Baseball's Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus

Writing Baseball

by John Theodore, Ira Berkow (Foreword)

Baseball's Natural is John Theodore's true account of the slick-fielding first baseman who played for the Cubs and the Phillies in the 1940s and became immortalized in baseball lore as the inspiration for Bernard Malamud's The Natural. Eddie Waitkus grew up in Boston and fought in the Pacific theater in World War II. Following the war, Waitkus became one of the most popular players of his era. In 1949, with his career on the rise, his life changed dramatically in a Chicago hotel when a nineteen-year-old shot him in the chest. Waitkus’s dramatic recovery the next year inspired his teammates as the Phillies won the National League pennant. Although Waitkus survived the shooting, he could never outlive it. Through interviews with Waitkus’s family, fellow servicemen, former ballplayers, and childhood friends, and aided by fifteen photographs, Theodore chronicles Waitkus’s remarkable comeback as well as the difficult years following his Major League career.

Genres: Baseball, Nonfiction, Biography, Sports, Memoir

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Lady ♥ Belleza · Rating 3 out of 5]

When The Natural (starring Robert Redford) was released in 1984 I went to see it with my best friend. I liked baseball and I liked Robert Redford. While I may have been aware that it was based on a book (“The Natural” written in 1952 by Bernard Malamud), since a lot of movies are, I was not aware there was a real life inspiration for the character of “Roy Hobbs”.

Eddie Waitkus was a first baseman for the Cubs, he was known for his slick footwork on the field and the ability to catch almost any ball thrown to him. His baseball career was interrupted by WWII, following the war he became one of the most popular players of the time. He lead the Cubs in hitting and was one of the best first basemen in the National League. However the Cubs traded him to the Phillies in December 1948.

The next June the Phillies were in Chicago, Waitkus was lured to a hotel room by a young woman named Ruth Steinhagen who proceeded to shoot him. She made no attempt to escape and was judged insane and confined to a mental hospital.

In this account we have a brief history of Eddie Waitkus and Ruth Steinhagen, Steinhagen’s is rather sketchy but Theodore reveals at the end of the book he was not able to talk to her or her sister. The bulk of the book is about Waitkus baseball career, how he got started and his recovery after the shooting. Theodore gets his information from interviews with surviving members of Waitkus family, fellow servicemen, teammates, reporters who covered the team and friends of his. There are also excerpts from letters written.

Waitkus suffered from PTSD from the trauma of the shooting and from his years at war, he never got help for this, choosing instead to self-medicate with alcohol which may hastened the end of his baseball career, he suffered physically from the shooting and surgeries to repair the damage. His marriage ended and he was hospitalized with what was diagnosed as a nervous breakdown, after he left the hospital he never got any follow up care. He died in 1972, he was 53. Ruth Steinhagen died last December 2012, she was 83.

I felt this was a well researched and well written book. I found it to be very interesting, I think anyone who enjoys biographies and memoirs would find it interesting, you don’t need to be a baseball fan to enjoy this book.

[Bill Christman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book on the influence of the classic novel and movie The Natural. Eddie Waitkus had a decent career and maybe could have done more but the incident in the hotel in the summer of 1949 where he was shot by a crazed fan. I really like the aftermath part of the book, the frustrating part is little is know about the shooter and the rest of her days. Waitkus is a tragic story in that the shooting seems to have been the opening salvo in a life long battle with PTSD. To me the final chapters where eye opening and sad. A decent tale of a forgotten part of baseball history.

[Stuart Shiffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this book up at a visit to a used book store. Never had heard about it. It is a short biography of Eddie Waitkus whose baseball life served as the model for Roy Hobbs in The Natural. But hi life was more complex.Waitkus served in WWII and that impacted him as much as being shot.

An interesting discussion . The author chronicles his career without providing great detail of that career. Still, if you can locate a copy of this book I would recommend reading it.

[Kathleen Hale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eddie Waitkus was a baseball player first for the Chicago Cubs aand then for the Philadelphia Phillies. One night, in Chicago, a girl asked him to his room. He went, and she shot him. He recovered and went on to play great baseball in the 1950's and 60's. His story was the basis for the book "the Natural", later made into a movie.

[Terry Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

First impression was that this would be a nice short read for an avid sports fan. After completing this book, I was pleasantly surprised that it was much more. The author packs a lot of information into this story. Not just a baseball story.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good, short biography of Waitkus, with chapters about the woman who shot him.

[David Finer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish it were longer but realize there wasn’t more to tell, baseball player got shot and was the basis for the movie The Natural

[Jackson Slotterback · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read and saw the movie The Natural before I read this book. I really loved it and it's a great book for baseball fanatics and historians. I had only heard about Waitkus from my dad and he's the one who got me this book to read. It is not completely different from The Natural but The Natural is fiction so it does embellish some things. By the end I really hated Ruth Anne Steinhagen the woman who shot Waitkus. I felt she ruined a great baseball player in his prime and despite his hard work never got back to 100%. This book was great at capturing all the details and you felt by the end you really knew Waitkus, and wish you could have helped him along the way. I don't think it matters if you read this or the natural first but I recommend reading them both because they are great stories even if your not a baseball fan.

[Bill Shakalis · Rating 4 out of 5]

My father always called me “ a natural” in being a very good athlete in several sports, including Little League baseball: my third and best year — 7 home runs, batted .540, great throwing arm, made the
All Stars — but it was Eddie Waitkus from my father’s home town of Cambridge Massachusetts who was the real Natural.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

very short; author split the very short book between biography of Waitkus and about half of a decent true crime article, and then interleaved the true crime article into the biography.

[Dee Wilson sigismond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. It is the real life story that the movie "The Natural" was loosely based on. It is a cross between a biography and a true crime novel.

[Tom Buske · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good baseball read, this book is about the life of Eddie Waitkus, a ballplayer who was the inspiration for the Bernard Malamud book and subsequent movie, The Natural.

[Josef Schmo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read.