Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out SOAPSTone

The subject of Dave Barry’s Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out was the overall existence of differences in opinions between women and men concerning sports and dirt. This is illustrated through his examples and scenarios of each gender confronted with one of the previous problematic nouns. He discusses how a man reacts to dirt versus how a woman does, and the same with sports.

This piece was written in the 1980’s, presumably, and published in 1988. This is shown through the short introduction prior to the writing. The probable place of writing was at the writer’s place of residence, which is in Miami, according to the biography printed about the writing piece. This probably affected his writing in that he could take examples from his experiences that occurred around him.

Barry’s specific audience for Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out is the general public, especially that part of it that appreciates humor or that is interested in the different opinions of men and women on various topics. This is clear through the style of writing and the examples and content used throughout the piece. For example, Barry writes of how his wife asked him to clean a bathroom, and when he was finished, she didn’t even know that he had cleaned it and returned, asking him again to clean it and saying that it was “filthy.” Barry’s writing response to this was “and if I tell her that I already cleaned the bathroom, she gives me this look that she has perfected, the same look she used on me the time I selected Robert’s outfit for school and part of it turned out to be pajamas.” This shows that Barry does not take this topic terribly seriously.

Dave Barry’s purpose in his piece of writing is to amuse people while comparing men and women in various topics and tasks. His humor on such a topic is illustrated when he writes, “[on the other hand] is sports. This is an area where men tend to feel very sensitive and women tend to be extremely callous. I have written about this before and I always get irate letters from women who say they are the heavyweight racquetball champion of some place like Iowa and are sensitive to sports to the point where they could crush my skull like ripe grape, but I feel these women are the exception.” This shows that he has little, if anything, serious to say on this topic and enjoys creating such situations as Iowa heavyweight racquetball championships that are won by women who do not appreciate being told that they don’t like sports.

Barry believes that many things can be approached from a humorous angle. This is illustrated by his many examples that are realistic, but his reactions to them are completely un-academic and unprofessional (which is not at all to say that they aren’t funny). He takes a creative and witty approach to every topic that he discusses.

Dave Barry’s tone is very witty and clever-he is rather carefree about these topics but applies a funny tone to them. These are expressed through writing such as a comparison to Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart to the effect the temptation of the World Series on television has on the males but fails to have on the females. Overall, he is extremely sharp in his writing.