Roy Hobbs In Bernard Malamud's The Natural

Ray’s love for baseball begins with his father repeating that Joe Jackson was an innocent man. As an amateur baseball player, Ray’s father idolizes Joe Jackson as a hero and mentor. The real test of Ray’s love for baseball occurs when he hears the voice, “If you build it, he will come” (Kinsella, 1). Immediately, he “envisioned the finish product I was being asked to conceive… a baseball field” (Kinsella 1) and begins clearing a portion of the cornfield. To Ray, “it” is the baseball field and “he” is Joe Jackson. By building a baseball field, Joe Jackson will come. However, building and

Ever since I could remember, I have always had a great interest and love for the game of baseball. As a kid, I would spend countless hours in the backyard with my grandfather, or even by myself, tossing, hitting and fielding a baseball. When I wasn't in the yard pretending to be Nomar Garciaparra I would watch the Boston Red Sox games on TV with my Grandfather.  Even in my early adolescence, as impatient as most are, I had the patience to sit there and watch the Sox.With my eyes glued to the screen with a look of anticipation fixed on my face ready to mimic my grandfather with the excitement of a home run hit or the frustration of Mo-Vaughn striking out. Call me crazy, but I was addicted, even as a young boy, to Boston Red Sox baseball.

I find myself here a few years later, looking back on those times when I thought that I would never grow old, but here I am asking myself, “Why did I give up a sport that I enjoyed so much?” ,or “Why did I join wrestling again after a year of failure?”. After reading Grazer’s work, I think I have an answer. It wasn’t entirely because I didn’t want to upset my father that I quit basketball and joined wrestling, it was because I knew all I needed to know about basketball

Many people don't understand the point in playing baseball. Why would someone swing a stick, hit a ball, and try to get back to where they started before the ball returns? What pleasure is there in that? Why not participate in a sport like wrestling or track where there is an obvious level of individual improvement and therefore pleasure. Well, I play baseball because of the love I have for the sport, and because of the feeling that overwhelms me every time I walk onto a baseball field. When I walk onto a field I am given the desire to better myself not only as an athlete, but also as a person. The thoughts and feelings I get drive me to work hard towards my goals and to be a better person. The most relevant

Baseball statistics are meant to be a representation of a player’s talent. Since baseball’s inception around the mid-19th century, statistics have been used to interpret the talent level of any given player, however, the statistics that have been traditionally used to define talent are often times misleading. At a fundamental level, baseball, like any game, is about winning. To win games, teams have to score runs; to score runs, players have to get on base any way they can. All the while, the pitcher and the defense are supposed to prevent runs from scoring. As simplistic as this view sounds, the statistics being used to evaluate individual players were extremely flawed. In an attempt to develop more

George Herman Ruth, better known as Babe Ruth, is an American baseball hero due to his successes that have allowed him to become a household name even after his passing. His great legacy lives on, but for those not alive during his reign over baseball, it is sometimes hard to grasp the Babe’s true life story, which is where film comes into play. In the several films about Babe Ruth, many differentiating perspectives about his life are introduced. In The Babe Ruth Story (1948) and The Babe (1992), we are shown two very different versions of the ‘Great Bambino’. With the help of Ardolino’s analysis of the deification and deconstruction of Ruth in Reel Baseball, it is easy to see the similarities and differences between the two Hollywood Babes. Ardolino states that, “In fact, these movies are dialectically related: the first is an attempt to sacralize Ruth’s checkered life, and the latter is an attempt to replace the hagiography with a Dickensian psychodrama of a bumbling Bacchus who belches, farts, indulges his appetites, is haunted by his past, explodes irrationally when he is called ‘incorrigible’ and never gains any measure of self-control” (115-16). Ardolino’s chapter thoroughly discussed the portrayals of Babe Ruth as a character, which brings to light the similarities and differences portrayed in both Hollywood films. After screening the Hollywood films, we move to screen the documentary about Ruth, a blatant deification, which treats his life story much differently.

He even sets the minor league record for career home runs. After all of this he still fights with all his energy to make the majors, he is one of the team’s leading hitters and mentors the team’s star pitcher, Nuke. Again, despite his efforts the team decides to send him down. At first, he is heartbroken, but then he bounces back on his feet and decides to become a manager. Even though he does not get to achieve his dream of being a major leaguer he adapts and makes the most of his situation. By all measures he fails in almost every aspect of becoming a major leaguer, but in the end he is happy and is doing what he loves. This is a key to the American lifestyle.

Kevin Baker described him as “staggering in his self-absorption” (Baker, xii). This means that he is confident to the point that he believes he can do everything himself, and doesn’t care about the rest of his team. Roy is also a very greedy man, and his greed is accentuated by his baseball skills. For example, Roy’s contract entitled him to make three thousand dollars for the season. Within a few weeks, he decided that this was not enough, so he spoke with the team owner about a raise. In the novel, it says that: “He figured for himself a flat forty-five thousand dollars for the rest of the season” (Malamud, 89). Forty-five thousand dollars is more than most baseball players made in an entire season, and he was asking for this astronomical amount for only half of a season. Each of these traits can be considered one of Roy’s tragic flaws. His greed and his self-confidence both contribute to his downfall at the end of the novel, in which he is humiliated due to his acceptance of a bribe to throw an important game and lose the pennant. In the New York Times, an article written by Harry Sylvester stated: “Roy Hobbs almost achieved greatness, but was distracted or betrayed by people, objects, or events equated with elements in our environment” (Sylvester, www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/06/home/baseball-natural.html). Sylvester is saying that Hobbs has the potential to be a

The story of Jackie Robinson has become one of America's most iconic and inspiring stories. Since 1947, American history has portrayed Jackie Robinson as a hero, and he has been idolized as a role model to the African American baseball community. It is an unarguable fact that he was the first to tear down the color barriers within professional baseball. The topic of Robinson’s role in integration has long been a point of discussion amongst baseball historians. Researchers have accumulated thousands of accredited documents and interviews with friends and team mates such as short stop, Pee Wee Reese, and team owner, Branch Rickey. However, few journalists have asked why Robinson was selected and what was Branch

Discuss the figure of Roy Hobbs as a tragic hero. To what extent do his own flaws lead him to his fate? Does he display a kind of hubris like the characters in a Greek tragedy? Does he learn from his mistakes?

The history of sports goes back since ancient times. It has been a useful way for people to explore nature and their environment. Sports include different activities and games such as football, soccer, basketball, and etc. to express their skills and talents. Also, sports are a way to relax and have fun; but are sports all our African Americans rely on? The dream to become future sports stars. The reason why Gates begins his essay with an anecdote is to show and compare how many african-american athletes were at work today and how little the chances of African-Americans becoming athletes are compared to being a lawyer, dentist, or even a doctor. African-Americans assume that they are born athletes and it’s because the school system doesn’t

Jackson, Cicotte, and Williams all confessed to the grand jury about knowing about the fix, but Jackson and Williams would end up retracting their confessions.8 The charges to each players names were Conspiring to defraud the Public, conspiring to defraud the white sox pitcher Ray Schalk, conspiring to commit a confidence game, conspiring to injure the business of the American League, and conspiring to injure the business of Charles Cominskey.9 There were many rumors about whether or not Cominskey knew about the fix, or if he was even a part of it.10 And of course, Cominskey denied all the rumors, he was so confident that he offered $10,000 to anyone who could come up with information about the fix.11 The first witness of the prosecution was Cominskey.12 The only player to be believed as innocent is Joe Jackson, since he was the only one who attempted to tell Cominskey about the fix, he is also the only that asked to be benched so that he didn’t harm the team or the series.13 On July 29th, Edward Prindeville closed the case for the prosecution, asking the jury to return with a guilty verdict, with five years in a penitentiary, and a fine of $2,000 per defendant. The jury talked for less than three hours before finding every player not guilty.14 The trials and verdicts lasted until 1921, so most of the players were able to continue to play during the 1920 season.15

It was as if his whole world was going to disappear. All that he had worked for, all that he loved, all that he ever wanted to do – those things were hanging in the balance with the outcome of this case." This quote exemplifies how much the trial meant for Curt, and fellow players across the league. During the case, Flood received support from lots of people, including Hank Greenberg, Jackie Robinson, and Jim Brosnan, plus others. As time went on though, Flood's case eventually lost at the U.S. supreme court in 1972, as History.com mentions the fact that no active players agreed to testify on his behalf. Even though Flood lost, the reserve clause was eventually thrown out in 1975, and today, nearly 45 years later following the case, the MLB Players website remind us that "Flood's courage and determination lives on in the lives of all professional athletes." This represents how Curt's hard work has affected lots of other people, not just him. Tony Clark, the MLBPA Executive Director, quotes "His character, his understanding, and appreciation of the responsibility that he had, and was willing to take, is something that all of us as players owe a debt of

Honor and pride was important to Roy Hobbs. Roy was proud of himself, before he became a professional player. As a country boy, Roy had a natural ability with a baseball and a great pitching arm. Roy had lots of difficulties in his life such as bumming around in, “slop joint, third-rate hotels, prize fight gyms and such” (Malamud 44) while he was working on his game. His pride in his natural abilities gave him the self-confidence to pursue his dream.

The sport is such an integral part of our culture today that we Americans sometimes take for granted its significance in our everyday lives. Contemporary baseball is so closely related with American ideals and identity that it often has served as an expression of patriotism. In times of national hardships, baseball has been used to encourage and rally the nation. In speaking of the emergence of America's nationalism in the historic and contemporary playing field, there are several key issues that surface. Of these issues I will specifically address the long residuals of how baseball has helped to establish our (Americans) national spirit and identity. That is the links between our heritage and national institutions and the game of baseball as a cultural and political representative abroad and unifying tradition at home. I will also address ideals and injustices. That is how baseball's acceptability has changed over time, and how this acts as a microcosm for America's changing attitudes about equality and opportunity.