Sports Poets Society

Eddie Waitkus faces Ruth Ann Steinhagen in felony court, Chicago, 1949.  ST-17500605-E1 , Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM https://www.chicagohistory.org/shooting-of-eddie-waitkus/ By: Heidi Samuelson Jun 13 2023 On June 14, 1949, former Chicago Cub Eddie Waitkus was shot at the Edgewater Beach Hotel by 19-year-old Ruth Ann Steinhagen in what is thought to be one of the first recognized cases of criminal stalking in the United States. Edward Stephen Waitkus was born in 1919 to Lithuanian immigrant parents and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts . He attended Boston College, and his professional baseball career began with a semiprofessional team in Maine. Waitkus made his Major League Baseball debut for the Cubs in 1941, but paused his baseball career to serve in World War II, where he participated in the fighting in the Pacific theatre and earned four Bronze Stars. When Waitkus returned to the Cubs in 1946, the first baseman was a popular player with the media and a solid hitter, wi...

(Top photo of Robert Redford in “The Natural”:  Film Publicity Archive / United Archives via Getty Images) https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6636356/2025/09/17/robert-redford-roy-hobbs-the-natural/ By Tyler Kepner Sept. 17, 2025 LOS ANGELES — Two retired ballplayers, left-handed hitters with hundreds of career home runs, stood by the batting cage at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday when a visitor mentioned a name: Roy Hobbs. Both replied with the same five words. “The Natural,” Raúl Ibañez and Chase Utley said. “My favorite movie.” Ibañez was 12 when Robert Redford, who died on Tuesday , starred as Hobbs, the best there ever was. In high school, Ibañez said, he would watch “The Natural” before every game. He went on to play 19 years in the majors, teaming with Utley for a while on the Philadelphia Phillies. Both played the game hard, with an understated grace. If either ever launched a ball into the lights, setting off an electrical explosion, they’d have put down their heads and trotted ...

https://royhobbs.com/about-us/who-is-roy-hobbs#:~:text=According%20to%20Wikipedia%2C%20Author%20Malamud,in%201941%20and%201946%2D55. Roy Hobbs is the character in the book, “The Natural,” by Bernard Malmud, written in 1952 , and turned into a Hollywood production in 1984 , thrusting the fictional baseball hero Roy Hobbs on the American public. The book was hardly a best seller … the movie, however, has survived 25+ years and remains a staple of cable television, with Robert Redford playing the role of Roy Hobbs. Ron Monks chose the name “Roy Hobbs” for his baseball organization in 1989 . For Monks, the choice of Roy Hobbs was easy as he could see the parallels from the Roy Hobbs character to our own participation in baseball as adult amateurs. Roy Hobbs is drawn away from baseball at an early age and returns in later life to enjoy and appreciate the game for what it is. The history of Roy Hobbs as a fictional character is interesting since it brings several of our oldest mythological...

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1700667/2020/03/26/favorite-players-roy-hobbs/ By Joe Posnanski March 26, 2020 The idea of “ Favorite Players ” is still evolving. What is a favorite player? What about favorite player moments? What about favorite baseball people who were not players, like Vin Scully? And does a favorite player have to be real? A few years ago, I did a deep dive into the movie “The Natural” (with some background from the book) and wrote a full bio on one of my all-time favorite players, Roy Hobbs, the character played by Robert Redford. I’ve updated it here. Roy Hobbs was born in Sabotac Valley, Iowa, in 1904, the same year as Hall of Famer Chuck Klein. Hobbs’ mother died in childbirth. His father, William, had played some semi-professional baseball before settling on a farm. Bill Hobbs, like Bill Feller , desperately wanted his son to become a major-league player. According to legend, Bill Hobbs (again like Bill Feller) would draw a circle on the side of a barn and tel...