Probably Unanswerable Questions
What did Roy do in his 15 or 16 years away? Does he stay away from Iris out of shame? Is Kim Basinger a good actress? Why did Iris never marry? Was the barn the first time they had sex, and did she time it? Would the final game be the best sports-movie game to attend? What headlines did we not see? What did Iris's note say? What if the Whammer had made contact? What happens in the World Series? What were Roy Hobbs' stats?
In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 01:30:07Read transcript
- What did Roy do for 15 or 16 years away from baseball, and how many women did he sleep with, since he cannot keep Wonderboy in his pants; whether he calls his penis Wonderboy is a joke question.
- Does Roy stay away from Iris out of shame at being seduced by the first person he met after falling for her? He confesses with grace later, so it feels like a contradiction, and he seems to consciously choose her to reveal himself to; wouldn't she have read about the shooting in Iowa in 1923?
- A mailbag answer from 15 years ago pictured Roy playing semi-pro ball in the middle of nowhere, running a general store and walking around wistfully with his hands in his pockets, not dating much after the lady in black.
- Is Kim Basinger a good actress, since this performance is really over the top? Why did the lady in white never marry: the stigma of unmarried motherhood in the 1920s, or being in love with Roy the whole time, with a Wonderboy joke about working wood.
- Was the barn the first time Roy and Iris had sex, and the only time in her life? Did she set a trap, timing it as a last chance before he left, since she believed he would be the best ever; the counterpoints are whether she knew about ovulation cycles in 1923 and why she does not tell him about the kid immediately when reunited.
- Would the final game be the greatest sports-movie game to attend? One host still goes with the end of Victory with Sly Stallone and the escape from the Nazi guards; the walk-off is the reason to be there and the reason not to, since every light explodes and glass shards rain down.
- What headlines did we not see after the walk-off? Joke headlines about an exploding-stomach injury, 23 dead in a stadium light detonation, and police failing to respond to the gunshot call.
- What did Iris's note say and how did she phrase the reveal? A joke version has her saying the 16-year-old does not know how to play baseball and must be taught in the wheat field.
- If the Whammer had made contact, Harriet would have killed him instead, since she was chasing the best ever; the Knights would then lose the World Series to the Yankees in the Lou Gehrig year, with neither Hobbs nor Gehrig playing again.
- What were Roy Hobbs' stats: a 2001 Page 2 mailbag estimate became an important early writer moment for one host because it spread across the internet, and Roy now has a baseball reference page based on it.
- Freeze-framing the digital copy redates the career: first at bat July 5, a slump in August, 11 homers by the August 14 Life Magazine cover, the lady in white game on September 3 and a four-homer barrage in Chicago the next day; the revised guess is 70 to 75 games, about 290 at bats, 28 to 33 homers and 70 to 80 RBI with a .350 to .370 average, .447 to .450 on base and .750 slugging, modeled on a Bonds season.
- Barry Bonds' 2004 season was better than Roy Hobbs' half season, though Roy swung at an intentional walk and Bonds had no silver bullet in his stomach; Zach Cram (as transcribed) may have to figure it out, since everyone online cites the flawed original research, and a near-.400 average would have made a headline.
- If Roy hit the open market now, critics would tear down his one-dimensional game: a throwing arm, but a possible clubhouse cancer, not a great defender, slow on the bases, a little me-first.