The Art of Fielding Chapter 8 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Guert crosses campus to the baseball field, walking past the Melville statue along the way.
  • He's looking for a certain someone, someone he just calls O. (Who knew Oprah was a big fan of college baseball?)
  • He sits in the bleachers and eavesdrops on two people talking about how amazing Henry is, while he keeps looking for this mysterious O. (Obama?)
  • O, there he is: the O whom Guert Affenlight is looking for—it's Owen and he's reading on the bench as usual, when a ball goes wild and hits Owen in the face with a "sickening crunch" (8.38). Ouch.