Baseball As History and Myth in August Wilsons

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Baseball as History and Myth in August Wilson's
Fences
game of baseballhas long been regardedas a metaphor

for the Americandream- an expressionof hope, democratic
values, and the drive for individual success. Accordingto John
Thorn,baseballhas become "thegreatrepositoryof national
ideals, the symbol of all that [is] good in Americanlife: fairplay
(sportsmanship);the rule of law (objectivearbitrationof disputes);equal opportunity(each side has its innings);the brotherhood of man (bleacherharmony);and more"(qtd. in Elias,"Fit"
3). Baseball'splaying field itself has been viewed as archetypal- a
walled garden,an AmericanEden markedby youth and timelessness. (Thereare no clocksin the game, and the runnersmove
counter-clockwisearoundthe bases.) As formerYale University
presidentand formerbaseballcommissionerBartGiamattionce
wrote, baseballis "thelast pure place where Americanscan
dream"(qtd. in Elias,"Fit"9).
In his PulitzerPrize-winningdramaFences(1987),however,
August Wilson uses both the history and mythology of baseball
to challengethe authenticityof the Americandream.Set in 1957,
just beforethe startof the civil rights movement,Fencestakes
place at a time when organizedbaseballhas finallybecome integrated,but when racialdiscriminationremainswidespread.1
Indeed, the protagonist,TroyMaxon- a formerNegro League
slugger- is consumed with bitterness,convinced that if you are a
blackman in America,"you born with two strikeson you before
you come to the plate"(69).Throughoutthe play Wilson places
Troywithin the historicalcontextof the Negro Leagues,allowing
his characterto echo the feelings of actualblackballplayerswho
were denied a chanceto compete at the major-leaguelevel.
Furthermore,by situatingTroywithin three of baseball'smythic
settings- (1) the garden,(2) the battlefield,and (3) the graveyard
or sacredspace- Wilson contradictsthe idea of Americaas a
"fieldof dreams,"using baseballinstead as a metaphorfor heroic
defiance.2
In FencesWilson taps into a history of blackbaseballthat
began in Americain the decades following the Civil Warand continued in various forms until 1947,when JackieRobinsonfinally
crossedbaseball'scolor line. RogerKahnexplains that "no documents attestto baseball'sapartheid.Therewas simply an understanding among every majorleague club owner and every minor
league club owner for more than 60 years that no blackscould
play in so-calledorganizedbaseball"(38).The Negro National
BaseballLeague,founded in 1920and reorganizedin 1933,contained teams such as the ChicagoAmericanGiantsand the St.
Louis Stars(and, in the 1930s,the HomesteadGraysand the
PittsburghCrawfords- the two clubs most likely to be Troy
Susan Koprince is
of English at the
University of North Dakota,
where she teaches courses in
American fiction and drama.
Her publications include
Understanding Neil Simon
and articles on Tennessee
Williams, William Inge, and
Edith Wharton.
Professor
African American Review, Volume 40, Number 2

2006 Susan Koprince

349
Maxon'steam in Fences)?The Negro

AmericanLeague,originallyformed in
1923as the EasternBaseballLeague,
boasted teams such as the Baltimore
BlackSox and the CubanStars,and
often faced the Negro National League
in a WorldSeries.Legendarystarslike
SatchelPaige,JoshGibson,and Cool
PapaBell all made theirlivelihoods
playing for these segregatedteams,
never having the opportunitybefore
1947to compete at the major-league
level.
So what would life in the Negro
Leagueshave been like for Wilson's
characterTroyMaxon?As Robert
Petersonexplains in OnlytheBallwas
White(1970),the blackballplayerswere
travelingmen- barnstormingthe
countryon any kind of transportation
they could find. They rode in packed
automobilesand on broken-down
buses, playing a game almost every
day and competingall over the country. To supplementtheirincomes, they
often played winter ball in Florida,
California,Cuba,or Mexico."Negro
baseballwas played the year round"
(Peterson3). Accordingto firstbaseman BuckLeonard,this itinerantlife
was not an easy one:
Some seasons we would play 210
ball games. You're riding every day,
playing in differenttowns. No air conditioning.Mealswere bad. WhenI first
startedplaying, we were getting 60<ta
day on which to eat. (Rust33)
Sometimeswe'd stay in hotels that
had so manybedbugsyou had to put a
newspaperdown between the mattress
and the sheets. (Holway259)
greaterfreedomand respectwhen they

traveledoutside the bordersof the
United States,"theso-calledland of the
free"(Craft69).
In FencesWilson uses Troy'sexperiencein the Negro Leaguesto demonstratethat the Americandream
remainedout of reachfor people of
Africandescent.When Troy'sfriend
JimBono remarksthat BabeRuthand
JoshGibsonwere the only players to
hit more home runs than Troy,Troy
answers, "Whatit ever get me? Ain't
got a pot to piss in or a window to
throw it out of" (9). Troy'swife, Rose,
and Bono both claim that times have
changed since JackieRobinsonbroke
the colorbarrierin baseball,that many
blackplayers are involved in professional sportsnow, and that Troy "just
come along too early"(9). To this argument Troyresponds indignantly:
There ought not never have been no
time called too early! . . .1 done seen a
hundred niggers play baseball better
than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I know
some teams JackieRobinson couldn't
even make! What you talking about
JackieRobinson.JackieRobinsonwasn't nobody. I'm talking about if you
could play ball then they ought to have
let you play. Don't carewhat coloryou
were. Come telling me I come along
too early. If you could play . . . then
they ought to have let you play. (9-10)
Troy'scomplaintsecho the words

of actualplayers frombaseball'sNegro
Leagues,a numberof whom have
sharedtheir experiencesin oral histories such as JohnHolway's Voicesfrom
the GreatBlackBaseballLeagues(1975).4
The fleet-footedoutfielderCool Papa

The blackballplayersalso had to
Bell, for example, commentedthat durcontendwith racismin the United
Statesand were unable to stay at hotels ing his playing days in the Negro
that cateredto whites or to eat in
Leagues,"thedoors were not open, not
restaurants.
whites-only
GeorgeGiles, only in baseball,but other avenues that
a firstbasemanfor the St. Louis Stars, we couldn'tenter.They say I was born
recalled:"Theracismwe faced while I too soon. I say the doors were opened
was in the Negro Leagueswas one of
up too late"(Holway 40). Likewise,
firstbasemanGeorgeGiles observed:
the things that eventually pushed me
I was treatedlike a "Peoplesay to me, 'George,you were
out of baseball
second-classcitizen in my own country born too soon to be one of the ones to
make it to the big leagues'
me
[But]I
by people who knew they hated
beforeI could even say 'Hello' " (Craft was born in the United Statesof
America.I'm an American,not a for44). Ironically,most players found
350
REVIEW
AFRICAN
AMERICAN

the 1930sand 40s. As Troyrevealsnear

the end of act 1, he first learnedto play
baseballin prison,where he served a
15-yearterm for knifing a man to death
in an attemptedrobbery.Headstrong
and confrontational,an actualTroy
would never have turnedthe other
cheek or failed to retaliatewhen
abused. Even in Wilson'sfictive world
of 1957,he is regardedas a "troublemaker"for complainingthatblack
garbageworkersshould be able to
drive the trucks,just like white men.
Not only was Troy "borntoo early,"
therefore,but Wilson portrayshim as
lackingthe conciliatorytemperament
to be one of the first players to break
baseball'scolorbarrier.
As SandraShannonhas suggested,
Troyis modeled in part on Wilson's
stepfather,David Bedford,a talented
blackfootballplayer who, afterfailing
to receive a much-hoped-forcollege
scholarship,killed a man during a robbery and spent over 20 years in prison
(DramaticVision91-92).But Troyis also
patternedafterJoshGibson,"theBabe
Ruthof the Negro Leagues,"and the
man to whom Troyhimself points as
an example of someone who never had
the chanceto realizethe American
dream.Muscularand six-feet-one-inch
tall, Gibsonhad the "largeness"-both
of body and character- that we recognize in TroyMaxon.He enjoyeda
spectacular17-yearcareerwith the
PittsburghCrawfords and the
HomesteadGrays,hitting nearly800
home runs, including 75 homers in a
single season.5He also hit for a high
average,winning a battingtitle in 1943
with a spectacularmarkof .521."Josh
was the most powerful hitterwe had in
the Negro leagues,"recalledLeonard.
"Isaw him hit one out of Yankee
Stadium.At the Polo Grounds,I saw
him hit one between the upper deck
and the roof. It hit an elevated train
trackoutside the park"(Rust35).
DramaticVision 97).
Despite his legendaryabilities,
Unlike Robinson,Troyis no model however, Gibsonwas never given the
chanceto play in the majorleagues- a
citizen,and as an actualperson,he
would surely have increasedtensions circumstancethat may well have conin the raciallychargedenvironmentof tributedto his untimely death. As
eigner.Foryears, foreignerscame here

and had more opportunitythan I had"
(Craft69). Upon being inducted into
baseball'sHall of Famein 1972,Buck
Leonardemphasizedthat the Negro
Leagueplayers all wanted to compete
in the majorleagues, and his eyes
reportedlyfilled with tears as he said,
"Butit's too late for me" (Goldstein
A13).
TroyMaxon'sdisparagingremarks
aboutJackieRobinsonare also voiced,
to some extent,in the oral historiesof
actualNegro Leagueplayers.
Accordingto Leonard,when Robinson
was signed by the Dodgers, other players in the Negro Leaguesdid not
regardhim that highly: "Atthat time
we didn't think too much of Robinson.
... He was a hustler,but otherthan
that he wasn't a top shortstop.We said,
'We don't see how he can make it' "
(Holway 267). CatcherJoe Greene
expressedhis resentmentthat
Robinsonwas the player to get all the
attention:"Istill say we did a lot for
the game, even if nobody knows about
us. They say JackieRobinsonpaved the
way. He didn't pave the way. We did"
(Holway xviii).
Of course,it was not for his ability
alone that Robinsonwas selected as the
first AfricanAmericanto play majorleague baseball.He was regardedas a
role model: an exemplaryhuman
being, someone who didn't smoke or
drink,who was not hostile and defiant,
and who was likely to get along well
with white players and baseballexecutives. Robinsonhimself wrote:"This
playerhad to be one who could take
abuse,name-calling,rejectionby fans
and sportswritersand by fellow players not only on opposing teams but on
his own. He had to be able to stand up
in the face of mercilesspersecutionand
not retaliate.On the otherhand ... he
still had to have spirit.He could not be
an "UncleTom"(qtd. in Shannon,
ANDMYTHINAUGUSTWILSON'SFENCES
BASEBALL
AS HISTORY

351
teammate Ted Page noted, "Josh knew

Curiously enough, in Fences,Troy
he was major-league quality" (Peterson aligns himself with "the house of
Ruth" rather than with "the house of
168). In the early 1940s, Gibson began
to drink excessively and also develRobinson," not only through his overt
a
that
criticism of Robinson, but through his
brain
tumor
caused
recuroped
ring headaches and blackouts. He died self-styled image as a slugger. Like
of a stroke at the age of 35, just a few
Babe Ruth (and his Negro League
months before Robinson crossed
counterpart, Gibson), Troy has
embraced a conmajor-league
baseball's color
In Fences the national pastime servative
line. In Fences
approach to the
stained
the
nation's
is
racism,
by
is
Troy
sport of baseball,
clearly
with
familiar
Edenic promise is illusory,
eschewing the
Gibson's story
running game of
and even con- and the traditional mythology of Robinson or the
trasts Gibson's baseball is counter revolutionary. spectacular fieldsituation
ing of Mays, and
with that of a white ballplayer named
focusing instead on hitting the ball out
Selkirk who batted a paltry .269 for the of the park. Troy says to Bono, "You
Yankees: "I saw Josh Gibson's daughget one of them fastballs, about waist
ter yesterday. She walking around with high, over the outside corner of the
raggedy shoes on her feet. Now I bet
plate where you can get the meat of the
bat on it ... and good god! You can
you Selkirk's daughter ain't walking
around with raggedy shoes on her feet! kiss it goodbye" (10). By connecting
I bet you that!" (9). Troy himself, of
himself with "the house of Ruth" (a
course, has outlived Gibson, proving to tradition that Early links with white
be more of a survivor; but he can easily male privilege and the fulfillment of
the American dream), Troy not only
identify with this Negro League heronot only because of the man's brilliant transcends certain racial stereotypes,
athletic ability, but because Gibson's
but he affirms that he can beat the
life epitomizes for Troy the bitter expe- white man at his own game.
rience of the black ballplayer who was
When talking about significant
born "too soon."
events in his personal life, however,
In The Cultureof Bruising (1994),
Troy at times identifies with
Gerald Early notes that Robinson and
Robinson's style of play. Using the
other black athletes transformed the
game of baseball as an analogue for his
of
baseball
a
own experience, Troy tells Rose that
game
by introducing
more aggressive, free-wheeling style of when he married her, he fooled everyplay- one that emphasized speed, dar- one by bunting: "I was safe. I had me a
ing base running, and timely hitting.
family. A job. I wasn't gonna get that
Unlike "the house of Ruth," which val- last strike. I was on first looking for
ued the home run above all else, "the
one of them boys to knock me in. To
house of Robinson" relied on the bunt, get me home" (70). Frustrated after a
the stolen base, and the hit and run.
life of hard work and no visible reward
This flashier, more dynamic style was
(or "[standing] on first base," as he
Bell
in
Cool
(who,
exemplified by
Papa
puts it), Troy engages in an extramaria game against a team of major-league tal affair- a behavior that he compares
All Stars, scored from first base on a
to a base runner's impulse to steal secsacrifice bunt) and was later perfected
ond: "Then when I saw that gal . . . she
firmed
Robinson
and
Willie
who
by
up my backbone. And I got to
Mays,
and
to
brought speed
thinking that if I tried ... I just might
flamboyance
be
able to steal second. Do you underfacet
of
the
their
every
game,
caps flystand after eighteen years I wanted to
ing off as they rounded the bases or
steal second" (70).
pursued a fly ball.
352
AFRICAN
AMERICAN
REVIEW

Troy'smetaphoricalreferencesto
Robinson'sbrandof baseballhelp to
capturewhat W. E. B. Du Bois called
the "two-ness"or double consciousness of AfricanAmericanexperience;
for as a black slugger in a world dominated by whites, Troyinevitably
belongs simultaneouslyto "thehouse
of Ruth"and "thehouse of Robinson."
He is both an Americanand a black
man- "two souls, two thoughts, two
unreconciledstrivings;two warring
ideals in one darkbody, whose dogged
strengthalone keeps it frombeing torn
asunder"(Du Bois 45). Driven to see
himself (and to measurehis success)
throughthe lens of white America,
Troyembodiesboth the psychological
fragmentationof the blackAmerican
and the dualisticnatureof blackbaseball-a culturalinstitutionthat Early
describesas an "ironicallycompressed
expressionof shame and pride, of
degradationand achievement"(qtd. in
Tygiel92).
Besides invoking the history of the
Negro Leaguesin Fences,Wilson makes
use of the mythology of baseballto
reveal the failed promise of the
Americandream.As Deeanne
Westbrookobservesin GroundRules:
BaseballandMyth(1996),baseball's
playing field can be understoodas an
archetypalgarden- an image of innocence and timeless space- an
AmericanEden.In W. P. Kinsella's
novel ShoelessJoe(1982),for example,
the protagonistRay Kinsellarediscovers Edenby building a baseballparkin
his Iowa cornfield,creating"awalled
gardenof eternalyouth."Playersfrom
baseball'spast enter this magicalgarden, "notmiddle-agedor elderly, as
they were at their deaths,but young, as
they were at theirmoments of peak
performance.They occupy the mythic
present"(Westbrook102).
In Fencesthe closest that Troy
comes to participatingin the American
dream- and hence inhabitingsuch a
paradise- is during his life in the
Negro Leagues.Wilson associatesthe
Americandreamwith Troy'syounger
days as a ballplayer:with self-affirma-
tion, limitless possibilities,and the

chancefor heroic success. The very act
of hitting a home run- especiallywhen
the ball is hit over the fence- suggests
extraordinarystrengthand the ability
to transcendlimits. Troy'sson Lyons
recallsseeing his fatherhit a home run
over the grandstand:"Rightout there
in HomesteadField. He wasn't satisfied hitting in the seats ... he want to
hit it over everything!After the game
he had two hundred people standing
aroundwaiting to shake his hand"
(94).Troyhimself claims that he hit
seven home runs off of SatchelPaige.
"Youcan'tget no betterthan that,"he
boasts (34).
ForTroy,however, the American
dreamhas turned into a prolonged
nightmare.Insteadof limitless opportunity, he has come to know racialdiscriminationand poverty. At age 53,
this formerNegro Leaguehero is a
garbagecollectorwho ekes out a meager existence,working arduouslyto
supporthis family and living from
hand to mouth. "Ido the best I can
do," he tells Rose. "Icome in here
every Friday.I carrya sack of potatoes
and a bucket of lard.You all line up at
the door with your hands out. I give
you the lint from my pockets.I give
you my sweat and my blood. I ain't got
no tears.I done spent them"(40).Troy
claims that he would not even have a
roof over his head if it were not for the
$3,000that the governmentgave to his
mentally disabledbrother,Gabriel,following a serious head injuryin World
WarII.
Wilson accentuatesTroy'sexclusion from the AmericanEdenby convertingbaseball'smythicalgardeninto
an ironicversion of paradise.In the
stage directionsto Fences,Wilson indicates that the legendary "fieldof
dreams"has been reduced to the
"smalldirt yard"(xvi) in frontof
Troy'shome- his currentplaying field.
Incompletelyfenced, the yard contains
lumberand other fence-buildingmaterials, as well as two oil drums used as
garbagecontainers.A baseballbat"themost visible symbol of [Troy's]
BASEBALL
AS HISTORY

353
deferreddreams"(Shannon,Fences
46)- is propped up againsta tree, from
which therehangs "aball made of
rags"(xvi). As the setting reveals,Troy
does not inhabita walled garden of
timeless youth. At 53, he cannot
reclaimhis past glory as a power hitter;
nor can he participatein the American
dream.His playing field in 1957has
deterioratedinto one of dirt, garbage,
and rags. Indeed, only afterTroy's
death at the end of the play, when his
fence is completed and when his
daughterRaynellplants a small garden
in frontof the house, is thereeven a
suggestion of a walled paradise.
Accordingto Westbrook,baseball's
archetypalplaying field can also
become a battleground- a scene of violent confrontation- much like the
heroic fights at Valhalla,the "homeof
the slain"in Norse mythology. Each
morningthe warriorsarm themselves
for combatand battle one another
fiercelyin the greatcourtyard,returning to the banquethall in the evening
to feast and boast of theirexploits. As
Westbrooknotes, "Theritualized
aggressionof both Valhallaand baseball field is rule governed . . . and endlessly repeatable"(109).The baseball
players are modern-daywarriors,the
bat and ball are weapons, and the
game itself a substitutefor combat.
In FencesWilson convertsTroy's
playing field into a battleground- an
image reinforcedby referencesto
WorldWarII (duringwhich Gabriel
got "halfhis head blown off" [28]),to
the "Armyof Death"(11),and to the
Battleof Armageddon(when, according to Gabriel,"Godget to waving that
Judgmentsword" [47]).Throughout
the play Troyis picturedas a batter/
warrior,fighting to earn a living and to
stay alive in a world that repeatedly
discriminatesagainsthim. As Shannon
has noted, Troysees life as a baseball
contest;he sees himself as perpetually
in the batter'sbox (DramaticVision
110).He tells Rose:"Yougot to guard
[the plate] closely . . . always looking
for the curve-ballon the inside corner.
You can'taffordto let none get past
354
you. You can'tafforda call strike.If

you going down . . . you going down
swinging" (69).
Troy'sfrontyard is literallyturned
into a battlegroundduring his confrontationswith his younger son, Cory.
Bitterabouthis own exclusion from
major-leaguebaseball,Troyis resistant
when Corywants to attend college on
a footballscholarship,telling his son
that black athleteshave to be twice as
talentedto make the team and that
"thewhite man ain't gonna let you get
nowhere with that footballnoway"
(35).But Cory,who seems to believe in
the promise of the Americandreamparticularlyfor black athletesin the
1950s-insists that Troyis selfishly
holding him back from success:"You
just scaredI'm gonna be betterthan
you, that's all" (58).The intergenerational conflictreadies a climaxin act 2,
when Troyand Coryengage in an ironic version of the all-Americanfatherand-son game of catch(Birdwell91).
"Getyour black ass out of my yard!"
(87),Troywarns Cory,afterwhich the
two combatantsfight furiouslyover
Troy'sbat/weaponuntil Coryis
expelled from his father'splaying field.
Troy'seffortsto preventhis son
from playing footballcan be viewed as
a form of what HarryJ. Elam,Jr.,calls
"racialmadness"- a termthat suggests
that social and politicalforces can
impactthe blackpsyche and that
decades of oppressioncan induce a collective psychosis.6In Fencesthis racial
madness is illustratedmost vividly in
the characterof Troy'smentallyhandicapped brother,Gabriel,but it is also
revealedin Troyhimself, who is so
overwhelmedby bitternessthat he
destroyshis son's dreamof a college
education- a dreamthat most fathers
would happily support.Instead,Troy
instructsCoryto stickwith his job at
the A & P or learn a tradelike carpentry or auto mechanics:"Thatway you
have somethingcan'tnobody take
away from you" (35).Thereis a certain
method, however, to Troy'smadness;
for why should he expect college football (anotherwhite power structure)to
AFRICAN
AMERICAN
REVIEW

treathis son any betterthan majorleague baseballtreatedhim? Why

should he believe, in 1957,that times
have really changedfor blackmen?
Anxious for Coryto find economic
security,and, more importantly,selfrespect,Troyexclaimsto Rose, "Idon't
want him to be like me! I want him to
move as far away from my life as he
can get" (39).
In Amiri Baraka'splay Dutchman
(1964),the AfricanAmericanprotagonist Clay advocatesa violent solution
to the problemof racialmadness,
telling his white adversary,Lula,that
"theonly thing that would cure the
neurosis would be your murder.
Crazyniggers turnSimple as that
their
backs
on
sanity.When all it
ing
need is that simple act. Murder.Just
Murder!"(qtd. in Elam63). In Fences
Troy'sresponseto the racialmadness
that infectshim is much less revolutionarythan Clay's,but it is combative
nonetheless.Troychooses to challenge
the white man, literally,by engaging in
a form of social activism,that is, by
taking a job complaintto his boss, Mr.
Rand,and then to the commissioner's
office.Moreover,he teacheshis son
how to fight. During their climactic
strugglein act 2, TroydeliberatelyconfrontsCory,tauntinghim, grabbingthe
bat from him, and insisting that he
teach Coryhow to swing. Determined
to preparehis son for combatin a racist
society, Troyuses the weapons and
language of baseballas his teaching
tools. "Don'tyou strikeout,"he tells
Cory afteran earlieraltercation."You
living with a full count. Don't you
strikeout" (72).
Troy'splaying field is the scene not
only of father-sonconflict,but of marital strifeas well. In act 2 Rose learns
that Troyhas been unfaithfulto her
and has fathereda child with his mistress, Alberta.When Troytries to
explain (and even justify)his infidelity
by using baseballanalogies,Rose is not
impressed."We'renot talkingabout
baseball!"she says. "We'retalking
aboutyou going off to lay in bed with
anotherwoman . . . and then bring it
home to me. That'swhat we're talking

about.We ain't talkingabout no baseball" (70).Afterthe conflictbetween
Rose and Troyescalatesinto a cold
war- the two of them rarelyspeaking
to one another- it is the wounded
Rose, ratherthan Troy,who eventually
dominatesthe battle,takingin his
motherlessdaughterand telling Troy:
"Fromrightnow . . . this child got a
mother.But you a womanless man"
(79).
When viewed as battleground,
baseball'ssetting invites stories of
mythic confrontation(for example,Joe
Hardy'sheroic contestwith the
Yankeesin Douglass Wallop's1954
novel The Yearthe YankeesLost the
Pennantor Roy Hobbs's showdown

with Walter"theWhammer"
Wamboldin BernardMalamud's1952
TheNatural). As Westbrookexplains,
baseball'sbattlegroundcan be understood as a sanctuaryfor heroes- a
space "reservedfor the elite, the masculine, the bravestand best" (108).In
FencesTroysees himself as belonging
to this masculinebattleground.Indeed,
throughoutthe play he uses the game
of baseballto preservea heroic selfimage. Although his glory days in the
Negro Leaguesare farbehind him,
Troystill views himself as the strong
man, the indomitableslugger of old.
When Cory tells him that Hank Aaron
just hit his forty-thirdhome run, Troy
replies, "Ain'tnothing to it. It'sjust a
matterof timing . . . getting the right
follow-through.Hell, I can hit fortythreehome runs rightnow!" (34).
Troy'sdreamof playing in the major
leagues has been crushedby a racist
society, but in his own imaginationhe
is still at bat, still young, still a formidable threatat the plate. He is not Troy
Maxon,garbagecollector,but Troy
Maxon,power hitterand hero.
Clingingto this heroic image of
himself, Troymaintainsan attitudeof
defiancethroughoutthe play. He refuses to give in to his opponent,whether
it is the white man, the devil, or death
itself. In fact,Wilson specificallylinks
the figures of the devil and death with
AS HISTORY
BASEBALL

355
white racism,depictingthe devil as a

white furnituresalesmanwho exploits
blacksby chargingexorbitantinterest
rates,and death as a grim reaperin a
hooded white robe- evoking images of
the Ku KluxKlan."Deathain'tnothing," says Troy,when Rose warns him
about drinkinghimself to death. "I
done seen him. Done wrassled with
him. You can'ttell me nothing about
death. Death ain'tnothing but a fastball on the outside corner.And you
know what I'll do to that!"(10).In act
2, afterlearningthat Albertahas died
giving birthto his daughter,Troy
speaks directlyto "Mr.Death,"warning him to stay on the other side of the
fence until he is ready for him; and
near the end of the play, aftera final
strugglewith Cory,Troyboldly
assumes the batting stanceof the heroic ballplayer,taunting "Death,the fastball [on] the outside corner
It's
between you and me now! Come on!
Anytime you want! Come on! I be
ready for you . . . but I ain't gonna be
easy" (89).
Troy'syard- his battlefield- also
becomes his dying place and ultimately a kind of hallowed ground. This
symbolicuse of space sustains the
mythology of baseball;for, as
Westbrookobserves,baseball'sarchetypal playing field can become a graveyard-a scene of literalor metaphorical
death (156-58).In Kinsella'snovel
ShoelessJoe,for instance,the baseball
field that Ray Kinsellabuilds in his
Iowa cornfieldserves as a gravesite/
shrinefor ghostly ballplayersfrom the
past. Ray even installshome plate
"carefully,securely,like a grave marker" (21).In Malamud'snovel The
Natural,outfielderBump Baileyis actually killed at the ballparkwhen he runs
into a wall "with a skull-breaking
bang"(72),and Roy Hobbs, afterstriking out during the final plate appearance of his career,ceremoniously
buries the pieces of his brokenbat,
Wonderboy,making a "gravein the
dry earth"of left field (214).The connectionbetween baseball'sspace and
death is also accentuatedby the vocab356
ulary of the game itself (namely,"suicide squeeze,""sacrificefly," "twin

killing");and, of course,a baseballcontest cannotend in a draw:one team
must eventually lose (or "die").
Despite its traditionalassociations
with the Americandream,the game of
baseballis thus infused with a tragic
strain,one that is highlighted at the
end of Fencesin Rose's accountof how
Troyhas died:
He still got thatpiece of rag tied to that
tree. He was out here swinging that
bat. I was just ready to go back in the
house. He swung that bat and then he
just fell over. Seem like he swung it
and stood there with this grin on his
face . . . and then he just fell over. (9596)
Troyknows that he cannotkeep death

at bay forever- that "everybodygonna
die" (10),but he is determinedto look
death squarelyin the face and to "[go]
down swinging" (69).As Kim Pereira
has observed,"if a hero is one who
goes into a battle that he may or may
not win, TroyMaxonpossesses, in full
measure,[that]warriorspirit. . ." (37).
BecauseTroydies the death of a
valiantbatter/warrior,his playing field
in 1965is finally picturedas consecrated ground. It is the spot where his family gathers- as if at a memorialservice-to reflecton Troy'slife and
death. It is the place where Troy's
daughterRaynellhas plantedher garden and where Cory and Raynellsing
Troy'ssong about Old Blue, the dog
who died and went to the Promised
Land.Most importantly,the yard is the
setting for Troy'sentry into heavenas imaginedby his brotherGabriel,
who believes himself to be the
ArchangelGabriel.SignalingSaint
Peterto open the gates of heaven for
Troy,Gabrielmakes an unsuccessful
effortto blow his trumpet,then begins
a primitivedance,howling in "an
attemptat song" or speech (101).As
light fills the stage at the end of the
play, "thegates of heaven stand open
as wide as God's closet"(101)7
By depictingTroy'sfinal playing
field as sacredspace, Wilson mytholo-
AFRICAN
AMERICAN
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gizes his AfricanAmericanhero and

celebratesTroy'swarriorspirit- a spirit that would come to dominatethe
1960'scivil rights era, when "thehot
winds of change . . . [would] blow full"
(xviii).Although the Americandream
has eluded Troy,the game of baseball
has ultimatelytaughthim how to live
his life- how to fight heroicallywhen
the odds are againsthim and how to
find dignity in the struggle of life.
Baseball,of course,has always been a
fertileground for the creationof
heroes- from BabeRuth,to Joe
DiMaggio,to Willie Mays, to Barry
Bonds. GeorgeGrellahas argued that
"thegame suggests to man his godlike
potential:it reveals to him . . . the transcendentcapabilitieswithin his life, his
sparkof divinity"(qtd. in Elias,"Fit"
23). In Fencesthe audienceis finally left
with the image of such a hero in Troy
Maxon,the defiant,larger-than-lifebatter/warrior.Indeed,when the gates of
heaven open and Gabrielshouts the
final line of the play, "That'sthe way
that go!" (101),it's as if Troyhas hit
one last home run and is circlingthe

bases in triumph.8
Although Wilson's dramasare typically grounded in elements of African
and AfricanAmericanculturesincluding ritual,superstition,the blues,
and jazz- Fencesis unique in that it
appropriatesa traditionallywhite culturalform- baseball- in orderto portray an AfricanAmericanexperiencein
the twentiethcentury.By adopting this
white culturalform,Wilson artfully
expressesTroyMaxon'sdouble consciousness-his complicatedexperience as a blackman in a white-dominated world. At the same time, Wilson
createsa "subversivenarrative"that
competeswith the AmericanDream
itself (Shannon,Fences20). Thus,he
demonstratesthat the nationalpastime
has been stainedby racism,that the
Edenicpromise of Americais illusory,
and that the traditionalmythology of
baseballmust ultimatelymake room
for a new and revolutionarymythos:
that of the defiantAfricanAmerican
warrior.
1. Timpane notes that major-league baseball was not completely integrated in 1957, the year in
which most of the action of Fences occurs: "Though blacks had been playing in the major leagues
since 1947, it would take until 1959 for each major league team to have at least one black player"
(70).
2. Although previous scholars have discussed the subject of baseball in Fences-especially Troy
Maxon's reliance on baseball metaphors-no study to date has examined Wilson's use of the history
of black baseball as reflected in the oral accounts of Negro League players and his appropriation of
baseball's mythology to express a social and political message. Such an examination is in keeping
with a recent burgeoning interest in both the oral histories of Negro League players and scholarly
studies of baseball as a form of popular culture. These sources, I believe, help to shed new light on
Wilson's 1987 drama.
3. Wilson might well have imagined Fences as set in his hometown of Pittsburgh; if so, he would
also likely have imagined that Troy played for the Homestead Grays or the Pittsburgh Crawfords, two
of the most talented Negro League teams during the 1930s and 40s. When describing Troy's son's
recollection of Troy's baseball heroics, Wilson even has Lyons refer to "Homestead Field"(94).
4. It is no surprise to find this connection between Fences and oral history; for, as Elam notes,
"Wilsonhas his characters make history through processes of oral transmission, replicating oral practices from early African cultures that continued throughout the diaspora" (12).
5. Gibson's exact record is unknown since complete statistics were not kept in baseball's Negro
Leagues.
6. Invoking the theories of psychiatrist-philosopher Frantz Fanon as well as the perspectives of Du
Bois, Ellison, and others, Elam emphasizes that "racialmadness" does not imply a pathology in
blackness itself. Rather it is "a trope that became operative in clinical practice, literarycreation, and
cultural theory in the modern period as artists, critics, and practitioners identified social and cultural
roots for black psychological impairment"(59). During his discussion of racial madness in Fences,
Elam focuses on Troy's brain-damaged brother, Gabriel, whom he describes as a force for redemption.
AS HISTORY
BASEBALL

Notes
357
7. This sacred space is pictured as both Christian and African;for, as many critics have noted,
Gabriel's atavistic dance suggests a connection with an African spiritual realm.
8. Troy's spirit of defiance, as well as his showmanship, reflects the spirit of the Negro Leagues.
McDaniels has argued that "these African American ballplayers were continuing a tradition of resistance that had been engrained in their psyches since slavery" (198). They "dared to play what was
designated as a white man's sport" (194). Referring to The Bingo Long TravelingAll-Stars and Motor
Kings-Q 1976 movie celebrating the Negro Leagues-McDaniels particularlyfocuses on the role of
performance (e.g., showboating and clowning) in resisting white supremacy. James Earl Jones, who
portrayed Troy Maxon in the original Broadway production of Fences, was also featured in Bingo
Long.
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American Dream."Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature8 (Fall 1990): 87-96.
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358
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AMERICAN
REVIEW


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