A Baseball Tragedy Goes to the Movies

Shooting of First Baseman That Inspired a Novel and a Film

Jun 17, 2009

A Bernard Malamud novel and a film starring Robert Redford centered on the shooting of a baseball player. Eddie Waitkus was the true victim of the fictionalized event.

Bernard Malamud, eventually to become one of America's most distinguished authors, completed his first novel in 1952. Entitled "The Natural," it told the story of a promising young baseball player cut down by the bullets of an obsessed female fan and his dramatic comeback more than a decade later. Critically acclaimed for the most part, the book was made into a successful movie in 1984 starring Robert Redford as the heroic Roy Hobbs. While both the novel and film contain fantastic or mystical elements which have troubled some readers, viewers, and critics, it is generally agreed that the central event, the shooting, was based on the attempted murder of Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus in 1949. Who was Eddie Waitkus?

A Top ProspectThe 22-year-old Waitkus played just a few games for the Chicago Cubs in 1941 before spending the next four seasons in World War II military service. Returning in 1946, he batted .304, sixth best in the Nationa League, and proved to be an excellent fielder as well. He solidified his credentials with batting averages in the .290's in both 1947 and 1948 and selection to the All Star team in the latter year.

However, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies after the '48 season in a four-player transaction designed to fill the Cubs' desperate need for better pitching. Waitkus adjusted well to the change of teams and was hitting above .300 and heading again for All Star designation when the near-tragedy occurred.

A 19-year-old Chicago woman who had become obsessed with him during his tenure with the Cubs arranged to meet him at the hotel where the Phillies stayed when playing Chicago in mid-June. Some confusion remaiins as to whether she registered under the name of a former high-schoolmate of his or rather he confused her name with that of a woman he had been dating. In any event, she promptly shot him in the stomach when he appeared at her door and then called the hotel desk, probablly thus saving his life. She was subsequently found insane and confined to an institution for three years.

Post-Trauma

Waitkus recovered and made his first post-hospital appearance in baseball uniform for a "day" honoring him in August. Seemingly fully recovered, he played all 154 games in 1950, when a young Phillies team, designated "The Whiz Kids," won the club's first National League pennant since 1915. He remained with the Phillies through the 1953 season, played in 1954 and part of 1955 at Baltimore, and returned to Philadelphia to close out his career at the end of that season.

Waitkus was a lifetime .285 hitter, good but definitely below his early indications. There has been speculation that although he recovered physically from the shooting, there was a post-traumatic effect that robbed him of full stardom and impacted his domestic life as well. He spent some happy years as a batting instructor at Ted Williams's baseball camp.

Besides the Malamud novel and Redford film, several non-fiction books and a documentary on Waitkus's career and shooting have been produced.

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