This past Saturday we played in the Babe Ruth Classic held at Cardinal Gibbons HS in Baltimore. I didn't know until I got there that Cardinal Gibbons used to be called "St. Mary's School" and it is where Babe Ruth went to school! What was really a thrill for me was learning that Babe Ruth had actually played on that same field! That was really awesome!

That school is beautiful with the stone buildings and the grounds look very much like a college campus. It was a great experience for sure.

I was wondering if anyone had any further information or insight relative to that field/school that they could share. I really enjoy the history of the game and its traditions, so that experience had special value to me.

sjph,

Playing there a few summers ago, one of the parents told me that one or more of the original buildings had burned down and that Babe himself donated the money for reconstruction!

Try the following:

Babe Ruth Museum - Baltimore
(You will see many pictures of St. Mary's
and how the ball field looked back then)

Museum in Sandy Spring (near Sherwood HS)
(The Fairland-Olney-Ashton area was a hot
bed in the 1930's-1950' for local baseball)

Eastern Shore Museum near Elkton, MD
(The Eastern Shore Baseball Leagues were
vibrant with travelling 'barnstorms' clubs
including Gehrig and Ruth)

A good reference book, which many consider
THE guide to ball parks is Ballpark Vacations:
Great Family Trips to Minor League and Classic Major League Ballparks (minus the Vet) Across America by my friend Margeret Engel and Bruce Adams, Published 1997.

And of course, "God's Baseball Country" you may want to spend a week in the research library of Baseball's HoF in Cooperstown. Should you write ahead and plan, the costs are minimal.

Good Luck
Bear

Thanks Bear!

I have to confess that for a dumb ole former kid from the tobacco fields of Southern Maryland, the trip to Gibbons was a real thrill for me. It's a shame that I didn't have this deep of a level of love and admiration for the game back when I was a kid playing ball. Like they say, it's a shame that youth is wasted on the young!

As a former public high school coach now being involved in a private school program, the differences between the two types of high school ball are remarkable. That's something else that I'm having to get used to!