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<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="center">
THE ON DECK CIRCLE</p>
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<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
“The On Deck Circle” first appeared in the Autumn 2008 edition
of <i>Postscripts Magazine</i>. It has never been collected.</p>
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<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
SUMMARY</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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.
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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.
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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 <i>M.S. Charlotte
Amalie</i>, 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.</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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 <i>Sunrise</i> 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.</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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.”</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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!”</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US"> 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 </span></font></font><font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US"><i>Martinique</i></span></font></font><font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US">
as the cruise ships playing field positions collide behind them.
The boat serving as the ball dashes under the glove the </span></font></font><font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US"><i>Martinique</i></span></font></font><font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US">
shoots at them. </span></font></font>
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US"> 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:</span></font></font></p>
<p class="" style="margin-left:0.5in;margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US"><i>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. </i></span></font></font>
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US"> 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: </span></font></font>
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-left:0.5in;margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US">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.</span></font></font></p>
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<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
COMMENTARY:</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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.
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
Wolfe claims he got the idea for the story while on the cruise ship
<i>MS Zuiderdam</i>, imagining other ships in the night and seeing
the bright spark of fireworks in the distance. <font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US">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.</span></font></font></p>
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<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
CULTURAL ALLUSIONS</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
The mention of other mid-20<sup>th</sup> 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 <i>M.S. Charlotte
Amalie</i>, is named after the capital of the US Virgin Islands
(which in turn was named after the 17<sup>th</sup> 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. <i>Island Princess</i> is the name
of a Cruise Ship, and <i>Palm Coast </i> is a town in Florida which
was hit quite hard by a hurricane circa 2004, which might have
brought it to Wolfe's attention. <i>Martinique</i> is a French Island
in the Caribbean.
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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).
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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.</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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).
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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.</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
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.</p>
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</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
RELIGIOUS ALLUSIONS</p>
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</p>
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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.</p>
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<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
NAMES</p>
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</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<i>Scooter Scarlata</i>: 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.</p>
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<br>
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<i><span style="text-decoration:none">Lisa Locklin</span></i>: 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”.</p>
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<br>
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<i>Jack Keech</i>: The name Jack can mean “God is gracious” and
Keech implies someone who is quick or active, similar to Scooter's
nickname.<font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US">
The Wolfe-Wiki notes that the name Jack Ketch was a common nickname
for a hangman.</span></font></font></p>
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<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
CONNECTION WITH OTHER WORKS</p>
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</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
Wolfe has not written many stories about sports, though he does have
a boxer in <i>There Are Doors,</i><span style="font-style:normal">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). </span>
</p>
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</p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<span style="font-style:normal"> 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 </span><i>The
Urth of the New Sun, Pirate Freedom,</i><span style="font-style:normal">
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 </span><span style="font-style:normal">are</span><span style="font-style:normal">
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. </span>
</p>
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</p>
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<font color="#00000a"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US">RESOURCES</span></font></font></p>
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<br>
</p>
<p class="" style="margin-left:0.5in;margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%" align="left">
<font color="#00000a">“<font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><span lang="en-US">The
On-Deck Circle”. Wolfe-Wiki. 29 November, 2010. Web. 20 April 2015.
<a href="http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.TheOn-DeckCircle">http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.TheOn-DeckCircle</a></span></font></font></p>
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