LACKAWANNA COUNTY -- If we said the name Babe Ruth, lots of things would come to mind: baseball legend, the New York Yankees, the Curse of the Bambino.
But would you think of the city of Scranton?
Well, you should!
Despite the rainy weather, baseball fans were pouring into PNC Field in Moosic for an evening Rail Riders game Tuesday night.
But while they are here to root on the New York Yankees top minor league team, they are getting a rather surprising lesson in baseball history.
They found out that in October 1919 baseball legend Babe Ruth played in a charity fundraiser baseball game right here in Scranton.
“Yeah, cool! Unbelievable, unbelievable that somebody like that could be here,” said Eddie Berta from Carbondale.
“Especially all this time and everybody around here never, ever said nothing about that. That's really neat. I like that,” said Mike Binder from Lehighton.
“It's fantastic. It's unbelievable. A lot of people don't know the history of baseball. I didn't know that,” said Frank Sorokach from Ashland.
William Levy, who owns a picture of Babe from that game, says his great-uncle, Leon Levy, is pictured standing next to the Babe.
Levy says his father inherited the framed picture, along with two autographed ticket stubs from Leon and now he from his father.
But what's so historically significant is this was the last time Babe Ruth played in a Red Sox uniform.
“We have evidence he played his last game in Scranton and two months later he was sold to the Yankees and that started the old 'Bambino curse' that prohibited the Red Sox from winning the World Series for a long, long time,” said Levy.
Back in 1919, that ball game was played at a ball field known as Athletic Park, which stood right off of what's now Providence Road. Today, it's Memorial Stadium at Scranton High School.
“I think that's great. I'm a huge Yankee fan and I just wish the 'Curse of the Bambino' lived on a little bit longer,” said Randy Rome from Connecticut.
“At least we got him out of the Red Sox uniform and put him in the Yankee one. That's even better,” said Binder.
