How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
When he had made his speech and retired to the dugout, after a quick unbelieving glance at the mountain of gifts they were unpacking for him, the fans sat back in frozen silence, some quickly crossing their fingers, some spitting over their left shoulders, onto the steps so they wouldn't get anyone wet, almost all hoping he had not jinxed himself forever by saying what he had said. "The best there ever was in the game" might tempt the wrath of some mighty powerful ghosts. (5.6)
The fans instinctively cringe when they hear Roy's plans to be the greatest. Call it a jinx, call it hubris, but there's something that makes them uncomfortable with Roy's speech. They're a suspicious bunch, and as we learn later, they have a reason to be. Malamud may have been trying to make a statement here about the dangers of overreaching, but for some reason Shmoop doesn't find this passage convincing. We think that fans would actually cheer their brains out if their favorite player said something like this.
Quote #8
Sometimes he wished he had no ambitions—often wondered where they had come from in his life, because he remembered how satisfied he had been as a youngster, and that with the little he had had—a dog, a stick, an aloneness he loved (which did not bleed him like his later loneliness), and he wished he could have lived longer in his boyhood. (5.12)
Roy instinctively feels the pressure of his ambitions and thinks of simpler times. There's not a lot of joy for him in being driven; it's a burden.
Quote #9
The sweat oozed out of him. "I wanted everything." His voice boomed out of the silence.
[…] If I had started out fifteen years ago like I tried to, I'da been the king of them all by now."
"The king of what?"
"The best in the game," he said impatiently.
She sighed deeply. "You're so good now."
"I'da been better. I'da broke every record there is."
[…] "Couldn't you be satisfied with just breaking a few?"
Her pinpricking was beginning to annoy him. "Not if I could break most of them," he insisted.
But I don't understand why you should make so much of that. Are your values so—" (7.72-84)
We can really see here how single-minded Roy's ambition is. Iris is baffled by his exclusive focus on baseball as the only measure of success. Roy's inability to achieve his ambitious goals is tearing him apart.