how does troy use baseball as a metaphor?

Much of Troy’s issues come from his unrealised baseball dreams. He fails to make the professional leagues because blacks were not welcome at the time. Troy uses baseball metaphors to make sense of his personal issues. Baseball still haunts Troy's being. Troy, for example, often thinks about life and death in terms of baseball. He sees Death as, "a fastball on the outside corner." He thinks he could always make a homerun back in the old days, hence cheating death.