Harbach's The Art Of Fielding-Was The Climax Believable

Matthew Wurster

Mr. Lombardo

Sports Literature

10 January 2023

The Art of Fielding - Was The Climax Believable? When reading Chad Harbach’s sports fiction novel, The Art of Fielding, a reader may think the book tells a realistic story of a college baseball star and his team. Harbach writes a story about sports and the lives of people around the protagonist, Henry Scrimshander. When reading deeper into the book, Henry’s story is not as realistic as it may have first seemed.

When reading the novel, Harbach tries to make Henry's plot lead up to the climax, the NCAA National Championship. Before all of this Henry was a standout player for his team, playing shortstop for the Westish Harpooners. Looking back at Henry’s accomplishments and skill at baseball, Westish winning the Championship seemed possible. The circumstances that Westish was experiencing turned the Climax of the novel into an unrealistic mess for Henry and his team. Despite Harbach’s best efforts, the climax of the novel is unrealistic and cliche, causing Henry's story to lose some credibility.

Before the big game, however, Henry was not in playing shape at all. He, unfortunately, caught what seemed to be a case of the yips causing him to fall into a depression a

He goes down with 2 strikes thrown by Dougal, Amherst’s star pitcher who was sent in to close the Championship with a win. Henry tries to do something to get into his mind and it works because Dougal talks with his catcher. The chapter ends on a cliffhanger right when the pitch is thrown as Henry “Stepped sharply towards home plate, dipping his shoulder as he did so.” This makes readers question how Henry's at-bat ended. This cliffhanger ending makes the whole scene seem a little less cliche by splitting it into 2 parts but Harbach still can’t hide the fact that it's