Jim Spencer, the California first baseman that season, said he didn't see Ruiz with a gun but knew about talk of weapons in the clubhouse. I didn't go up and ask about it. The history of guns and ballplayers goes way back. In 1949 Eddie Waitkus of the Philadelphia Phillies was shot in a Chicago hotel by an obsessed fan, Ruth Ann Steinhagen. In today's climate, Waitkus might be just as likely to be armed as Steinhagen.
Guns keep surfacing with alarming regularity in sports.
Last week, NBA rookie of the year Allen Iverson wound up in a car with a gun under the seat. The next day, Cowboys coach Barry Switzer was arrested for carrying a loaded, unlicensed handgun in his bag at the Dallas airport. They keep raising the bar of behavioral standards. Nobody's lowering it. An increasing number of sports figures apparently feel obliged to pack a weapon, either because they have to or because they can.