In The Chosen, baseball brings Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders together.
The novel opens with a baseball game between Jewish boys in Brooklyn. Reuven is struck in the eye by Danny’s powerful hit, and the injury leads to their first substantial interaction. Their friendship then develops despite differences in family background, religious outlook, and expectations about the future.
Baseball is more than a plot device in the story. The game creates a meeting point between two boys whose fathers belong to different Jewish communities and whose approaches to religious life are not identical. Their relationship eventually forces both families to confront questions of authority, tradition, and individual choice.
The book is sometimes remembered mainly for its bar-mitzvah and religious themes, but the opening baseball game is the event that starts the central friendship. The sport is therefore a precise answer rather than a general description of childhood activity.