{"id":2736,"date":"2015-02-09T09:57:12","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T15:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/?p=2736"},"modified":"2023-03-14T17:49:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T22:49:56","slug":"baseball-movie-monday-is-a-natural-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/09\/baseball-movie-monday-is-a-natural-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball Movie Monday is a Natural This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note:<\/em><\/strong> In the spirit of seeking sunshine during a gray winter, and to help usher in the upcoming baseball season we will be featuring baseball movies every Monday between now and Opening Day. Today\u2019s choice was literally a natural to include on the countdown.\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Last Baseball Movie Monday, we looked at Moneyball,<\/em> which showed the future of the game of baseball through the use of advance metrics.<\/p>\n

Today, it is only natural to balance things out a little bit by looking at a film that celebrates the pre-sabermetrics Golden Age of baseball.<\/p>\n

Roy Hobbs and his bat named \u201cWonderboy\u201d anchor The Natural. The Natural<\/em> is a tale of making the most of second chances and knocking out a few stadium lights in the process.<\/p>\n

The movie, which came out in 1984, is an adaptation of Bernard Malamud\u2019s 1952 baseball novel of the same name.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At the cork core of the Natural is a story about a man, his homemade bat and some sparks on and off of the field.
Photo R. Anderson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Wilfred Brimley, Kim Bassinger and Robert Duvall, the The Natural<\/em> recounts the experiences of Roy Hobbs, a player in the 1930\u2019s with great \u201cnatural\u201d talent, and questionable decision making when it comes to members of the opposite sex.<\/p>\n

After being shot when he was 19 by a crazed female fan, Hobbs makes a comeback attempt in his mid-thirties with the New York Knights managed by Pop Fisher (played by Brimley).<\/p>\n

There are many baseball clich\u00e9s included in the movie from the grizzled \u201cseen it all manager\u201d to the \u201cintrepid baseball reporter\u201d looking for a scoop, but all in all the clich\u00e9s do not distract from the overall tone of the story.<\/p>\n

And the movie\u2019s climax is certainly one for the ages with the cascade of sparks falling down from the busted stadium lights after Hobbs hits the home run as the iconic music plays in the background.<\/p>\n

It is an iconic scene in an iconic film that has been often imitated.<\/p>\n

Outside of the film, the music from that iconic scene can be heard at Ranger Ballpark in Arlington whenever a member of the home team sends one over the outfield fence.<\/p>\n

I am sure there are other teams that do the same thing, but the only one I have seen do it in person is the Rangers.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, I am sure many of us have hummed along to that song after achieving some feat of skill or other accomplishment while picturing a shower of sparks falling around us.<\/p>\n

Some days, just getting out of bed can be cause for humming the theme to The Natural<\/em> as we make our way around the base path of life.<\/p>\n

In addition to creating lasting memories of home runs that knock out the stadium lights, the Natural<\/em> was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Glenn Close), and nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress (Kim Basinger).<\/p>\n

So, with all of that in its corner, it would be only natural for The Natural<\/em> to make our countdown.<\/p>\n

Now if you\u2019ll excuse, I need to go dodge a shower of sparks.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2015 R. Anderson<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: In the spirit of seeking sunshine during a gray winter, and to help usher in the upcoming baseball season we will be featuring baseball movies every Monday between now and Opening Day. Today\u2019s choice was literally a natural to include on the countdown. Last Baseball Movie Monday, we looked at Moneyball, which showed … Continue reading Baseball Movie Monday is a Natural This Week<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[145,538,369,539],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5396,"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736\/revisions\/5396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballparksbeachesandbeyond.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}