Wednesday, August 31, 1994 LOOK TO THE SUN FOR .L YOUR NEEDS. ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION ie ial smelt ip are _SUMMER HOURS Guests Branch 170 re 2 pm-8 pm 2 pm-10pm Sundays Mon. - Sat. Pro-Am inv: seventy-two with members welcome! 248 Columbia Ave., Castlegar 365-7017 at’the Castlega and District attempting 5 oe wii feature September 6 a “an expected Kootenay pe 4 np coming mostly from the Castlegar area, munity event. Scott Minni of the ares: ty Golf Club in ¥ i he will bo the fea 6 obo. Si fa fessionals have won . bet never in a row, After Dave Barr's victory in 1975, three Lateran bm ' i tow two chi from the _ previous two years. If Minni does win three con- to make the 1994 championship his third in a row after winning in both Kelowna and Comox in the beginning ein (.4 P in 1976, Bob Cox in 1978, and Jim Rutledge in 1980, . Only Ferguson and Rutledge © have won three B.C, PGA Championships, ret SEASON HOME-OPENER Friday, September 23rd vs Rossland All games at Castlegar Rec Centre 2101 - 6th Ave., Castiegar INNER-SQUAD GAME Saturday, September 3rd Your Image WIII Make a Good Impression on Your Customers 7:30 pm EXHIBITION GAME Friday, September 16th vs Rossland 7:30 pm 8:00 pm VOLUNTEERS NEEDED for the Terry Fox Run Sept. 18/94 Call Tracy or Nicole at 365-5266 Time to take off the doves Wind-up tourney held The golf clubs around Castlegar may notice a slight increase in ‘You can ask anybody about the toumament tee times as most and they will say they ohne mre had fun.’ end at Kin- i ird Park preparing to hang _ N HERLE naird up their gloves CALVIN H and 10 after another long tournament organizer teams took season. part in some The Castlegar competitive held last week- slopitch action. This particular tournament used the three out rule rather than the standard ten batter format, which led to a lot of close games and a few blowouts. The winners of the tournament were the Avenue A’s who beat a tough Castlegar Pressure Wash team 9-8 to win the contest. The A's needed their last bat advan- tage to beat Pressure Wash, which was considered the tourna- ment favorite. The consolation final fea- tured a tough match-up between the No Names and the “CHILLER DRINKS x250 mL Renegades. The Renegades stayed close early on but the No Names managed to pull away at the end 16-9. “You can ask anybody about the tournament ard they will say they had a lot of fun,” said pce sige lah the memes “People like playing a lot oft ball. At the end, they remember how much ball they played, not how sore their bodies were the next day.” Herle believes the success of the tournament is due to the three out format. “If you watched this weekend and compared it to last weekend {during the Helen Shaw Memori- al tournament with the ten batter rule), it was as good if not bet- ter,” said Herle. “Three out ball brings out the best in people because you work harder for that third out.” TO SATURDAY, Serna 3, 1994 wale ($) piv 80324(§) =e s=, Chee ‘i heese Macaront Dinner Cheese Dinner DNESDAY, At Dinner 88 Generic 12x200 g Meat department * Back attached 1.94 kg. Sapte LO LODGE Chicken breast ¢ Deli department DELI DEPARTMENT FREE 454 g. Potato Salad with purchase of BBQ chicken Saunders wishes to announce his associateship with Dr. Donald W. llis in the practice of General Dentistry Office Hours Mon.-Thurs. 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Occasional Fridays Welcome 663 Columbia Ave., Castlegar, B.C. 365-3339 “the greatest show on earth in the 1920's and 1930's was: It was said in the 1920s that the most famous Americans of all time were George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Babe Ruth. George Herman Ruth was born into poverty but beat the odds en route to crushing an unbelievable number of baseball records. There will never be another Babe. t is the end of summer and the famed boys of the bright and sunny season seem to have gone into permanent hiber- nation. The major league ballparks are empty. There are no peanuts and cracker jack and many are saying they don’t care if they ever go back. It is maybe time for a little history lesson. Time to hearken back to days of summer long since past when people were rough and baseball was rougher. Time to quit talk- ing about money and “celery caps”. Instead let's talk about a It’s time to look at a legend, a man who /bled baseball and whose name is still spoken with awe in the bleachers of stadiums from Nantucket to Grand Forks. A man huge in spirit, enormous in soul, massive in exploits, burly in stature and soft in heart. People in the Kootenays have gotten used to saying the name Babe Ruth but they don’t really know what it means. “Well hey, that’s the guy the prep Provincials are named after. That's coming here next year you know. It'll be great,” seems to be a popular comment. The Babe Ruth Prep Provincials will undoubtedly be a great affair and many kids will enjoy the game of baseball at it’s finest. And if Babe Ruth were alive today he'd have a big grin on his face and a tip of his cap for every kid that played. But who was the man they call “The Babe”? The story started before the turn of the century in Baltimore where George Herman Ruth was born to Katherine and George Ruth. The year was 1895 and it was a tough world on the streets of Baltimore. It would be a long time until George Herman Ruth would be heralded as “the Babe” and he spent that time in a rough neigh- bourhood, the son of a saloon keeper. The Babe later recalled that by the time he was seven years old, he was chewing tobacco and drinking whiskey. He was also getting in trouble. His parents couldn’t handle him and quickly dumped him off at Saint Mary’s School for Boys when the opportunity arose in 1902. His parents never visited him and he developed a thick skin. It was then that a man called Brother Matthias changed his life and helped mold one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Brother Matthi ized after school baseball games and invited Babe to play. They made him a catcher. Babe later said Brother Matthias was the greatest man he ever knew. A strong testament coming from a man who met Presi- dents, millionaires and sports legends. One of the reasons the legend of “The Babe” is so strong is t of the ing stories ng the rugged Balti street kid who grew to be a hero. The first tale happened on the small baseball field of St. Mary’s where Babe laughed at the team pitcher who was having a poor outing. was not d and asked Babe if he could do better. Babe replied he had never pitched in his life. Matthias told him he must know quite a bit about pitching since he knew when to laugh and quickly stuck Babe, a left- hander, on the mound. Babe never allowed a single run the rest of the game. Jack Dunn owned the minor league Baltimore Orioles and offered the 19-year-old Babe a contract in February, 1914. He was paid $600 for the season. The story goes that when he first showed up at training camp, one of the players yelled out, “Look at Dunn and his newest babe.” A lot more than a nickname was born that day. Later that season, Babe was called up to the Boston Red Sox where he began his big league career. He recorded two wins and one loss. In 1915, he went 18-6 with 112 strikeouts. He was rapidly becoming a well respected left-hander but didn’t hit much because teams liked to protect their pitchers. His combined record in 1916 and 1917 was 46-25. In the 1916 World Series versus the Brooklyn Dodgers, he pitched 14 innings to help Boston gain victory. In 1918, the Red Sox recognized his hitting potential. He hit 11 home runs and tied for the American League lead. In the World Series, he won two games and set a record for scoreless innings. The next season saw Babe playing more outfield and the bet- ter view of the bleachers seemed to suit him as he slugged a record 29 homers. One of the things Babe Ruth is famous for is his sometimes outrageous and belligerent personality during extra-curricular activities. He was a boisterous partier who paraded around in silk shirts, two-toned shirts and Panama hats. His off-field activi- ties had some observers concerned and Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe to the New York Yankees for $125,000 in 1920. The Red Sox have never won another World Series and many say it is thanks to “the curse of the bambino”. The Yanks signed the Babe to a contract worth $20,000 per season and he rewarded them by swatting 54 homers. But the best was yet to come. 1921 was Babe's best year. The graphic on this page tells the statistical story, but as is usual with the Babe, not the whole story. During the season, people were concerned with his late night partying and habitual over-eating. He cut back for awhile but had poor results on the baseball field. Then one night he didn’t go to bed at all and ate 14 hamburgers before the game. He hit two home runs Yankee Stadium opened in 1923 and 75,000 fans showed up on opening day on April 23 to see “the house that Ruth built” Babe did not disappoint as he christened the new bleachers with a monster shot in the fourth inning. He also led the Yankees to their first ever World Series victory. The home runs kept piling up, capped with an amazing 60 homers in 1927. During that season he hit 17 in the month of September and his 60th on the final day. Babe tried to explain why he hit so many after that 1927 season. “I swing as hard as I can,” said Babe to sportswriters. “When the pitch comes speeding in, I try to swing right through the ball. I swing at that little ball with everything I’ve got in my body. I hit big or miss big.” He hit big more than he missed and he proved it once again in the 1928 World Series. He scored nine runs in the series, had a batting average of .625 and hit three homers in one game. He years-old. The years were not kind to Babe. His knees were gone, and hard drinking and partying had taken their toll. So just when they thought he was washed up, the Babe saved the best for last. In 1932, Babe was playing in his tenth World Series. It was the fourth inning and he calmly stepped up to the plate at Wrigley Field in Chicago and set his sights on the ivy in centre field. The fans at Wrigley are not known for their fiospitality and Babe soon found tomatoes and lemons being hurled his way. It was then that he stepped out of the box and pointed to deep centre field with his mighty bat. He let the first pitch go by and raised his hand to the fans to signify strike one. The jeering d and then i ified as Babe stood like a stone while strike two whistled by. Babe's response was to step out of the box, pointed once again to the deepest part of Wrigley Field and tipped his hat to the fans. “Then the pitcher threw me.a fastball,” recalled Babe as he sat with a smug grin talking to reporters after the game. “I swung with everything I had. As I hit the ball, every muscle, every sense I had told me I had never hit a better one. I knew that as long as I lived, nothing would ever feel as good as that. I didn’t have to look, but I did. That ball just went on and on. It hit far up in the centre field bleachers in the spot I had pointed to.” “Tt was the proudest moment I had ever had in baseball.” Babe Ruth ended his baseball career in 1934 with the Boston Braves. He was 41 years old and played 22 years in the major leagues, the toughest and best league in the world. He died May 30, 1935 from cancer. Baseball historians have now decided the event at Wrigley Field never happened and that Babe made up the whole story to help sell his image and newspapers. He did hit a home run and he did gesture to the fans but the theatrics never actually occurred. You know, that’s a funny thing. Because when I close my eyes during this time of strike and greed, I swear I can see the Babe step up to the plate on a bright summer day. I see him point to the bleachers and I see him watch two heaters scorch the center of the plate about belt high. And then I see him hit it and my jaw drops to the floor. I’ve never been to Wrigley and I’ve never met the Babe, but I love baseball and I'll never forget the great bambino. So, if you happen to catch some of the Babe Ruth Prep Provincials next summer, think about the Babe, look out to cen- tre field with a smile, and give a little tip of your cap. If you're playing, step on second base on your way to the out- field and remember to chase away all the butterflies except the white ones. White butterflies are good luck That’s what the Babe would have done and he would have wanted it that way. Sources: Babe!, by James Hahn and The 100 Greatest Base- ball Players of all Time, by Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig Story by Jeff Gabert