Connections

Connections

The book I can connect Ball Four to is The Firm. This book relates to my memoir both literally and figuratively. In Ball Four, Jim is spending countless hours on baseball. From going to games, to working out in the weight room, he really is dedicated to the sport. He is so dedicated that he can hardly go home and spend time with his family. He can see his family about one time a month! Jim’s job really has affected him and his family’s relationship. This compares to The Firm because the main character, Mitch, does practically the same thing. Mitch is a smart young man who is a first year lawyer. He works at Bendini, Lambert and Locke which was a very successful law firm in Memphis. The law firm’s policy of work is that you become a partner after several years. Mitch, of course, wanted to break this rule and become a partner a few years earlier, so he was working as hard as a horse in the fields. He was working well over 12 hours a day. This affected his relationship with his wife and they became more distant, they only saw each other when he went to bed at three o’clock in the morning. The books are similar literally because both main characters worked hard and put care and effort into their work, but their work affected their family relationships.

They figuratively connect because in both books the main characters lose their souls but then regain them. Ball Four is a book about baseball but with the inside scoop of a player as an author. While Jim was playing baseball, he was just going along with the whole process in the Major Leagues and not telling anyone what goes on around the league. But, when he released the book, the baseball league hated him for the secrets he shared with the entire world on what goes on inside baseball. This compares with The Firm because when Mitch first applied to the job, he didn’t know that they were working for the Mafia. Later on in his first year working, he overheard the partners talking and heard about a money shipment for the Mafia. Also, during that first year, men from the F.B.I informed Mitch that the law firm worked for the Mafia. They told him that they were really close to busting the firm and if he didn’t want to get arrested then he should work with them. The F.B.I needed more evidence and found legal documents and long story short they arrested all the members of the law firm except for Mitch. The members loathed him for revealing the secrets of the firm. The books relate figuratively because they both went with the flow of things and then exposed the secrets and insight of their respective jobs. 

Word Count: 472

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