The Pecan Park Eagle

Babe Ruth, Middle, Back Row
In a much later year at St. Mary’s from his 1902 start.

____________________

July 4, 1902: At. St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys

Baltimore, Maryland

“At St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, music and outdoor sports enlivened the day. The celebration began at 9 A.M. with a medley of national airs by the school band. The St. Mary’s Stars defeated the Severns at baseball by a score of 14 to 18, and in the afternoon the Stars defeated the Connells by a score of 17 to 16. Refreshments were served in the afternoon and there was a display of fireworks at night.”

~ The Baltimore Sun, July 5, 1902.

____________________

George Herman Ruth was only 7-years old when his father delivered him to St. Mary’s  on June 13, 1902, but his big-for-his-age physical size didn’t keep him from crying over the fact that he now was about to be separated from his saloon-keeper father, essentially, forever. Whether he arrived early enough at St. Mary’s to have played in either of the two 4th of July 1902 games referenced so generally in the aforementioned Baltimore Sun short piece isn’t easily checked further tonight, but, as we all know by now – when he did – that it would start to move him toward the biggest change that his life – and the game of baseball would ever see.

If July 4, 1902 really and truly were Babe Ruth’s first breakout doubleheader game day in childhood, wouldn’t you have loved to have worm-holed your way back in time to watch that one? And I would have been most happy to have joined you too.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas