In The Natural by Bernard Malamud Roy Hobbs is on his way to be one of the greatest baseball players to ever live but he is shot in an incident with a woman. After 16 years, Roy comes back to the game as a 34-year-old rookie and tries to make another run at it on the New York Knights. He becomes a star in the league but personal issues get the best of him. In the film Baseball by Ken Burns, he interviews many people asking them how the greatest baseball players were adored or despised and how they dealt with many of their personal issues. These two great pieces come together to really strengthen the point that Roy Hobbs was unable to overcome many of the challenges that he encountered. At the end of The Natural, Roy Hobbs is unable to overcome …show more content…
In the attempt to redeem himself Roy asked Pop to be put in the game to hit. This was the final chance for Roy and the Knights to win the Pennant and go to the World Series, “Roy caught the pitcher’s eye. His own had blood in them. Youngberry shuddered. He threw—a bad ball—but the batter leaped at it. He struck out with a roar” (227). This was the final chance for Roy to make things right, a chance to cure himself from any of his wrong doings. This was his chance to go out like a champion, to be a legend among the baseball world, and to be a hero for all of New York. Instead he blew away this incredible chance and struck out leaving all the fans questioning if he threw the game. Roy ruined his reputation as a baseball player and crushed the dreams of the many fans that sought out to be just like him. Unlike Roy, Babe Ruth thrives in high stress situations. In his final game, Ruth gives the fans what they want, “In Babe Ruth’s final game he had three homeruns and on his final at bat in his career he hit the ball out of the park, the first to ever do so at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh” (Burns, Baseball). Babe Ruth leaves the baseball world in fashion. He is not one to diminish when the spotlight is all on him. Ruth gives the fans the final game that they have been dreaming about. Roy was not able to end his career in the same manor, instead he was accused of throwing …show more content…
A little boy hands Roy the cover on a newspaper where it says Roy threw the game, “Roy handed the paper back to the kid. ‘Say it ain’t true, Roy.’ When Roy looked into the boy’s eyes he wanted to say it wasn’t but couldn’t, and he lifted his hands to his face and wept many bitter tears” (231). This is not the typical Hollywood ending, where Roy becomes the hero of the city and wins the game for Pop and himself. Instead this is nowhere close to being that, at the end of this story Roy loses the big game and is caught in the act of throwing it. This is a very harsh ending to where Roy could have been a hero if he made the right decisions. Obviously, Roy is unhappy with the deal he made with the judge when he looks back at it. He let all the kids down that looked up to him and that wanted to be like him. Furthermore, he will never be able to live with himself knowing that he let money and women come in between the game he loved most. Unlike Roy, Lou Gehrig never let personal hardship come in the way of his of his family or career. He was called the “Iron Horse” because of his consecutive game streak of 2,130 games (Burns, Baseball). Although Lou Gehrig was on the baseball field and it seemed like he could play forever he came down with a disease known as today as ALS. On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig Appreciations Day, Lou Gehrig stated, “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a