"The Thrill of the Grass"

Symbols: The baseball field symbolizes the man's love and his home. The old men that work in replacing the astro-turf symbolize nature, restoring the grass, "Nature temporarily defeated. But nature is patient."

The protagonist is the narrator guy and the antagonist is the people who decided to put astro-turf in the ballpark. The conflict is person vs. society because the conflict is centered around the protagonist being against whats socially acceptable, putting fake, rather than real, grass in baseball stadiums.

The point of view is first person.

The inciting event is when the guy goes through the door into the ballpark and sees the artificial turf becuase that makes him mad and starts him creating the plan to replace the grass. The climax is the night when the old men show up to help get rid of the fake grass because that is the height of the action in the story and also the moment we realize what the outcome of the story will be.

Brief summary of "The Thrill of the Grass": It is summer of 1981 and the baseball players are on strike. One obsessive baseball fanatic, who remains unnamed, likes to visit the stadium even if he doesn't go any farther than the parking lot. One evening, as he is admiring the stadium, the nameless narrator spots a door cut into the fence. Being an experience locksmith, the man opens the door and steps into the ball field. He quickly notices the astro-turf that has replaced the real grass of the ballpark. He hates it. The man then concocts a plan to remove all the artificial grass and replace it with the real stuff. He acquires the help of another known baseball worshipper and, with their team of old men, begin to act. Night after night they work to restore the baseball field to its natural beauty and soon their work is complete. Now they can only sit and wait for the players to return to the field to see what their reactions will be. 

This story is important becuase it shows us that we can change whatever we want to and make a difference no matter the odds. (Though I don't necessarily agree with that.)

The theme of "The Thrill of the Grass" is connected to home, freedom, and technology. The baseball park is like home to the narrator and he feels very strongly about it, even though its not a classic idea of "home". The astro-turf that has replaced the actual living grass in the field is technology and it has destroyed the narrator's idea of freedom, being able to feel and smell the real grass and get the real sense of home and baseball.