Who has the Power in the Book"Center Field" by Robert Lipsyte

3x35y3

            The book center field by Robert Lipsyte is about a high-school boy named Mike. Mike is on the school baseball team but gets into a fight and throughout the season has to serve probation. After all this there is a scene where mike is at a party and wants to become captain of the baseball team. At the party Mike must go through a ritual to become a captain. He gets into both of these incidents because he doesn’t assert himself and give himself power.

            In the text Mikes teammates have the power, which leads to peer pressure. This happens over the course of the book. At the beginning of the book Mike feels like he needs to show he’s worth something and a “jock”. He does this by punching a kid in the tech group after a fight. This gets him in trouble even though Mike is really a good guy.

            Later on in the book, after serving his punishments for the earlier incident he tries to become team captain. To become captain of the baseball team at Mike’s school the players put you through a ritual. The ritual has to do with getting blindfolded, a team discussion- and then prying with baseball bats. In the end, Mike accepts and has to chug an unknown drink. In this part of the story Mike’s friends and the baseball team had the power. They ganged up on him. 8- 1 at that point and forced him to do things he didn’t want to. They persuaded him to say yes and Mike let himself be pushed around.

            Throughout the story I feel Mike never really has power. I feel he lets others get power and let them abuse it. Because of this Mike is never really in control of his actions or decisions. I think if Mike asserted himself more he could get out of situations like the two above instead of just going along with them. I wonder if Mike’s life would be very different had he not punched the kid in the first place.