Monday, September 26, 2011

Babe Ruth, artillerist

You can't say that he didn't know how to repeatedly launch projectiles on ballistic trajectories.

(Image source)
Yes, that's the Bambino saluting General Pershing.  From Shorpy's:
NEW YORK. May 20, 1924. — Babe Ruth, star slugger of the Yankees, is a soldier now — a buck private. He joined the National Guard of New York today, enlisting with the 104th field artillery for three years. He was sworn in as he stood atop a gun carriage in Times Square. Police reserves had to be called to handle the crowds. The Babe's enlistment was in response to a National Guard membership drive.
I agree with the other commenter:
How many of the self centered millionaire professional athletes of today would even consider enlisting in the Reserves today ?Don't hold your breath.
Babe Ruth was paid $52,000 by the Yankees in 1924 - the average working man made around $1,200 that year.  He hit .378 with 46 home runs that year.

6 comments:

BC said...

damn few:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Tillman

Borepatch said...

Amen, BC. Amen.

ambisinistral said...

I think he was also the first left-handed pitcher to win a World Series game.

Bob said...

Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson also served in WWI, working with poison gas. Mathewson was the victim of a gas accident and developed tuberculosis, which ended his career and later, his life.

Anonymous said...

Pat Tillman is an athlete I respect, and I usually do not respect athletes because they usually do little worthy of respect.

It stinks that Tillman was killed by friendly fire ...

I like your blog because you deal with weapons and internet security, which means you have likely used some of my code that is in Ethereal/Wireshark ...

You are welcome.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, my grandfather was gassed in WWI.

He returned to his country of birth and made it to about 1950. He had 6 children, but my mother, one of his daughters, made a mistake ... choosing the wrong father for me was to reduce her lifespan considerably.