George
Herman Junior
May
27 2020
Babe
Ruth
spent
most of 12 years
at
St. Mary’s Industrial School
for
Orphans
Delinquent
Incorrigible
and Wayward Boys.
Back
when they believed in plain speaking
and
didn't go in
for
hedging the truth,
preferring,
instead
an
exact taxonomy
of
misconduct and bad luck.
No
sparing of labels
no
sparing the rod.
And
the more extravagant names that followed,
like
the Great Bambino
Caliph
of Clout
Sultan
of Swat.
Or
simply
The Babe.
Nicknames
for
men who play games for a living,
both
humble and braggart
hero
and cad.
Silly
ones
like
childhood monickers that stuck,
and
flashy ones
for
legends who hit home runs.
Babe
Ruth
was
a great athlete
who
hardly looked the part,
which
makes us all feel better about ourselves.
But
was he delinquent, incorrigible, or wayward?
And
what sort of industry was taught
to
this formidable man
who
was a reckless gambler
shameless glutton
and
drank far too much,
who
chased beautiful women
and
twice fell in love;
hardly enough
for a man of such appetite.
hardly enough
for a man of such appetite.
And
what would St. Mary have thought,
that
venerated saint
and
mother of god?
This
man who also lives on after death
and
was raised from the poor
and
bequeathed his fortune
to
impoverished kids?
There
is much in a name
that
goes unsaid.
The
Babe
Sultan
Caliph.
The
Industrial School ... .
And
the far less well-known
George
Herman Ruth
Junior.
Google
Babe Ruth's nicknames and you'll come up with 23 different ones.
Baseball in those days was America's sport, the national pastime, and
newspapers were fulsome, competitive, and numerous: so there were
lots of heroes, and there was lots of ink spilled and purple prose.
The
latest New
Yorker
features an article about the beginning of sports marketing, when
advertising and public relations were hitting their stride, and for
the first time ever great athletes could leverage their names to make
more money off the field than on. It centres on the two great Yankee
stars of the 20s and 30s, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth: two men of
remarkably opposite temperament and proclivities. Among the
biographical details of Babe Ruth's life, the name of his school
appeared. As soon as I saw it, I knew there was a poem there, and
that it was up to me to find it.
No comments:
Post a Comment