The Most Improved Player award is a symbol of Alex’s complicated and negative relationship with baseball. At the beginning of Chapter 3, Alex notes that he has won the award six years in a row and sees this fact as incontrovertible public proof that he will never be good at baseball. He recalls complaining to his dad the year before that “[n]obody else ha[d] ever gotten it five times in a row” and therefore not wanting to win it for a sixth time (23). He believes that the Most Improved Player award is only given to “the ones who reek to begin with” (21). To receive this award year after year, Alex believes, means that “[e]very year [he] start[s] out totally reeking and end[s] up only stinking” (23). Alex’s dismal description of his own baseball performance reflects his insecurities and worsening self-esteem as he persists in judging himself by an unfair standard rather than leaning into his natural talents. To Alex, the Most Improved Player award represents his lack of skill in baseball and his many years trying and failing to overcome this deficit.