Morganna Roberts In Photos: Baseball’s Kissing Bandit Leaves Us Wanting More

MORGANNA Roberts (60-23-39) was baseball’s “The Kissing Bandit”, dashing onto baseball fields to kiss the winners. A celebrity before the word had currency, Morganna stopped in 1999 as abruptly as she has begun as a 17-year-old in 1971.

Detroit Pistons forward Kelly Tripucka, explained what meeting Morganna was like: “It was like hugging a mattress. When I saw her coming at me, I thought it was like a Mack truck. I had two options – either get hit or get out of the way. I decided to get hit.”

The women who’d been brought up rough – she’d lived on the streets and worked as a stripper at age 13 – returned to the public gaze in the book Always leave them wanting more, a literary reply to calls for her to get back on the pitcher’s mound.

Morganna lives with her husband Bill Cottrell, and three dogs in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio.

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Kansas City Royal's George Brett, right, tries to make off with a hat and boa belonging to Morganna Roberts, left, baseball's kissing bandit, after Brett stole a kiss from her while she was performing at a Kansas City night club, Sept. 13, 1977. Morganna interrupted a game on Aug. 22 between the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles while she ran to the field. Brett evened the score when he interrupted her act. (AP Photo)