Where Are They Buried? (19 page)

George was the first of eight children, though only he and a sister survived to maturity. The family lived above his father’s saloon in a dirty and crowded Baltimore neighborhood, but after the mischievous seven-year-old became too much of a bother, his parents signed custody of him over to an order of missionaries and he was sent to live at St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys.

St. Mary’s was a combined juvenile detention center and orphanage, and though he really belonged in neither type of facility, his parents just happened to be a couple of irresponsible drunks. George remained there for more than a decade and under its rigid structure he thrived, especially in athletics. At 19, he was offered a contract by the Baltimore Orioles, but because his parents had passed him to the missionaries he was bound to remain in their custody until the age of 21. To circumvent that legality, the manager of the Orioles actually assumed George’s legal guardianship and it was then, as the youngest player on the team and the manager’s adopted “baby,” that the Babe nickname surfaced. The moniker stuck for the rest of his life—and then some.

After just a few months, though, in July of 1914, his contract was sold to the Boston Red Sox, where Babe developed into a feared southpaw pitcher. Six seasons later, the Sox set the fabled “Curse of the Bambino” in motion by trading Babe to their New York Yankee rivals. At the time of the trade, the Yankees commanded zero respect and had never won a pennant. They didn’t even have their own ballpark and instead rented space at the New York Giants’ Polo Grounds. But after acquiring Babe from Boston they won seven pennants and four World Championships in thirteen seasons. Meanwhile the “Curse” relegated the Red Sox to a cycle of perpetual disappointment that continues to plague them even to this day, while the Yankees have gone on to become the most dominant franchise in all of sports.

Because of his demonstrated prowess on the mound, Babe’s acquisition had cost the Yankees the then-fantastic sum of $100,000, but the Yankees management boldly chose to disregard his pitching skills and instead started Babe as an outfielder to exploit his diamond-in-the-rough batting ability. Babe hit 54 home runs during his first year with the Yankees and in short order he was baseball’s preeminent player. With every mighty swing of the Sultan of Swat’s bat, excitement for baseball was heightened and its new offense-orientation ushered in a Golden Age. The game forever became the quintessential American spectator sport. Fans packed ballparks in record numbers and the once-lowly New York Yankees built a tremendous new stadium, Yankee Stadium, which became known as “the House that Ruth Built.” On its opening day in 1923, Babe slapped Yankee Stadium’s first-ever home run.

Further, as the Yankees positioned themselves as the most dominant franchise in all of sports over the remainder of the century, the “Curse” relegated the Red Sox to a woeful cycle of disappointment that finally culminated some 84(!) years later with their 2004 World Championship.

To complement his on-field heroics, Babe led a hedonistic life, and off the field, some accuse him of being a loud-mouthed, overeating, headstrong lout. Too, he set the pace for endorsement contracts, shilling everything from underwear to shaving cream to shotguns. But Babe seemed never to forget his own childhood, and throughout his celebrity years, he was exceedingly philanthropic and kind to needy children.

By 1933, Babe’s once-great talents began to diminish and he threatened to leave the Yankees unless given the opportunity to become a manager. The Yankees called his bluff and Babe left the following year to join the Boston Braves, who baited him with the promise of an eventual assistant-manager position. It shortly became obvious that the Braves wanted him only for his drawing power and had no intention of making him a manager, so Babe resigned from the team and made his last appearance as a player in May of 1935.

Upon his retirement he held 54 Major League records including two that were regarded as unbreakable: 60 home runs in a single season and 714 career home runs. In 1961 and in 1974, though, Roger Maris and Hank Aaron, respectively, broke Babe’s records.

In 1946 Babe began suffering severe headaches and, in November, he finally checked into a hospital after the left side of his face became so swollen he couldn’t swallow. Doctors removed a tumor in his throat but were unable to excise the source of the growth. After eighteen painful months, Babe died on August 16, 1948, of throat cancer at 53. For two days, his body lay in state at the main entrance to Yankee Stadium while thousands of people paid their last respects.

He was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From I-287, take Exit 4 and follow Route 100A north for 2½ miles (Route 100A will become Route 100 after 2 miles) to Lakeview Avenue, then turn right. Follow Lakeview Avenue to its intersection with the Taconic State Parkway, turn left and the Gate of Heaven Cemetery is a mile on the left. Turn left onto Stevens Avenue, go over the railroad tracks and make another left to enter.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Enter the cemetery, turn right, and follow the main road up the hill. Turn right immediately before Section 25 and Babe’s gravesite is 50 yards on the left.

JUNE 19, 1903 – JUNE 2, 1941

In 1925, a husky and young Lou Gehrig faced another day as back-up first baseman on the New York Yankee bench. It was frustrating not starting because, in his entire life of baseball, playing from pockmarked New York City outfields to the fastidiously raked infield of Columbia University, he’d always been his teams’ ace-in-the-hole. Lou yearned now to be back in the minors; at least he’d be playing.

A few weeks later, the team’s starting first baseman was hit hard during batting practice and Lou was tapped to join the starting lineup. Trotting onto the field, the nervous but eager rookie promised himself he’d not blunder the opportunity, and he didn’t; by game’s end Lou had played rock-solid defense while posting three hits and an RBI.

On the strength of that performance, Lou earned the nod to start the next game, and the next, and the … well, let’s just say that, over the next fourteen years, for 2,130 consecutive games Lou Gehrig was the
only
Yankee to play first base.

He was part of the notorious Yankees’ “Murderers’ Row” lineup of powerhouse hitters, he was first in the league to hit four home runs in a single game, and he was a big part of five World Series triumphs. Yet Lou’s unassuming demeanor and quiet home life never generated headlines, and he never experienced the adulation that defined his flashier teammates. Lou had become an authentic American working-class hero; it just so happened that his workplace was Yankee Stadium. Even to wife, Eleanor, “Lou was just a square and honest guy.”

But by 1938, it was clear that something was wrong with this Rock of Gibraltar; pitches that Lou should’ve homered became routine fly outs, and his sprints between bases deteriorated to slow-motion scrabbles. With the opening of the next season, it was clear that the off-season’s pause had had little effect on his decline and, upon recognizing that his presence hindered the team more than it helped, Lou removed himself from the lineup and ended his celebrated consecutive-game streak.

Six weeks later, Lou was diagnosed with a degenerative and fatal condition of the nervous and muscular systems, amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis, today known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. On the 4th of July, 1939, 60,000 fans turned out for a Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day and said goodbye to their “Iron Horse.” After some prodding, Lou stepped to the microphone and in a simple but eloquent two-minute speech consigned himself to immortality: “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth …”

Lou died two years later at 37, and was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From I-287, take Exit 4 and follow Route 100A north for 2½ miles (Route 100A will become Route 100 after 2 miles) to Lakeview Avenue and turn right. After a half-mile, turn right onto Commerce Street and enter the cemetery.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Proceed down Commerce Street, make a right turn onto Tecumseh Avenue, a left onto Cherokee Avenue, then a right onto Manitou Avenue. Go a little more than half way around the circle and there, behind the Winkhaus stone, is the Gehrig plot.

NOVEMBER 25, 1914 – MARCH 8, 1999

After Babe Ruth retired, the fabled Joe DiMaggio filled the Yankee lineup’s void with grace and superlative play, and he was rewarded with the sweeping idolatry of sports fans everywhere during an American era when baseball reigned supreme. The son of an immigrant Italian fisherman, Joe learned baseball skills by hitting balls with a broken oar, beat the odds to rise to the summit of the sport, and was even married, briefly, to the most glamorous of movie stars, Marilyn Monroe.

Living the quintessential dream of the American boy, his allure reached far beyond the baseball diamond, and even those who cared not a lick for sports cherished Joe as a cultural icon. Though Joe’s appeal depended largely on his exceptional on-field abilities, it was his off-field composure that clinched his universal intrigue; with impeccable dress and tailoring, he was always proud to be a great American sports hero and was committed to living up to the image by comporting himself with a self-assured style that was uniquely Joe DiMaggio.

It’s important to note that most of Joe’s years as an athlete were spent without the benefit of television. The successes of his life and career were widely reported in the print media and his games were broadcast on radio, but he retired before television became a common household fixture. Whereas television often demythologizes heroes through overexposure, radio and print served to make Joe famous but not
too
familiar, and heightened the DiMaggio mystique.

Joe played thirteen record-filled seasons with the Yankees, including the storied 1941 season, during which he hit safely in a still-unbroken streak of 56 consecutive games. At 37, with his game tapering slightly from the wonder years, Joe chose to leave baseball when it became obvious that, though the fans still adored him, he was failing to live up to the lofty New York expectations. Always elegant and inspiring, Joe retired in 1951, though he was offered enormous financial incentives to stay another year. Said DiMaggio’s brother Dom, “He quit because he wasn’t Joe DiMaggio anymore.”

On March 8, 1999, Joe died of a lung infection at 84 and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From I-380 follow El Camino Real (Route 82) north for 1½ mile and turn right onto Chestnut Avenue. At the second traffic light, turn left onto Mission Road and the cemetery is a mile on the right.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Enter the cemetery, drive up the hill, and go past the stop sign. Turn left at the next drive, go a little more than halfway around the circle, and stop before the Moynihan mausoleum on the right. There on the right under the trees is Joe’s grave.

OCTOBER 20, 1931 – AUGUST 13, 1995

Mickey Mantle’s semi-pro baseball player father believed that the only way to excel in the Major Leagues was as a switch-hitter, and from a young age he taught his son to swing from both sides of the plate. The coaching paid off and, while still in high school, Mickey signed with the Yankees for the bargain price of $140 a week.

After two years in the minors, he earned a place on the team’s 1951 big-league roster and, by the next year, became
the primary focus of the New York media—Mickey had been the player chosen to replace the irreplaceable Joe DiMaggio. Mickey quickly adjusted to the majors and developed into a premier power hitter; one home run shot, later measured at 565 feet, might be the longest ever hit. Led by Mickey’s talents, the Yankees again dominated baseball, and during his tenure, they won twelve pennants and seven World Series. Mickey himself was named MVP three times and in 1956 he won baseball’s Triple Crown with a .353 batting average, 52 home runs, and 130 RBIs. Though he was frequently sidelined with a recurring injury, by the time of his 1969 retirement he had amassed 536 home runs, a record eighteen in World Series play.

Mickey’s athleticism was impressive, but he was a flawed and reckless role model whose family life was marred by his alcoholism and well-publicized late-night pursuits. In the 1980s, Mickey became a sort of sports antihero and disgruntled many old fans by exploiting his fame in the burgeoning and tacky world of sports memorabilia shows.

In 1994 Mickey finally sought treatment for his alcoholism at the Betty Ford clinic. The following year, though, he learned that his irreparably damaged cirrhotic liver was on the verge of collapse, and that unless he received a transplant liver, he would soon die. Sympathy poured in, but Mickey’s endgame was touched by controversy when, just 48 hours after his name went on a waiting list, he was chosen to receive a donated liver. Cynics criticized the apparent preferential treatment—Mickey had jumped ahead of more than 250 other Texans in the liver waiting line—but doctors maintained that he had received a liver so quickly because he was the sickest one on the list.

In any event, the transplant hardly benefited Mickey and he died of complications just two months later, at 63. He was buried at Sparkman Hillcrest Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
Sparkman Hillcrest is on the Northwest Highway (Route 12), just a half-mile west of Exit 14 off of I-75.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Enter the cemetery, continue straight, and go all the way to the cemetery’s rear, where the mausoleum is located. Park in the back of the mausoleum, enter through the rear door, and ahead 40 feet on the right, in the bottom row, is Mickey’s crypt.