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LOS ANGELES — Two retired ballplayers, left-handed hitters with hundreds of career home runs, stood by the batting cage at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday when a visitor mentioned a name: Roy Hobbs. Both replied with the same five words.
“The Natural,” Raúl Ibañez and Chase Utley said. “My favorite movie.”
Ibañez was 12 when Robert Redford, who died on Tuesday, starred as Hobbs, the best there ever was. In high school, Ibañez said, he would watch “The Natural” before every game. He went on to play 19 years in the majors, teaming with Utley for a while on the Philadelphia Phillies.
Both played the game hard, with an understated grace. If either ever launched a ball into the lights, setting off an electrical explosion, they’d have put down their heads and trotted through the falling sparks.
