MovieChat Forums > The Natural (1984) Discussion > Did Gus have Roy shot ?

Did Gus have Roy shot ?

posted 5 years ago by Mydarkstar (108)
5 replies | jump to latest

When Roy is having dinner with Gus, Max, and Memo in a restaurant Gus talks about gambling. He says "I once bet $100k on three pitches." and he says he didn't win and then "but I ruined the guy a week later with another deal."

Is this a reference to the 3 pitch bet between Roy and The Whammer ?

It doesn't really make sense in that Harriet seemed like she shot Roy under her own will, not as a hired hit. Also, it doesn't seem like there was anybody at the carnival who could cover a $100k bet.

But it's such a blatant statement in the middle of the movie it seems like it was put in there for a reason.

[–] strntz (10823) 5 years ago

It's unlikely that Gus was there on that train. That would have been an enormous coincidence.

But even if he was and he bet on The Whammer, why would he take it out on the kid who struck out the best ballplayer in the world? If that was his MO, he would have had to kill a sh*tload of people for every time he lost a bet, and according to him, he bet on a LOT of stuff.

It doesn't really make sense in that Harriet seemed like she shot Roy under her own will..

If you recall, Harriet was fixated on The Whammer. He was her original target as he was generally known to be the best ballplayer (The Whammer modeled The Babe). It wasn't until Roy actually struck out the Whammer that she turned her attention to Roy. She was batshit crazy, which is why she dressed up all in black, and pitched herself out into the sweet by and by after she shot Roy. If it was a contract killing at Gus' behest, why didn't she just slip out the door instead of killing herself?

More importantly, Harriet was modeled after real life wacko Ruth Ann Steinhagen, a woman who shot baseball player Eddie Waitkus of the Phillies, who - like Roy - survived the shooting. Unlike Harriet, Steinhagen did not commit suicide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Ann_Steinhagen

[–] huwdj (4562) 4 years ago

The woman was mad. She was killing the best at each sport. She was going to kill Gus but when he said the kid was going to be the best ever her she shot Roy. It's a long time since I read the book but I'm pretty certain she'd already killed other men by the time she started to close in on Gus.

[–] strntz (10823) 4 years ago

I think you mean The Whammer, not Gus?

[–] huwdj (4562) 4 years ago

Quite possibly - it a very long time since I last saw this. But I do remember it was a very good film and that the book explained the shooter's motivation.

[–] strntz (10823) 4 years ago

Gus was the gambler and friend of the Judge (half owner of the Knights). He was the one who tried to bribe Roy into throwing the playoff game. His girlfriend was the one who poisoned Roy at the party.

The Whammer was the Ruthian character that Roy ran into on the train when he was first going to Chicago as a young man. While stopping over at a train station, he struck The Whammer out on three pitches, winning a bet for his agent and getting the attention of Harriet Bird, the nutsy broad who later shot him...