The Natural is a 1952 novel about baseball by Bernard Malamud, and is his debut novel. The story follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked after being shot by a woman whose motivation remains mysterious. The story mostly concerns his attempts to return to baseball later in life, when he plays for the fictional New York Knights with his self-made bat "Wonderboy". Based upon the bizarre shooting incident and subsequent comeback of Philadelphia Phillies player Eddie Waitkus, the story of Roy Hobbs takes some poetic license and embellishes what was truly a strange, but memorable, account of a career lost too soon. Apart from the fact that both Waitkus and fictional Hobbs were shot by women, there are few if any other similarities. It has been alternately suggested by historian Thomas Wolf that the shooting incident might have been inspired by Chicago Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges, who was shot by a showgirl with whom he was romantically linked, but there has been no evidence to support this claim. A film adaptation, The Natural, starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, was released in 1984. Plot Nineteen-year-old Roy Hobbs is traveling by train to Chicago with his manager Sam to try out for the Chicago Cubs. Other passengers include sportswriter Max Mercy, Walter "The Whammer" Whambold, the leading hitter in the American League and three-time American League Most Valuable Player (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 never suspects that Bird has any ulterior motive. In fact, she is a lunatic obsessed with shooting the best baseball player. Her intended target was Whammer, but after Hobbs struck him out, her attention shifts to Hobbs. In Chicago, Hobbs checks into his hotel and promptly receives a call from Bird, who is also staying there. When he goes down to her room, she shoots him in the stomach. The novel picks up 16 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 manager Pop Fisher's and assistant manager Red Blow's careers appear to