Dancing with Daddy Ruth, Part 3

March 30, 2019 by Woody

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For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” use the PayPal link on my home page or mail a check for $25 to:

Woody Woodburn

400 Roosevelt Court

Ventura, CA 93003

Part 3: Golf, Bowling, Dancing with Daddy Ruth

Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth’s last surviving child, passed away on March 9 at age 102. A decade past, I interviewed Stevens – more accurately, had the great joy of listening to wonderful stories about her “Daddy.” With the Major League season underway, it seems the perfect time to share some of her tales. This is the third in a series of four.

. . .

“I’d go everywhere with Daddy,” Julia Ruth Stevens recounted, noting that the movies were an exception because Ruth was afraid it might hurt his eyesight.

“But we did go to pro football and college games. People would let him watch the game, but at halftime they’d come over and ask for autographs. He’d take me to hockey games. We had great times! I even had fun walking 18 holes on the golf course with him. And we used to go bowling. He taught me and I got pretty good; he was very good – broke 200 quite often.”

Babe Ruth being a “Sultan of Strikes and Spares” isn’t surprising, but this is: “Daddy was a wonderful dancer. He had perfect rhythm. He couldn’t sing, but, oh, how he could dance.

“I remember once, we started dancing and I was leading,” Julia continued, giggling at the memory. “He said, ‘That’s not how you do it – I’ll lead!’ ”

Julia “sparring” with her famous daddy.

Another memory: “Daddy gave me a wristwatch, my very first watch. We were playing on the couch and he was tickling me and I guess I threw my arm back and broke the crystal on the watch.”

Young Julia’s tears welled up but never had a chance to fall: “Daddy said, ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll get you anther one.’ Daddy always showered me with love.”

It was a routine occurrence to have famous ballplayers and musicians at the Ruth household – first on 88th Street and then one block up on 89th Street overlooking the Hudson River in a grand 14-room apartment shared by Babe and wife Claire, Julia and Dorothy, two uncles and a grandmother.

“He loved having people in for dinner, especially ballplayers. That was just normal for me,” Julia recalled.

Normal also was a midnight curfew: “Daddy was very strict. Even into my twenties, I had to be home by twelve o’clock. Daddy would say, ‘There’s nothing to do after midnight.’ ”

She laughed at the irony, quickly adding: “He very well knew that wasn’t true!”

Other things Ruth said did ring true to Julia: “One value Daddy taught me was to be truthful. He hated it when anyone lied. ‘You can’t trust anyone after they have lied to you,’ he said and I’ve always remembered that.

Julia with a painting of the Home Run King.

“He also told me never to look down on anyone – after all, look where he’d come from. He felt strongly about that.”

Recalling her frequent trips to Yankee Stadium, Julia said: “I loved seeing him tip his cap to the fans. I remember that when Daddy came up to bat the sound of the stadium changed – a loud murmur would rise because the fans all wanted to see Daddy connect with one of his tremendous swings that would make the ball soar!”

A pause: “I saw him hit quite a few home runs.”

Longer pause: “Of course, I saw Daddy strike out a lot too!”

There were a lot of both to see: 1,330 career strikeouts and 714 homers.

“I really appreciate what he accomplished a lot more now,” Julia said, “than I did when I was living with him because I thought of him as Daddy. My goodness we had a wonderful relationship.”

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden & Me Kickstarter Front Photo Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …

Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com

‘Daddy’ Ruth Tales, Part 2

March 23, 2019 by Woody

Is your Club or Group looking for an inspiring guest speaker or do you want to host a book signing? . . . Contact Woody today!

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For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” use the PayPal link on my home page or mail a check for $25 to:

Woody Woodburn

400 Roosevelt Court

Ventura, CA 93003

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Babe Ruth was Big Hit with Daughter

Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth’s last surviving child, passed away on March 9 at age 102. A decade past, I interviewed Stevens – more accurately, had the great joy of listening to stories about her “Daddy.” With the Major Leagues season now underway, it seems the perfect time to share some of her tales. This is the second in a series.

“Daddy always rose to the occasion, whether it was hitting the ball out of the park when he said he’d do it or making it to my graduation,” Julia Ruth Stevens told me, with marvel. “When he made a promise, he always came through. You could count on it.”

Never more so than in 1929. That was the year – on Opening Day! – Babe Ruth married his second wife, Claire Hodgson, at Saint Gregory’s Church in New York City. That day’s game was actually rained out, but the next afternoon as a wedding gift, Ruth belted a home run and while rounding third base tipped his cap and blew a kiss to his new bride.

He came through and did something far more remarkable later that year. He not only adopted Julia, but from Day 1 he always made her feel like she was as much his birth daughter as was Dorothy (born during Ruth’s first marriage to Helen Woodford).

“No daughter ever had a more caring and loving natural father than my adoptive father was to me,” shared Julia, who never knew her own birth father. It wasn’t long before Ruth further rose to the occasion to make his adopted daughter feel like a true blood relation.

“When I was a teenager I had a very serious strep throat infection,” Julia shared. “They of course didn’t have penicillin at that time and I wasn’t getting better. The doctor said I needed a blood transfusion to get me on the road to recovery. Daddy immediately wanted to be tested to see if he was compatible – and he was.

“The next thing you know, Daddy was right beside me on a gurney giving me a direct blood transfusion. From that moment on, I always felt like we were blood relatives because I had some of Daddy’s blood in me. I felt like that really made me more his real daughter than ever.”

In truth, Ruth made Julia feel like his real daughter through his daily actions.

“One of my favorite things was when Daddy would go hunting or fishing,” she recalled. “He liked to leave the house by 5 so he would get up really early and stick his head in my bedroom and ask softly, ‘Want to have breakfast with me?’

“I’d always say, ‘Absolutely!’ It was a chance to spend some special time alone with him. It was such fun. I just loved talking to him. We’d go to the kitchen and Daddy would fix ‘The Babe Ruth Special’ – he’d brown a piece of buttered bread in a frying pan and then cut a hole in the middle of it. Then he’d put an egg in the hole and put fried bologna on top. It was his original creation and he loved it.”

While she never went hunting or fishing with her famous father, Julia accompanied him plenty of other places, from annual spring training trips in Florida to a winter all-star tour in Japan to bowling alleys and the boxing gym where he taught his little girl to box.

Recalling a photograph of her playfully landing a right hook to Ruth’s jaw, Julia said, with an exclamation mark after every other word: “We always! Had so! Much fun!”

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com

‘Daddy’ Ruth: Sultan of Sweetness

March 15, 2019March 15, 2019 by Woody

Is your Club or Group looking for an inspiring guest speaker or do you want to host a book signing? . . . Contact Woody today!

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For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” use the PayPal link on my home page or mail a check for $25 to:

Woody Woodburn

400 Roosevelt Court

Ventura, CA 93003

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‘Daddy’ Ruth was Sultan of Sweetness

Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth’s last surviving child, passed away last Saturday at age 102. A decade past, I interviewed Stevens – more accurately, had the great joy of listening to her tell wonderful stories about her father. With Major League Baseball’s Opening Day coming this Wednesday, it seems the perfect time to share some of her tales in this space the next few weeks.

To baseball fans the world round, George Herman “Babe” Ruth was known by a variety of nicknames, from “The Bambino” and “The Sultan of Swat” to “The Colossus of Clout” and “The Wali of Wallop” to “The Maharajah of Mash” and “The Rajah of Rap.”

To a young girl named Julia, however, The Home Run King was known simply as “Daddy.”

“Everywhere we went people worshiped him because he was the famous Babe Ruth,” Julia Ruth Stevens, then 91, told me. “I worshiped him because he was my daddy.”

To the day she died, nine decades after Babe Ruth married Claire Hodgson and adopted her 12-year-old daughter, Julia still affectionately referred to her famous father as “Daddy.”

“We had so much fun together. Daddy couldn’t have been a better father,” Julia said. “Being his daughter, I was the happiest girl in the world!”

Julia with the famous Babe Ruth–just “Daddy” to her.

A trip around the world as her high school graduation present in 1934 was one of Julia’s grandest memories of growing up as Babe Ruth’s daughter. “We went to Japan, India, England, France – I wouldn’t have traded that for anything,” she said.

Her graduation day also provided a memory with a no-trade clause.

“Education was something Daddy really stressed to me. He always regretted the fact that he hadn’t had a real education,” Julia said, explaining that at the Saint Mary’s Industrial Reform School For Boys where Ruth stayed at from age 7 to 19, he had been put to work in a shirt factory at age 12 – ironically the same age Julia was when Ruth adopted her. “So he always promised me he’d be there on my graduation day.”

This was easier said than done because when the big day arrived the New York Yankees were on a road trip in St. Louis.

“Ballplayers weren’t supposed to fly back then because it was thought to be too dangerous.” Julia recounted. “But that was the only way he could get to New York in time, so Daddy flew back anyway. When we got to the airport to pick him up we were told his flight was running two hours late. Graduation was at 1 o’clock and I had to go home and get dressed. The ceremony started without him and Mother arriving.”

Julia paused, warmed by the recollection, and added: “I never doubted he’d make it because Daddy always kept his promises to me.”

Sure enough, before the name “Julia Ruth” was called to receive her diploma a soft buzz began to fill the auditorium.

“I was sitting in the front row and without turning around I knew Daddy was here,” Julia recalled, a lilt in her voice. “When I turned and looked, there he was walking into the back of the room with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me. I was so happy to see him. He had kept his promise, just as I knew he would. It was absolutely wonderful.”

A similar “absolutely wonderful” occasion was her wedding day when, honoring the bride’s request, Babe Ruth came dressed to the nines in a formal morning suit.

“Daddy walking me down the aisle was one of my proudest moments I’ve ever had,” said Julia, who was then 23.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com

He Types Out A Memorable Story

March 9, 2019 by Woody

Is your Club or Group looking for an inspiring guest speaker or do you want to host a book signing? . . . Contact Woody today!

* * *

For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” use the PayPal link on my home page or mail a check for $25 to:

Woody Woodburn

400 Roosevelt Court

Ventura, CA 93003

Typing Out A Memorable Story

Bob Fitch has been married 62 years and in addition to Mo – “most people struggle with Moira, a Scottish name” the husband points out – he loves, to a far lesser degree of course, HO gauge model trains, baseball and typewriters.

In an email, the longtime Thousand Oaks resident shared memories of the latter two, beginning with a high school typing class that changed his life.

“Our teacher, Emma Wrangler, used records to build our speed,” Bob points out. “One I recall most was ‘Tea for Two.’ In my mind’s eye, I can still see her taking the 78-rpm record out of the paper sleeve, putting it on the turntable and setting the needle arm on the record. Then, ‘Ready, Begin.’

“I did well and for high school graduation my grandfather gave me a Remington portable, which I took to college at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. I typed theme papers for other students at 25 cents a page and made some spending money.

“And my speed continued to build. When I reported for basic training at Ft. Dix, NJ, in July 1957, after the busses emptied our incoming class, we were assembled on the parade grounds about midnight.

“The 1st Sergeant yelled out, ‘Who can type?’ Up shot my hand with one other guy. We were told to take our gear to the company HQ dayroom. We typed all night in our ‘civvies’ doing the induction paper work for the rest of the guys.

“When Sgt. Fuentes saw how fast we were processing the men, we were told: ‘You guys are too valuable and your time here will be spent working in my dayroom. When you type duty rosters, i.e. guard duty, KP, etc., leave your names off.’

“The other guy, Steve Gelman, was a sportswriter for ‘Sport Magazine’ and he was a whiz-bang typist from typing all his stories. We hit it off well. We had a great deal and we knew it!

“We spent our entire six months of active duty making Sgt. Fuentes look good with no strikeover morning reports, no misspelling, etc. He was commended by the Commanding Officer for his outstanding paper work. He always thanked us for what we did for him. I’m forever thankful for that typing class. He always took us to the mess hall with him for coffee in the morning. He knew, too, he had a good deal!

“When our class cycled out after eight weeks of basic, in came another group of recruits and Steve and I did ‘our thing.’

Here, at last, comes the baseball memory of two Hall of Fame pitchers and a star second baseman for the Dodgers.

“My claim to fame,” Bob continued, “is that I typed the paperwork for

Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax and Charlie Neal when they were called to Army duty.

“We each sat behind a beat-up wooden desk with our typewriter before us and there was a chair at the side of the desk where the individual sat. We would say, ‘Last name, first name,’ etc. as we tabbed to the blanks on the forms.

“Never looking up, I said, ‘Last name.’ I heard ‘Drysdale.’ ‘First name’ – ‘Donald.’

“I was a huge baseball fan and here I am sitting next to one of the best of that time! Two of the questions asked were, ‘Occupation’ and ‘Salary.’ Both Drysdale and Koufax said ‘baseball pitcher’ and ‘$10,000.’ I always admired them for not trying to avoid service time.”

And this email postscript: “I really had fun TYPING this – all that was missing was the clatter and hitting the return bar!”

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com

Hooray, “Read Across America Day”!

March 2, 2019 by Woody

Is your Club or Group looking for an inspiring guest speaker or do you want to host a book signing? . . . Contact Woody today!

* * *

For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” use the PayPal link on my home page or mail a check for $25 to:

Woody Woodburn

400 Roosevelt Court

Ventura, CA 93003

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Hip Hooray, “Read Across America Day”!

Moms and pops, girls and boys! I yell / Let’s honor Mr. Theodor Geisel

Born long ago on this very date / As Dr. Seuss he was beyond great

Even if you are no book lover / Turn the pages inside a cover

Nationwide in libraries, I say / It’s “Read Across America Day”!

While a memorable opening sentence – think Charles Dickens’ “It was the best of time, it was the worst of times…” in A Tale of Two Cities – can hook a reader, I thought it would be fun to flip to the final pages and share some terrific ending sentences. Here goes . . .

“But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.” – The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

“ ‘Have a carrot,’ said the mother bunny.” – The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown

“The scar had not pained Harry for 19 years. All was well.” – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

“But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.” – The World According to Garp by John Irving

“Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!” – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

“I’m so glad to be home again.” – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

“ ‘I guess, said he at last, ‘that I’m not so smart as I thought I was, and I’ve got a lot to learn yet.’ ” – The Adventures of Buster Bear by Thornton W. Burgess

“And it was still hot.” – Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

“Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds.” – The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

“After all, tomorrow is another day.” – Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

“And in the Provincelands, treasures still lie.” – Fog by Ken McAlpine

“ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Isn’t it pretty to think so?” The Sun Also Rises by Earnest Hemingway

“The old man was dreaming about the lions.” – The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway

“He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.” – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

“I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

“But the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction.” – Stuart Little by E.B. White

“He loved Big Brother.” — 1984 by George Orwell

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.” – The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

“Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere.” – Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

“Carol,” he said softly, “you sparkle in that gray dress.” – Woman, Running Late, In A Dress by Dallas Woodburn

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.” – Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

“Should we tell her about it?/ Now, what should we do? Well… What would you do / If your mother asked you?” – The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com

WOODY WOODBURN

Writer, "Streaker" & Speaker

Monthly Archives: March 2019

Dancing with Daddy Ruth, Part 3

‘Daddy’ Ruth Tales, Part 2

‘Daddy’ Ruth: Sultan of Sweetness

He Types Out A Memorable Story

Hooray, “Read Across America Day”!