~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
April 27, 2011

I had only one superstition. I made sure to touch all the bases when I hit a home run. Babe Ruth

~★ Can you guess what three things we are celebrating today?

This story is about a famous ball player whose real name was George Herman Ruth Jr., and how he got his nick name . . .

When George was little, his parents worked long hours running a bar, and he was left on his own a lot, and soon began getting into trouble. So when George was only seven years old, his parents sent their incorrigible son to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. George lived at this reformatory school until he was 19 years old, and it was at St. Mary’s that George learned to play the game of baseball. When George was about 19, he drew the eyes of minor league recruiter Jack Dunn. Jack liked the way George pitched, and so he bought him a prime rib dinner and signed him to the Baltimore Orioles for $600. George was ecstatic about getting paid to play the game he loved.

When George joined the Orioles, he was very excited but also very nervous because he hadn’t really lived outside of St. Mary’s School since he was seven. In the first weeks with the team, George didn’t know what to do with himself when he wasn’t playing baseball, and his social skills were clearly undeveloped, since he had been used to always following the orders given by the monks at St. Mary’s. Also, his only friends had been some of the other boys at St. Mary’s. So, George looked to his manager, Jack Dunn, for his new “orders” and followed him around everywhere. The other players thought this was very funny, and they’d say, “There’s Jack with his newest babe.”

The infamous nick name “Babe” stuck, and along the way the nick names “The Great Bambino” and “The Sultan of Swat” were added. Babe Ruth became a baseball superstar.

The end

Today we are celebrating: National Tell-a-Story Day, Babe Ruth and Prime Rib!

★~ Today in History:

♥~1947 – Organized baseball celebrated Babe Ruth Day. Major-league parks throughout the U.S. and Japan participated. A crowd of 60,000 fans honored their hero in ceremonies at Yankee Stadium in New York City. Ruth, who was dying of throat cancer, managed to put in an appearance to thank his former club.

♥~ 1971-The Grateful Dead appeared at the Fillmore East in New York City. The Beach Boys also appeared on stage with the Dead, who together performed a short set of Beach Boys songs.

♥~ 1975– chart topper: (Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song – – B.J. Thomas

♥~ 1981 – Former Beatle Ringo Starr married Barbara Bach at the Marylebone Registry Office in London. Paul McCartney and wife Linda, George Harrison and Harry Nilsson were in attendance.

♥~ 2001 – The U.S. National Arbor Day Foundation announced that the oak tree was nominated as the national tree a sanctioned voting process. (In 2005, an act of Congress made the oak tree the official tree of the U.S.)

★~Born Today:

♥~1791 – Samuel F.B. (Finley Breese) Morse inventor: electromagnetic telegraph: 1st telegraph message: “What hath God wrought?”; died Apr 2, 1872

♥~ 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant 18th U.S. President [1869-1877]; married to Julia Dent [three sons, one daughter]; Lt. General in command of all Union armies during U.S. Civil War; nickname: Hero of Appomattox; died July 23, 1885

♥~ 1900 – Walter Lantz Academy Award-winning animator: creator of Woody Woodpecker; Lantz’ Woody Woodpecker made his first appearance in the 1940 film, Knock, Knock. He became so popular that his wacky laugh and taunting ways were celebrated in The Woody Woodpecker Song.

♥~ 1922 – Jack Klugman Emmy Award-winning actor: The Defenders: Blacklist [1963-1964], The Odd Couple [1970-1971, 1972-1973]; Quincy, M.E., Twelve Angry Men, Days of Wine and Roses, Goodbye Columbus

♥~ 1931 – Robert Donner actor: Mork and Mindy, Cool Hand Luke, El Dorado, High Plains Drifter, Vanishing Point, Fools Parade, Chisum, Last Hard Men, Damnation Alley, Bite the Bullet, Under the Rainbow, TV: Charlie’s Angels, McCloud, Columbo, How the West Was Won, The Incredible Hulk, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, Eight is Enough; appeared in some 120 film and TV roles; died June 8, 2006

♥~ 1951 – Paul Daniel ‘Ace’ Frehley musician: group: Kiss [the spaceman]: Rock and Roll All Nite, Beth, Forever and I Was Made for Lovin’ You; formed Frehley’s Comet

♥~ 1959 – Sheena Easton (Sheena Shirley Orr) singer: Modern Girl, Morning Train, One Man Woman, When He Shines, For Your Eyes Only, We Got Tonight, Strut, Sugar Walls

★~ Did You Know: Babe Ruth batted, caught and pitched left-handed.

♥~ Babe Ruth was one of only two people to ever hit three home runs in a World Series game

♥~ Babe Ruth kept a lettuce leaf under his hat to keep cool during a game.

♥~ In the winter of 1919 the Red Sox sold Ruth to the New York Yankees. The Sox wouldn’t win another World Series until 2004. This championship drought is often attributed to “The Curse of the Bambino.”

♥~ Ruth ranks third on the all-time home run list with 714. His career slugging percentage of .690 has never been equaled. He amassed 2873 hits and 2213 RBI during his career, numbers that bring a some fact to a legendary figure

♥~ One of the most famous stories about Babe Ruth involves a home run and a boy in the hospital. In 1926, Babe Ruth heard about an 11-year-old boy named Johnny Sylvester who was in the hospital after having an accident. The doctors weren’t sure if Johnny was going to live. Babe Ruth promised to hit a home run for Johnny. In the next game, Babe not only hit one home run, he hit three. Johnny, upon hearing the news of Babe’s home runs, started to feel better. Babe later went to the hospital and visited Johnny in person.

A man walks into a bar with a dog. The bartender says, “You can’t bring that dog in here.”

“You don’t understand,” says the man. “This is no regular dog, he can talk.”

“Listen, pal,” says the bartender. “If that dog can talk, I’ll give you a hundred bucks.”

The man puts the dog on a stool, and asks him, “What’s on top of a house?”

“Roof!”

“Right. And what’s on the outside of a tree?”

“Bark!”

“And who’s the greatest baseball player of all time?”

“Ruth!”

“I guess you’ve heard enough,” says the man. “I’ll take the hundred in twenties.”

The bartender is furious. “Listen, pal,” he says, “get out of here before I belt you.”

As soon as they’re on the street, the dog turns to the man and says, “Do you think I should have said ‘DiMaggio’?

 

Chicago as you may know is a big baseball city. In one city we have two teams: the Cubs and the White Sox.

I know very little about the game of baseball but I do like peanuts, Cracker Jacks, hot dogs, and Coke and I can sing all the words to “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”

Joe always thought it was cool that Cole could very possibly see every Chicago sports team win a championship. We have the Bulls, Hawks, and White Sox covered, and he also saw a Chicagoan win a Presidential election, which is also a kind of sport.

Because I don’t want El Morno to run on forever, click here and eavesdrop on a conversation between Chicago White Sox fans and Chicago Cubs fans.

Are you a baseball fan or are you a fan like me? It’s all about the hot dog.

♥

Kb