In Episode 13, we learned about a baseball player that inspired a movie. Eddie Waitkus was a first baseman who played for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles. He played in the MLB for 11 years and was voted to the All Star Team twice. He was known as the “Fred Astaire of first base” and Ted Williams said he had the best swing he had ever seen. Now the name Eddie Waitkus may not be too familiar, but maybe you have heard of the movie, “The Natural“. An incident in Waitkus’ life is portrayed in the movie. A 19 year old woman from Chicago was infatuated with Eddie. She had a shrine of newspaper clippings and even set a place at the dinner table for him every night. Due to no fault of his own, he was traded from the Cubs to the Phillies. This upset Ruth Ann Steinhagen who pretended to be an old classmate of Eddie’s to lure him to her motel room. There she shot him. He had never met her and had no idea why she shot him. Waitkus recovered and continued to play baseball with the Phillies. Waitkus continued his resurgence as the leadoff hitter for the Whiz Kids team that won the 1950 National League Pennant. Waitkus led the team in scoring with 102 runs.^[5] Waitkus made his only post-season appearance in the 1950 World Series. After the 1950 season, Waitkus was named the Associated Comeback Player of the Year. Listen to Episode 13 to find out more about Eddie Waitkus.

We also have another gem from baseball history involving a dugout water fountain and the Albuquerque Dukes. Find this story and others in the book Bush League Boys: The Postwar Legends of Baseball in the American Southwest by Toby Smith.