As much as I hate Turner, I sort of understand why he smacked his kid after throwing at Engelberg a second time. It's not made clear whether it was intentional or not but if it was he kind of deserved it. As he said, "He could've killed that kid."
shareYou can teach a kid a lesson with out hitting or using violence. Roy Turner went over board, yes what Joey did could have hurt Engleberg, but he wasn't hurt. Roy got mad and went after his son, you could see how terrified Joey was trying to explain away what happened. I don't believe in hitting kids in any form. There's ways to teach kids better.
sharee Enough of Roy Turner going overboard. When he said "he could have killed that kid"....he didn't really mean it. It was the "right" thing to say and for others to hear. But all it did was mask the real reason Turner hit his kid: the kid defied his orders to pitch low and outside.
All the caring for Engleberg in my opinion was just a smoke screen for the real reason. No way is his son going to deliberately defy his orders and get away with it!
The thing is, I don't think Turner smacked his son out of concern for the other player. That was the excuse he gave himself, but I think he was furious because his son had not followed his order.
In the film it's not clear whether it had been on purpose or a mistake, and Turner never worries about finding out, or about giving his son the benefit of the doubt.
Also, if you have good reason to punish your son, you can find better ways than slapping him in public. That's only going to breed resentment. If you need to say or do something negative, do it in private, and after hearing him out. That goes for your son or for anyone under your authority.
Turner was a POS. He didn't care about Engelbert or even his own son. He was a control freak and all he cared about was winning. "He could've killed that kid" was just a bullshit excuse.
shareI always though it was odd that the mom wasn’t upset that her son threw at him. “You know why he did it.”
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