Eddie Waitkus played briefly for the Chicago in 1941 before serving time in the pacific during World War II. It was during this short time with the Cubs that Ruth Steinhagen, as a teenager, first saw Eddie Waitkus play.

It was not until 1946 that Eddie returned to baseball. He played in 113 games for the Cubs that year and hit .304.

Ruth's mother has said that her daughter's boyfriend, Danny, is the one who "got her started on all this baseball business".  Danny had wanted to marry Ruth but she stopped seeing him.

Ruth went to games to watch Eddie Waitkus play.  While other girls were calling out his name and asking for autographs, Ruth just keep to herself, never approaching him.  She spent most of her weekends during the 1947 and 1948 seasons watching Eddie Waitkus play baseball.

Ruth would spend hours looking at the hundreds of clippings and pictures she had of Eddie. Her mother said "she would spread them on the table and floor and spend hours looking at them".

After Ruth got a job as a clerk for an insurance firm, she was able to move into a rooming house.  Her mother said, "I guess she wanted to be alone with her pictures of Eddie".  She would later tell her mother, "I'm going to get a gun and shoot Eddie and myself.  I can't help it, I'm crazy about him.

At the urging of her parents, Ruth did see two psychiatrists.  This did not change the obsession that she had on Eddie.

At the start of the 1949 season,  Eddie Waitkus was now playing for Philadelphia after being traded by Cubs.  The fact that Waitkus no longer played in Chicago was very upsetting to Ruth. She would later say that she "cried night and day" after he was traded.

Knowing that Philadelphia would be playing a series with Chicago in June of 1949, Ruth made reservations at the Edgewater Hotel under the name of Ruth Ann Burns of Boston.

On June 14th Ruth attended the game between the Cubs and Phillies at Wrigley Field.  After the game she went back to the hotel had 3 drinks, a daiquiri and two whisky sours.  She then paid a bellhop $5 to deliver her note to Eddie.