Sports Poets Society

Ruth Ann Steinhagen, then-19, in the Cook County Jail  after she shot Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus in 1949.  On the table: a photo of Waitkus taken in the hospital where he was recovering from his bullet wound. The story of his shooting was the inspiration for Bernard Malamud's novel The Natural.  Steinhagen died this past December. AP https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/03/18/174623312/stalker-who-inspired-the-natural-dies-lived-real-life-in-obscurity MUST READS MARCH 18, 2013 - 11:50 AM ET HEARD ON ALL THINGS CONSIDERED By   Mark Memmott Though we've seen The Natural many times, we have to confess we didn't know that a real woman shot a real baseball player in 1949 and that their story inspired Bernard Malamud's 1952 book and Robert Redford's 1984 movie. But over the weekend, obituaries appeared about Ruth Ann Steinhagen, 83, who "disappeared into near obscurity" as the Chicago Tribune says and died last Dec. 29 with li...

Students crowded around General Logan Monument during the 1968 National Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 1968. Peter Bullock/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images https://www.npr.org/2024/08/11/nx-s1-5068593/chicago-68-democratic-national-convention August 12, 20246:00 AM ET Ron Elving  - NPR For some Americans, just saying “Chicago 68” is enough to bring it all back . Add the words, “Democratic National Convention” and millions more can visualize brawling delegates, billowing clouds of tear gas and police batons flailing at long-haired protestors. The chant went up from witnesses of the street battle at the time: “The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!” Much of it was. And the memory has been a kind of curse on the Democratic Party and on the Windy City itself. Prior to 1968, Chicago had easily hosted the most presidential nominating conventions of any city. There had been nine Democratic conventions in the centrally located and convention-friendl...