The Bandit
Imagine you’re at Progressive field watching the Cleveland Guardians take on the Detroit Tigers. It’s a nice summer evening, you’re eating a hot dog, drinking a cold beer, and enjoying the game on the shores of Lake Erie. Stay with me.
In the bottom of the first, Cleveland third baseman, and the self proclaimed “GOAT” Jose Ramirez steps to the plate. All of the sudden, the crowd rises to their feet in curiosity as a fan runs towards Ramirez, phone in hand and filming. They get the switch-hitting all-star in frame of their shot, before they’re met by security. The next view that fan will have will be a 6 x 8 cell with bars.
These days, social media influencers are always looking to create that “viral moment” - whatever it may be. As a fan at the game, my curiosity would have gotten the best of me, and I would search for the video in its entirety.
All of those who are in search for their own viral moment are inspired by a a trend, and it always starts somewhere with someone.
Morganna Roberts, or better known to the sports world as Morganna the Kissing Bandit, became a celebrity in ballparks across the United States in the 70’s and 80’s. She gained her fame for interrupting baseball games and other sporting events by running up to players and coaches and laying a “wet one” on them.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Morganna had a tough upbringing. Disowned by her mother after birth, she was raised by her grandparents. When she was 4, her mother came to visit her grandmother one day. Morganna, being like any curious child, peeked her head around a corner to see her mother. In turn, her mother looked at her grandmother, pointed at Morganna, and said “I hate her.”
At the age of six, she was sent to a boarding school just outside of Louisville. She stayed there until she was 13, and ran away. She and a friend hitchhiked around the country, and eventually landed in Baltimore, Maryland. Begging local shops for work, they were unable to do so because of her age. Homeless and hungry, Morganna eventually found work as an exotic dancer, something she would do until her bandit days were over.
In an E60 documentary, she mentioned always being a baseball fan, as her grandfather would take her often to minor league games in Louisville.
In 1969, Morganna and her friends were at Crosley Field, then home of the Cincinnati Reds. Trying to cure their boredom, a friend dared her to run onto the field and kiss Reds legend Pete Rose. Up for the challenge, Morganna hopped the fence and began her illustrious career.
“I remember at the time he was doing commercials for ballpark franks,” Morganna said in a Yahoo Sports article.
“I ran up to him and said ‘Pete I eat your hot dogs.’ And he turned to me, and I remember exactly what he said, ‘You crazy blanking broad.’ But he used a big word. ‘Are you out of your blanking mind?’
“And then I gave him a kiss on the cheek and I ran off and that was about it for that romantic moment.”
After the kiss, Morganna ran back to her seat, and everyone in the ballpark acted like nothing happened.
The following day, Rose was able to track Morganna down at her local club, and gave her roses as an apology.
A local Cincinnati sports writer christened her in the next day’s edition with the following headline: “Bandit steals kiss from Pete Rose.”
Morganna runs towards the Angels’ Fred Lynn during a game 1983. Lynn would say after the game, “I heard all the fans yelling and screaming - I knew it wasn’t for me.”
(Photo: Cincinnati Enquirer)
After her encounter with Rose, Morganna kissed three more players in ‘69.
“It started to feel like an addiction. I got a buzz every time I ran onto the field,” she said.
When the 1970 All-Star Game in Cincinnati rolled around, she decided to make her next “victim” known.
“I told the paper I was going to kiss Johnny Bench, and wouldn’t you know it they ‘beefed up’ their security,” she said in the documentary.
She decided to go to the game in disguise, but was still able able to sit close enough to make her escape onto the field at Riverfront Stadium. She was instructed not to make an appearance because this wasn’t just any baseball game. The whole world was watching.
“Nobody is going to tell me I can’t do that so it became a challenge,” she said.
Morganna made it onto the field, but was quickly apprehended by security. They were rough with her as she ended up with a cracked tailbone and three broken ribs. Players from both dugouts were yelling at security telling them to take it easy on her.
After the All-Star game incident, Morganna wasn’t seen at ballparks for seven years.
When the 1977 season was in full swing, Morganna felt like it was time to show her face again. She set her eyes on Kansas City Royals future Hall-of-Famer George Brett.
“She kind of came out of nowhere and as the game stopped, she ran up to me, put her arms around me, and gave me a big kiss,” said Brett in the documentary.
Seen with a big smile on his face after the smooch, Brett wanted to give Morganna a “taste of her own medicine” later that night.
Performing a stand-up comedy routine at a local Kansas City establishment, Brett hid from Morganna for most of the show. Towards the end, he ran on stage, stole her hat, and the two embraced with a laugh.
“After that I told her we were even,” said Brett with smile.
Morganna and George Brett, after he surprised her on stage in 1977. (Photo: Associated Press)
Morganna started her bandit ways again after her encounter with Brett, and kissed several players throughout the next 10+ years. They included Steve Garvey, Cal Ripken Jr., and Len Barker - who received his kiss while on the mound during the 1981 All Star Game in Cleveland.
As her popularity grew, teams benefitted from her possible presence in the ballpark.
On Opening Day 1985, she was in Houston with her sights set on Nolan Ryan. The Astros sold nearly 40,000 tickets for the game, compared to the 20,000 the prior season’s opening day.
She eventually made her way onto the field, and as she approached Ryan, he fell to his knees and opened his arms for the embrace.
“I pitched pretty well after that,” Ryan said in a post-game interview featured in the Morganna documentary.
In total, Morganna kissed 37 Major League Baseball players during the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. She decided to expand her popularity by making appearances with NASCAR, the NFL, and the NBA. She even kissed the famous San Diego Chicken at a minor league hockey game in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
With each kiss (and instance of trespassing), Morganna was arrested 19 times during her fame.
“I spent probably $40k-$50k in legal fees - and it was totally worth it,” she said.
As her career wound down, she started getting requests from mostly minor league baseball teams for an appearance. She bungee-jumped from a crane behind the outfield fence in Boise, Idaho, had her own baseball cards, and in one instance, made an appearance for my local minor league team, the Columbus Clippers.
Morganna on her very own baseball card. She was a partial owner of the Utica Blue Sox minor league team, who promoted her with her own line of peanuts that fans could buy at the game. (Photo: Google)
She made several appearances on The Pat Sajak show, appeared in the 1996 cult classic movie Kingpin, and gave Dan Patrick a kiss during a “This is Sportcenter” commercial.
After her final kiss in 1993 (Scottie Pippen), Morganna was ready to call it a career.
“I was tired and I wanted to know what a normal life was like. It wasn’t hard for me to quit - at all,” she said.
For someone who was looking for acceptance her whole life after being rejected at such an early age, she finally felt like she had made it.
Although silly in a light-hearted way, Morganna not only left her “mark” on baseball players, but also on the game itself.
“You know you had kinda made it a little bit if you saw her running towards you,” said Don Mattingly, who received a kiss from Morganna in 1986.
We all know this would never happen in 2023, but for this private citizen now living in Columbus, Ohio, she wouldn’t change it for the world.
“I was looking for that acceptance my whole life. I went searching for it, and when the crowd would cheer for me, it was awesome. I was looking for that my whole life.”
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