The Natural is a 1952 novel about baseball written by Bernard Malamud. The book centers around Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked when he is shot in a chance encounter. Most of the story concerns his attempts to get back into baseball later in life, when he plays for the fictional New York Knights with his legendary bat Wonderboy.

The Natural was adapted into a film starring Robert Redford in 1984. The movie is not considered very faithful, as its ending bears no relationship to the ending of the novel.

External Links

IMDB listing for movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087781/)