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MMD > Archives > November 2002 > 2002.11.16 > 01Prev  Next


Search for Babe Ruth's Piano
By Karl Ellison

I saw this on my local evening newscast last night.  Divers recently
used high-tech equipment when they resumed their search for American
Baseball legend Babe Ruth's piano in a lake in Sudbury, Massachusetts,
not far from where I live.  One newscast used the term 'player-piano',
thought I've yet to find credence in this claim.

Legend has it that the piano is somewhere on the bottom of Willis Pond
near a lakeside cabin where Ruth was vacationing in 1918.  There's
various theories as to why he rolled the piano into the ice (or off
the end of the pier -- reports vary their story, see the attached URL),
but most believe it involved alcohol.

1918 was the last year the team won the World Series, and Ruth was
traded to the Yankees after the following season.  Local fans wonder
if the piano holds the key to breaking the "Curse of the Bambino".

Searchers brought a hand-held sonar instrument and a magnetometer.
The newscast showed the operation in action, and reported that several
masses of iron that fit the attributes of a piano harp have been
identified.  Divers will be sent down soon, possibly to exhume the
piano, restore it, -- and as the legend of the curse goes -- play it
again at Fenway Park to break the alleged curse.

See this web site link for recent developments on how far some will
go when you mix a piano, sports and unseemly superstition:
http://www.1918redsox.com/piano.htm

Are there any rebuilders out there who want the job -- and to be a part
of history?

Karl Ellison
Salem, Massachusetts


(Message sent Sat 16 Nov 2002, 13:36:10 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  Babe, Piano, Ruth's, Search

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