BABE RUTH

I never saw Babe Ruth play. Growing up, whenever baseball was discussed his name always came up as the longest home run hitter of all time. Balls would travel  5oo feet from home plate when the Babe connected. He had a lifetime batting average of 342 and hit 714 home runs. It was no wonder I had become so enamored. As I grew older I began to devour everything written about him. In my gullible youth I thought whatever was written in a book or a magazine had to be true. Not so, there is more myth than truth in most of the stories. What is true is that he rose from real poverty to one of the richest paid ballplayers of his time.

Now as I read more on him I discovered an amazing fact. He had courted and married Helen Woodruff of West Fourth St. in South Boston. I lived on West Fifth St. just two streets over. Then even more amazing, when newly married lived in an apartment over Joes’ Spa a restaurant my father worked in and eventually partially owned. My idol lived, walked and chewed gum in my neighborhood, unbelievable.

To this day I am still fascinated by Babe Ruth and the life he lived. It is amazing that wherever I travel I find evidences where he has been. Recently when I was in Asheville, N.C. at a site of an old hotel there was a stone in which was inscribed “Babe Ruth slept here during his Spring Training Tour going north.” I know it is childish of me to have an idol at my age, but I can’t help it. I grew up adoring him and his image and life are part of me.