Oldest living MLB player turns 100 (played with Ruth)

[OleMissCub]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=3433810

 

http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2008/0611/mlb_werber_600.jpg

 

Baseball is a game of big, round, meaningful numbers. Bill Werber knows about that: He got exactly 200 hits in the 1934 season and here he is 74 years later, still around to talk about it.

 

Werber, the oldest living major leaguer, turns 100 years old on Friday.

 

"It appears," he said from a senior housing facility in North Carolina, "that I'm going to live past 100."

 

Werber played with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, with Jimmie Foxx and many others. He played for Connie Mack. He played on a world championship team with the 1940 Cincinnati Reds. He went fishing with Ted Williams. He was the first player ever to take an at-bat in a televised major league game. He was the first All-America basketball player produced by Duke University. And, even at 100, he can still remember almost all of it.

 

"That's because I'm intelligent," he said.

 

And no one makes him smile more than the mention of Babe Ruth.

 

"I was very fond of the big monster," Werber said. "He knew he was the adopted son of a bar owner named Ruth, he never knew his own mom and dad. He was kind to children. He signed autographs by the thousands. Kids would walk all over his white shoes and tan pants. It didn't matter. He would visit hospitals, and he'd never take a newspaper man or cameraman with him. I got a nice letter recently from his granddaughter. She sent me pictures."

 

Werber played two years with the Yankees and he and Ruth became close friends.

 

"Babe was a good bridge player," he said. "He knew all about it. [Yankee catcher Bill] Dickey and I were partners against Babe and Gehrig. We'd play on the train for 2½ hours. Babe used to give what he call "phonky" bids to irritate Gehrig. He liked to irritate Gehrig."

 

Looks like he had a good career that was shortened by WWII:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/werbebi01.shtml

 

He averaged .271/.364/.392, 10 HR, 67 RBI, 109 Runs, and 27 SB over his 11 year career.

 

Looks like he was a Theriot type player.

[Electron Blue]

Wow, there's some cool stuff in that article. Very cool stuff.

[imb]

There was an AP story that moved last week that I posted some stuff out of. He had some pretty good Ruth stories

[OleMissCub]

He's wrong about Ruth being adopted. Here's George Ruth Sr. The resemblance is pretty overwhelming:

 

http://baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=44464&stc=1&d=1213368728

[chuckywang]

He went to Duke. Cool.

[Vanilla Ice]

He went to Duke. Cool.

[Vanilla Ice]

there was an article in the local paper about him today. cool stuff

[Jehrico]

He's wrong about Ruth being adopted. Here's George Ruth Sr. The resemblance is pretty overwhelming:

 

http://baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=44464&stc=1&d=1213368728

Could he have been adopted by an uncle or something? I don't know much about Ruth's history.

[OleMissCub]

Could he have been adopted by an uncle or something? I don't know much about Ruth's history.

 

Naw, I think the old timer just had a brain fart. However, Ruth's parents did send him away to an institute for much of his youth because he was out of control and they couldn't care for him. Other than that, I've never heard anything about adoption.

[erik316wttn]

He's wrong about Ruth being adopted. Here's George Ruth Sr. The resemblance is pretty overwhelming:

 

http://baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=44464&stc=1&d=1213368728

Could he have been adopted by an uncle or something? I don't know much about Ruth's history.

 

I've read in several books that Ruth's mother or a grandparent may have been black, as he had many "black" features, but baseball covered it up because he was such an overwhelming draw.

[imb]

He's wrong about Ruth being adopted. Here's George Ruth Sr. The resemblance is pretty overwhelming:

 

http://baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=44464&stc=1&d=1213368728

Could he have been adopted by an uncle or something? I don't know much about Ruth's history.

 

That looks like Babe Ruth in a costume

[OleMissCub]

He's wrong about Ruth being adopted. Here's George Ruth Sr. The resemblance is pretty overwhelming:

 

http://baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=44464&stc=1&d=1213368728

Could he have been adopted by an uncle or something? I don't know much about Ruth's history.

 

That looks like Babe Ruth in a costume

http://www.snorgtees.com/images/MoustacheChampion_Fullpic_1.gif

[ELCABALLO45]

Ruth at the age of 19 was legally adopted by the owner of the Baltimore Orioles Jack Dunn, and everyone called him "Jack's newest babe". The nickname stuck.