[1] In a baseball game, the score changes several times, and the author explores the role of sports in helping people feel a sense of control over their lives.
The story opens with the first baseball game of the season for Shane Hunter's high school team.
When the police leave their mother takes them out to dinner and then has a long conversation with their lawyer.
They move into a small, run-down apartment in a bad area of town and enroll in public school.
He begins drinking and smoking, is caught stealing, and is subsequently sentenced to community service.
He performs his community service by helping to fix up a public baseball field.
By working with Reese, Shane is able to release his guilt and anger and rediscovers his love for the game of baseball.
He realizes that his anger and his acting out regarding the events of his Dad's arrest and suicide haven't helped and have only made things worse, and he remembers how good and in-control he felt when pitching.
Encouraged by Reese, he begins pitching again, putting all of the energy he was funneling through anger and self-pity into the sport.