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Rating: Summary: A Must Book For True Baseball History Fans Review: Author John Theodore has provided the reader with the most detailed account of the 1949 shooting of former Philadelphia Phillies' baseball star Eddie Waitkus by an obsessed 19 year-old female fan in a Chicago hotel. At the time of the shooting Waitkus was the leading vote getter among first basemen for the upcoming All-Star game to be played in Brooklyn, New York. Waitkus managed to overcome the attempt on his life and became an integral member of the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies Whiz Kids team that went on to win the National League pennant only to lose the World Series to the New York Yankees in four straight, but hard fought, close games. Waitkus's career began to wind down a couple of years later as he was waived out of the National League, and became a member of the 1954 Baltimore Orioles who were playing their first year in Crabtown after moving from St. Louis. His playing time was very limited and in 1955 the Orioles cut him loose, and he once again returned for a brief period of time with the Phillies. The post baseball years were not kind to Waitkus who, like so many other players during this time, had no training beyond baseball. He tried a job in sales, but hated it. He fought the demons of alcohol, and the memories he had of World War II when he fought in the Pacific in addition to the memory of the evening in 1949 when he nearly lost his life in the Chicago hotel room. He did find happiness as a batting instructor in a Ted Williams baseball camp for young boys. Here he was doing something he loved among kids who shared his devotion to the game. Eddie Waitkus died in 1973 at the age of 53 from esophageal and lung cancer which was most likely brought on by his many years of heavy smoking. I did find a few spelling errors in the book along with the fact that the song Take Me Out to the Ball Game was written in 1908, not 1909, as the book mentions. If you associate the name of Eddie Waitkus only with the unfortunate shooting incident, this book will provide you with additional information about the man's career in addition to details regarding that unfortunate evening in 1949.
Rating: Summary: Sign Him Up!! Review: Here is a first rate baseball story, albeit with a limited audience. "Baseball's Natural" is the story of Eddie Waitkus, who played first base for the Cubs, Phillies and Orioles from 1941 and 1946-1955. That 3 year WW2 break is significant. Many believe that the period after the War to 1960 was a golden age for Major League Baseball. Those were the years of the (pre-expansion) original 16 teams. The NFL was just coming out of the shadows. The NBA and NHL were minor sports by comparison. To appreciate BN, it helps to remember that period, even if one is not familiar with Waitkus. Eddie was a slick fielder and above average hitter with a bright future. He was intelligent, popular off the field, well-spoken and an inquisitive, well-dressed young man. Then, one night in June of '48, he visited a woman in a Chicago hotel room and was shot! He recovered from the physical wounds but not from the mental ones. Somehow the dual demons of the shooting and his WW2 experiences drove him slowly to drink. He was a quiet drunk, not a rowdy one. He hung out in nice bars. His downward slide was slow, almost imperceptible, but just as real. Waitkus was out of baseball by 1955. He never found a second career and was dead by the age of 53. Why is "Baseball's Natural" worthwhile? Because it is a sensitive tale that grabs the reader's interest and holds it. It is a quick reading story. It is also quite well researched, with a wide range of supporting interviews and photographs. Many baseball books deal with the established stars; it's nice to read one that features an average guy. And because we sense that many players must have their own private demons that are invisible to the even the most devoted fan. At the time of this review, Baseball is officially in "hot stove" season, a perfect time to give "Baseball's Natural" a tryout.
Rating: Summary: Bounding balls and femme fatales Review: In order to fully understand the events described in this book, one needs to place oneself in the time frame in which they arose.1949 was a backward period in American history, in which a woman could shoot a man that she did not even know and not even be universally lionized as an empowerment-achieving heroine. It was actually a time in which she could expect to receive a measure of legal and moral reprobation for her actions. Indeed, it was a time when men weren't even universally regarded as worthless, simply for having been born male, and some regarded their lives as having purpose and value. It was a time when millions of people across the country actually found themselves praying for the speedy recovery of the male victim and even lionizing HIM as the hero. This was the historical setting in which deranged Baseball Annie, Ruth Steinhagen, shot Philadelphia Phillie first baseman Eddie Waitkus. John Theodore's book largely describes what happened to both the assailant and her victim after the shooting, though, of course, he also includes a pre-shooting biography of both of them. As a misogynist and a baseball fan, I would find it easy to simply regard this book as being the story of woman who committed the unpardonable crime of not only shooting a man - but a male baseball player yet. Yet - and this is to Theodore's credit - he brings home the realities of Steinhagen's obsession with Eddie Waitkus forcefully enough that even this reader could empathize with it, and I did find myself taking as much interest in Steinhagen's story as I did in Waitkus's. This reader himself has undergone two or three experiences in which he found himself strongly obsessed to the point of distraction with an unattainable member of the opposite sex - none of which, I hasten to add, ever had the potential of becoming harmful. But by giving his readers a glimpse into the stark and chilling world of a mind trapped in such a grip, Theodore provided this reader with a glimpse into a mind that once resembled his own - differing (however greatly) only in the strength and emphasis of the grip that seized it. The experience gave me a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I sensation and strengthened my resolve never again to walk that path. I actually would have liked to read more about Steinhagen - her mental health was restored and she is alive today - than Theodore actually provided, and I imagine that Theodore would have liked to have written more about her. But the book is largely about Waitkus, presumably because there is more information about him in the public record and because people close to him (this is obviously not a surprise) were more willing to talk than were people close to Steinhagen (attempts to contact Steinhagen herself were rebuffed). I was going to give this book 4 stars on the basis of the author's workmanlike acquisition and delineation of the facts but the Waitkus story, as Theodore weaved it, "grew" on me the more that I read into it. Of the World War II generation, Waitkus himself was a corking good ballplayer - though not a Hall of Famer. But he was the best defensive first baseman of his era, one who sprayed the ball around for singles and doubles - more J.T. Snow than Lou Gehrig. There was nothing remarkable about his personality - which appears to have been of a blunt, yet affable character, which philosophically took life, including the tragedies that he suffered, as it was dealt to him. Kilroy in a major-league uniform - he would not be greatly remembered today as anything but one of many names from baseball's past, were it not for the shooting. Yet there was really something almost Shakespearean about the story of his life. His recovery from the shooting and his efforts to restore his baseball career match nicely with the rise to glory of the fabled upstart "Whiz Kids" that were the pennant-winning Philadelphia Phillies of 1950. But while his physical recovery appears to have been complete and while there is no indication that Waitkus allowed himself to dwell on the past, Theodore tells a story of a man already suffering from the hidden trauma caused by several harrowing war experiences having his trauma heightened by the only experience (occurring, ironically in civilian life) where he was the victim of gunfire. After arriving at the summit of fame that was his leading role on the "Whiz Kids", Waitkus, turning too often to drink for solace, suffers slow declines in his baseball career, his marriage, and in his life after baseball that culminated in his untimely death from cancer in 1972 at the age of 53. It makes one wonder if Steinhagen's bullet didn't somehow find its target after all. Yet, in his final years, he finds redemption in his continuing relationship with the children that were the product of his marriage and in being an instructor in Ted Williams's baseball camp. Theodore actually misses the opportunity to embellish upon the irony inherent in the fact that Ted Williams had to deal with his own personal demons while he lived, but it was the book's bittersweet ending that moves it into an elite classification in my judgment. One minor baseball point that Theodore missed was another brush that Waitkus had with baseball history at the end of the 1951 season, featuring a historic Giants-Dodgers pennant race. Had Jackie Robinson not made a remarkable catch of Waitkus's low line drive in the final game between the Dodgers and the Phillies, the hit would have won the game for the Phillies and knocked the Dodgers out of the pennant race. The Giants would have won the pennant in the regulation season, and Bobby Thomson's miracle homer in the third game of the post-season never would have happened. Waitkus would have achieved the "spoiler's" fame later found by Joe Morgan and Gene Oliver.
Rating: Summary: A Good Man Fades Away... Review: It is common knowledge among baseball historians that Eddie waitkus provided the basis for "The Natural", a short story and film success. The true story of Waitkus is far more tragic than the fictional version. This book successfully portrays the life of this somewhat obscure ballplayer. John Theodore does a fine job of researching Waitkus' life and career. He also does a fine job of covering the little known details surrounding the woman who shot Waitkus on that fateful evening at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago in 1949. Her name is Ruth Steinhagen and her semi-successful reentry into society after release from an Illinois mental institution is chronicled. It is one of the saddest stories ever in the world of sports. Waitkus, who survived 2 years of intense combat in the South Pacific during WWII, returns from the war to resume a baseball career which sees him headed for superstardom, only to fall to a crazed females obsession with him. Waitkus played in 1946,'47 and'48 with the Chicago Cubs. He was an All-Star and .300 hitter. Many considered him the best fielding first baseman in the game. His trade to the Phillies for the 1949 season was considered a coup for the Phils. He was exactly what the youthful "Whiz Kids" needed; a quality veteran who could hit, field and lend class to the organization. He was hitting over .300 and leading the All-Star balloting in the National League when disaster struck in early June. His subsequent recovery and contribution to the Phillies pennant winning 1950 team was the "feelgood" story of 1950. It wasn't to last however. Waitkus was pursued by the residual demons of the shooting and latent WWII memories. He slumped in 1951 and, always a drinker, began to smoke and drink more heavily. Even marriage and a subsequent family which he loved dearly failed to assuage his demons. His physical skills reduced by the shooting, his continued late hour drinking contributing to his weakened condition, Waitkus never was able to fulfill his potential and by 1955 he was out of baseball. Then the serious problems began. Unable to find a job that satisfied him, he drifted from one job to another, finally ending up living in a rooming house near Harvard University and working the summers at what he knew best; an instructor at Ted Williams baseball camps. The end came suddenly in 1972 when a weakend Waitkus died from lung cancer at age 52. In spite of the tragic aspects of Waitkus' life, Theodore successfully highlights the fact that Waitkus was a genuinely good guy; highly respected by all of his teammates, his family and Ted Williams. And most of all, the young campers he taught baseball to in the final years of his life. Many of them did not know he had played in the majors. They just knew that he knew a lot about baseball and that he loved working with them. Theodore can be faulted only in failing to provide a good bibliography...otherwise this is an excellent biography and an important contribution to baseball history
Rating: Summary: A Must Book For True Baseball History Fans Review: This book really tells the true story of Eddie Waitkus. If you are a true baseball history fan this book is a must for your collection. At waitkus.org you will find more information about Eddie Waitkus. Read the book, visit the website and you will get to know the man as well as the baseball player.
Rating: Summary: Eddie Waitkus: A Natural at life. Review: When Bernard Malamud set out to write his infamous baseball book "The Natural", he took a major piece of inspiration from the real life consequences suffered by Eddie Waitkus. Unlike the Roy Hobbs character portrayed in Malamud's book however, Eddie was a tremendously different person. Eddie Waitkus was born to be a baseball player. Playing the game since he was little, Eddie was devout to the sport, perfecting his fielding abilities and batting eye. Signed by the Chicago Cubs, Eddie came up through their minor league ranks quickly, impressing everyone with his capable hitting, and outstanding glove at first base. Beginning his career with a brief stint on the 1941 team, Eddie soon found the reality of World War II to be the calling for his full time employment. Serving his country through the Army, Eddie found the Pacific Ocean front his new home, fighting in some of the fiercest battles of the war against the Japanese. A place where death and deprivation quickly surfaced on a daily basis. When he finally returned stateside after the war, Eddie went back to what he did best, baseball. Reemerging with the 1946 Cubs team, Eddie was known as a very fluid player, that was dependable on the diamond in every manner. For three years, Eddie established himself with the Cubs as one of the finest first sackers in the league. Wrought with losing though, as the Cubs so often were in those days, Waitkus was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, a team that would come to define his life. In just his first year with the Fighten' Phils, Eddie and company made a trip into Chicago for a set against his old mates. After one summer game, Eddie and teammates returned to their hotel, were Eddie found himself to be the recipient of a note. A young lady wanted to talk to him the note read, it was urgent..and she needed Eddie's help. Not one to keep a friend waiting, a classy Eddie Waitkus made a trip to the room indicated on the note. Alike the scene in Malamud's book, Eddie could only mutter a few sentances once in the room with his newly found assailant..Ruth Steinhagan..a girl 19 years of age. The conversation was over almost as soon as it started..Steinhagan had shot Waitkus..and left him for dead. The victim of a psychotic and deadly young baseball adorer and fan, Eddie's life began to take a turn for the surreal. After fighting in the toughest battles in the Pacific Ocean against the Japanese Empire, he never could have dreamt this possibe fate. Eddie took a year to heal, and in this journey, met his wife to be. Over the next five seasons, Eddie established himself repeatedly as a highly proficient hitter, and fielder extrordinaire. His tenure with the Philadelphia Phillies included a national league pennant for the much reknowned "Wiz Kids"..and several productive seasons at first base. Rounding out his career, Eddie began to suffer the consequences of his shooting however, physically and most noticeably....mentally. Eddie's years follwoing the end of his baseball career where spent away from his family as the result of a divorce, and in a downward spiral of personal self defeat. Bouncing around for 15+ years in job to job, Eddie's life was a blur of quiet misunderstanding. Eddie's life is one of courage, heroism, persistance, and class. Summed up in one word by his peers, Eddie lived his life with "class". From his teamates to his friends to strangers and fans, Eddie left a persona of the utmost class on everyone. Holding himself with great dignity and looking the part as well, Eddie's life thrived on bettering those around him. A life challenged by the reality of his past, Eddie let the deamons of war and his mid-life shooting alter his thinking. Although an upbeat man to those around him, Eddie let his past haunt him privately..and to no end until his death in 1972. This is one of the best baseball books I've ever read. A courageous text with a very sad end, the story of a real American "Natural" is found here.
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