Pic of "deranged girl" that shot "The Natural"

[Jerry G]

Most Net54 folks know that the book and movie The Natural was inspired by the real life tragedy of Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus. Waitkus' 1955 Bowman briefly tells the story in the first person. Perhaps the Bowman writers could have come up with a more approproate title for the bio than, My Biggest Thrill in Baseball. The "deranged girl" that he speaks of is Ruth Steinhagen. I had never seen a picture of Miss Steinhagen until I recently ran across the photo below in the October 1957 Police Gazette.

The picture shows a court room setting with standing room only. SRO! Look at all those dang people! Waitkus is seated, apparently still recovering. Miss Steinhagen, later to be played in the movie by Barbara Hersey, stands by demurely as the prosecutor(?) fires a finger gun at her.

Now that we have her picture wouldn't she be a great fantasy card project for one of our creative members?

Tim Pulcifer has an interesting group of web pages that include a very cool tribute to Eddie Waitkus. http://nowbatting19.com/WAITKUSpage.html