Babe Ruth In The Papers

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This is the photo that is currently on the front page of the Washington Post’s Sunday Metro section:

Before I go any further, let me make sure that I take time to thank the staff at the Gaylord National Hotel inWashington, DC for their tremendous professionalism and attention to every detail. These people are the standard for their industry. I have, in all honesty, never seen such elan in my life. It was a real treat. With the hotel slated to open in a few days, you could ride on the energy of these folks as they readied their jewel of a hotel.

I would also like to thank Michael Hudson of Gaylord Hotels. He is a throwback to a more civil time in America and in business. He is a true gentleman and a visionary in his field. You don’t run into too many people like him and it was my good fortune to have done so. Thanks Michael, for everything.

This is a shot someone took for me with my camera during the installation.

The Babe Ruth statue is now permanently on display at the Gaylord National Hotel & Resort in Washington, DC at the new National Harbor area.

I went down there on Tuesday and stayed until Thursday and The Babe was installed and well received. The Washington Post came by and did a story on the hotel opening and included a fair amount of interest on the statue. I was not sure how much would run on the statue but I was pleased to have folks in Washington DC call and tell me the good news.

The full story of the statue and everything surrounding it is on the Birrerart.com website:

Click here to open the Birrerart.com website up in a new window

Other things that were noteworthy while I was down there was the fact that the Nationals has declared the sportsbar in the Gaylord as the official sportsbar of the team. Because of this, they had sent over the last home plate used at RFK stadium so it could be permanently installed at the entrance to the sportsbar. Here are a few shots of that and the Washington Post getting their story at the time:

That’s Michael Hudson, Director of Brands at Gaylord Hotels, with homeplate from RFK Stadium.

And here is the laying ceremony while the PR folks take photos.

***
The Gaylord National Hotel is so immense that it is difficult to photograph it all in one frame. The atrium that overlooks the Potomac River and Old Alexandria, Virginia, on the opposite bank, is 18 stories high. There is a village of little shops and fountains and trees and restaurants all inside the enclosure. It is so big that you mostly aren’t aware that you are inside.

Here is a view of the upper part of the atrium. These gaslights are 20 feet high. The scale is just hard to fathom.

On the 24th floor, there is a state of the art nightclub and one of the unique features is, believe it or not, the men’s room. Here are the fixtures and the view is outrageous. The Washington Monument can be seen while you are, well…ahem, you know. It’s just one of a myriad of details that make this hotel one of the most amazing in the world.

Babe Ruth Goes to Washington DC Today

 

Up early and caught the first pitch of the 2008 MLB season while booting up with the coffee to take the Babe Ruth statue down to DC to the Gaylord Hotels’ newest property: The National.  A lot of work has gone into this project and it didn’t end until 2am last night.  Babe’s ready.  I’m tired but ready and excited to see the hotel and Babe’s new home outside the sportsbar there.  I’d like to thank my wife and my boss (Nightrangers) for being understanding at various points (different points) all along the way.  We need the money to send little Tommy to college someday so you have to try sometimes and when you try, good things happen.  Thanks.

 

Addendum: Greatest Single Inning of Baseball

This was my comment to the last post (a masterwork if I do say so…haha).  A few thoughts that I forgot to put in or that occurred to me later in the shower, where all great ideas seem to occur.***** 

You know, they talk about Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot” all the time and that was more than likely a fluke that the writers blew out of proportion. Many accounts have Ruth only yelling at the pitcher or the bench and the rest is hooey.

Here, in the 8th Game of the 1912 World Series, you have the REAL called shot. Tris Speaker’s pop is allowed to fall foul because of Mathewson calling for Chief Myers to take it (or the Red Sox bench). After the play, Speaker yells out to Matty, “… you just called for the wrong man. That’s going to cost you this ballgame”

Speaker has the sheer audacity to tell the greatest pitcher of his generation that he’s going to beat him and hits a single the very next pitch! Amazing. And amazing that Mathewson has just popped him up, no less!

In such a pressure filled atmosphere, against such a great pitcher as Mathewson, I think Speaker’s prediction is more striking than the 1932 Called Shot at Wrigley Field by Babe Ruth.

And you know what? The audacity to yell like that is just the kind of confidence that you need to hit a baseball. It was detailed in Moneyball, where the author talked about the rockheadedness of Lenny Dykstra. “…who is that? Carlton? I’ll stick him…”

You can’t hit a baseball without sheer confidence that you will succeed.

***

Also, I understand that “visibility” plays a huge role in goat-horns.

Visible: Fred Snodgrass drops an easy fly ball in center–Sox rally to tie and win.
Invisible: Mathewson is calling for Chief Myers to take the pop when he or Merkle would have had it easy.

Visible: Ball gets by Buckner–through his legs and the Mets plate the go-ahead run: Pandemonium.
Invisible: Gedman and Stanley cross each other up and allow the tying run on a catchable passed ball.

Visible: Luis Gonzalez’ little flair plates the winning run in 2001: Verdict? “Lucky hit off Mariano”.
Invisible: Andy Pettite tipping all his stretch pitches in Game 6 and getting tatooed.
What people forget: Mariano threw a ball into center field that should have been routine.
People also forget: Brosius had a chance to turn 2 and only got one out–he held the ball.

So, your likelyhood of getting goat horns is directly tied to the fans’ (especially unknowledgeable ones) visibility of the play.

The Greatest Single Inning of Baseball

Just finished The Glory Of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter. Probably my 3rd reading in 20 years or so. I’m glad I hung on to it.

Kewell: The John McCain of Liverpool FC

[Freddie and I and the old Joe DiMaggio statue at the last Joe DiMaggio Day at Yankee Stadium in 1998. I am wearing the 97 or 98 away kit so that's your tie in.]

The Best View In Baseball

I’ve said it before and since we are at the pitchers and catchers reporting date, I’ll say it again.  Of the 38 major league parks I’ve been to, Old Comiskey Park was my favorite.  It was as old and charming as Fenway or Wrigley but I thought just slightly moreso.  It had such a great feel to it.  It felt small and the front row seats of the upper deck are just right over the field.  The stands are not high: batters routinely foul balls back over the stands and out of the joint.  The columns are also hard to miss and the photo was taken by me in 1987 to illustrate that point.  You could pay money for that seat, although I’m sure that on 99 out of 100 nights, you could move a few seats and actually see the plate.

The first All Star game was played here in 1933 (Ruth homered, you had to ask?), Veeck’s exploding scoreboard was here; Foxx hit 2 bombs over the roof in left center and disco demolition night was also here.  The last postseason?  I believe 1981  or 1982 with LaRussa as a YOUNG manager and Jerry Koosman as an old White Sock, if I recall.  They lost to the Brewers who lost to the Cards–somebody look that up. 

Detail Oriented Stadium Meister

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http://www.majorleaguemodels.com/about.asp

This is something interesting I found while looking for the little plaster model of Yankee Stadium for 93-year-old-Max’s grandson. This man builds huge, tabletop scale models of old ballparks from scratch. You know, the exacto knife and the balsa wood and a thousand other things. I can relate to this man because of what I do with the wood products and all and will even admit to having built a cardboard model Shea Stadium in 1976 that was pretty darned good.

I love this kind of wacky, I’m-going-to-build-this-thing-in-my-cellar-and-sell-it-for-150k attitude. Take 5 minutes and visit the guy’s site. Look at the original wooden 1888 Polo Grounds model and see how baseball was just after the Civil War. It’s amazing work.

It also points out that I need to do better on my website. But now, we’re 7 minutes from the kickoff of Liverpool-Chelsea. The first league encounter of the year was way back in August, on the day we had our boy christened. I left for the church at half up 1-0 only to come home and find out that the ref called a silly PK and GIFTED the point to Chelsea. So strange was the call, that the next day, the ref PUBLICLY stated that he was wrong to point at the spot! I’ve never heard of such a thing but when taking points from the Reds, the refs have done some funny things. I think it’s because they all grew up in the 1970’s and 1980’s when Liverpool won every darned thing and I think there is some lingering resentment. Kind of like if I worked the plate at a Yankee game.

To give you an idea of how big these things get (he does different scales), take a look at the Old Comiskey Park. Old Comiskey is my favorite of the 38 ballparks I’ve been to. It was a real timewarp to go there and the place just felt right. They say that Jimmy Foxx hit two homers completely over the roof in left between the two light towers. Double-X was the best hitter no one’s ever heard of.

If the first 10 minutes of Liverpool Chelsea are any indicator, then Chelsea will get the points. They seem a whole gear faster than Liverpool and more confident and more creative. Liverpool look slow and I think it’s only a matter of time. Chelsea’s defense is so fast and shuts everything down so tightly, that I don’t see Kuyt and Crouchy cracking it. What we need is the pace of Fernando Torres.

Well, at least ManU lost their derby to City today. No points for Alex. That’s what you get for ripping your boss, Sir. With United coming away with none…if Chelsea could be beaten…oh stop dreaming. Wake up!  And I have to say: After watching only 25 minutes: Dirk Kuyt shouldn’t be in the first team.  Really.  He looks slow and lost.  Zero confidence.  And his play on the right is atrocious.  He can’t beat his man deep and he can’t do anything on the cut inside–every posession that reaches him, goes awry.  Perhaps he can be productive in the middle, but Crouchy is there now.  Play another midfielder and let them go forward.  Kuyt should come off.  Caragher has more mojo going up the right wing than this guy.  Oy.  Rafa.  Help. (Of course Kuyt till make an a** of me and score the winner but I’ll take it and eat my words if that is so).

Half Babe Ruth

The Last Thing A Mouse Sees

This is McGonnigle, the cat some years ago.  I was going through the archives for prints for the new art website and came across this.  He is mostly Maine Coon but I have no papers.  The Maine Coon post I did on the rag a year ago, is getting 300 hits per day and drawing comments from all over the world–amazing legs, that post.  So here’s another one.  Gonnicle (as I call him), has a strange property.  Certain whiskers of his grow in different colors.  Sometimes white and then they cut over and turn black and the back to white again.  The largest whisker at the top left in the photo (Gonnicle’s right) exhibits this behavior.

Although he is orange all the way, there are a few black spots inside his mouth.  When he was a kitten and before his stripper mom, who lived in the apartment next door to me, abandoned him, I saw his brother who was completely silver.  I believe that a dame can have a litter of kittens from two (or more) different Toms.  So it’s possible that Gonnicle had a different father than the other cat.  Anyway, now I’m confused.  The point is, his whiskers grow in changing colors–kind of like John McCain’s “Conservatism”–it changes when it’s convienient.  Scientifically, I’m not sure what is going on but I think you would have cells coding for proteins that look white and make up the whisker, and then BAM!, they all switch over to coding for different proteins so that the whisker is then growing out black.  Later on, like McCain, they switch back to white.  Go figure.  Is there a molecular biologist in the house?  Or maybe just Roger Clemens’ lawyers?  They seem to know alot of medical stuff right from the git-go.

In an unrelated note, Curt Schilling’s blog will be renamed this year to 38stitches (I wanted to be the first to get that out there…).  Good luck Curt.  Thanks for the bloody sock and moiderin dose Yanks. 

Joe DiMaggio’s Eyes