Eddie Waitkus, The Natural

December 31, 2008 5:37 PM

You have probably heard of Roy Hobbs, the fictional baseball player in The Natural. The book and movie were loosely base on the life of Eddie Waitkus. Eddie was having a fine pro baseball career, when on the night of June 14, 1949 an obsessed girl, Ruth Ann Steinhagen, lured him into a hotel room and shot him.
posted by lee (7 comments total)

Steinhagen was no Barbara Hershey.

I like Barbara Hershey.
posted by Joe Beese at 5:57 PM on December 31, 2008

Dames.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:14 PM on December 31, 2008

I love Eddie's initial reaction: "I don't know what got into that silly honey. Why pick on a nice guy like me?"
posted by Knappster at 7:46 PM on December 31, 2008

Let's hear it for stalkers!

Hip hip hooray... Why is no one cheering with me?
posted by flipyourwig at 8:05 PM on December 31, 2008

Using my vast knowledge of Craniometry I have been able to determine that Ruth Ann Steinhagen's vast forehead, known to Craniometrists as a "Fivehead", was without a doubt the cause of her aberrant behavior. It is unfortunate that corrective fivehead surgery was not available until 1958, it could have saved a life.
posted by MikeMc at 9:07 PM on December 31, 2008

An armed society is a polite society.
posted by telstar at 12:13 AM on January 1, 2009

Check out the arm on that society!
posted by fleacircus at 1:15 AM on January 1, 2009