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

[Cat]

In the Police Gazette photo it says: "Eddie was innocent but incident scared players." What does that mean?

[Big Ben]

Originally Posted by Cat

In the Police Gazette photo it says: "Eddie was innocent but incident scared players." What does that mean?

Maybe the players of the era looked a little more cautiously before they leaped?

[Rich Klein]

When my friend Steve Gold was still with us he attempted to book her for an autograph session at his store. SHe accepted but the outcry amongst collectors was too much and the appearence never was completed.

I think perhaps as a private signing that might have worked.

Rich

[Brian Van Horn]

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[Steve D]

Ruth Ann Steinhagen, the woman who shot Eddie Waitkus back in 1949, just died this past December:

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story...atural-dead-83


Steve

[tschock]

I have a copy of the book above that I'll pass on to anyone interested in reading it. PM me.

[gnaz01]

Pm sent

[conor912]

Wow. Best first line of a baseball card bio ever!!!

[deadballfreaK]

Great thread. Fascinating story. I knew most of it already, but the pics were new and I didn't know Ruth had passed away. Eddie's career and personal life went downhill for a long time. From what I've read the shooting weighed on him pretty heavily. Lots of drinking, but he came out of that and was doing well until cancer took him at an early age. As for Ruth she was obviously seriously mentally ill at the time, but she did some time, apparently was at least mostly cured, and lived a quiet normal life for 60+ years. I think Eddie forgave her and we can all do the same.

[Gmrson]

Very interesting story! The Natural is one of my favorite movies but I've yet to read the book. Years ago I was surprised to see the movie on the shelf of a lady I worked with. She explained it was one of her favorites, not because of baseball but because it's(the book) also based on Arthurian Legend. She explianed the parallels such as the cup being the Holy Grail, many of the other characters and how Hobbs fails in the book.

[Den*nis O*Brien]

I hope this post does not stretch the rules too far ( auto on the main board).....but here is a young and healthy Eddie on a 1939 Moline Plowboys team ball.

[deadballfreaK]

I don't want to get off topic, but I couldn't help notice in reading about this case that Ms. Steinhagen's family and friends realized she was not well and they "tried" to get her to get help. I know from personal experience that trying is not enough. YOU GET THEM HELP! God forbid that anyone here would have to deal with such a thing, but I had a close relative and one of my very best friends develop schizophrenia in their late teens. I was like everybody else for a long time. Try to ignore it or make them try to see they need help. Doesn't work. I was having a conversation with one of them one day and I got so alarmed over the things they were saying that I called the police. 15 minutes later two officers were on the scene talking to both of us. They readily saw there was a problem and within an hour the person was hospitalized. Both my family member and my friend suffered through a lot of hospitalizations and medications, but they both came out on the other side and are leading pretty healthy, happy lives. Sorry if that is preachy, but mental illness is not something to ignore.

[cubsfan-budman]

Did anyone else happen to hear the story about this pop up on NPR today? Seemed somewhat fishy to me...they took credit for noticing Ms. Steinhagens obit in a Chicago paper and did not cite this message board for piquing his interest in the story. The fact that this thread would pop up here AND the exact item would be on NPR seems pretty far fetched. The reporter was Bob Goldsboro or similar. I was driving from Austin to Dallas so I may be mis-remembering his last name.

Interesting coincidence at the least.

[EvilKing00]

very interesting i didnt know that. and yea why does it say hes innocent? innocent of what? was he accused of something?