The Natural

Factual error: In the coffee shop when Roy Hobbs is having coffee, there is a Coca-Cola sign in the window featuring the "fishtail" logo used between roughly 1957 and 1961, not the time period portrayed in the movie.

Factual error: In the final game, the Pittsburgh manager calls for a left-hander in the bottom of the ninth inning. The pitcher strides to the mound, Roy takes his stance in the batter's box...and no warm-up pitches are taken. I understand that a pitcher isn't required to take warm-up pitches, but no pitcher who throws smoke would be willing to cut short his career just to get the game over.

Factual error: After the Knights clinch a tie for the pennant and are celebrating in the clubhouse, Hobbs tries to call Iris on a pay phone that is of early 50's vintage. The movie was set in 1939.

Factual error: Presuming that when the Knights are playing the Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the stadium never had an upper deck above the right field bleachers in its history.

Factual error: The national anthem, which is played before an afternoon game in the movie, was not played before major league ballgames in 1939. That didn't start until 1941, and wasn't done by all major league clubs until 1942.

rivercritter

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 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

More mistakes in The Natural

Iris Gaines: You know, I believe we have two lives.
Roy Hobbs: How... what do you mean?
Iris Gaines: The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.

More quotes from The Natural

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