Baseball Creepy History: The Chicago Cubs Eddie Waitkus Tragedy & NON-Creep Hunter Pence (SF Giants‪)‬ What a Creep

What a Creep
Season 24, Episode 10
The True Crime Story Behind “The Natural”

The Eddie Waitkus shooting is a notable event in baseball history. It occurred in 1949 when the popular first baseman (and WW2 hero) for the Philadelphia Phillies was shot by an obsessed fan named Ruth Steinhagen. The incident was a shocking reminder of the dangers of celebrity obsession. Also, it inspired Bernard Malamud's novel The Natural, which was later adapted into a popular film starring Robert Redford (who played a 19-year-old when he was 47 at the time!)

Trigger Warnings: Gun violence, stalking, alcoholism, and mental health treatments

Sources for this episode: 
NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/03/18/174623312/stalker-who-inspired-the-natural-dies-lived-real-life-in-obscurity     Baseball’s The Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus by John TheodoreWikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Waitkus·The Chicago History Museum: https://www.chicagohistory.org/shooting-of-eddie-waitkus/History and Relics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n1HdPmg9oUChicago PBS: https://www.pbs.org/video/chicago-tonight-march-15-2013-2006-eddie-waitkus-documentary/ Hunter Pence’s Coffee Company/Non-Profit: https://thepineapplelabs.com/
Be sure to follow us on social media. But don’t follow us too closely … don’t be a creep about it! 
Subscribe to us on Apple PodcastsTwitter: https://twitter.com/CreepPod @CreepPodFacebook: Join the private group! Instagram @WhatACreepPodcastVisit our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/whatacreepEmail: WhatACreepPodcast@gmail.com We’ve got merch here! https://whatacreeppodcast.threadless.com/#Our website is www.whatacreeppodcast.com Our logo was created by Claudia Gomez-Rodriguez. Follow her on Instagram @ClaudInCloud