Eddie Waitkus

[penncentralpete]

psychopath who shot Eddie:

[shlevine42]

Here's the strange story of that disturbed young woman, Ruth Ann Steinhagen.

http://www.chatterfromthedugout.com/eddie_waitkus_affair.htm

Waitkus is also remembered as the batter who hit the ball that Jackie Robinson miraculously caught in the final game of the '51 season to stifle a Phillies rally and force the historic playoff with the Giants.

A catch described as "The unconquerable doing the impossible."

[LeoD]

Two matrons were assigned on June 17, to watch for any suicide attempts on the part of Ruth Steinhagen, 19, shown peering out from her cell in the Cook County jail. She is being held in connection with the shooting of Eddie Waitkus, first baseman for the Phillies. The baseball star is reported improving steadily. June 18, 1949

[penncentralpete]

Eddie Waitkus

By all accounts, Waitkus was never the same following the shooting. The once sociable, easygoing first baseman became reclusive and mistrusting. Following his playing days he was treated for alcoholism and worked at Ted Williams' baseball camps in the summer. He lived quietly near Boston until his death in 1972 at age 53.

[penncentralpete]

Waitkus

Eddie Waitkus:

[penncentralpete]

psychopath

Steinhagen spent most of her weekends during the 1947 and 1948 seasons watching Eddie Waitkus play baseball. While other girls were calling out his name and asking for autographs, Ruth just kept to herself, never approaching him.

Ruth Ann passed time between Cubs home games in her Eddie Waitkus shrine, looking at the hundreds of clippings and pictures of Waitkus. Her mother said "she would spread them on the table and floor and spend hours looking at them". Steinhagen was accustomed to setting a place at the dinner table for Waitkus.

[penncentralpete]

psycho

After the shooting and trial,Ruth Ann Steinhagen spent three years in the “state hospital” receiving electro-shock “therapy” before being pronounced cured and released.

[penncentralpete]

Trial

Ruth (left) and Waitkus (center in wheelchair) at trial:

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Ruth

Ruth in cell 2 days after the shooting BELOW PICTURE

[penncentralpete]

Ruth in her cell:

[donzblock]

Didn't the Waitkus shooting inspire Malamud's "The Natural"?

[penncentralpete]

Didn't the Waitkus shooting inspire Malamud's "The Natural"?

Yes, it certainly did.

[penncentralpete]

Waitkus shooting

Waitkus was rushed to the hospital and Steinhagen was rushed to jail. Though seriously wounded, Waitkus was in grave danger only once, later that night, when police got the bright idea of bringing Steinhagen to his bedside so that the ballplayer could identify her. Waitkus went into shock at the sight of his assailant, and was barely stabilized.

[penncentralpete]

Didn't the Waitkus shooting inspire Malamud's "The Natural"?

The 1984 movie “The Natural” with Robert Redford is one of the better baseball movies made. It is based on Bernard Malamud’s offbeat novel of the same name when. 38-year-old Roy Hobbs breaks into baseball as a rookie with a passion, hits gigantic home runs, and transforms a last place team into a winner. The story was inspirited by the shooting of Eddie Waitkus, a 29-year-old baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies, when a deranged woman invited him into her hotel room for the purpose of murder.

[Lpeters199]

Eddie Waitkus

As well as The Natural, the shooting of Eddie Waitkus also inspired a 1962 episode of the Naked City television series. Aldo Ray plays a football star who is shot by an obsessed woman he doesn't know, just like Waitkus was.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0656796/#comment