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 sociopathic serial killer (Psychopathy). 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 bizarre shooting incident and subsequent comeback of Philadelphia Phillies player Eddie Waitkus,Factdate=September 2009 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.

It has been alternately suggested that the shooting incident might have been inspired by Chicago Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges,Factdate=October 2009 who was shot by a showgirl with whom he was romantically linked.

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