Babe Ruth: The Sultan of Swing

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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 came in. In his search to identify the onlookers in the photograph, Kerry wrote to me. With some of the contacts I had made at the Baseball Hall of Fame, I was able to get the picture to baseball scholars in Cooperstown and before the eyes of renowned Babe Ruth biographer, Robert Creamer. For me, seeing that picture for the first time was a little like stumbling upon a baseball card collector's Holy Grail, a 1952 Mickey Mantle. It froze me just the way The Babe was frozen in that moment.

Carnegie Abbey Club GM Stephen Downes and the Babe.

Certainly among the crowd watching Babe was Sam Byrd, "Babe Ruth's Legs," a lightning fast utility player who often pinch ran for Ruth in late innings. Ruth taught Byrd 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 fine 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.

But long after the last coveted print is gone, I will remember more the grins and accents of my new southern friends at the wail of a foghorn on the New England coast and their sighs at the taste of their first lobster chowder. I will always hear them singing out loud with the kids' choir at a small seaside church on a snowing Sunday. How can I forget their little kid glee when they rolled up the first snowmen of their lives and sent cell phone pictures to their own children?

So Babe Ruth takes his place on cherished walls in fine country clubs, private homes and art galleries. The man who saved baseball. Against whose power hitting all records are tested and measured.

Even those that measure and test friendship, new and old.