Wasserman's essay, hailed as an outstanding example of Malamud's scholarship, provides a thorough analysis of myth as an integral element of The Natural.

The Doges of Venice dropped a ring into the Adriatic to renew annually its marriage to their city and to assure that the sea be propitious. The British monarch ceremonially opens the annual session of Parliament that it may undertake its care of the kingdom. In the United States, the President annually sanctifies baseball by throwing the first ball of the season into the field; and, having received its presidential commission, baseball proceeds to its yearly task of working the welfare of the national spirit. The wonder is that we do not have a whole library of significant baseball fiction, since so much of the American spirit has been seriously poured into the game and its codes until it has a life of its...