The Way Home Looks Now
Page 16
Ba turns to go inside. And this time, I stand with him.
Our home, our family, won’t be the same as it was. It never will be.
But we can be the ones who keep having hope. My family. Together.
This book was born from several inspirations, near and far.
My first inspiration came from around the world in the form of Taiwan’s twenty-plus-year dominant run of the Little League World Series. Beginning in 1969, the teams from Taiwan so heavily dominated the sport (winning ten times in thirteen championships) that the teams were accused (and eventually cleared) of cheating, and at one point, international teams were banned. These teams were a high point for Chinese-Americans like my parents, who grew up in Taiwan after fleeing China’s Communist takeover. In the 1970s, Taiwan faced a series of international frustrations, as the United States turned from its support of Taiwan to mainland China, and these teams were a very bright spot during a generally dark time.
While I have no memory of them, my family joined countless other Chinese-Americans in their summer pilgrimages to Williamsport to support the Taiwan team (often known as Chinese Taipei). In a family that emphasized academics, taking the time to make this journey was quite notable. I am not aware of any other time that my family attended or watched a large-scale sporting event.
There was, however, one other exception to my family’s generally lukewarm stance toward sports. In the early 1970s, my brother played baseball in Wilmington, Delaware, and, because there was a need for a coach, my father agreed to coach the young team. From this situation came my second inspiration: At some point, a girl asked to play on my brother’s team, at a time when girls were forbidden to play baseball by rule and social mores. My father was inclined to let her play, but a few parents on the team threatened to pull their sons from the team rather than let them play with a girl.
My father came up with what I thought was a wonderfully thoughtful solution. In a letter to the boys (alas, lost in a move), my father urged the boys to consider that the roles of women in the world were changing, and told them that the decision to play or not was ultimately theirs, not their parents’. When all was said and done, not a single boy left the team, and the girl finished the season with the boys. (Notably, during the week I was putting the final touches on this story and exactly forty years after girls were permitted to play Little League, Mo’ne Davis became the first girl in Little League World Series history to pitch a shutout.)
I have always loved this story about my dad. My father and I did not always see eye to eye in my youth, perhaps because he had grown up in war-torn China and I was raised in the safe confines of suburban Washington, DC. But this story told me so much of what he thought was possible for me, and his sense of justice in the world.
During the late phases of this story, I discovered a wonderful account of various sandlot games in America on the website www.baseballplayamerica.com, edited by Donald Weiskopf and his wife, Anne. The growing tension between kid-led sandlot games and more formal Little League type play, as described on the site, is one that I found fascinating; while many good-hearted and talented adults devote countless hours to the sport, I often wonder if some of the joy of the game was lost when adults came to control so much of the play. Donald and Anne have graciously allowed me to reprint their account of the games here, with the mutual hope that these games may once again find a place in the American childhood experience.
Revival of Baseball Pick-Up Games
By DON WEISKOPF, publisher of Baseball Play America
Many years ago, during the summer, in the afternoons following school and on weekends, youngsters made the neighborhoods reverberate with the sounds of playing games in parks, vacant lots, and in the streets. Among the many games were stickball, scrub, over-the-line, wall ball, strikeout, and later on, wiffleball. There were always 3 or 4 of us to play some version of a game…. If kids didn’t have enough players for stickball, they would play Army Ball, “Catch-a-fly and you’re up….”
Ever mindful that the large majority of young kids today do not play pick-up games, nor do they and their parents know how, the following low organized games are a few of those that young children used to play….
WALL BALL
EQUIPMENT: A wall with a drawn strike zone, rubber or tennis ball, and home plate.
DIRECTIONS: One or more players stand about 20 to 40 feet from the wall, preferably concrete. The game begins by having each player throw a ball against the wall. As a drill, throws can be fielded by the player who made the throw. As a competitive game, a player other than the thrower has to field the ball and the “pitcher” can vary the type, speed and difficulty of throws. Rules can be established as to catching the ball on a fly or a bounce….
ARMY BALL
EQUIPMENT: Hard rubber ball and bat.
DIRECTIONS: This popular West Coast “stick” and ball game often involves three players, a pitcher, batter and fielder. Of course, more players can play. As to how the game got its name, the field was spread from any makeshift backstop to any tall building, barracks, whatever. This was strictly a pull-hitting game. Batters cannot hit the opposite way. If the batter hit the building above one level, it is a double, another level a triple, and the roof and over, home run. There are no walks in Army Ball. The batter stays at bat until he hits or strikes out. This serves to make hitters wait for desired pitches.
OVER THE LINE
EQUIPMENT: Ball and bat.
DIRECTIONS: Referred to also as Line Ball, this is a favorite playground, school and yard game. With two teams 30 feet apart and perhaps 6 players on a team, the object is for the batter to drive a ground ball through the other team. Each team has a bat. The first player tosses the ball up and tries to bat it across the other team’s goal line. The ball must hit the ground between the two lines. The other team tries to field the ball and then attempts to bat it back across the opponent’s goal line. Each member of each team gets a chance to bat. One point is scored for each ball that crosses the other team’s goal line. Another variation is for the players to throw rather than bat the ball….
CATCH-A-FLY AND YOU’RE UP
EQUIPMENT: bat.
DIRECTIONS: One player is at bat and the rest of the players are in the field or down the street. When a fielder catches a fly ball, he gets to hit. Most kids will come up to the plate swinging, trying to hit a home run or a hard line drive. Some will hit a few on the ground so they will stay up longer. So a pitcher may want to throw high pitches to make the batter hit flies. Rather than be close behind the plate, the catcher will position himself safely farther back. If he catches a pop fly, he may be allowed to hit.
PEPPER
The batter stands about 15-20 feet away from a fairly straight line of fielders. Batter hits grounders to the fielders, fielders field the ball and pitch it back to the hitter and on and on. Many rule options. Hitter can lose his turn if he lines out or fouls off more than a couple balls. Fielder can become the hitter by catching a pop out. Fielder can be eliminated by making an error … This is a great game for bat control, fielding, throwing strikes, etc.
THREE FLIES UP
This is a simple game where either someone pitches to a hitter or the hitter just tosses the ball to himself and hits until someone in the field catches 3 pop flies. That fielder then becomes the hitter. A variation might be to [award] certain point totals for fielding different balls. For example, 10 points for a fly ball, 5 points for a ball on one hop, 2 points for a grounder. First fielder to a certain number wins or gets to hit….
OVER THE LINE—VARIATION
A field is set up with an area for the hitter. Then, a straight line is established about where second base would be, then another where shallow right field would be. The width of the field is determined by how many people are in the field. The hitter either tosses the ball to himself or hits a pitched ball into the confines of the field. If it lands to the left or right of the boundaries he’s out. A ball that makes it past the first line on the groun
d is a single. If it lands in between the first and second line in the air it’s a double. If it goes over the deepest fielders head, homer. Outs are made by fielding any grounder in front of the first line or catching a ball in the air. Three outs switch….
Game contributions from Brent Mayne
A second book, it turns out, is just as daunting as the first, and I am so grateful to have so many wonderful people on this journey with me. My writing group saw the early draft of this story, and gave me the encouragement to stick with it: Jacqueline Jules, Moira Donohue, Marty Rhodes Figley, Marfé Ferguson Delano, Anamaria Anderson, Liz Macklin, Suzy McIntire, Carla Heymsfeld, Anna Hebner, and Laura Murray. Madelyn Rosenberg probably never wants me to use present tense again, but she’ll have to take this one—thank you for getting me over the finish line.
I count my lucky stars every day to have a second book with my ever kind and wise editor, Lisa Sandell. Thank you also to Jennifer Ung, Starr Baer, Emma Brockway, Saraciea Fennell, Antonio Gonzalez, and the rest of the Scholastic family for sharing your talents with me.
Quinlan Lee and Tracey Adams of Adams Literary provided me with guidance, assurance, and good humor at every step of the process—thank you! Bill Nixon, a neighbor and baseball coach, generously shared his expertise on youth pitching with me. I am also grateful to have visited the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania; I found many helpful details there that I incorporated in this book. And I would be remiss if I did not mention the 2012 Washington Nationals, who taught me what it is to love a team.
At the heart of everything I am able to do is my family. I am blessed to have a mother who told me, “You can do anything,” a father who expected me to be in the game and not on the sidelines, and a brother who challenged me. My husband, David, is my rock—his encouragement and support are as boundless as the sky, and I cannot imagine doing this without him. Our three children, Matthew, Jason, and Kate, keep me on my toes, make me laugh, and remind me to dream. Love you.
WENDY WAN-LONG SHANG is the author of The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, which was awarded the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Award for Children’s Literature. She lives with her family in suburban Washington, DC.
Also by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
THE GREAT WALL OF LUCY WU
Copyright © 2015 by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shang, Wendy Wan-Long, author.
The way home looks now / Wendy Wan-Long Shang.—First edition.
pages cm
Summary: In 1972, after his older brother is killed in a car crash, Peter Lee’s mother is paralyzed by grief and his traditional Chinese father seems emotionally frozen—but Peter hopes that if he joins a Little League team he can reawaken the passion for baseball that all the members of his family used to share and bring them back to life. ISBN 978-0-545-60956-2
1. Chinese American families—Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh—Juvenile fiction. 2. Baseball stories. 3. Traffic accidents—Juvenile fiction. 4. Bereavement—Juvenile fiction. 5. Pittsburgh (Pa.)—History—20th century—Juvenile fiction. [1. Little League baseball—Fiction. 2. Baseball—Fiction. 3. Grief—Fiction. 4. Chinese Americans—Fiction. 5. Pittsburgh (Pa.)—History—20th century—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.S52833Way 2015
813.6—dc23
2014028707
First edition, May 2015
Cover art © 2015 by Penelope Dullaghan
Title design by Abby Kuperstock
Cover design by Sharismar Rodriguez
e-ISBN 978-0-545-60958-6
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.