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Curse of the Bambina?: And we thought Babe Ruth's only
connection to BU was his playing days at both ends of what would eventually
be the University's Charles River Campus: At Fenway Park when he played
for the Red Sox from 1914 to 1919, and then at Braves Field (now BU's
Nickerson Field) for the Boston Braves in 1935. Ruth used to stay in
Suite 818 at the Myles Standish Hotel (the University's Myles Standish
Hall today) when he was with the Sox because he liked the view of the
river.
Another Ruthian association with Boston University exists, however. It
seems that BU possesses the only picture of the Babe in a dress.
The photo came from BU's Special Collects in 1994 from CAS professor
Emeritus Dean Edmonds, a member of the Friends of the Libraries at Boston
University, who has given the University his mother's collection of 150
books by and about French philosopher and mathematician Blaine Pascal.
Clowning around with Ruth in the early 1920s photo is Oscar Nickerson,
the grandfather of Edmond's wife, while on vacation at Pleasant Bay, near
Orleans on Cape Cod. One can only speculate about why the Babe is all dolled
up.
Perhaps publishing such a photo can put an end to the Babe Ruth curse that
supposedly haunts the Red Sox, who haven't won a World Series since they
sold him to the Yankees in 1920. Indeed, timing is everything. The fact
that the Sox are playing their home opener on April 11 against Baltimore,
the birthplace of Ruth — combined with the surfacing of a picture
of the Babe truly earning his nickname — might just realign cosmic
forces enough to reverse the curse and bring Boston its first baseball
championship since 1918.
4
April 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations