REAL-LIFE ROY HOBBS?
Eddie Waitkus, the smooth-swinging first baseman of the 1950 pennant-winning Phillies, is best remembered not for his on-field prowess but for surviving a shocking event that would inspire one of baseball’s most famous fictional moments.
On June 14, 1949, while in Chicago to play the Cubs, Waitkus was lured to a room at the Edgewater Beach Hotel by 19-year-old Ruth Ann Steinhagen, a fan obsessed with him since his days with the Cubs. She had created a shrine to Waitkus in her home and was devastated by his trade to the Phillies. That night, she shot him in the chest with a .22-caliber rifle. Miraculously, Waitkus survived after several surgeries, and returned the next season to play all 154 games for the Phillies, earning Comeback Player of the Year honors.
Steinhagen was found mentally ill and committed to a state hospital. She never stood trial and lived in obscurity until her death in 2012.
The bizarre, almost cinematic incident bore striking resemblance to a key moment in Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel The Natural, where young phenom Roy Hobbs is shot by a mysterious woman in a hotel room. Malamud never confirmed the link, but the parallels are hard to ignore.
Unlike Hobbs, Waitkus was a war hero who had earned four Bronze Stars in World War II and was already an established major leaguer. Still, the shooting altered the course of his life. He never fully recovered emotionally, and his later years were marked by anxiety and isolation. He died in 1972 at age 53 from esophageal cancer—his son believed the stress from the shooting played a role.
While Roy Hobbs rose again in fiction, Eddie Waitkus’s comeback was real—but so was the trauma he carried. His story remains one of baseball’s strangest and most haunting chapters.
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June 14, 1952, Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves strikes out 18 Chicago Cubs in a 15-inning game. The future Hall of Famer allows only six hits in pitching the marathon. At the plate, Spahn hits a home run, but his efforts don’t prevent the Braves from losing the game, 3-1, on Hal Jeffcoat’s two-run triple. Spahn is the sixth pitcher to compile 18 or more strikeouts in a game, but the first hurler who needed extra frames to accomplished the feat. On the same day, Braves scout Dewey Griggs signs Hank Aaron to a contract after they purchased Hank Aaron from the Indianapolis Clowns for $10,000, the Braves sign the 18 year-old Negro League player and assign him to the Eau Claire Bears, the team’s Class-C farm team. The future home run king will play second base, being named the Northern League’s Rookie of the Year when he hits .336 and nine homers in 87 games for the Wisconsin minor league team.
June 14 1963 — Duke Snider hits his 400th career home run off Bob Purkey to highlight a 10 – 3 triumph by the New York Mets over the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field. The blast was Snider’s 11th of the season. He will hit 14 on the season. The “Duke of Flatbush” is elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980. “This one felt pretty good.” Said, Snider. He sat in front of Casey Stengel’s desk discussing his first career home run. An inside-the-park home run off Curt Simmons and his first World Series home run off Allie Reynolds. At the time he was just the 8th player to reach 400.
June 14, 1965 — Cincinnati Reds starter Jim Maloney, who strikes out 18 batters, no-hits the Mets for ten innings, but loses 1-0 when Johnny Lewis connects for a homer in the eleventh in the Crosley Field contest. In August at Wrigley Field, the right-hander will once again give up no hits through the first nine innings, but this time will record a no-hitter when his teammate Leo Cardenas connects in the top of the tenth, providing the only run in Cincinnati’s 1-0 victory over Chicago.
June 14 1969 – Reggie Jackson drove in 10 runs with his 21st and 22nd homers, a double and two bases-loaded singles Saturday as the Oakland Athletics trampled the sloppy-fielding Boston Red Sox 21-7. The 25-hit attack, aided by six errors that led to six unearned runs, put the As in first place in the American Leagues West division by one percentage point over Minnesota, which lost to Cleveland 12-0. Jackson doubled home a run in the first inning, crashed two-run homers in the third and fifth to take the major league lead, singled in two in the seventh and capped his outburst with a three-run bloop single in the eighth. The 10 RBIs were just one shy of the league record set by Tony Lazzeri of the New York Yankees in 1936. Phil Roof also clubbed a three-run homer for the As In the bombardment against Ray Jarvis, 3-2, and four relievers. Reggie Smith hit a three-run homer for Boston and Carl Yastrzemski slugged a pair of solo clouts, his 16th and 17th, against winner Jim Odom, 8-3, who needed relief in the sixth inning.
June 14, 1974, Nolan Ryan of the California Angels throws 235 pitches and strikes out 19 batters in a 13-inning stint against the Boston Red Sox. Ryan’s victims include Cecil Cooper, who fans a total of six times. Although the Angels eventually win the game in 15 innings, Ryan settles for a no-decision. The right-hander’s performance will be the first of three 19-strikeout outings the Texan throws this season. Barry Raziano is the winner in two innings of relief and Luis Tiant takes the loss in 14 1/3 innings, after Denny Doyle doubles home Mickey Rivers with the winning run.
June 14, 1985, Earl Weaver comes out of retirement to manage the Baltimore Orioles. Weaver, who had led the O’s to four American League titles and the 1970 World Championship, replaces the fired Joe Altobelli who won a world championship in his first year with the club. In the 105 games remaining, ‘Earl of Baltimore’ will guide the team to a 53-52 record, and will retire for good after next season when the O’s finish in seventh place.
June 14, 1987, future Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt hits three home runs in a game for the third time in his career. Schmidt’s trio of home runs, which ties him with Mel Ott for 13th on the all-time list, spurs the Philadelphia Phillies to an 11-6 win over the Montreal Expos. Schmidt connected again in the sixth off Curt Brown for his 2,000th career hit. His other two came off Randy St. Claire and Lary Sorenson.
June 14, 1996, Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles breaks the world record for the most consecutive games played. Ripken plays in his 2,215th straight game, eclipsing the mark held by former Japanese League star Sachio Kinugasa. Ripken goes hitless in four at-bats as the Orioles defeat the Kansas City Royals, 6-1.
TRIVIA
After receiving zero votes for Rookie of the Year, who then led the majors in doubles in each if the next two seasons?
Hint: #1 In each of the next thirteen consecutive seasons, he never hit fewer than twenty doubles.
Hint: #2 He was talked out of a music career by his high school baseball coach.
Hint: #3 Only Brooks Robinson and Maury Wills had more at-bats in the 1960s.
TRIVIA ANSWER:
Vada Pinson
Rookie in 1958, Pinson had 47 2B in 1959 and 37 in 1960.
– #1 From 1961 through 1973, Pinson was a trusted doubles supplier. In 5 of those seasons, he had more than 30.
– #2 Pinson attended McClymonds High School in Oakland, California, the Alma Mater of Frank Robinson & Curt Flood, among others. Baseball Coach George Powles was actively involved in youth baseball programs, including the American Legion & Connie Mack leagues, further influencing the careers of young athletes in the Oakland area.
– #3 MLB AB 1960-69 = Brooks Robinson (6,093), Maury Wills (6,091), Vada Pinson (6,086).
