The greatest hitter who ever lived
People don't start playing ball at your age, they retire!
One of my favorite movies is The Natural, the 1984 Barry Levinson-directed film. It came out when I was a youngster, but when I got to high school, I became more interested in the origin of the film and dove into the literature of Bernard Malamud, the author of the 1952 novel of the same name.
I took on Malamud for a junior year English project. I read at least three of his novels and a few short stories.
I loved Malamud and his style. I was especially fond of the fact that I found out he published the book after he moved to Oregon, my home state.
After reading the novel, I was glad that I didn’t just write a report based on the movie. They are remarkably different.
The book wasn’t much of a seller, Malamud not much of a baseball fan
Roy Hobbs, the main character, is an “anti-hero” in the book. Critic John Simon called the story a “failure of American innocence.”
On the other hand, Hobbs is a reluctant hero in the movie. In a largely negative review, Simon called the film a “fable of success,” noting that it ends with “the ultimate triumph of semi-doltish purity.”
I don’t necessarily agree with Simon, however. I like the book’s ending. I love the movie’s ending.
I relish the baseball mythology thanks to the transformation of the novel into the film by Robert Redford and others.
Redford, who plays Hobbs in the movie, is a big baseball fan, but more importantly, he grew up as a big Ted Williams fan.
Hobbs wore number 9 in the film, like Williams did during his Hall of Fame Red Sox career. The Hobbs character wore a different number in the book. (I think it was a larger 2-digit number, but my copy of that book is not readily accessible to me right now.)
Williams, the “Splendid Splinter,” was known to say that he wanted people to remark about him:
“There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.”
Redford’s influence changed the script include the exchange with his once and future paramour, Iris:
Roy Hobbs : I coulda been better. I coulda broke every record in the book.
Iris Gaines : And then?
Roy Hobbs : And then? And then when I walked down the street people would've looked and they would've said there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in this game.
Redford was nearly 50 in his turn as Hobbs, but he played the role masterfully. Williams retired at age 42.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Redford played ball and was a high school classmate of Hall of Fame Dodgers hurler Don Drysdale.
Williams grew up further south, in San Diego, and learned his baseball at the knee of his uncle, Saul Venzor, a former semi-pro pitcher who had pitched against Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe Gordon.
Earlier this week, we mentioned Gordon when we wrote of another San Diegan and Herbert Hoover (San Diego) High School graduate.
Other fellow Hoover alumni include:
former NFL QB Tony Banks
former A’s and Dodgers outfielder Mike Davis
the guy who played the Famous San Diego Chicken
a number of other athletes and musicians
Twenty years ago today, probably the greatest Hoover alum went to his eternal reward.
Rest easy, Kid.
Brian O’Leary