. Pop’s blunder” is exactly what happened to Hostetler. When Pop Fisher was a player, he made the same mistake in the regular season, costing his team the pennant, while Hostetler’s fall did not affect the Tiger’s championship hopes.Roy’s agreement with Judge Banner to throw the final game symbolizes the infamous scandal in the 1919 World Series involving Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago Black Sox. In what is possibly the most famous of all sports scandals, multiple players from the Black Sox took part in “throwing” or “fixing” the series. By doing so, they received handsome amounts of cash from bookies and other influential individuals in society. Roy does the same thing in the novel, except, in his case, it is the owner of his own team who wants him to “throw” the final regular season game that would determine which team would go to the postseason. Roy accepts monetary bribes from Judge Banner and strikes out every time he comes to bat that game.The parallel between the medieval tale of Percival and Roy’s struggles is another important example of how symbolism is used in determining Roy’s. The Holy Grail appears in the medieval romance of Percival. As a youth, Percival sets out to achieve knighthood at King Arthur's court. On the way he reaches the castle of the Fisher King, a renowned angler. The Fisher King, Percival's uncle, is keeper of the Holy Grail and of the spear that wounded Christ on the cross. Because of his sinful ways, the Fisher King is speechless upon confronting the sacred chalice. When Percival enters the castle he witnesses a procession in which the bleeding spear and the Holy Grail pass before the speechless king. Astonished, Percival fails to ask any questions concerning the strange pantomime, not knowing that if he had spoken, his uncle would have been healed. After many wanderings, Percival returns to the Grail castle, welds ...
