What is it with this pot-bellied, moon-faced guy Babe Ruth? What makes him remembered so vividly to this day? It was summed up best by an old teammate reminiscing years ago about the Babe. "He was a constant source of joy," the old man said.
How a rare image of Babe Ruth landed in a Martha's Vineyard art gallery is less a tale of the enduring game of baseball and more the story of the enduring mystery of friendship.
The moment captured on an old negative froze time on a warm March day in 1936, when The Babe cracked a long tee shot at the Bobby Jones Country Club in Sarasota, Florida. His swing was magnificent, effortless in driving the ball out of sight, all eyes fixed on the frame of the man who saved the national pastime.
The game that morning was golf. But when Babe Ruth did anything - whack one into the Yankee Stadium bleachers, wolf a dozen hot dogs, or whisper a goodbye to baseball, his throat already seized with cancer - he was the center of the universe.
And so The Babe in his magic way has become the center of the universe for two Louisiana friends. While on the Vineyard earlier this month, the pair forged new friendships, built their first snowmen, and ate a Godzilla of a lobster.
Their island itinerary, however, was put in motion a long, long time ago. No one definitively knows the name of the photographer who clicked the shutter back in 1936 in same month Nazi troops occupied the Rhineland.
But the image hid in an envelope with other Ruth negatives in a box in shed on the outskirts of Sarasota, Florida until the spring of 1985. Marty Gueli, a handyman working his way through college, cleaned out the shed for a widow for $20. She was adamant. Keep what you want. Off to the dump with rest.
Save for the envelope, the rest went to some landfill. Marty's gut knew the negatives were precious. But his first thought was not commerce, but his lifelong friend Randy Gillis, a former officer in the US Army, back from Germany, whose love of baseball was eclipsed only by his love of country. Marty plotted. At the right time, The Babe would be Randy's.
The right time was Randy and wife Tammy's wedding day in Oklahoma in 1986, at which Marty stood aside him as best man. Again the image of Babe Ruth found dark seclusion.
“I just put the package away and really never considered doing anything with Marty's gift, except save it for my son, because I wanted to someday give him something of value,” says Randy, who now lives in Springhill, Louisiana. “I'm just a plumber, I knew I would never make a fortune to leave for my son. But I could leave him the great Babe Ruth.”
In 2004, shortly after the Red Sox won the World Series and broke Babe Ruth's 86-year “curse,” Randy answered a cold call to do some plumbing at the home of Kerry Easley, a registered nurse and part-time photographer. The talk soon turned to baseball and inevitably, the negatives of The Babe.
“They were large format, degrading rapidly, I could see that,” says Kerry, “But the image, that swing, just like one of his tape measure homeruns, it stunned me.”
That was Kerry Easley's St. Paul on the way to Damascus moment, an epiphany. He soon resigned from his nursing position, bought an ensemble of fine art printing equipment and a vintage art gallery in his hometown of Minden, Louisiana. All with the singular notion of making the images of a long dead Babe Ruth give new life to a new enterprise. In short, Kerry and Randy bet the farm on The Babe.
“We were able make the finished image sharp, clear and crisp with digital technology,” says Kerry. “And as far as we know, this is the one and only photograph of Babe Ruth playing golf with this kind of authentic action. It's not posed.”
Here's where I come in. In his search to identify the onlookers in the photograph, Kerry contacted me. As the editor of Hall of Fame Magazine.com, an on-line publication serving the hall of fame industry, I was able to get the picture to baseball scholars in Cooperstown and renowned Babe Ruth biographer, Robert Creamer.
Certainly among the crowd was Sam Byrd, “Babe Ruth's Legs,” a lightning fast utility player who often pinch ran for Ruth in late innings. Ruth taught Bird the game of golf, and he went on to win several major tournaments. Possibly among the spectators is Ty Cobb, who often played with Ruth in the 1930s.
Around Christmas, Kerry proposed that he and Randy come north to show the photograph to sports aficionados and art collectors. Their plan was to print 714 in a series of three sizes, in homage to the lifetime home run record Babe Ruth held for so many decades.
"Psychologists say we like heroes because of the vicarious satisfaction they give us," says Babe Ruth biographer, Robert Creamer, "People living 70, 80 or 90 years ago felt Ruth's home runs, were thrilled by them, reveled in them, marveled at their height and distance and number, their timing, their drama."
And 72 years later, we still get those same thrills from one of Babe's tee shots. When Carnegie Abbey Club general manager Stephen Downes first gazed at the print he immediately saw the trifecta of baseball, golf and history rolled into a single image.
"When we found out about the Sultan of Swing photograph we were instantly excited and inquired about having one to hang in our Pro Shop," says Downes. "With so many Red Sox and Yankee fans as members, Babe makes for a wonderful conversation piece. No matter which team you root for, the photograph is an instant classic and has already drawn the interest of many members."
Kerry and Randy donated one of the rare prints to the Ann Liguori Foundation Golf Classic, a prestigious charity tournament and auction scheduled for October 6th, 2008 at The Maidstone Club in East Hampton, New York.
I was tickled to help. But long after the last print is sold, I will remember more the grins of my new southern friends when the West Chop foghorn wailed. Or them burning their mouths on lobster chowder from Larsen's at closing time. I will always hear them singing out loud with the kids's choir at Our Lady Star of the Sea on snowing Sunday. Whenever they telephone, they call me "home skillet" in that comforting southern accent.
The grand print of The Babe now wows the pro-shop at the Carnegie Abby Golf Club near Newport, Rhode Island. Sherm Goldstein has one at the Mansion House Hotel. And Chris Morse, owner of the Granary, Gardner-Colby, and Field Galleries, saw the trifecta of baseball, golf and art. He bought one for the gallery on the spot.
“Here's an iconic American playing an iconic game, it just draws you in to look at it,” says Chris.
So Babe Ruth takes his place in a Martha's Vineyard gallery. The man who saved baseball. Against whose power hitting all records are tested and measured.
Even those that measure and test friendship.
Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the Vineyard Gazette on February 16th. The Minden Herald Press reprints it with permission from the author.
January 21, 2008
The Sultan of Swing- Babe Ruth
1st Tee at the Bobby Jones golf course
Sarasota, Florida
Circa 1936
The Sultan of Swat is now the Sultan of Swing. What I mean by that is George Herman Ruth AKA “Babe” is one of our nation's greatest heroes of baseball, sometimes referred to as the Sultan of Swat. But he could possibly be one of our great heroes of golf, “The Sultan of Swing." Easley Fine Art & Custom Framing is premiering a new, never-before-seen photograph of Babe Ruth taking a tee shot at the Bobby Jones Golf Course in Sarasota, Florida.
As the story goes …… A few years ago a friend of mine, Randy Gillis, came to me with an idea. Randy presented me with beautiful original picture of Babe Ruth taking a t-shot in full follow-through. Randy went on to tell me how he got the picture. As it turns out, his friend Marty from Sarasota, Florida was tearing down the garage of an elderly lady's house. It was at that time he ran across boxes of old photos and negatives. Marty knew that Randy loved Babe and decided to give him the pictures as a wedding gift - and that was some 20-odd years ago.
Three years ago Randy approached me with an idea. We tossed it around and decided to go in 50/50 on a marketing plan. The image was very nice and quite remarkable because I don't ever recall seeing Babe play golf. I suppose I knew he played, but had never seen a picture. The print was good for its age, but not perfect. There was a ghost-like aura around the lower part of the picture making Babe's legs look a tad blurry. We asked Marty if he could come up with the negative, and he did. The negative was in generally good shape with some small blemishes - but the picture itself was crystal clear. We scanned the negative at high-resolution to create an outstanding image, and then did the photo restoration with state-of-the-art software to take out the blemishes. The final result is a breathtaking image of "the Babe" that is better in quality (resolution/clarity) than anything that has ever been previously reproduced or offered! Randy had the confidence in my communication and marketing skills and wanted to see if we could sell the idea. After many e-mails and late hours in production we arrived with a beautiful Limited Edition Photo Print.
We have a contract with the family of Babe Ruth c/o CMG Worldwide to produce 714 framed pictures of Babe Ruth, “The Sultan of Swing,” in three different sizes. These photos were printed with an Epson Stylus Pro 9800 inkjet printer on Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper, matted in archival fashion with all Acid-Free material framed in an upscale deco style frame molding. The framed art pieces are 10 X 13, 16 X 20 and 23 X 29 and are listed at $500, $1500, and $2500 respectively.
Kerry Easley, Owner Easley Fine Art & Custom Framing
Certainly among the crowd was Sam Byrd, “Babe Ruth's Legs,” a lightning fast utility player who often pinch ran for Ruth in late innings. Ruth taught Bird the game of golf, and he went on to win several major tournaments. Possibly among the spectators is Ty Cobb, who often played with Ruth in the 1930s.