The Natural

infobox Book |
name = The Natural
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Bernard Malamud
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Harcourt Brace and Company
release_date = 1952
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 9780380506095
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Natural" is a 1952 novel about baseball written by Bernard Malamud. The book follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked when he is shot by a crazed serial killer. Most of the story concerns itself with his attempts to return to baseball later in life, when he plays for the fictional New York Knights with his legendary bat 'Wonderboy'. Based upon the unfortunate shooting and subsequent comeback of Phillies player Eddie Waitkus, the story of Roy Hobbs takes some poetic license and embelishes what was truly a strange, but memorable account of a career lost too soon.

A film adaptation of "The Natural" starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs was released in 1984.

Plot

The novel opens with 19-year old Roy Hobbs on a train to Chicago with his manager Sam. He is traveling to Chicago for a tryout for the Chicago Cubs. Other passengers on the train include sportswriter Max Mercy, Walter 'The Whammer' Whambold (the leading hitter in the American League and 3 time American League Most Valuable Player at the time in the novel/ clearly based on Babe Ruth) and Harriet Bird, a beautiful but mysterious woman.

The train makes a quick stop at a carnival along the rail where The Whammer challenges Hobbs to strike him out. Hobbs does just that, much to everyone's surprise, and The Whammer's humiliation. Back on the train Harriet Bird strikes up a conversation with Hobbs who does not suspect that Bird has any sort of ulterior motive. In fact, she is a lunatic obsessed with shooting the best baseball player. Her intent was to target Whammer but after Hobbs struck him out, her attention turns to him.

Once off the train Hobbs checks into his hotel room in Chicago and promptly receives a call from Bird who is staying in the same hotel. When he goes up to her room she shoots him.

16 Years Later

The novel picks up sixteen years later in the dugout of the New York Knights, a fictional National League baseball team. The team has been on an extended losing streak and the careers of manager Pop Fisher and assistant manager Red Blow seem to be winding to an ignominious end. During one of these sad games Roy Hobbs emerges from the clubhouse tunnel to meet Pop and to announce that he is the team's new right fielder, having just been signed by Judge Banner, a man known by the team as 'The Judge'. Both Pop and Red take Hobbs under their wing and he learns from Red about Fisher's plight as manager of the Knights. The Judge wishes to push Pop out of the team's payroll completely but cannot do so until the end of the current season - and then only so long as the Knights don't win the National League pennant.

Being the newest player Roy has a number of practical jokes played upon him, including the theft of his 'Wonderboy' bat. Once Roy gets his first chance at bat however he proves he's truly a 'natural' at the game. During one game, Pop substitutes Hobbs as a pinch hitter for team star Bump Bailey. Bailey has not been hustling and Pop is unhappy with this. Pop tells Roy to 'knock the cover off of the ball', which he ends up doing, hitting a ball into center field for a ground rule double. A few days later, a newly-hustling Bump dies from injuries resulting from running into the outfield wall in an attempt to play a hard hit fly ball. Roy then takes over for Bump on a permanent basis.

Max Mercy reappears in the novel, now searching for details of Hobbs' past. Hobbs remains quiet on the subject, but Mercy remains insistent. He offers five thousand dollars to Hobbs for his entire life story, but Hobbs refuses, saying that 'all the public is entitled to is my best game of baseball.' At the same time, Hobbs has been attempting unsuccessfully to negotiate a higher salary with the Judge, arguing that his success should be rewarded. Meeting with Mercy again, he introduces Hobbs to bookie Gus Sands, who is keeping company with Memo Paris, Pop's niece and the woman with whom Hobbs has been infatuated since he came to the Knights. Hobbs proceeds to perform some magic tricks which appear to impress Memo.

Max Mercy writes a column in the paper about the Judge's refusal to grant Hobbs a raise, and a fan uprising ensues. Hobbs, however, is more occupied with Memo and attempts to further their relationship. Pop warns Hobbs about Memo's tendency to impart bad luck to the people with whom she associates. Hobbs dismisses the warning, but soon after, he falls into a hitting slump. Hobbs tries to solve his slump in a number of ways, but all of them fail. Hobbs finally breaks out of a slump, hitting a home run in a game in which a mysterious woman rises out of her seat a number of times. Before Hobbs can look to see who the woman is, she has already left the game. Roy eventually meets the woman, Iris Lemon, and proceeds to court her. Upon finding out she is a grandmother, however, his desire for her drops and he turns his attention back to Memo Paris.

While Memo rebuffs Roy's advances, Hobbs continues his hitting streak and leads the Knights to a seventeen-game winning streak. With the Knights one game away from winning the National League pennant, Roy goes to a party hosted by Memo, and eats a large amount of food. He collapses and wakes up in a hospital bed. The doctor tells him he can play in the final game of the season, but that his days of baseball must end after the season if Hobbs is to live long past the days of his career. He wants to start a family with Memo but is concerned about how he would do that if he retired from the game of baseball.

The Judge offers Hobbs $25,000 to lose the final game for the Knights. After substantial consideration, Hobbs makes a counter-offer, which is accepted. That night, he is unable to sleep, and reads a letter from Iris. After seeing the word 'grandmother' in the letter, he discards it and tries to sleep. The next day, he does play. During an at-bat, he fouls a pitch into the stands that strikes Iris, injuring her. The bat also splits in two lengthwise. At the end of the game, with a chance to win it, Hobbs then strikes out, ending the season for the Knights.

The book ends with Hobbs seeking out the Judge, Memo, and Gus Sands, hitting both the Judge and Sands out of frustration. Sands has his glass eye knocked out of his head and the Judge has a bowel movement in his pants. Memo Paris fires at Hobbs, but misses. She then places the pistol in her mouth until Hobbs takes the gun away from her. That evening, as he leaves the stadium, a late edition newspaper headline declares the career of Hobbs to be over on suspicion of throwing the game that afternoon. A newsboy asks him to tell him it isn't true, but Hobbs breaks down and weeps. The novel ends with this image.

In popular culture

Several Major League Baseball players have been nicknamed "The Natural" or "Roy Hobbs" since the production of the movie version in 1984. The first significant player being Will Clark of the San Francisco Giants when he was referred to as "The Natural" starting in his rookie season of 1986.

In 1998, a late season call-up for the New York Yankees, Shane Spencer earned the moniker "Roy Hobbs" when he hit 10 home runs, three of which were grandslams, in only 67 at bats. The fact that he was a rookie at the age of 26, slightly old for a rookie, contributed to the mythology of Roy Hobbs as he had his Major League debut later in life.

Currently, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers has earned the nickname "The Natural" in reference to the personal obstacles he has had to overcome to make it to the Major Leagues as well as his prolific home run hitting.

Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals has also been nicknamed "The Natural" by fans and media. Ankiel began his major league career as a successful pitcher, then suffered setbacks and eventually returned to the majors as a power hitting outfielder. It should be noted that these players are more closely nicknamed to the Roy Hobbs of the movie as opposed to the book, who is more flawed than his Robert Redford portrayed counterpart.

External links

* [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/books/holdings/images/enlarged3.html Picture of book cover from University of Texas Library collection]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/06/home/baseball-natural.html "New York Times" review of "The Natural" from August 26, 1952.]