BASEBALL!

[Ciaran]

Originally Posted by Gráinne

These color photos of an obviously ill Babe Ruth appeared today on the Time website (the same company published Life magazine, where they appeared)

http://life.time.com/culture/babe-ru...=lf%7Cmoreon#1

He's wearing the "NY" logo, but in his career that logo wasn't used, so he never wore it as a player.

It's poignant to me how baggy his suit is in the 1947 pictures, and leaning on a bat for support in 1948.

Below is an original photo of Ruth from 1948 that's in my private collection. This photo was purchased from the archives of the Baltimore News and shows Ruth in the days before his death. By now, Ruth was staying at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he would die. However, whilst there, he was able to visit his home town of Baltimore for one last time. This photo was taken during that visit. The photo was ultimately published by the Baltimore News on August 18 1948, two days after his death:




The allure of the Yankees isn't about the pin stripes of big business or the other brick-bats thrown at them. Rather, it's the personal stories and lives of legends who sometimes struggled with the expectations and stresses of playing for one of the world's greatest sporting institutions. For example, amongst more recent generations, think of Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and their well-publicised struggles with alcoholism.


The greatest ever baseball team was, without doubt, the 1927 Yankees. No other baseball team has ever come close. However, it is particularly poignant how the lives of many of that side would end in tragedy. Manager Miller Huggins would die only two years later, still a young man. The three most famous and loved of that legendary Yankees' side met sad deaths:

• Babe Ruth, ravaged by cancer, died at 53.
• Lou Gehrig, struck down with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis whilst in the height of his playing career. He would die a cruel death, aged just 38.
• Tony Lazzeri, the first great Yankee of Italian heritage well before Joe DiMaggio and the most popular of all the 1927 Yankees. He died of an epileptic fit, aged 42. His wife and son were away on holiday at the time so his body lay undiscovered at the bottom of the stairs of his house for a few days.