“Have you ever read Homer?
“Homer? Well, only homer I know has four bases in it.“
“Homer lived ages ago and wrote about heroes and gods. And he would’ve written about baseball had he seen you out there today. “
The film adaptation of Bernard Malamud’s The Natural celebrates the idea of the baseball player as a mythic hero. The protagonist, Roy Hobbs, vanquishes foes on a perilous journey before returning home upon the completion of his quest.
There are numerous references to The Odyssey in the film, as well as Arthurian legend (like the name of Roy’s team, the Knights). But The Natural draws on more than just mythology to create its narrative. It also references real-world events as an homage to some of the most unlikely moments in baseball history.
As a baseball researcher, I relish any opportunity to dig into the game’s past. The following stories that inspired The Natural prove that truth is often stranger than fiction.
The Tragedy of Eddie Waitkus
In the early scenes of The Natural, Roy Hobbs meets a mysterious and alluring woman on a train to Chicago. The woman (played by Barbara Hershey) later invites him to her room, where she shoots him in the abdomen before committing suicide. Hobbs survives the shooting and returns to play baseball years later.
Seems like the far-fetched invention of a Hollywood screenwriter, right?
As ludicrous as it may sound, that scene was based on something that happened to major league player Eddie Waitkus. A young girl became obsessed with the handsome Waitkus when he was a first baseman for the Cubs. She set a place for him at the family dinner table, kept his photo under her pillow, and turned her bedroom into a shrine to him.
When Waitkus was traded to the Phillies, the girl — who was 19 years old at the time — made the decision to kill him. In 1949, with the Phillies in town visiting Wrigley Field, she left a note for Waitkus asking him to come to her hotel room. Waitkus took the bait, and the girl shot him in the chest with a .22 caliber rifle, just missing his heart.
Waitkus not only survived the shooting; he went on to play in the majors for six more seasons. The year after the shooting, 1950, saw Waitkus bat leadoff for the pennant-winning “Whiz Kid” Phillies. He was also named Comeback Player of the Year by the Associated Press.
The headline-grabbing story inspired Bernard Malamud to write his debut novel The Natural, which was published in 1952. The movie version of Roy Hobbs shares some superficial similarities with his real-life counterpart, such as good looks and a smooth, “natural” left-handed swing. Otherwise, the two figures have little in common.
Waitkus served in the Pacific during World War II, earning four Bronze Stars with the US Army. Described as “very urbane” by biographer John Theodore, the Cambridge, Massachusetts native was a Civil War historian who spoke four languages and enjoyed ballroom dancing. Roy Hobbs, on the other hand, is a teenage prospect from rural America with very little life experience when he’s shot by the woman from the train.
The Best There Ever Was
If Roy’s dream of walking down the street and being called “the best there ever was in this game” sounds familiar, it’s because it echoes the lifelong goal of Ted Williams. Williams aspired to be “the greatest hitter who ever lived” and worked tirelessly to earn that title.
Robert Redford’s portrayal of Roy Hobbs is heavily influenced by his boyhood idol. Redford adored Williams because, like Redford, Williams grew up in California and was left-handed. The graceful swing that Hobbs displays in the film was modeled after Williams’s velvety stroke. The character’s uniform number was also changed from 45 in the book to 9 in the film as a nod to the Splendid Splinter. Coincidentally, Williams had his number retired by the Red Sox just a few weeks after The Natural was released in theaters in 1984.
And while the film’s ending deviates from the source material, it creates yet another Williams parallel. In the novel, Hobbs accepts the bribe to throw the Knights’ final game and strikes out to end the season. But in the movie version, Hobbs clubs a light-shattering homer to win the pennant and retire a hero, referencing the fact that Williams homered in his final career at-bat.
Redford’s Williams imitation earned rave reviews from critics, who praised his convincing performance as a star ballplayer. The highest praise came from Roger Angell of The New Yorker, who wrote that “Redford plays so authentically, you want to sign him up.”
Fun but unrelated side note: Robert Redford was a high school classmate of Dodgers pitcher and Hall of Famer Don Drysdale
The Black Sox Scandal
Though the cinematic version of Roy Hobbs is largely based on Ted Williams, there are also elements of Shoeless Joe Jackson in his characterization.
For instance, Hobbs names his bat “Wonderboy,” similar to the way Shoeless Joe called his bat “Black Betsy.” The most obvious parallel, however, is how Hobbs becomes ensnared in a plot to throw the World Series.
This development was clearly inspired by the infamous Black Sox Scandal that rocked the baseball world in 1919. The scandal arose from the charge that eight White Sox players, including Jackson, had been paid by gamblers to lose the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. All eight implicated players were banned from professional baseball, and their reputations were forever tainted because of their involvement.
In The Natural, the owner of the Knights (referred to as “The Judge”) offers Roy Hobbs $20,000 to throw the one-game playoff between the Knights and the Pirates. Hobbs nobly rejects the offer and wins the game with a tape-measure blast.
Shoeless Joe Jackson’s involvement in the Black Sox Scandal has long been controversial. When the story first broke, Jackson and teammates Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams admitted that Shoeless Joe participated in the fix and accepted $5,000 of a promised $20,000 bribe before Game 5.
But Jackson changed his story and proclaimed his innocence until his death in 1951. Shoeless Joe claimed that he tried to win the series, as evidenced by his .375 average over the eight games. Despite his pleas, Jackson was never reinstated and remains without a Hall of Fame plaque.
Searle’s Final Say
The aforementioned stories are just a few of the historical events referenced in The Natural. The moment when Hobbs breaks the scoreboard clock, for example, was inspired by the time that Bama Rowell shattered the Ebbets Field scoreboard clock in 1946. And the character named “The Whammer,” whom Hobbs strikes out on three pitches, is clearly a reference to Babe Ruth.
The patchwork combination of historical fact, mythological allusions, and blissful fantasy is the reason The Natural endures as a beloved classic. More than anything, the film speaks to the way that legends and myths form our understanding of baseball history. Stories like Babe Ruth’s called shot are based on real events, but the details have been embellished over time to add scope and grandeur.
When The Natural was released in 1984, fans of the novel were upset that the climax had been changed to be more uplifting. But with the challenges we’re facing today, we need baseball heroes like Roy Hobbs to shake us from our doldrums. Now that you know the truth behind the story, you can appreciate all the nuances of this feel-good film.
The Natural is currently available on Netflix.
