They were coming, and he knew them – he, who had studied their
photographs so often: Ernie Banks and Pee Wee Reese. Both waved, and the
cheers were louder than ever, cheering that felt as if it would never end.


 COMMENTARY:

The on-deck circle is where batters wait for their opportunity to bat in
baseball. Wolfe has here playfully taken the term quite literally and
created a situation where Scooter is both waiting on deck and also seems to
have been symbolically holding out for the chance to justify his sports
career and perhaps his entire life, somewhat bitter over his identification
as a “singles hitter”: an excellent player with frequent hits who will
never be in the hall of fame because his career did not have the noteworthy
home runs of a “slugger”, which the audience craves. He is given one last
chance to achieve it by throwing all caution to the wind: his reckless
abandon once he controls the ship/ball allows him to gamble everything on a
sensational end which seems to cost him his life but which ironically, at
least from his point of view, ensures his place in the Baseball Hall of
Fame, overturning his reputation as a reliable but unspectacular player.
Certainly this kills him, but the belief that this infamous home run will
necessitate his induction into the Hall is firmly entrenched in Scooter's
soul. The glory he feels is both transcendentally religious and at the same
time clearly the triumphant fantasy of anyone who has yearned for glory
through sports: the adulation of the crowd and a warm welcome from those
who are like heroes and gods, finally accepting someone who perhaps feels
unworthy to their own ranks of greatness.

Wolfe claims he got the idea for the story while on the cruise ship *MS
Zuiderdam*, imagining other ships in the night and seeing the bright spark
of fireworks in the distance. The story is interesting in its association
of sports glory with a more religious immortality, but seems to gloss over
the moral culpability of Scooter in risking other lives to attain his own
enshrinement.


 CULTURAL ALLUSIONS

The mention of other mid-20th century baseball players like Pee Wee Reese
and Ernie Banks cement that if Wolfe is a fan of any sport, it is baseball.
The pitcher ship, the *M.S. Charlotte Amalie*, is named after the capital
of the US Virgin Islands (which in turn was named after the 17th century
consort to King Christian V of Denmark). Charlotte Amalie has a large
harbor and once served as a pirate headquarters, and is still one of the
busiest ports for Caribbean cruise ships. *Island Princess* is the name of
a Cruise Ship, and *Palm Coast * is a town in Florida which was hit quite
hard by a hurricane circa 2004, which might have brought it to Wolfe's
attention. *Martinique* is a French Island in the Caribbean.

Pee Wee Reese (1918-1999) is famous for not only his baseball achievements
but in the breaking of the color barrier in the sport when Jackie Robinson
took Reese's short stop position with the Dodgers (which occurred while
Reese was serving in the military). A sculpture of Reese putting his arm
around Robinson to stop harassment from a crowd can be found at a Brooklyn
Park. His number on the team was 1. (Wolfe was born in New York City,
though whether this has anything to do with using a Dodgers player in the
story is certainly up for debate).

Ernie Banks (1931-2015) (whose nickname was Mr. Sunshine) played for the
Chicago Cubs (for which Wolfe would obviously have an affinity). He was the
first black player on the team. Throughout the 1950s he had a reputation as
a slugger, the type of player that Scarlata is clearly not.

Scarlata is introduced as #18, having played for the White Sox, the braves,
and the “world champion” Pittsburgh Pirates. While the Pirates have had
some success with World Series in the past, from 1992 to 2012 they had 20
straight losing seasons, the longest streak in American sports history.
Clearly the theme of the underdog and the downtrodden returning to the top
is inherent in Wolfe's choice for Scarlata's team. (The numbers on baseball
uniforms rotate constantly, and there seems little reason that Wolfe would
have selected #18 save that at one point a player named Gene Tenace wore
the number for the Pittsburgh Pirates, though this is pure speculation).

At one point, Scarlata identifies himself as a singles hitter, one who does
not consistently hit home runs but instead is accurate in hitting the ball.
He also claims that in “forty-six” (probably 2046 judging from how little
culture seems to have changed) he hit a “cycle”, achieving a single,
double, triple, and home run in one game. This is one of the most elusive
achievements in baseball, meaning that the runner hit and went to first
base, hit and ran to second, hit and ran to third, and also hit and ran all
the way in a single game, and this is something which has occurred only
hundreds of times in the history of the sport. Home run hitters, who might
be bigger and slower than a man named “scooter”, implying speed, might have
difficulty actually running to third base without being called out after a
non-home run hit., thus there is the sense that Scarlata relied on
consistent skill rather than explosive power. He asks if the director has
been to Cooperstown at the Baseball Hall of Fame and seen his number and
jersey – of course, Scarlata isn't there because he lacked the sensational
career of a slugger even though he accomplished one of baseball's most
elusive achievements. He also hints that he was awarded four Gold Glove
awards, a recognition for superior fielding. Thus, he seems to be
proficient at offense and defense but lacked the ability to hit home runs,
and therefore will not be found in the Hall of Fame.

It is interesting that both of the players mentioned, though one of them
was white, were influential players in terms of breaking the color barrier
which existed in baseball. It seems that perhaps there is some kind of
barrier being broken by Scooter in his daring bid at immortality.


 RELIGIOUS ALLUSIONS


 Just as at the culmination of Wolfe's much earlier “Tracking Song”, the
dying or dead Scooter experiences a kind of extracorporeal vision of
blinding whiteness, where the angels take the form of the heroes he had in
life, their white uniforms saturated with bright glory and the cheers
continuing unending. Through a risk, he knows that he has redeemed his
already great baseball career and that the sensationalism will insure his
own immortality. Very few of Wolfe's characters are afforded this kind of
clear vision of victory, one which seems to be a very common ending for
writers of a spiritual slant, though here the psuedo-apotheosis of
Scooter's point of view is given an extremely secular and sports-oriented
slant. While risking the lives of his team may have been a morally culpable
gambit for his own fame, there does not seem to be remonstrance in the
clear vision of glory Scooter receives.


 NAMES


 *Scooter Scarlata*: Scooter implies one who moves quickly. Scooter was
also an animated baseball that Fox Sports used to explain different types
of pitches from 2004 to 2006 – one who met with rather poor reception from
some audience members. Scarlatta, which obviously means “scarlet”, is an
old Italian name which would have been traditionally used by a dyer or as a
nickname for someone who wore red often or had red hair.


 *Lisa Locklin*: Lisa can mean “devoted to God”, or, if derived from
Elizabeth, can imply that “God is satisfaction”. Locklin is probably
derived from the Scottish Lachlan, or “land of lakes”.


 *Jack Keech*: The name Jack can mean “God is gracious” and Keech implies
someone who is quick or active, similar to Scooter's nickname. The
Wolfe-Wiki notes that the name Jack Ketch was a common nickname for a
hangman.


 CONNECTION WITH OTHER WORKS


 Wolfe has not written many stories about sports, though he does have a
boxer in *There Are Doors,*but the disaffected attitude of Scooter for his
lack of recognition despite his accomplishments might be a more common
strain. Turning a game into a high stakes venture is even more obvious in
“Bloodsport” and “To the Seventh”. The most striking feature is of course
the previously mentioned vision of glory which resonates so strongly with
the ending of “Tracking Song” as the protagonist lies dying or dead and
perceives the welcome he has longed for. (Severian, Latro, and Silk
actually seemed denied this comforting vision of triumph).


  The literal rendition of a specific term seems to be a very common title
strategy employed at this point in his career, with stories such as “Prize
Crew”, “Pulp Cover”, or “The Gunner's Mate”. The obsession with the ocean
and its symbolic oblivion can just as easily by observed in *The Urth of
the New Sun, Pirate Freedom,* and “Comber”. It might make a worthwhile
project to see if the vast reaches of space and the transformations it
enacts upon Wolfe's characters are significantly different from his use of
the ocean and the symbolic deluge. At a brief glance, it does seem that
Wolfe views the abyss of space quite differently than the empty expanse of
the ocean.



 RESOURCES


 “The On-Deck Circle”. Wolfe-Wiki. 29 November, 2010. Web. 20 April 2015.
http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.TheOn-DeckCircle
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