What is the name of the protagonist in 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon'?

The protagonist of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is Trisha McFarland. She is a nine-year-old girl who becomes lost in the Maine woods during a family hiking trip after falling behind while trying to escape her mother and brother's argument.

Trisha's connection to Boston Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon helps her endure the ordeal. She carries a Walkman and listens to baseball broadcasts, imagining Gordon as a reassuring companion and adopting his pitching rituals as a source of courage. Her favorite player becomes an emotional anchor while hunger, thirst, illness, and fear steadily undermine her ability to distinguish reality from hallucination.

The title can cause confusion because Tom Gordon is an important figure in Trisha's imagination, but he is not the protagonist. Nor is the story about an adult baseball fan: its viewpoint remains centered on Trisha's physical survival and psychological struggle. Stephen King's 1999 novel blends wilderness adventure with supernatural horror, culminating in Trisha's confrontation with a bear that she interprets as the monstrous God of the Lost.