Heart of a Champion

Jimmy is gone but his impact on Seth is still huge, particularly with baseball. Seth organizes pickup games at neighborhood ball fields with any kids who show up. When Seth faces down a bully named Greg Daly, the other kids decide he is their leader and lean upon him to organize games. Seth continues to dream about being a major league baseball player. He wonders if Jimmy remembers him.

Seth’s schoolwork has improved now that he is in the eighth grade. He attributes it to Jimmy, because Jimmy taught him how to concentrate. He started focusing when playing baseball and now concentrates in the classroom as well.

Seth loves to read baseball books and make book reports about them. They show him that great baseball players were not all alike: The only thing they had in common was natural talent. Seth believes that to be great, one has to have natural ability. Talent cannot be acquired: “You can screw up and waste it. But if you don’t have it in the first place, there’s nothing you can do to get it. Nothing” (55).