Martin Espada dedicated “The Trouble Ball” to his father, Frank Espada. The author takes readers on a poetic journey to Brooklyn. Espada alludes to the experience of his father’s first American baseball game at Ebbets Field in 1941 as a new immigrant. This game has significantly shaped how the poem was written and impacted. For instance, Espada’s Puerto Rican father understands, at the age of eleven, that dark-skinned athletes are not permitted on the field. The poet employs poetry and allusion to the baseball game to express his goal to highlight the agony that injustice can create. The paper will analyze the credibility of the allusion offers to the readers by comparing it to the historical evidence of this baseball game.
The poem begins with the statement that Espada’s father witnessed his first major league baseball game in 1941, at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, between the Dodgers and the Cardinals. Readers are introduced to little Frank, who is sitting in the cheap seats at Ebbets Field, expecting to witness his favorite Satchel Paige and the other great Negro Leaguers he would watch in Puerto Rico. The boy asked: “¿Dónde están los negros?” meaning “Where are the Negro players?” (Espada). A pivotal event in the poem occurred when his father whispered to him that Black athletes are not permitted to play in the premier league.
This allusion to the game is used throughout the poem because the event is crucial to the poem’s meaning. According to Thornton Hobby, in an interview in 2020, Espada stated that memory is vital to people as a community, and poets are responsible for recovering and sustaining collective memory. While many people have a sentimental affinity for baseball, Espada narrates the tale of the field of dreams, namely Ebbets Field, from a different perspective, so our collective memories confront the issues in America (Thornton Hobby). The historical fact is that Satchel Paige, Martin Espada’s father’s idol, performed in the Negro Leagues for twenty-two years before being admitted to Major League Baseball (Thornton Hobby).
According to the Library of Congress, organized baseball by the 1940s had been racially divided for many years. The black journalists and several white colleagues had long advocated for baseball integration. Significantly, Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson of the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs entered into a contract in 1945 that would bring Robinson to the major leagues in 1947, dramatically changing baseball’s Jim Crow regulations (Library of Congress). Hence, the poet decided to incorporate the baseball game allusion to remind readers of the problem of racial discrimination and injustice.
Racial intolerance led to baseball segregation, and Martin Espada addresses the concerns using various poetic literary techniques. One of the important symbols is the “Trouble Ball,” which refers to Satchel Paige, who had nicknames like “Midnight Creeper” and “The Trouble Ball.” Thorson Hobby claims that the Trouble Ball was a transformation, a pitch that appeared to be a fastball but would freeze and drop. Espada named his poem after the pitch since it relates to other problems. There was no more significant problem at that time in history, and there may not be any today, than the problem of race and racism. Another important symbol the poem incorporates is snow: “From up high he could see that everyone was white, and their whiteness was impossible, like snow in Puerto Rico” (Espada). The author acknowledges the national guilt of racial segregation, but the poem goes beyond just pointing out historical wrongs and filling in specific chronological gaps. It also alters the past such that “it is forever 1941” because the problem of discrimination exists “like the ghostly imprint of stitches” (Espada). Thus, the critical idea the poet portrays is to highlight the issue of racial discrimination.
Additionally, “The Trouble Ball” demonstrates an example of figurative language. In the game, the Yankees won, and it was frustrating for Brooklyn Doggers and their supporters. The disappointment is shown via expressions such as “statues of the Virgin leaked tears” (Espada). The writer describes Mickey Owen as “flailing like a lobster in the grip of a laughing fisherman” and says that Brooklyn “prayed” for Owen’s “fumbling” soul (Espada). The writer has imaginative visionary skills and connects powers of compassion and recognition, each led by a willingness to speak for others, particularly those whose voices have been suppressed.
To conclude, the poem is founded on the actual incident, and the allusion’s integrity has been shown. The author’s thoughts are about more than just the loss of a baseball club and its field. The poem is a well-crafted statement on prejudice. Satchell Paige and Frank’s conversation with his father both demonstrate this emphasis. For many years, organized baseball has been racially divided. Satchell Paige, who threw the “Trouble Ball,” was forbidden from competing in the Major Leagues due to racial prejudice in baseball. As a result, many baseball fans in America missed seeing Paige throw during his prime years. The central concept conveyed by the poet through the allusion is the subject of racial discrimination.
Works Cited
Espada, Martin. The Trouble Ball. Norton, 2011.
Library of Congress. “Breaking the Color Line: 1940 to 1946.” Library of Congress. Web.
Thornton Hobby, Susan. “Poetry Moment: Trouble on the Field with Martín Espada.” Hocopolisto. Web.