Home Game question

I'm half-way through and I have no clue. It actually hasn't bothered me, as I've been assuming that that, as well as the grandfather's role, will come clear at the end.

The Author is probably Bernard Malamud, a famous New York author who wrote The Natural that was being filmed at the time Quarrington was writing Home Game. The Natural was published in 1952, so it's not impossible that Quarrington read it and found its fable-like structure inspiring, though I know of no factual connection between the man and the book.