TOW #7- On a Trip to Fenway

If I say peanut butter, the first word that comes to your mind is jelly.  If I say flotsam, the first word that comes to your mind is jetsam.  If I say ALS, the first phrase that comes to your mind is Lou Gehrig’s disease.  The two have become completely synonymous- what started out as a simple way to remember what this disease was has become so ingrained in our culture that it is used a medical term by professionals.  This is simply a matter of semantics to most Americans; however, for Bill Malinowski, it extends beyond.  Bill is a diehard Red Sox fan (and thus a diehard Yankees hater), who also happens to have ALS.  The unfortunate irony is that what will one day take his life is named after a ball player who was on a team he hates more than anything else in the world. 

This week, I read an article called “On a Trip to Fenway, Only the Game Was Meaningless” by Dan Barry.  I plan on reading a couple more articles by Dan Barry in the coming weeks as a part of my GIEP goal of exploring the different types of rhetoric used by famous journalists.  Dan Barry is currently a journalist for the New York Times.  This article is about Barry’s dear friend Bill, and his fight against ALS.  Barry recounts a recent summer night when he and Bill went to a meaningless Red Sox game.  This article included baseball, but it was about so much more.  Barry used elements of narrative and the rhetorical device of short sentences in order to achieve his purpose of showing how baseball can help someone dealing with something much greater than a sport. 

This entire article is basically a narrative, since Barry is recounting his experience with Bill.  He characterizes Bill in such a way that the audience begins to somewhat understand this man.  He inserts text messages that Bill has sent him in the past:

May 4: “Doc says I have ALS.”

May 20: “Great joy! The Skanks have lost 8 of 11 & the Sox are pitching well.”

June 2: “I despise A-Fraud. The ultimate jerk.”

June 18: “I despise the Yankees, the most hated team in pro sports.”

June 28: “Just got a leg brace on Thursday @ Mass General. It helps stabilize my walking.”

July 27: “Just took the Detroit series!”

Sept. 8: “I can go with you to a night game...Just scheduled an appointment at Johns Hopkins...”

By including these different texts, the audience can begin to understand Bill’s priorities and the thought process that he makes.  This makes helps Barry’s purpose by allowing the audience to get a deeper understanding of his subject.

Barry also uses short sentences for dramatic effect.  After spending much of the first half of the article talking about Bill’s history and ALS, he brings us back into the present by talking about the baseball game they are attending.  As a transition, he simple uses, “Baseball” (Barry 2).  In a paragraph unto itself, this simple word changes the entire tone and completion of the text.  It helps Barry achieve his purpose by relating baseball and ALS in a way that fits his needs.