The Rookie Summary and Analysis

Gopnik described a bedtime story he concocted for Luke after seeing him playing with a soccer ball and realizing that the boy knew nothing about baseball. Gopnik said the Rookie was a three-year-old boy from Anywhere, USA, who discovered in 1908 that he could throw stones with incredible accuracy. He knocked a robin off its perch a mile away and when his mother chided him, he threw another rock that landed in a nest without breaking an egg. His parents reluctantly sent him to the New York Giants, where the management dubiously gave him a tryout. He was so good that they started him as pitcher in an exhibition game. He struck out everyone until the Terrible Ty Cobb came to the plate and sneered that the boy looked like a baby. Cobb dribbled the ball toward first, and when...