Three weeks later, Henry arrives at Westish. He’s nervous about the prospect of his room assignment. Schwartz arranged everything, and Henry finds it incredible that someone who is just a student can wield so much power. Henry is from Langton, South Dakota, a small town where his father is a foreman, his mother is an X-ray technician, and his sister, Sophie, is a sophomore in high school.

While growing up, Henry idolized Aparicio Rodriguez, a legendary shortstop who wrote about his baseball philosophy in his book The Art of Fielding. Henry followed Aparicio’s book like a religion, making sure that no one else touched his glove, which he calls Zero.

Henry has always played shortstop. He’s small for his age, which always makes coaches doubt his ability to play one of the most demanding positions. He was named the variety shortstop during his junior year in high school. As a senior, he was upset after realizing that he was unlikely to receive a scholarship because he was so much smaller than his peers.

After the game against Westish, Schwartz approached him and asked which college he was going to play at. Henry doubted Schwartz’s ability to follow through on his grandiose promises to help him obtain a scholarship at Westish, and Henry’s parents were skeptical about a player’s ability to secure another player a scholarship, but Schwartz delivered. He drove to South Dakota to take Henry’s father to lunch and persuade him that Henry belonged at Westish.

Henry is assigned to Phumber 405, a dorm in the small quad. His roommate, Owen, introduces himself and acknowledges that he is gay and also one of Henry’s teammates. Owen is the recipient of the Maria Westish Award and was supposed to have his own room but received a phone call from Westish President Guert Affenlight asking him to consider having a roommate.

Owen and Henry become good friends. Owen is rarely in the room because he often stays with Jason, whom he’s dating. Henry feels overwhelmed by college, where his peers’ academic and athletic skills intimidate him.

Henry spends his first Thanksgiving away from home. His parents call him, worried that Owen is gay. They dislike that Owen bought Henry clothes. Henry realizes that he’s in college now and isn’t bound by his parents’ antigay views.

Henry joins Schwartz and their teammate Adam Starblind for midnight weightlifting. Their banter awes Henry. Schwartz leads them through workouts, coaching Henry on his form, and introduces him to SuperBoost 9000, a protein drink that he swears by.

Two months later, Henry anxiously arrives at tryouts. He’s delighted that he and Owen both make the team.

Six weeks later, the Harpooners fly to Florida for a tournament. They pile into a cheap motel. Owen reads in the dugout. Henry doesn’t start since he’s a freshman and the incumbent shortstop is a senior. Schwartz studies for the LSAT.

Schwartz starts a fight with Lev, the other shortstop, who then must sit out the game. Henry gets to start and plays incredible defense. They go 2-9 during the tournament but return to Westish feeling optimistic.

Henry gains 12 pounds of muscle during freshman year. He and Schwartz train hard. By the start of his junior season, he has become a prospect, and scouts are showing up at games. He’s one game away from tying Aparicio’s record for the most consecutive errorless games.

In 1880, author Herman Melville set out to tour the Great Lakes. In 1969, Westish undergraduate Guert Affenlight discovered previously uncovered writing by Melville. He threw himself into literature and attempted to write a novel. Eventually, he discovered that his true passion was academia, and he became a scholar of Melville and 19th-century masculinity.

Guert thrived as a professor at Harvard. He had many girlfriends until one of them, Sarah, became pregnant. They had a daughter, whom Sarah mostly raised until the girl, Pella, turned three, when Sarah was killed in a car accident. Thus, Guert unexpectedly became a single parent. When Pella was in eighth grade, Guert was invited to serve as the president of Westish.

Guert meets with the college’s trustees, trying to encourage them to agree to a student group’s environmental demands. He’s determined to impress one of them.

Guert heads to the baseball field to watch the Harpooners. He worries that he’ll be late picking up Pella, whom he hasn’t seen in four years since she dropped out of boarding school to elope with her husband, David. He chats with two scouts who are there to see Henry. Then, Henry makes an errant throw straight into the Westish dugout, hitting Owen in the head.

Henry has no idea what caused the bad throw. He fears that Owen is dead, and Guert calls an ambulance. Schwartz tells Henry that the throw knocked Owen out. The game is canceled, and Schwartz and Henry head to the hospital, where Guert is waiting. He talks to Henry and is delighted to learn that he’s Owen’s roommate.

In a flashback, Guert contemplates meeting Owen, who was part of an environmentalist group. He was confused to find himself attracted to a student 40 years younger than himself.

The doctor reports that Owen has a concussion and a fractured cheekbone. Pella calls Guert and is disappointed but not surprised to learn that he’ll be late picking her up.

Pella left San Francisco, California, with only a mostly empty bag. She dropped out of high school when she was a senior to run off with a guest speaker, David, a 31-year-old architect. She gave up an acceptance to Yale to be with him. However, in San Francisco, she became extremely depressed.

After arriving at Westish, Pella tells Guert that David is in Seattle on a business trip. He doesn’t know that she left him. Pella asks her father if she can take classes.

Guert reflects on their complicated relationship. When she was 14, Pella got a tattoo of a sperm whale, exactly the same as Guert’s.

Schwartz calls Henry, and Henry asks when Schwartz will receive his law school decisions. Henry receives a call from Miranda Szabo, an agent. She tells him to expect many calls from agents and scouts. He’s overwhelmed by the possibility of a signing bonus. Henry is excited to tell Schwartz and pictures himself working his way up in the Minor Leagues while Schwartz is in law school.

On his law school applications, Schwartz lists his home address as the Varsity Athletic Center, which he has appropriated as his personal office. He has received a letter from Yale and dreads opening it.

Schwartz’s mother died of cancer when he was 14, and he never knew his father. Already more than six feet tall, he convinced the woman from Child Protective Services that he wasn’t 14. During his sophomore year, he stopped going to class so that he could work at a foundry. His football coach made him return to school.

Schwartz heads to the jacuzzi with the letter and calls Henry, who tells him about the call from Miranda.

Henry runs up the stadium stairs. He pushes himself harder every day, worrying about his playing career and the errors he keeps making.