Hey Folks-
Excited to share my latest SFGATE feature with you. Tasked with covering the North Coast, the editorial staff is nudging me to expand my coverage inland into the Shasta Cascades. I’m excited that my first foray into the region was a story of mountain town pride and America’s great pastime.
Come to think of it, I’ve found myself writing more about baseball in the last month than the rest of my writing career. Weird how that works.
When Babe Ruth went to Dunsmuir in 1924, his Yankee teammate Bob Muesel accompanied him. Both men were members of Murderer’s Row, the name given to a killer lineup of Yankees batters in the 1920s. Muesel was a California boy, a beast standing at 6′ 3″, nicknamed “Long Bob” for his reach. Sharing the headlines with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, Muesel’s name recognition has faded with time.
After SFGATE published my piece on Friday, I received an email from Muesel’s great-nephew expressing gratitude for reminding the world of when his great uncle and his teammate Babe Ruth forever changed a Northern California frontier town.
Great story about a great town and a baseball legend, but I can’t not note that the reason the Yankees weren’t in the World Series that year is because my old hometown team, the Washington Senators, led by Walter Johnson beat them for the AL pennant going on to achieve their legendary sole victory in the World Series, beating the NY Giants who later triumphed over them in rematch in 1933.