I don't think we've mentioned Doc Knobb yet; what about him? I think he ties into comments made by Bookpossum and Catlady.
Bookpossum has referred to Roy's lack of growth after his shooting, that he remains essentially a boy. I think Doc Knobb reinforces this impression as applied to all the players, as he serves explicitly to pacify the players, to keep them in a state of delayed childhood.
Quote:
"It's Doc Knobb." The catcher looked sleepy.
"What's he do?"
"Pacifies us."
The players were attentive, sitting as if they were going to have their pictures snapped. The nervousness Roy had sensed among them was all but gone. They looked like men whose worries had been lifted, and even Bump gave forth a soft grunt of contentment.
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Just like an infant or toddler, in fact.
I think Malamud is suggesting that these men, notorious losers as a team, are losing because they refuse to be adult. Why should their worries be lifted? Isn't a large part of living as a fully-developed, grown person dealing with strife, real-life strife as opposed to the manufactured strife of a ball game? For once Roy's instincts are spot-on, as he refuses to be hypnotized and lose his agency.
This ties into Catlady's comment:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Malamud couldn't have foreseen the moves to the West Coast, the expansion teams, big-money contracts, free agency, all of which make his setting seem quite quaint.
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I think that's the big difference between the game then and now. Back then, it was essentially grown men who continued to play a boy's game for less than a bare living, as most of them had to find something else to do in the off-season. It was a kind of perpetual arrested development. Now, of course, baseball is a serious business. Even journeyman players in the majors make a lot of money, they spend the off-season keeping in shape, and even though what they do is still characterized as "playing," it's related only in form to the playing that a child does.
I don't see this story as quaint but as timeless, but I do think that today's baseball couldn't be the motif to carry the themes Malamud is exploring.