The Art of Fielding

Schwartz, one of Henry’s teammates and the baseball team’s captain, is an extremely driven leader. Because of his charismatic and domineering personality, he is more of a coach than a teammate and more of an administrator than a student. He wields his authority to mentor his teammates into becoming their best selves. During a summer tournament, Henry’s talent on the opposing team impresses Schwartz, and he proactively recruits Henry and commandeers the athletic department’s funding to secure him a place at Westish.

Determined to mold Henry into a champion, Schwartz enlists him into a strict regimen of diet and exercise, leading him in workouts at five o’clock every morning and at midnight. Schwartz is pleased to discover in Henry a manic energy akin to his own: Schwartz is driven to teach, and Henry is driven to learn.

Schwartz’s need for control and his ability to take charge saved him in high school. Orphaned after his mother’s death, he dropped out of high school to work. His coach convinced him to return to school. Buoyed by the independence that a new salary and his position as team captain enabled, he assumes even more expansive duties in college, pushing his leadership abilities to new heights.

To those around him, Schwartz appears incredibly confident. However, he’s quite insecure. Knowing that he isn’t as naturally gifted as players like Henry, he forces himself to prove himself through a masochistic work ethic and sheer willpower. He envies Henry’s effortless brilliance on the field but hates that he does. His body is breaking down after years of baseball and football, and he increasingly relies on pain medication for his knees. By the novel’s end, Schwartz’s pill consumption indicates full-blown addiction.

Schwartz’s power over Henry diminishes as Henry spirals into self-doubt, and Schwartz confronts the limits of his ability to fix others. Law school rejections exacerbate his self-doubt; Schwartz was so sure that he’d be admitted that he applied only to top schools and now finds himself floundering. Pella’s arrival throws him into even more of a tailspin as she forces him to confront his own vulnerability and sense of self. Schwartz enjoys taking care of Pella, and she finds satisfaction in helping him take care of himself. By the novel’s end, Schwartz transforms from an overbearing mentor into a true friend and teammate.

Guert is an intense intellectual and became a skilled university bureaucrat after accepting the position of Westish College’s president. While he was an undergraduate at Westish majoring in biology, he discovered an unpublished journal of Herman Melville’s in the library. This prompted his own literary journey. He initially aspired to author novels but, after years of unsuccessful writing, realized that academia was his true calling. He taught at Harvard, and his academic text The Sperm Squeezers, which examined Melville’s social influence on men, became a hallmark text for studies of 19th-century masculinity. Guert idolizes Melville and has a Moby Dick tattoo on his arm.

At Harvard, Guert was something of a womanizer, eschewing long-term monogamy in favor of short-term romances. His daughter wasn’t planned, and he never expected to be her primary caregiver, but her mother (with whom he was in a relationship for only 10 months) died in a car accident. After three-year-old Pella came to live with Guert full-time, he became more involved as a father, finding great pleasure in Pella’s literary education.

Since accepting an appointment as the president of Westish College, Guert has projected authority and intellect yet felt the burden of self-doubt and unfulfilled ambition. Falling in love with Owen, who first approaches him as a member of an environmental group, upends Guert’s world. Owen’s confidence and maturity awes him, and he becomes invested in the environmental task force’s action items, eventually using this to get to know Owen better. After Owen makes the first move, Guert becomes fixated on the possibility of an actual relationship despite knowing that this will end his tenure as president. However, Owen’s looming study-abroad year in Japan haunts Guert, reminding him of Owen’s youth and freedom.

Guert is pleased when Pella returns to live with him, and he tries to downplay his hatred of her husband, David. Guert views Schwartz as a much more desirable partner for his daughter and struggles to maintain new fatherly boundaries as he and Pella share a small space.

Guert is arrogant about his health. Though poor cardiological outcomes plague the men in his family, Guert continues to smoke, eat, and drink whatever he wants. He dies of a heart attack shortly after school bureaucrats confront him about his relationship with Owen, concerned about its tarnishing the school’s image. Pella is furious to learn that they wondered if Guert died by suicide to avoid shame. Guert demonstrates the dangers of repression and the freedom of self-discovery.