Opening Day. It’s one of spring’s most cherished traditions, and the sort of thing that can conjure a childlike twinkle in all our eyes. Remember the Babe? Charlie Hustle? Joltin Joe? Opening day brings us back to a different, more innocent time. On opening day, we’re all kids again.
Happy Opening Day! May You Play Like The Whore-Loving Heroes Of Yore
↵And right on cue over at Slate, they’ve done some digging to compare a few of the children’s books on baseball heroes to their adult counterparts. You can see Slate’s slideshow here, and below, a few eye-opening excerpts.
↵Babe Ruth, for kids:
↵↵The Bambino loved driving low-slung convertibles, donning silk shirts and coonskin coats, and downing huge meals. … When he went out on the town, he was a big spender. … Babe liked to stay out late partying, too.
↵—Home Run, by Robert Burleigh (no page numbers)
↵↵Babe Ruth, for adults:
↵↵In a St. Louis whorehouse he announced he was going to bed with every girl in the house during the night, and did, and after finishing his rounds sat down and had a huge breakfast.
↵—Babe: The Legend Comes To Life, by Robert W. Creamer, Page 320
↵↵Pete Rose, for kids:
↵↵“Running is the most natural thing in the world for me,” explained Rose. “I guess I was born with all this nervous energy.”
↵—Pete Rose, by Bob Rubin, Pages 16-17
↵↵Pete Rose, for adults:
↵↵“You wonder where he got all the energy,” says Jim O’Toole, Rose’s teammate on the Reds until 1966. [...] It was (amphetamines), which is about the only thing guys took back then.”
↵—Hustle: The Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose, by Michael Sokolove, Pages 78-80
↵↵Pretty funny stuff. For more on Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, and Joe Dimaggio, click here.
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