tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post2513410913204126726..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Babe Ruth -- And You Are ThereUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-52356979095623163172011-09-15T10:01:06.227-07:002011-09-15T10:01:06.227-07:00Yes, that face, so open, vulnerable, expressive, a...Yes, that face, so open, vulnerable, expressive, and so very unlike the remote stony masks of the grand Celebrity Superstars of our day.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-38498310094760284182011-09-15T09:56:37.478-07:002011-09-15T09:56:37.478-07:00What a face....everything. So great to catch up o...What a face....everything. So great to catch up on this one and also to see Eddie Yost remembered so accurately and in detail. CurtisACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-45382117973230517062011-09-09T10:52:23.487-07:002011-09-09T10:52:23.487-07:00Ed, I'm with you all the way.
Ideally every b...Ed, I'm with you all the way.<br /><br />Ideally every blog post would end in tears... of joy, of course.<br /><br /><br />Don, <br /><br />That story adds a bit more color for sure.<br /><br />But pausing upon these two collections of memoria, the one bit that really sticks with me is the reminiscence of Sam Sciullo (in the first PPG piece): <br /><br />"He left the game after his home run in the seventh inning," Sciullo said. "I went to the gate after the game to get autographs, but I was sure he was gone.<br /><br />"Babe comes out, which surprised me. He was wearing a light camel hair coat, with a collar around his neck and a cap. He was looking straight ahead. He was the original sad sack.<br /><br />"Kids started running up. He doesn't say a word. He was not rude, he didn't push anybody. He just put his head down and walked.<br /><br />"The kids didn't want to miss other players and broke away from him. But when he got 10 or 15 yards down Sennott Street, I realized he was alone and I might get a chance to talk to him.<br /><br />"He was going back to the Schenley Hotel. I caught up and walked with him, begging for his autograph, but he didn't say a word. We got to the trolley tracks on Forbes, and I didn't have the guts to harass him anymore.<br /><br />"He was not a well man that day. He was depressed and glad to get out of Pittsburgh."TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-70995759071643666972011-09-08T13:22:06.005-07:002011-09-08T13:22:06.005-07:00Tom, that's the article, sorry about the bad l...Tom, that's the article, sorry about the bad link. Yes, Rick Shrum got it right, Pittsburgh-style. Evidently big brother Paul did drag Andy along to the park on occasion, but one can't imagine it was too often.<br /><br />Here's a little more detail on that day, from <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10145/1060573-63.stm" rel="nofollow">a 75th anniversary article in the PPG</a>. And somebody dug up a dandy picture.Issa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-4943336977096077902011-09-08T10:47:52.256-07:002011-09-08T10:47:52.256-07:00hey
for those still following this ... saga..
I s...hey<br /><br />for those still following this ... saga..<br />I sent link to my comment and that St. Mary's 1912<br />photo to my cousin, Eliot, in Florida<br /><br />and he sent it to another cousin who is 2 years younger than me (Skip):<br /><br />"I didn't tell Skip where in the photo or at what he was looking at and <br />HE IMMEDIATELY PICKED OUT GRAND DAD"<br /><br />I got a fucking chill... then tears !Ed Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-1119994727344535692011-09-08T08:52:07.210-07:002011-09-08T08:52:07.210-07:00Steve, Cain of the Bible caught hell for slaying A...Steve, Cain of the Bible caught hell for slaying Abel but Cain of the Giants could be forgiven for slaying all eight of his brothers in the batting order (well, excepting the wonderfully named Pill).<br /><br />Don, that link whiffed at this end, but the lovely story set me off in search of the source, and maybe <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06130/688769-63.stm" rel="nofollow">this is it</a>?<br /><br />I believe the Post-Gazette writer has things in perfect Pittsburgh perspective. The real native-son celebrity here is Andy's big brother, Paul Warhola -- who was at Forbes Field on that historic day -- not kid brother Andy, who was probably at home drawing shoes.<br /><br />Ed, that's a great Eddie Yost story.<br /><br />Eddie Yost was never in a hurry; a pitcher's nightmare. The Walking Man. Ball one. Strike one. Ball two. Strike two. Ball three. Fouled off. Fouled off. Fouled off. Ball four. His guitar hero equivalent would be Robbie Krieger. No hurry. One.note.at.a.time.<br /><br />Well, so, maybe the log only weighed 279 pounds.<br /><br />By Jove, I do believe Kent is right. The Ed Sox. Who knew.<br /><br />But the Babe... There is an openness and orphan-child vulnerability in Babe Ruth's face that for all his notorious "wild living" always impresses upon me the natural, perhaps anomalous yet palpably real generosity and tenderness of soul.<br /><br />Perhaps the most most cherished possession of boyhood, at any rate the only one that has survived, was a Columbia 45" Extended Play compilation of The Greatest Moments in Sports, from clips of the original narrations. Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, heavyweight knockouts galore, the voice of Knute Rockne delivering a frantic half-time pep-rant to the Fighting Irish, the voice of Jesse Owens after winning four Gold Medals in Berlin, the great finishes of Whirlaway, Citation, Lavagetto's catch, Gionfriddo's catch, Bobby Thomson's home run, the entire panoply of the mythology.<br /><br />But the terrible highlight/lowlight was the Babe's farewell speech.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_cQ3qNUGBM" rel="nofollow">Babe Ruth Saying Goodbye to Baseball (Yankee Stadium, 1947)</a><br /><br />In the bottom photo on this post we see the Babe, withered and riddled and shot-through with the cancer that had been slowly and painfully killing him (he had primitive chemo, but typically did not want to know what the medication was for), ceremonially (and gamely, speaking of) delivering the ms. of his autobiography to the Elder Bush -- and smoking a cigar.<br /><br />On a less melancholy note:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS7Iq_I0i6M" rel="nofollow">Babe Ruth's 60th home run, 1927</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-89314974341292831862011-09-08T07:29:45.423-07:002011-09-08T07:29:45.423-07:00another WOWOW!
found this photo of the 1912 St. M...another WOWOW!<br /><br />found this photo of the 1912 St. Mary's BB team<br />and<br />DIG THIS<br /> bottom row second player :<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RuthStMary%27s.jpg<br /><br />that's my grandfather, Harry Baker !!!!!<br /><br />not sure why the sign hanging is Red Sox seems like a league of some sort where the Red Sox sponsored the St. Maty's team..<br /><br />that years 1912 My grandfather and George Ruth were signed up by the Baltimore Minor League team <br /><br />my Grandfather broke his foot and that was that..<br />Ruth was sold to the Boston team...<br /><br /><br />meanwhile<br /><br />back in Baltimore Ruth's dad owned a saloon I think it was on Eustis Street or East Baltimore Street..<br /><br />and<br /><br />as the family story goes Ruth's dad set my Grandfather up in a saloon a cpl blocks away<br /><br />gonna dig out some old photos of my Grandpa and look more closely but, I am pretty sure that that is him..Ed Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-67550330515839211582011-09-08T07:24:02.469-07:002011-09-08T07:24:02.469-07:00Tom,
Beautiful to see these heading into Septembe...Tom,<br /><br />Beautiful to see these heading into September -- what a guy, that Babe, they don't make them like that these days . . . .<br /><br />9.8<br /><br />light coming into fog against invisible<br />ridge, shadowed towhee landing on fence<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> given field of matter, this<br /> presence of form that<br /><br /> also is given, present here<br /> can be, to be so that<br /><br />grey white fog against invisible ridge,<br />cormorant flapping across toward pointSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-46398985239731137312011-09-08T07:04:36.985-07:002011-09-08T07:04:36.985-07:00now that I am thinking
the original Baltimore bas...now that I am thinking<br /><br />the original Baltimore baseball team BECAME the NY Yankees !<br /><br />and, as we ALL know The Babe went to New York and<br />then The House that Ruth Built.<br /><br />also<br />speaking of (Red) Sox<br /><br />there was, also in Baltimore, another Sox team the Baltimore Black Sox...<br /><br />probably the Greatest ball team (club) of all timeEd Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-13398868557599750692011-09-08T06:33:41.399-07:002011-09-08T06:33:41.399-07:00RUTHAPALOOZA!
And wait, to TC regular EB, did tha...RUTHAPALOOZA!<br /><br />And wait, to TC regular EB, did that Boston uniform on Babe really read "ED SOX"?kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12448791356455016794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-68412960211207109202011-09-08T05:15:46.504-07:002011-09-08T05:15:46.504-07:00OH MY ..
THAT Ruth sliding into Bleuge's tag ...OH MY ..<br /><br />THAT Ruth sliding into Bleuge's tag ! WOWOW!<br /> notice the stands in the outfield (left field bleachers<br /><br />me and Bobbie MacDonald used to get on the 8 th street trolley and go up to the Florida Ave Market (get some 'munchies' from my cousin ( Stafford Appel) who worked at the AGW warehouse .. pick up a cpl free passers to the game then get over to Griffith Stadioum say 3 hours before game-time... so<br /><br />those outfield bleacher? we had bleacher passes and sat way over on the left above the visiting teams' bull pen...<br /><br />but<br />being their early we could go anywhere in the park... usually sat over behind third base.. watch the players warm up<br /> SO (back to Bleuge):<br /><br /> Eddie Yost at the time played third base for the Senators..<br /><br />so he is fielding ground balls while this "old guy" is there I guess coaching him so<br />a ball comes over near where Bobbie & I are (I'm about 11-12 years old)<br /><br />and Yost come over and Bobbie asks "who's the old guy<br />?"<br /><br />"that's the GREAT third baseman, Ossie Bleuge ! Taught me everything I know."<br /><br />so, next thing we know Ossie Bleuge brings another third basement to D.C. and Yost is gone ! replaced by this "piss ant" .. Harman Killebrew !<br /><br />that ain't no 300 pound log Ruth is carrying ! jeesh.<br />The tall tales these legends told and became<br /><br />Ruth made two feature-length films... and was in one where he goes to see a kid in the hospital and promises him he'd hit him an home run.. then the kid watches the game on the radio. ruth hits the HR the kid dies happy.<br /><br />and there's Pershing ! etc thanks !' rally' Good Stuff....<br /><br />et ceteras galore in this old mind trying to image-up.<br /><br />I wonder what ever became of my grandmother's old photo albums ? maybe some cousin or other in Baltimore has them? One of these days Ill go over to St. Mary's see what they might have. and maybe over to the Baltimore Newspaper's archives and look see?Ed Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-26299283291267362642011-09-08T04:46:53.900-07:002011-09-08T04:46:53.900-07:00Wonderful post, Tom. Very enjoyable poem, the par...Wonderful post, Tom. Very enjoyable poem, the particularities of the description of the Babe are fine, indeed.<br /><br />The pictures are grand. The one of the baseball clowns is a hoot, and there bending under the typewriter (beat writers, if there are any left, take note!) is Al Schacht - he must have lived forever, I remember him when I was a youngster in the 50s and the baseball clown was still a revered part of the sport.<br /><br />As I'm sure you are aware, the Babe hit his last 3 homers in Pittsburgh, one in the lower deck, one in the upper, and a monster shot that cleared the roof, the 1st ever at Forbes Field. I think you will get a kick out of the <a href="Schacht" rel="nofollow">this Post-Gazette article</a>, with Ruth's connection to Andy Warhol revealed.<br /><br />DonIssa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.com