Description
The Natural is a 1952 novel by Bernard Malamud. The plot follows Roy Hobbs, the quintessential small-town American boy of the 1920's, whose career is sidetracked when he is shot by a woman. Later, Hobbs attempts to return to baseball, and with his bat Wonderboy, becomes the oldest rookie to play for New York Knights. The Natural was filmed in 1984 and ends with Hobbs hitting the penultimate home run, but in the novel, he has a tragic flaw; an appetite for women and glory as a result of which Wonderboy, is destroyed in Hobbs' final at bat.