The Natural

The Natural (1984)

6 corrected entries

★★★☆☆

(9 votes)

Corrected entry: In the beginning of the movie, Babe Ruth is batting righty. In reality, Bambino was a lefty hitter and never batted righty.

Correction: He was a fictional character they called "The Whammer" that was intended to be a Babe Ruth type character, but it was never established that he was actually Babe Ruth.

Zwn Annwn

Corrected entry: Same game....they show John Olson, the catcher, batting left-handed when he bats right-handed the rest of the movie - and he isn't a switch-hitter.

Correction: Nowhere does it mention whether or not the catcher is a switch hitter. The scene is not reversed because the lettering is all correctly visible. Just because he batted right handed the rest of the movie doesn't mean he can't bat left handed against a right handed pitcher.

Zwn Annwn

Corrected entry: During Roy Hobb's final at-bat in the pennant game, the blood spots on his uniform change with each shot. In some shots there are 3 distinct blood stains, in others there are 2.

Correction: The blood spots in question only do one thing: they get bigger and more numerous, which is the natural and expected result of bleeding.

Corrected entry: In Roy's last at bat, the starting pitcher throws two pitches from the wind-up before being replaced by his manager. But with runners on first and third, and his team leading by two runs, he should have been pitching from the stretch position to check on the runners.

Correction: The views of the starting pitcher do not establish whether the pitcher is pitching from a wind-up or from the stretch because of the timing of the cuts to the pitcher. He is in mid-motion in each of the three shots, and in one it appears to be most likely a stretch motion while in the other two it is not possible to say for sure.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Roy Hobbs breaks his bat ("Wonder Boy") upon hitting a foul ball, the bat is obviously intact as he completes his swing. Only when they cut back after the ball has gone foul is the bat splintered in two.

Correction: Because of the close proximity of the bat and the splintered piece on the ground, the most likely type of break to produce that result would be a partially shattered bat that fell apart when it hit the ground. If the bat were to have broken during the swing, the two parts would not have landed next to each other as depicted.

Corrected entry: In the scene in the Judge's office before the final game, Hobbes says he'll hit away, i.e. to left field, to compensate for his injury. However, he subsequently wins the game by homering into the lights overlooking right field.

Correction: The term "hit away" means that he is going to take his swings, or "hacks" at the ball. It doesn't mean to hit to the opposite field in this instance.

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Mistakes

Other mistake: In Roy Hobbs' last at bat of the movie he takes the 1st pitch for a called strike (confirmed by closed captioning). The 2nd pitch is called a ball. The Pittsburgh manager then decides to change pitchers with the count at 1-1. The relief pitcher's 1st pitch is fouled into the press box making the count 1 ball and 2 strikes. The 2nd pitch from the relief pitcher is swung on and missed, and should be strike 3. Hobbs stays in the box and hits a long fly ball foul and hits a HR on the next pitch. Roy Hobbs should have struck out. (02:06:20 - 02:12:05)

jasoncc2

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Like most umpire calls, the ump's wording of "Ball" on the first pitch isn't obvious until you hear the difference in the first "Strike" call. The count was not 1 and 1 when they brought in the new pitcher, it was 2 and 0.

If the umpire called the first pitch a ball then why does the closed captioning say strike?

Mistake in captioning and also by the announcer. If you look at the ball as it passes Roy, it is head high and the catcher has to reach to his left to catch the ball. Clearly, Levinson called for the pitch to be a ball. Ball one.

It's not a mistake in captioning because after the Umpire calls it a Strike, you can hear the announcer say "Strike One", it's low because of the crowd noise but he says it. It's even in the Director's Cut, then magically on the next pitch the count changes and the announcer says "Ball Two"

You can also hear the radio announcer say strike.

The man calling the game over the radio said it was a strike. However, the pitch was up at eye level and a ball. The ump sounds like he's saying "ball" and the Pirates' coach looks upset at the pitcher, which seems fitting for a pitched ball.

The "Strike!" closed captioning is wrong, and later the announcer's audio (although not shown on closed captioning) says "Ball two," which is why the manager calls for a pitching change.

The closed captioning always gets words wrong! Always! Gotta watch that. That being said I'm here bc I thought he had 4 as well.

The mistake seems valid. It does look like the ump says strike on the first pitch. The announcer even says "strike one" and then goes on to talk about how Hobbs has already struck out twice, so this has nothing to do with subtitles. Watching this on Netflix you can tell the word "ball" has been dubbed over the word strike on the first pitch. In the book, Hobbs strikes out on his final at-bat. It seems like the film makers were going to have him strike out, which a strike on a 1-2 count after the foul would have done, but decided to change it (maybe the ending tested poorly with audiences). Rather than reshoot the whole thing, they just dubbed over the ump to make it a 2-1 count.

Bishop73

Makes more sense that the manager would pull the pitcher on 2-0 count vs 1-1.

The announcer also said it was a strike.

Closed captioning gets it wrong sometimes. I notice it a lot.

The closed caption not only has the umpire calling a strike, but also has the commentary saying "strike one."

Suggested correction: When the pitcher is changed, the count is 2-0.

That is not correct. It's 1-1.

Bishop73

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