Picking Nits
The Wrigley clock and national anthem anachronisms; Hobbs never asks how old Iris's son is; Fowler's three-hitter throw job; gibberish newspaper copy and shifting dates; Roy's silver bullet, stomach lining and exploding-stomach medicine; Pop's lineup construction; nobody hears the gunshot in the owner's box; Roy never changes his name though he did nothing wrong
In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:19:03Read transcript
- Time-frame issues: the Wrigley Field clock, and a national anthem sung before a game, which did not happen until after World War II.
- Hobbs never puts two and two together about his son, asking 'your boy?' without the natural follow-up of how old he is.
- Fowler, bribed to throw the last game, throws a three-hitter and makes one mistake in eight innings, when a pitcher could simply walk a bunch of dudes and give up a five-run inning.
- The newspaper copy under the headlines is gibberish when frozen, and the dates go back and forth, making the timeline hard to follow, though the newspapers and magazine covers are loved as a gimmick.
- Everything about Roy's internal organs is confounding: the bullet could not be removed after 72 hours in a coma yet comes out perfectly after the poisoning, the doctor warns his stomach could explode, and the blood at the end has no clear source beyond opened stitches; it is called completely illogical and a mess.
- Pop's lineup construction is abhorrent: the slowest guy in the two spot, and a fourth outfielder subbed in to bat third in the playoff game when Roy is crossed out.
- Nobody hears a gunshot in the owner's box before the game; Roy works to hide his past yet never changes his name, and the hosts cannot see what he did wrong, since Harriet killed three other people and jumped out a window, like being blamed for Ted Bundy's suicide.
- Earlier, whether Max Mercy should have remembered Roy right away is dismissed as fine, while whether Roy could still pitch with the bullet in his side is parked for nits or unanswerable questions; pain tolerance and no Toradol are the offered answers.
- Whether Roy would really bleed through his heavy fire-retardant uniform was flagged during research as a possible nitpick.