Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Shpunt and 'The Natural'
Was life imitating art when it was revealed last week that Dodgers' owners Frank and Jamie McCourt had hired a psychic to send good vibes to the team as he watched them play 3,000 miles away on television from Boston?
It reminds one of the scene in the sentimental baseball movie "The Natural" when the New York Knights, who are in a horrendous slump, hire a hypnotist to try to reverse the team's bad luck.
The scene takes place in the clubhouse where the players have gathered around the hypnotist, who is obviously a quack. He says, "Losing is a disease, as contagious as the bubonic plague. Imagine yourselves on an ocean, rocking, rocking...."
Roy Hobbs, the main character who is played by Robert Redford in Bernard Malamud's story, gets up and walks out, ignoring the orders of his manager, played by Wilford Brimley, to sit down.


*****

add Dodgers psychic: It was reported in more than one publication that the team paid Vladimir Shpunt as much as six-figures for his "work." It conjures up an image of a man dressed like Merlin, wearing a pointed hat and a cape decorated with the moon and stars. Something like the Sorcerer out of "Fantasia."

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