THE CZECH IS IN THE MAIL
Anyone who knows me knows my favorite baseball movie is “The Natural.”
The movie stars Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, a Major League Baseball hopeful who makes his dream come true later in life.
Redford also starred in other cinematic fare such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” “All the President’s Men,” Out of Africa,” and “The Great Gatsby,” to name a few.
He also won an Academy Award for directing “Ordinary People.”
On Tuesday, Redford died at the age of 89. As a true fan of “The Natural,” I had to watch some of my favorite clips from the movie.
I tried to show my 4-year-old, but she pushed the phone away. My 2-year-old watched it a little longer than that.
Believe it or not, Redford has area ties.
His mother, Martha (Hart) Redford, was born in Austin in 1914. Despite his links to Texas, Redford — a native of Santa Monica, California — attended the University of Colorado instead of the University of Texas or Texas A&M University.
Fittingly, Redford tried out for, and was cut from, the Colorado baseball team during his tenure at the university.
Karma had a funny way of coming back.
The university discontinued its baseball program in 1980 — four years before “The Natural” hit the box offices.
Last Sunday, I saw a play during the Kansas City Chiefs-Philadelphia Eagles game that reminded me of a scene from my favorite Redford film.
Travis Kelce, who is engaged to music star Taylor Swift, tried to catch a pass but instead it deflected off his fingertips and into the hands of an Eagles’ defender.
There was a period in “The Natural” storyline where Hobbs went through a slump.
The slump was blamed on his brief relationship with Memo Harris (played by Kim Bassinger), whom New York Knights manager Pop Fisher (played by Wilford Brimley) believed was “bad luck.”
Although I am a Chiefs fan, I am not calling Swift “bad luck,” nor am I insinuating Kelce and Swift call it quits. I just found it a funny comparison.
Like most 1980s movies, the good guy won in the end. Hobbs breaks up with Harris, gets back on his hitting streak and leads the Knights to the National League pennant with a three-run home run that shatters the right field lights.
Perhaps in the afterlife Redford is reunited with the celluloid ball he hit 41 years ago that flew into the great beyond.
Rest in Peace, Roy Hobbs.
Chlapek is the area editor of the Elgin Courier and Taylor Press. He can be reached at Jason.chlapek@ granitemediapartners. com.
