Turning bad into good

Bump was the New York Knights star outfielder, who not only was best on the team, but also the league. When Roy is sent up to the majors to play with the Knights, his position was left field, the same as Bump's. Because of this, Roy was not able to play unless something happened to Bump. Fortunately, for Roy, something did.

"Thinking this way he ran harder, though Zipp's geese honked madly at his back, and with a magnificent twisting jump, he trapped the ball in his iron fingers. Yet the wall continued to advance, and though the redheaded lady of his choice was on her feet shrieking, Bump bumped it with a skull-breaking bang, and the wall embraced his broken body"(76).

As we can tell from the passage above Bump "broke" his body, eventually dying. Although we see this as a tragic incident, it is one that turns out very good for Roy, and the plot of the story could not have continued to move if Bump hadn't died. For if he was not injured, Bump would have remained on the field for the rest of the year, leaving Roy on the bench, never to play. Fortunately, this did happen, and Roy got to start for the Knights, showing them his tremendous skill and competitivenes. Also, because Roy got so famous, he found his long-lost love, as well as his son.

Unfortunately there was a death in the novel, but for the reader, and Roy, the death was something that needed to happen for the plot to keep going and for Roy to become the man and baseball player he wanted to be.