\u201cHey, Kid, get out here,\u201d Babe says, inhaling cold air and exhaling hard. \u201cThis place is our Yankee Stadium.\u201d <\/p>\n
\tA wiry man of medium height appears and says, \u201cHow about you quit calling me Kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019ll be happy to, soon as I learn your name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHow long you need? I\u2019ve been here thirty years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019ve been here seventy and can\u2019t remember all my neighbors,\u201d says Babe.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019m the only one who\u2019s a Yankee and World Series hero except you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI know all that, Kid. But what\u2019s your name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBilly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYeah, I\u2019ve called you that many times. I just forgot this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cDon\u2019t forget again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBabe throws Billy his glove and a ball and tosses a bat to his right. \u201cIt\u2019s the first day of spring training.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere won\u2019t be any intra-squad game today, thanks to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cListen,\u201d says Babe, \u201cI may be suspended now and again but never for more than a few weeks. They fire you all the time for fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI haven\u2019t been fighting anybody,\u201d says Billy. \u201cYou know the rules around here. No drinking or smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI hadn\u2019t done either for months.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI haven\u2019t done any in longer than that.\u201d <\/p>\n
\t\u201cNot that they\u2019ve seen.\u201d Babe points to the green horizon. \u201cGet out there about three hundred feet and let me hit you some flies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBilly dashes around large statues and hurdles the small ones. \u201cReady.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tLeft hand gripping his bat a few inches above the handle, Babe tosses the ball up with his right and grabs the handle before he smashes a fly that keeps climbing and carrying and sails at least a hundred feet over Billy\u2019s head. <\/p>\n
\u201cToo bad you don\u2019t have a relay man,\u201d Babe shouts. <\/p>\n
\tBilly chases a ball that rolls another hundred feet and then has to dash a hundred yards back before he can throw the ball to Babe. \u201cWish I had your power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cSo does every kid in the country. Plenty in the Caribbean and Asia, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBut not too many in Europe,\u201d says Billy. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat\u2019s why I don\u2019t go there much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAfter launching ten or so rockets straightaway Babe starts pulling the ball to his right, hitting it just as far, and swatting it almost as far to his left. \u201cThose would all be home runs, Billy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBreathing hard, Billy jogs the ball back to Babe and says, \u201cOkay, big guy, your turn to run.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019m a lot better fielder than most people know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBilly starts hitting line drives, sending Babe swerving between statues to cut off the hits and hold imaginary runners to singles. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat\u2019s no fun,\u201d says Babe. \u201cPut the ball in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cTy Cobb and I don\u2019t like to hit the ball where people can catch it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe\u2019re just having fun, Billy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSeveral times they trade off hitting and then they each put on a glove and play catch. Babe, once a great pitcher, starts throwing harder and harder and Billy says, \u201cHold off on the heat unless you got a catcher\u2019s mitt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI ordered one years ago but it still hasn\u2019t come.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat\u2019s because the boss doesn\u2019t want you pitching anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cGuess I was born to slug.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAnd we were both born for booze and broads, Babe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI think I can get some in here tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou know we never get away with anything here,\u201d Billy says. <\/p>\n
\tWith his left hand Babe pounds the ball in his glove. \u201cYeah, and after a while I guess we really didn\u2019t get away with much out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes: Visit Babe Ruth and Billy Martin at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Mt. Pleasant, New York. In 1948 Babe died at age fifty-three of throat cancer after years of heavy smoking and drinking. Billy passed away at sixty-one in 1989. He was drunk and passed out in the passenger\u2019s seat of his pickup truck when an intoxicated friend drove off the ice-covered road, within sight of Billy\u2019s home, near Binghampton, New York shortly after dark on Christmas Day. <\/p>\n