As the newest and oldest member of the team, Roy is treated with skepticism from coaches and ridicule from his fellow teammates. The season will be critical for Roy but also for Pop, who must find a way to reverse the Knights' losing streak to salvage his career and his legacy. In an act of sabotage, the Judge signs the aging and untested Roy to be the team's new right fielder, paying him a measly signing fee of $3,000. He wants to take full ownership of the team from manager and co-owner Pop Fisher, but to do that he must ensure that the Knights do not win the National League Pennant. Judge Banner is the co-owner of the New York Knights, a (fictional) National League team. After a brief conversation in which Roy reveals his ambition of becoming the greatest baseball player in the world, Harriet shoots him in the stomach.įifteen years later, the now-thirty-four-year-old Roy gets an opportunity for a comeback, albeit under rather ignoble circumstances. Once they're in Chicago, she follows Roy to his hotel and invites him to her room.

Initially intent on shooting the Whammer, Harriet now becomes obsessed with Roy. Little does Roy know that Harriet is a madwoman intent on becoming famous for shooting a baseball player. Back on the train to Chicago, Harriet introduces herself to Roy, expressing how impressed she is that he managed to strike out the Whammer. Roy is successful, and his feat attracts the attention of Harriet. As Roy and the Whammer attempt to outdo one another at the various carnival games, Sam makes a bet with Mercy that Roy can strike out the Whammer. On the way to Chicago, the train stops at a rail-side carnival. Roy also sees a mysterious and beautiful woman, Harriet Bird, to whom Roy is immediately attracted.

With the Whammer is the sleazy sports journalist Max Mercy. Also on the train is Walter 'The Whammer' Whambold, the American League's leading hitter who is loosely based on Babe Ruth. Compared to many of the other passengers, Roy is something of a country bumpkin. Accompanying Roy is the prominent Cubs scout, Sam Simpson. When the book begins, Roy Hobbs is a nineteen-year-old pitcher on a train to Chicago where he is scheduled to try out for the Chicago Cubs. Though widely considered to be one of the greatest sports movies of all time, the film adaptation was also criticized for its ending which differed significantly from the one found in Malamud's book. In 1984, Robert Redford starred as Roy Hobbs in a film adaptation of The Natural directed by Barry Levinson. The character of Roy Hobbs is very loosely based on the real-life baseball player Eddie Waitkus who was shot by an obsessed fan in 1949. Malamud's debut novel, The Natural tells the story of Roy Hobbs, a once-promising baseball prodigy who attempts to make a comeback after a gunshot wound ruined his career. The Natural is a baseball novel published in 1952 by the American author Bernard Malamud.

The Natural by Bernard Malamud