PHOTOS
Mike Garvey
Editor's note: This story originally appeared in the June 24, 2007 edition of the Citizens' Voice.
Linda Tosetti stood about where the ball landed, by the track in Kirby Park, and honestly could not believe her grandfather hit it that far. She looked back to home plate at Artillery Park and exclaimed, "Oh my word."
It was, she said, a Ruthian blast.
If anyone would know, it would be Tosetti, the granddaughter of Babe Ruth - a walking descendant of perhaps the greatest baseball player ever.
Tosetti was visiting on June 23, 2007 to see where her grandfather hit his longest home run ever during an exhibition game after the 1926 World Series. The shot was documented by author and baseball historian Bill Jenkinson for his book,
The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs: Recrowning Baseball's Greatest Slugger.
He consulted accounts of the game, and the memory of Joe Gibbons - then just a kid, and now 91 years old.
"He could really hit a baseball," Gibbons said. "Every time he hit a fly ball, he hit it a long way."
This one the longest, 605 feet at Jenkinson's best estimation.
Jenkinson said Ruth hit one in the World Series that measured 530 feet, and when asked to compare the home runs, Ruth said he hit the one in Wilkes-Barre a lot farther.
"Superhuman," Jenkinson said. "I don't know how it's possible. I really don't."
Common sense dictates that no one could hit a ball that far. No player since, with all the advances in the game, has hit one that far.
Tosetti is always refreshed by the endless supply of anecdotes and memories that built the her grandfather's legend. She sees the famous pictures, black-and-white candids of a man she never met - she was born in 1954, six years after Ruth died.
Tosetti, who lives in Durham, Conn., wore a shirt with some of those photographs on it, one of which stood out prominently.
It showed Babe Ruth with his daughter, Dorothy, and the resemblance was clear. Tosetti has the same features, too - the soft, round face, with eyes and mouth that slightly slope downward. Again, the resemblance is clear.
"I didn't hit the ball. I'm a girl in the man's baseball world," Tosetti said. "But when they look at me, they see him. I'm a touchstone. I'm that much closer to the man."
The home run became secondary to the rest of Tosetti's visit to Wilkes-Barre. People take any opportunity to get as close to Babe Ruth as possible and Tosetti's visit provides that opportunity.
"People still want to know him," Tosetti said. "And it's because not just for his playing ability, it was his interaction with his fans. He'd clown with the fans, he was a nice guy."
The most telltale instance came when Jenkinson ushered everyone to where Ruth hit the ball more than 80 years ago. Four kids were playing on a sandlot near that spot, and wondered what everyone was doing.
Jenkinson's wife mentioned that the woman in the Yankees jacket was Babe Ruth's granddaughter. One of the kids couldn't believe it, and asked if she was telling the truth.
Really? Babe Ruth's granddaughter?
Almost immediately he called to his friends, and they wanted to meet her. She signed their bats and shook their hands. It was almost like The Babe himself came to Wilkes-Barre, like he used to do often in the early 20th century to play baseball, hunt and fish.
Tosetti never hit a home run in her life, but for just a little while, those kids and fans got to know a little about The Babe.
"He's not forgotten, but certainly he's remembered here today, now," Tosetti said.