I have always been a Yankees fan in some degree or another. My dad took me to my first game with field box seats in 1978. The memory is strong. They gave out team yearbooks that night and I still have mine in mint condition. So over the years I have been to a lot Yankees games, playoff games and a World Series victory parade. I have a particular fondness for the history and legacy of the team. It is quite a story, as a baseball and history fan. The legends of the baseball begin and end with the Yankees. It is undeniable whether you love or hate them.
A client of mine is born and bred NYC native and hardcore Yanks fan. I have always enjoyed discussing it with him; the trades, the great plays, players and the history. He is a full season ticket holder. His office is littered with Yankees items. Hanging in his conference room is what I think is the best item. It is a photograph of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig on the back of a small fishing boat. They are out at sea and both smiling. A boy leans on the rail of the boat looking on. They are both also holding their poles up with fish on them out of the water. Lou has one fish and Babe of course has two fish on his line. From a historical point of view about the players and the men they were, this is the statement the photograph makes to me: Babe clearly the flashier, bold one and Lou no slouch but a little more humble with only one fish. It always makes me smile and shake my head when I see it. I have asked my client where he found the print. He never seems to give me a straight answer. I have asked him several times and I finally gave up pursuing it with him. I did some research based on the name on the name of the company stamped on the print. I never got a response from the company. I have found no record of the print other then with my client.
Several years ago I went to Cooperstown, to the Baseball Hall of Fame. On weekdays, you can dig into the archives in the basement. You give them a subject; they come back with boxes of photos on your subject. You sit at long tables, put on white cotton gloves and go through the endless supply of donated photos given by people, newspapers, photographers etc… I searched all photo with Lou and Babe together. I sat for hours looking at items with the two. I had no idea they barnstormed with each other, each having their own team playing exhibition games in small farm towns. It was clearly neat stuff to search through. After a while I saw it. There was Babe and Lou on the dock in fishing outfits and the boy standing near the tied up boat. As I turned over each photo, it got better: Them getting on the boat, them fishing, and them getting off the boat. Wait…I backed up looking through the pictures. Five or six pictures, but where was the one of the two of them on holding the fish? It was not there. Whoever donated these pictures pulled that one out and sold it. I was frustrated. I searched the rest of the boxes, but no sign of it. I went to every shop in collectible shop in Cooperstown and no one had it or knew what I was talking about it.
A few years later I had a desire to own a VW convertible Beetle. The only thing I ever purchased on EBay is a 74 Super Beetle convertible. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw the picture. She is green and looks like a little piece of candy when she goes by. I could not resist. The downside was I had to drive just over the New Hampshire border to get her. My brother agreed to drive with me and retrieve the classic car. We drove up and stayed over and the next morning I purchased Delores. Yes Delores. That is what I named her. Just came to me when I sat in her the first time. Don’t ask.
I had this idea that I could just drive her back to New Jersey with my brother following me. The previous owners assured me she ran great. I was very excited. So Pat and I started off. We were driving about 30 minutes when she began to lose power on the interstate in Massachusetts. I managed to get it to the next exit then towed to a repair shop. It was a Saturday and they were about to close in the afternoon. I was beside myself. I should have just towed her back initially but did not really think it through. So the guys at the shop tried to get her started with no luck. The owner of the shop and I discussed options as clearly I was not driving my little piece of candy back to New Jersey.
I was sitting in his desk chair in his office while he was making arrangements to have her put on a flat bed and shipped to my house. My brother was out talking to the guys at my car. I was just sitting in his office. Frustrated, pissed, and very down about what a moron I had been about this whole thing. So here I sit in this small town, quiet in this office very upset. I started looking around. We were an hour from Boston if that. The whole office was cover in photos from floor to ceiling. All Red Sox stuff. It didn’t really surprise me. I was sort of going around the room taking it all in, trying to calm down.
Then my eye catches it. You have to be shitting me. Son of a bitch, there it is. He has the fishing picture of Babe, Lou and the boy on the back of the boat! Among all this Red Sox history is the photo I have been hunting. I just sat there still, now thinking, what a perfect end to a perfect day. A Red Sox fan has the prize I have been desperately searching for. It was not a good beginning for Delores and I. After seeing the picture I wondered if this was an omen about relationship with her.
I still have not found the photograph anywhere else and Delores and I although have some rocky moments but have settled into a good relationship. Someday I know I will find Babe and Lou, and drive them home in the back seat with the top down.
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