Shakespeare Bats Cleanup

                 In Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge, a fourteen year old boy named Kevin is sick with mono and cannot play baseball. He is trying to find is identity without the game of baseball in his life due to his friends not accepting him because of his mono. He writes in poetry about his difficulty situations he is dealing with. 

                First, Kevin explains to us about what he used to be. On page 8, he writes a poetry named “I Used to Be”. In this poem, he discusses what type of baseball player he was and how his practices were.

For example, Kevin writes:

A pretty good first baseman, I’m tall and

Limber. With one foot on the bag, I can

Really stretch. Somebody hits one right

Back to the pitcher, he can just about

Hand it to me.

Man, a good double play is beautiful.

That’s mostly what I miss, being part of

Something beautiful. I know, I know. Guys

Don’t’ talk about stuff like that. But his is

Between me and my journal.

Due to his mono, he cannot play. He misses the game; therefore writing about it is the next best thing. He believes he is losing his identity of being a baseball player since he cannot participate in playing.

Throughout the story, Kevin discoveries himself by writing in different forms of poetry. When he had mono he did not associate himself as a baseball player; he was a sick kid. After his mono is gone, he identifies himself as a baseball player again. Kevin writes:

So I’m not the Kevin I used to be. I’m just

glad to be back - - my heart beating

baseball, my nose sniffing baseball.

No more ghosting around my own house.

No more living secondhand. No more

postponing things. Just standing in my

cleats again, a clean uniform on my

unremarkable arms and legs, all of me

just ecstatic to be out there under the invisible stars, playing baseball again. 

Throughout the story, we learn Kevin goes through a sort of depression without baseball in this life. Baseball is a huge part of his life and being his inspiration to begin writing poetry to keep his mind off of the loss of baseball in his life. He realizes being sick was one of the best things that happened to him because he was able to write about stuff that he has trouble talking about such as: love, friendship, loss of his mother. Through poetry, Kevin found himself as a writer. He compares poetry to baseball as he stated “Almost as cool as baseball.” He will always be a baseball player; however, his new identity involves being a poetry writer also.