How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"I mean, all of you guys—you, Mike, my dad. Maybe Owen too, though I don't really know Owen. You all just seem to love it here. Like you never want to leave. Part of me suspects that Mike didn't want to get into law school, that he sabotaged himself in some subconscious way, so that he has no reason to leave this place, the only place he ever felt happy." (55.28)
Pella makes a good point about everyone just wanting to stay at Westish forever (this also ties into the theme of inertia), but as we asked before, why do they want to stay? What's so darn special about Westish?
Quote #8
Strange how little Coach Cox talked about his family; strange how little you wound up knowing about the people around you. (58.2)
Maybe if everyone wasn't so focused on Henry, they'd know more about the coach. Shouldn't he be just as much a part of the community as everyone else? Or is he extraneous? What role does he serve that Mike doesn't fill?
Quote #9
Henry was their father and Schwartz was abuelo. But now their father had abandoned them, as fathers often did, and the old man was back in charge. (69.4)
The team is kind of like a little family, with Mike and Henry in charge. We're not sure where the "fathers often did" line comes from, though. No other fathers in this book abandoned their children. The baseball team is a pretty functional community.