Quote:
Originally Posted by jingram058
Folks, you just can't explain away or revise or re-write history, or say something is exaggerated, just because you don't like it or disagree or think things have evolved into something you think just has to be better or whatever. Some things just are what they are. Accept it. Deal with it. Ruth was and is bigger than life, even now decades after his death. This photo shows him signing a huge pile of baseballs. Name another ballplayer or athlete or anyone for that matter in a setting that even approaches this. He did this on a daily basis, even on playing days after eating 26 hot dogs washed down with 2 pitchers of beer, for 28 years. He took pleasure in doing it. The people (plural) who knew him say it is so - his wife, his daughters, his inner circle of friends. His manager (agent) Christy Walsh not only said it was so, he also said Ruth hired (for pay) an army of people to mail out the colossal number of signed baseballs (and all the other stuff) back to the fans who either sent things to be signed or just asked for an autograph. He didn't ask for compensation for doing it. Accept it, deal with it. He did everything he did in life far beyond what anyone else did, or even could do, because he was Babe Ruth.
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It is certainly a great photo, and I have no doubt that the stories about him signing insanely large amounts of baseballs with regularity are true, and that he did it simply for the love of the game and the appreciation he had for the fans that allowed him to be the larger than life figure he became. As a mathematician, I may quibble about specific numbers for a "fun" debate, but ultimately the numbers themselves don't really matter. It's the story of Ruth and the passing along of history over the generations, and the pieces of memorabilia themselves that make collecting so much fun. I love seeing all these old photos and oddball collectibles that people come up with.