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“Baseball Fathers and Sons” Photo Gallery
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Happy Fathers’ Day!
“It was at St. Mary’s that I met and learned to love the greatest man I’ve ever known…He was the father I needed. He taught me to read and write, and the difference between right and wrong.” -Babe Ruth, speaking of his father figure and mentor, Brother Mathias
On this Father’s Day 2021, I’d like to wish all the fathers out there a very Happy Fathers Day!
What American institution has ever been better at bonding together grandfathers, fathers, and sons, generation after generation, than the great game of baseball? And so what better way to celebrate Fathers Day on Baseball History Comes Alive than with a photo tribute to some of baseball’s more notable fathers and sons. I’ve posted a number of them in the gallery above.
But first, I’ll continue my annual Fathers’ Day tradition with a salute to Brother Mathias, the father figure to an incorrigible young lad who arrived at the
Baltimore orphanage known as St. Mary’s Industrial School on June 13, 1902 at the age of seven. The lad would remain an “inmate” of the school for seven and a half of the next 12 years. His name was George Herman Ruth, Jr. When he finally left the school for good in 1914, he was pitching in the major leagues within a few months.
On Fathers Day a couple years ago, I posted the classic photo of the Babe tending bar at his father’s saloon. One of the readers took me to task saying: “That photo is inappropriate for Father’s Day. The only real father figure in the Babe’s life was
Brother Mathias.” Plus, the pic was taken during the 1915 Christmas season at old-man Ruth’s Baltimore gin mill, not really appropriate for a mid-summer holiday.
I had to admit the guy raised a good point. So to set the record straight, every year since, I’ve used the occasion to do a nice tribute to Brother Mathias, Babe’s true father figure, including the great featured photo above of the two of them together. It’s been said that after he became a baseball star with the Yankees that the Bambino often gave
Brother Mathias a new Cadillac, and I believe the photos above and to the right are depictions of that.
Martin Boutlier was born in Lingan, Cape Breton, a small mining town in Nova Scotia in 1872. He later moved to the United States and joined the Congregation of St. Francis Xavier religious order, commonly known as the Xaverians, and adopted the name Brother Mathias. Here’s a few words about Brother Mathias from Robert Creamer’s great book, Babe – The Legend Comes to Life:
“He was a huge man, nearly six feet six inches tall and probably over 250 pounds. He had a calm, expressionless face that could turn icy cold when he was displeased. The boys at St. Mary’s were scared of Brother Mathias, whom
they referred to as the Boss, but he had qualities that endeared him to them. He was immensely strong, stronger than any of them, and that impressed them. He never ranted or shouted. He was always calm, always consistent, always fair – and they appreciated that. If they misbehaved or broke a rule, they were punished. ‘He gave everyone a fair break but, brother, if you ever crossed him, you sure were in trouble.’
“There is no testimony that Mathias administered corporal punishment. Usually a boy was deprived of certain meager privileges allowed at the school, like freedom during the recreation periods or the right to play ball. When the punishment was over, the incident was over too as far as Brother Mathias was concerned; and the boys looked upon this as eminently just.”
“Brother Mathias could hit tremendous fungos, long towering fly balls, and he would hit them swinging the bat with one hand. Ruth said: ‘I think I was born as a hitter the first day I ever saw him hit a baseball.’ In later years, Mathias would work for hours with George, hitting the boy grounder after grounder. ‘I could hit the first time I picked up a bat,’ Ruth also said, ‘but Brother Mathias made me a fielder.'”
Brother Mathias was quite a man…and I’m happy to recognize him once a year on Fathers Day for all he did for a young troublemaker at St. Mary’s who severely lacked discipline named George Herman Ruth; and also for all the hundreds of other boys he influenced over the years at St. Mary’s. For many, he was the only father figure they ever had.
…And with that, let me wish a very Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there! Hope you enjoy your day with your families! And if you have time, be sure to play a little catch today with your sons or daughters!
By the way, if you’d like to share some reminiscences about your dad or your grandfather and baseball, please do so in the comments section below.
Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All from Google search
Information: Excerpts and quotes edited from Babe – The Legend Comes to Life, by Robert Creamer.
Great baseball Father’s Day column! Happy Father’s Day, Gary, and all the fathers reading your blog.
Thanks a lot Jay…same to you!
Happy Father’s Day to all Dads out there. I remember my Dad hitting me fly balls as a kid. I loved it when he used to yell, “Get on your horse!” That meant a deep one was going over my head as I raced back and tried to haul it in.
Thanks for the comment Dave…that’s a wonderful memory. Happy Fathers’ Day!
Hi, Gary, just back from the shore and went straight to the article. Loved the Bancroft comment “Get on your horse.” My dad used the expression from my earliest memory.
We always had a catch, where I’d throw from the first step before our front door to my father, 50 feet down the sidewalk, just before it met our dead end street. He used a catcher’s mitt and made some pretty fancy grabs on errant throws from an eight year-old!
Read the Creamer book and am about two thirds into Leigh Montville’s The Big Bam. Good one, if you haven’t read it. Both have the same description of Brother Mathias–a giant in more ways than one.
Thanks-Happy Father’s Day!
Thanks Bill…glad you got back safe and sound! Great memories of your dad, who you’ve mentioned frequently, so I know you have a lot of treasured memories of him. That’s wonderful. You’re very fortunate.
I went to Loyola academy here in the Chicago area and anyone from my era will remember very well our own “Brother Mathias,” our Jesuit disciplinarian named Father Beall. My friend Jay Walsh, who commented at the top, will know what I mean. I always think of him whenever I write about Brother Mathias. At 6’4″, Father Beall was huge like Brother Mathias. He had a drill sergeant demeanor and a commanding voice that could shake you to the core and stop you in your tracks if you ever heard him yell out your name. Like Brother Mathias, he was not someone you wanted to be on the bad side of. Boy did we behave when Father Beall was around!
I’ve read The Big Bam and agree with you those are two great books. You can throw Jane Leavy’s book in there too as another good one.
Anyway, great to hear from you as always! -Gary (aka DD)