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Baseball

By Derek Levarse dlevarse@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter
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WILKES-BARRE – She took a brief glance skyward after stepping to the front of the mound and then stared down the spot where her grandfather dug in 80 years ago.

Linda Ruth Tosetti is a living monument to George Herman Ruth, her maternal grandfather who just so happened to hit one of the longest home runs in competitive baseball history on this same diamond at Artillery Park in 1926.

The rounded face, the broad nose, the persistent but understated grin – all of it a touchstone to The Bambino.

More than that, the spirit of Ruth was on hand Saturday as Tosetti readied to throw out the first pitch of a Junior American Legion game.

“What kind (of pitch) do you want,” Tosetti joked to the catcher. “How ‘bout over the plate?”

The throw dropped off the table right at the tip of the plate, one-hopping into the catcher’s mitt to cheers from those in attendance.

Her husband, Andy Tosetti, didn’t miss the opportunity a minute later to throw a little jab.

“Can’t catch, can’t throw – you sure you’re the granddaughter?”

The 52-year-old Durham, Conn., resident chuckled as she donned her Yankees jacket, covered on all sides with patches commemorating each of the team’s 26 World Series victories.

Beneath that she wore a garment that was more of a scrapbook than a T-shirt, replete with old photos of The Babe and Tosetti’s mother, Dorothy. In a stroke of something beyond irony, her husband is a fan of Ruth’s original team, the Boston Red Sox, and came to the field decked out in Sox paraphernalia: jacket, hat and the coup de grace – an official “Reverse the Curse” of the Bambino shirt.

After posing for pictures and signing autographs on the infield, Tosetti rejoined her entourage of friends, family and baseball historian Bill Jenkinson, who was the guide to the day’s excursion to the site of Ruth’s longest home run.

Jenkinson’s recently released book, “The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs,” documents that feat, which he recited with confidence and enthusiasm.

Just days after the ’26 World Series, Ruth came to Wilkes-Barre as part of an exhibition tour but only had two at-bats in the Oct. 12 game. Looking to give a show to the crowd of about 1,200, Ruth challenged pitchers to throw their fastest stuff at him after the game was over.

One such ball from the arm of Ernie Cochran was pulverized over the right field fence, across the road behind it and landed in between what are now a gravel track and a fence on the third-base side of a softball diamond.

With the help of Joe Gibbons, 91, who witnessed where the mammoth shot landed as a 10-year-old, Jenkinson gave the estimated distance as 605 feet.

“What adds to the compelling nature of the event was that Babe was asked about it right afterward,” Jenkinson said. “He had hit a documented 530-foot home run in St. Louis in the World Series just a few days before. And when they asked him to compare that home run with this Wilkes-Barre shot, he said, ‘I hit this one a lot farther.’”

“Superhuman,” was how Jenkinson summed it up.

All of it was a wonder for Tosetti, who gaped when taken to the approximate landing spot and stood on it.

Tosetti never knew her iconic grandfather, who died of cancer six years before she was born. Instead, she talks to people like Jenkinson and Gibbons to drink in every detail possible about Ruth.

“When I meet people like Joe Gibbons, it really does make (Ruth) flesh and blood to me,” Tosetti said.

While the rest of the world looks to her to get an aura of Babe, Tosetti has to rely on others to find it herself.

The biggest thing for her is treating people like her grandfather did, being friendly and open and acknowledging the fans. That’s what she wishes current players did more of – simple gestures and acts of kindness that people, especially children, will remember for years to come.

“It’s very cool that in this day and age people still want to know him,” Tosetti said. “And it’s because of not just his playing ability, but it was his interaction with his fans. He clowned with the fans, he was a nice guy and he’d have a good time. That’s what the players have to do now, get back in touch with the fans and the little kids.

“That’s what I try and do with these guys. They’re looking at me and seeing my grandfather and couldn’t believe I was here. And I’m only a granddaughter. Imagine the power of these players if they did that.”

On the way over to the final spot of Ruth’s homer, Tosetti and her group stopped briefly behind the backstop of the field across from Artillery Park, where four grade-schoolers prepared for a makeshift game.

“Hey, want to meet Babe Ruth’s granddaughter?” yelled out a member of the entourage.

In the right place at the right time, the kids eagerly ran out to a smiling Tosetti, who delayed her itinerary to pose for a few pictures, sign a few bats and joke around with her newest friends.

Tosetti grinned.

“The magic of Babe.”