Gus's comments (in speaking to Roy at Dinner) to once betting on 'Three Pitched Balls', is it a reference back to Hobb's striking out of the Whammer years earlier? Did Gus bet on the Whammer Vs Hobbs matchup through Max who was there? Did Gus possibly have Hobbs shot when he lost a ton of money on the bet?
shareI think you will find that this has already been discussed.
Gus didn't have Hobbs shot. Harriet(?) was going to kill the Whammer as he was a top sportsman (as other top sportsmen had been killed before - I think that was revealed in the newspaper article). When the Whammer was struck out he no longer was the top sportsman - that became Hobbs.
Harriet is nothing to do with Gus - she is just the reason why he didn't become the best pitcher there ever was....
Nobody knew that Hobbs was going to be on the train with the Whammer. Gus would have had to been on the train with them and been able to lay the bet with someone (this wasn't seen in the movie).
The above post is correct. I also think he mentioning the 3 pitched balls just to show how something that seems so trivial like 3 pitched balls could be very important and life altering. Three pitched balls changed Hobbs life. He struck The Whammer out on those three pitches.
Doing this altered Harriet's plans on killing the Whammer and directing her murderous plans towards Roy.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
The above post is correct. I also think he mentioning the 3 pitched balls just to show how something that seems so trivial like 3 pitched balls could be very important and life altering. Three pitched balls changed Hobbs life. He struck The Whammer out on those three pitches.I think you're exactly right.
Doing this altered Harriet's plans on killing the Whammer and directing her murderous plans towards Roy.
This "tnatural 2000" guy is a crackpot. He has nothing better to do than invent ridiculous scenarios about this movie. What a clown!
shareNow don't get pissy at the guy. It's real easy to assume Gus had him killed because of the comment he made. "I once bet 100,000 on three pitched balls" How did you make out? "I didn't, haha, but the next week, I ruined the guy with a different deal."
So it is easy to believe that Max could have had Roy killed. But I do believe the other theory. Harriet was tailing Whammer until Roy came along, and struck his butt out. Women!
Interesting how people can get different impressions. I always assumed that the "three pitched balls" phrase WAS referring to Roy's duel with The Whammer. Why else would he say it like that..."three pitched balls"? Clearly he wasn't talking about a baseball game, he would have said "one at bat" or something. How else could there be a competition with "three pitched balls" that WASN'T a game....seems rare. It almost seems like Gus recognized him but doesn't mention it to Roy or Max. Also, with Max Mercy being a key figure in the duel at the carnival ground it makes sense that Gus could be there too (I always look for him in the crowd). It is certainly a possibility.
However, I never got the impression that Gus had Roy shot. I just assumed Gus was a big gambler, hung out with big gamblers, bet on Roy's contest and lost, then got the guy he bet with back later on a different bet.
Rule #76: No excuses. Play like a champion.
Many people presume the "three pitched balls" comment was directed to the Whammer duel, I happen to disagree.
1. Other than saying "three pitched balls," there is ZERO reference to Gus being on that particular train that day. If he were, I believe he would have been sitting with Max, (personal opinion).
2. $100,000 was a LOT of money back then, the odds of two men of wealth being on that train at the same time, one of them being willing to bet on an unknown farm boy against arguably the best hitter in the league, seems much too far fetched.
3. The only link we have to someone remembering Roy's Whammer duel, Max, hadn't remembered who Roy was at that point in the movie.
This was a baseball movie, I find it much more credible that "three pitched balls" was a reference to an event in a baseball game, not the Whammer duel.
just my own two cents.
"3. The only link we have to someone remembering Roy's Whammer duel, Max, hadn't remembered who Roy was at that point in the movie"'
Actually, that scene with the judge happens JUST AFTER Max remembers. - The scene in which roy pitches, strike his team mate out, the ball rips into the net, and Max immediately disappears.
It can't be a coincidence that IMMEDIATELY after that, we get the scene in which the judge tries to buy off Roy, and talks about that bet.
It can't be a coincidence that IMMEDIATELY after that, we get the scene in which the judge tries to buy off Roy, and talks about that bet.
I just watched the movie again. Max did remember who Roy was, after seeing him pitch the ball to his teammate as they were cleaning up after practice. That was before the scene when Roy meets Gus. Obviously, Max told the Whammer story to Gus, who then mentioned it to Roy. He was just using that story to show Roy his knack for "knowing" things. He never really made a bet. At least not on Roy's three pitches to the Whammer.
And to the people who think Gus had Roy shot, watch the movie again. Max and Whammer are talking about the athletes getting killed by an unknown serial killer when they're on the train. She was stalking Whammer because, until Roy struck him out, he was considered the best in the game.
Thank you. That's the most logical answer to a question that has bothered me for decades and it's also the only one that doesn't have a bit of evidence to disprove it. I am actually feeling ridiculous for never coming to that conclusion on my own because it has passed through my mind, literally, thousands of times only to come out being stumped and unsatisfied with the answers I could come up with. Thanks again!
shareI just figured it was Gus who turned Harriet's attention towards Hobbs.
In the first place, Gus didn't have to be on the train, or even present, to make the bet. Max called him up and told him about this new young hotshot, at which point Gus likely made a bet with one of his cronies.
Gus prided himself about knowing things and probably found out the identity of whoever was killing the sports figures. When he learned she was on the train stalking Whammer, and that she took an interest to Hobbs, he simply egged her on to go after him. Maybe even getting her access to the hotel where Roy was staying? This must be why she killed herself after shooting Hobbs. Her identity was now out in the open. No more killing spree for her.
If this is what happened it makes that homerun at the end even more poignant. Gus bet everything against the Knights and Roy Hobbs ruined him with one swing.
Gus was just telling a story to make it sound like he knows about Roy's background. He is just trying to put Roy off guard. The story itself probably wasn't true.
"Good night, and grease for peace."
http://youtu.be/TBAuO1McLxg
There is, finally and definitively, absolutely no way that such a wager could have been arranged from a field next to railroad tracks in 1923. The logistics are impossible and the premise makes little sense. Gus would have had to have given enormous odds to convince someone to bet that an unknown could strike out the whammer and, if so, why would Gus have not had The WHAMMER shot for losing such a sure thing?
share