Babe Ruth: An American Icon

German soldiers of 150 Panzer Brigade with captured American armored car courtesy https://warisboring.com/fighting-in-plain-sight-impostors-on-the-battlefield-d1d8bb0ef12f#.my03dtnq1.

For decades, baseball was as American as apple pie.  The story goes that in the closing months of the Second World War, German soldiers, flying American flags and wearing American uniforms, were impersonating American soldiers in order to infiltrate enemies.  Therefore, American soldiers started asking questions that only other Americans know the answers to.  When Brigadier General Bruce Clarke incorrectly stated that the Chicago Cubs were in the American League, he was held at gunpoint for five hours (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Greif#Commandos).

If anyone represented baseball, it was Babe Ruth.  "The Great Bambino" played professional baseball for 22 years, from 1914 to 1935.  While he started his career with the Boston Red Sox, he spent most of his career playing for the New York Yankees.  Ruth was not afraid to take a risk.  While he was the home run king, he was also the strike out king.  Ruth was not afraid to take a risk; he refused to let anything deter him.  In 1924, after running into a wall during a match against the Washington Senators and being knocked unconscious, he insisted on staying in the game.  On his next time up to bat, suffering a bruised pelvic bone, he hit a double.  Babe Ruth won the World Series three times with the Red Sox and four times with the Yankees.

In 1936, Ruth was one of the first five baseball players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Babe Ruth has only grown in popularity since his death in 1948.  According to one collector, his earliest baseball card now rivals the famous Honus T. Wagner card in value (http://www.deanscards.com/Babe-Ruth-Baseball-Cards).

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Lou Gehrig's Farewell to Baseball

"He was a symbol of indestructibility -- a Gibraltar in cleats." (Jim Murray)

Sixty thousand fans gathered at Yankee Stadium on a steamy day in July of 1939.  Mayor LaGuardia was there.  So too was Babe Ruth.  The fans, all waiting to hear what the man at the microphone was about to say, chanted:  "We want Lou!  We want Lou!"  He stood at home plate, wiping the tears from his eyes, hesitant.  The coach patted his shoulder and whispered something in his ear.  In a heavy New York accent, the Yankee first baseman started his speech.  "The clangy iron echo of Yankee Stadium picked up the sentence that poured from the loudspeakers and hurled it forth to the world:  'I am the luckiest man on earth...'" (http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11159148/mlb-lou-gehrig-farewell-speech-75-years-later)

Thirty six year old Lou Gehrig had just been diagnosed with ALS, a disease that would cut his life short by decades.  Yet, here was baseball's superstar announcing to the world that he was "the luckiest man on earth".   Rather than focussing on his disease, he was counting his blessings:  the 2130 consecutive games he had played in his professional baseball career, the 147 RBI average, 

and the 15 stolen bases.  "He was a symbol of indestructibility -- a Gibraltar in cleats." (http://www.lougehrig.com/about/farewell.html)

Lou Gehrig was born and raised in New York City.  He used to swim across the Hudson River to New Jersey, although he never strayed far from his roots.  He was a self proclaimed momma's boy.  It was only his future wife, Eleanor, who was able to cut the apron strings.  By all accounts he was a good husband and father.  

Lou Gehrig's fans thought he would play baseball forever.  He was "the emblem of the Yankees", clinching six World Series titles during his career.  Yet, on that day in 1939, he stood before the microphone, and announced to the world that he was retiring from the game.  He explained that "he had so much to live for", intending on fighting the dreaded disease.  However, in 1941, he succumbed to ALS, now called Lou Gehrig's Disease.  

Note:  

1.  For more information, read Luckiest Man by Jonathan Eig.  

2.  To read "Baseball's Gettysburg Address", visit http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/08/01/the-35-greatest-speeches-in-history/.

http://adamport.com/3626/legendary-icons-series/

Tickets to the Game

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I just received another rejection letter this morning for my chapter book I'm Just Daisy.  I placed it in an enveloppe called "Tickets to the Game" along with the six other tickets.  Why would I call it a ticket when it's a rejection letter?  I read a post online in which the author called her rejection letters "tickets".  Rather than seeing each letter as preventing her from getting published, she saw it as a ticket, bringing her one step closer to the game.

What a great idea!  Since rejection is part and parcel of the writing and publishing world, writers have to get used to it.  Why not see it as a step in the process?  Why not see it as an opportunity rather than a shut out?  As a beginning rather than an ending?  I used one of my rejection letters, which was very detailed and helpful, to write an improved second version of my book.

It's a talent in life to be able to see the good side of something bad.  I could have easily shredded those tickets.  But instead, they are tucked away in an 8 1/2 by 11 envelop.  It's like I'm treasuring them.  They are proof that I've written a book and that I'm getting it out there.  It's like Babe Ruth.  He was the strike out king. of baseball.  But he was also the home run king. I want to be the strike out-home run queen of writing.

So, as I carefully slide my tickets into my envelop, the way Babe Ruth slid into home plate, I am one step closer to the game.  I can actually smell the juicy hotdogs and buttery popcorn.  I can hear the crack of the bat when it hits the ball.  I can feel the rumbling of Yankee Stadium as the fans cheer. Let's play ball!

Yankee Stadium circa 1920's courtesy http://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/The+House+that+Ruth+Built,+Babe+Ruth