THE KISSING BANDIT

August 13, 2023

Today’s story is about a stripper who made a name for herself by kissing some of the most famous athletes on Earth.

Morganna Roberts had a crazy life.

She went to Catholic school and always said she wanted to be a nun growing up.

At 13, she changed her mind.

Morganna ran away to Baltimore - for a time she was homeless, eating out of trash cans and roaming the streets.

Her age made it difficult to get a job because she didn’t have the ability to get a work permit, but there was one place that was willing to hire her: The Flamingo Club.

Morganna told the owners she was 18, and strangely her I-Cup bra size was the only form of ID that they needed; they gave her a job.

At 13-years old she worked full-time as a stripper and was able to get off the streets.

After a few years, she got an agent and was moonlighting at clubs around the country.

In '69, Morganna was at a Red's game and was supposedly dared by a friend to run on the field and kiss Pete Rose.

Whether that story is true or not, she went through with it and planted one on Pete out near the centerfield wall.

Initially, Rose was put off by the gesture and actually cursed her out.

But afterwards he felt terrible about it.

Pete tracked her down at the club she was working, apologized for swearing, and gifted her a bouquet of roses.

Morganna got a ton of publicity from the incident.

She quickly realized these kinds of stunts were very good for business, so she kept doing them.

At 22, Morganna was one of the highest-paid adult entertainers in the world, sometimes earning as much as $7-10K a week - just from her dancing.

It was fun, until it wasn't.

In '70, she planned to run on the field during the All-Star game, but because she leaked her plans to a bunch of news outlets, MLB was ready for her.

When she ran on the field to kiss Johnny Bench, they tackled her and cracked her tailbone in the process.

She also cracked two ribs and was knocked unconscious.

She didn’t run on the field again for seven years.

In ’77, Morganna made a comeback and the first player she targeted was George Brett - he fell in love.

At the All Star game in '79, she kissed Brett again.

Over the years, she smooched more than three dozen MLB players.

Here’s just a few names on Morganna’s roster:

  • Nolan Ryan

  • Cal Ripken Jr.

  • Johnny Bench

  • Steve Garvey

  • Len Barker

She was so engrained in baseball culture that she had her own set of bubblegum cards and became the part-owner of a minor league club, the Utica Blue Sox.

She also appeared in Playboy, had her own E:60 biopic, and even got some screen time in the movie Kingpin.

Ultimately Morganna turned her notoriety into millions of dollars.

She was arrested 19 times, but good definitely outweighed the bad.

Then out of nowhere, she disappeared.

In ’99, she abruptly retired and moved to Ohio with her husband Bill Cottrell.

She lives a super quiet life and doesn't do any press.

Basically, the complete opposite of what her life used to be like.

Our friends over at Homage have no shortage of fire fits.

They’ve got collaborations with everyone from the Grateful Dead to Top Gun.

But their Topps collection is on another level.

Quick Links:

If you don’t see something you like, check out the rest of the collection - there’s a lot of great stuff in there.

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

There’s not much about Woody online.

Probably because his big-league career only lasted two games.

He ended his career with a .125 batting average, one error, and one hit.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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