Heddo.....Greatest movie villain ever?
Is Heddo the greatest villain in movie history? I would have to say he is and that his role in Rookie of the Year represents all that encompasses a great evil character.
His past, present and future is shrouded in mystery, no one even seems to know his first name, he's a spectre that appears seemingly out of nowhere in the batting order prompting an entire professional team to scream out," Oh no its Heddo!" Why would a professional team be so surprised that this baseball player was next in the batting order, wouldn't that manager and the umpires have a full list of players that were starting the game that day? Their sudden suprise can only be explained by seeing Heddo as a character that represents the devil. The young and innocent Henry must learn to combat this evil character despite his limitations it's the veritable Orpheus against Hades myth. How does the weaker Henry win against such odds? He uses the innocence of a child, the floater or underhand pitch to destroy the mighty powers of Heddo.
While Heddo is the personification of the devil he is also a larger metaphor for the steroid era. His unnatural muscle tone and skill as a hitter is unmatched by any other player on the Cubs or the National League and dare I say the entire MLB? No one can compare to his level of skill, why is this? I would like to hypothesize that the reason behind his unnatural power is the use of illegal steroids. Heddo was smashing hitting records and home run records in the middle of an era when steroids were infiltrating America's pasttime. What is so important in understanding Heddo as a metaphor for steroid use is that Henry represents all that is sacred in baseball, he's the young up and comer, the boy of summer who succeeded with only his skill and hard work. Heddo is the opposite he's great because he uses steroids like the rest of his compatriots who deride Henry's natural skill, his innocent hard work. Henry must finally face his fears in both the personification of evil and also the evil that is the steroids era. His battle at the end with Heddo in the National League Pennant is a final David and Goliath standoff. Henry's natural skill against Heddo's steroids. In reality, steroids won, but in Henry's fantasy he wins and overcomes the evil that has plagued the game of baseball.
SOme may post later that Henry didn't have any natural skill, that it was all a freak accident that granted his ability, but it was skill that was granted to him by the gods to defeat the final evil of Hades and steroids. Heddo=Hades,repeat the words together and you can understand the writer's intentions.