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“Baseball and Christmas Through the Years” Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:
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- Tebbetts Christmas card (from personal collection of Sue Tebbetts Mitchell)
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- Jackie Robinson Christmas Tree Ornament
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- Gehrig Christmas card
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- Another Lou Gehrig Christmas card
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- Mel Ott wishes everyone a Merry Christmas!
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- Merlyn Mantle’s Christmas card to Mickey
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- Rogers Hornsby expresses his thoughts on the holidy season
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- Senators Christmas card signed by Ted Williams and GM Bob Short
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- Autographed Gil Hodges Christmas card
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- Happy Holidays from Willie and Mae Mays
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- Lou Gehrig Christmas card
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- Lou Gehrig Christmas card
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- Babe Ruth’s Christmas card
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- Ty Cobb Christmas card
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- The Ruth family saloon decorated for the holidays, with a young George Herman Ruth behind the bar helping out the Old Man!
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- Stan Musial with Cardinal teammates selling Christmas trees for charity
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- Willie Mays took on a new role on Thursday, Dec. 8, 1977 as Santa Claus
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- Joe DiMaggio with son
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- Babe Ruth, with boxer Tony Galento,
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- Babe Ruth ornament
Merry Christmas From Baseball History Comes Alive!
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our loyal readers a very Merry Christmas. And to all our Jewish friends, I hope they’ve had a very Happy Hanukkah season.
I’m very proud that Baseball History Comes Alive has surpassed the one million hits mark this year and is closing in on one thousand subscribers. Of course, I’m very grateful for the support given to us by our loyal readers. We’re humbled by the positive feedback we’ve always receive. That just seems to make our efforts worthwhile.
This is also a good time to extend a special word of thanks to our great contributors who have added so much to the quality of the website this year, especially Bill Schaefer, Michael Keedy, Mark Kolier, and Vince Janoski.
It may be the middle of winter on this Christmas day, 2023, but baseball is still on our minds. (By the way, it’s only 52 more days until we hear the magic words, “Pitchers and catchers report!”). So to inject a little baseball “cheer” into our celebrations today, be sure to check out the nice holiday season photo gallery I put together that I’m calling “Baseball and Christmas Through the Years”
You Can Always Count on the Babe!
What could be a more fitting way for all of us who love baseball history and old baseball photos to celebrate the Christmas season than with this beautiful Babe Ruth family Christmas card? (And wouldn’t you have liked to be on the Ruth family Christmas card mailing list?). Whenever I need to find something baseball history-related for a special occasion, the Babe always seems to come through!
And how about this photo of the Babe playing Santa Claus below? I’ve seen the actual footage of the event where Babe played Santa for 50 polio victims at the Astor Hotel in New York. I’m not sure how the kids reacted to seeing Babe’s beard falling off, though. From the look on the little girl’s face in the photo, she apparently wasn’t sure what to make of it. Oh well, that’s the Babe!
Beautiful Babe Ruth colorization by Don Stokes
We all know of the Babe’s fondness for children. It’s a big reason why he became such a beloved figure in American history. All these years later, we still cherish memories like this one that he left us. There’ll never be another Babe!
Merry Christmas to all from Baseball History Comes Alive. Hope you all enjoy the day with your families!
Gary Livacari
Subscribe to our website, Baseball History Comes Alive with over 1400 fully categorized baseball essays and photo galleries, now surpassing the one million hits mark with 1,135,000 hits and over 950 subscribers
A Very Merry Christmas and A Very Healthy and Happy New Year to you Gary!
A very blessed Christmas to you and your family too, Gary. Of course, The Babe had an affinity and love for kids. It was because he was just a big kid himself. hahahaha. Looking forward to more super BHCA content in 2024. And yes, pretty soon we’ll hear those two words that will wake up our enthusiasm ….. “PLAY BALL” !!! {although umpires are taught to only say “PLAY”.} MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!
Thanks Tom…same to you!
Yes, I echo those sentiments, Merry Christmas!!
Love the pictures, Gary. And the little girl is hilarious, looking at Ruth: “Wait a minute…you’re not REALLY Santa Claus!!”
Thanks Bill…yeah, it looks like she’s just had an epiphany about Santa Claus…
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Thanks to all who contributed to this wonderful website! Love to read about baseball and the lives connected to the game!
Thanks Ed…Mery Christmas!
“God bless us, every one.”
Happy New Year!
Love to all,
/s/ Day Late & Dollar Short
Thanks DL/DS…same to you and the great artist, Susan!