Babe Ruth's gravesite (Shotgun Spratling)

Read parts 1-6 of Shotgun's journey here.

My joints are popping and creaking like an elderly farmer rising from his porch-perched rocking chair at the end of a summer evening. It is the 16th day of my journey across the country, and my body is officially wearing down.

Over the course of the last three days, I have driven over 2,000 miles. Thank goodness Toyota makes reliable cars (when they aren’t speeding out of control).

There has been a lot of driving and little quality sleep, but I’ve traveled down the East Coast and have begun the return trip west. I’ve seen both life and death. I visited graveyards and have seen an amazing number of windshield splatters, but I also returned home (very briefly) and held my nephew for the first time.

I started this portion of my journey leaving in the middle of the night from Cooperstown after writing my last piece. I drove for about an hour before nearly running off the road, so I stopped at the first rest stop and packed it in for a good five hours before the sun came beating down on my car and woke me up.

My first destination was Babe Ruth’s grave in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne/Valhalla, New York. Ruth’s grave was much more impressive than Negro League slugger Josh Gibson’s in Pittsburgh. It was the centerpiece of a section, balanced by four trees planted around a seven-to-eight-foot tall headstone depicting Jesus walking with a young boy in a baseball uniform. While Gibson’s grave was partially covered by the overgrowing grass, Ruth’s was adorned with mementos from fans.

Wanting to compare both of the graves to barrier-breaking Jackie Robinson’s, I headed to Brooklyn, stopping by Citi Field to snap a couple of quick pictures. However, this was a $22 mistake. On my way to Cypress Hills Cemetery, where Robinson rests, I encountered six roads blocked off where the city was re-paving the street. There was no way I could get in, so I basically spent $22 in toll fees to take some pictures of a stadium and get stuck in traffic as I tried to get out of Brooklyn.

From New York City, I traveled through New Jersey (another $6 toll charge) to Wilmington, Delaware to see the Judy Johnson exhibit at the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame. It was a neat exhibit -- Johnson, who has since died, voiced a conversation telling a young child about his time spent in the Negro Leagues -- but it didn’t include any information I hadn’t discovered previously. As I said in my last installment, “You win some, you lose some.”

Once again, victory was rescued from the black talons of defeat though (I imagine defeat to be a giant bird). The curator hooked me up with the contact information for three potentially valuable resources, including Johnson’s niece and a good friend who spent a lot of time with Johnson in the last few years of the third baseman’s life. I’m looking forward to communicating with all of the contacts I’ve made over the course of the trip.

My next stop was outside of Baltimore, where I stayed with a friend from my undergraduate days of college. Early in the morning I set out for the Sports Legends Museum, which is located next door to Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Though I wasn’t particularly interested in the Baltimore Orioles or the Baltimore Colts, who had the largest sections of the museum, the museum was probably the best designed museum of my trip. The kids’ section was particularly awesome. There you could see the progression of how a baseball bat or ball is crafted and size yourself up by putting on the uniform and equipment of your favorite local teams, whether that is the Ravens, the Orioles, Maryland basketball, or even Johns Hopkins lacrosse.

At the museum, I bought the combo ticket for $4 more than the regular admission price enabling me to go a couple of streets over to the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. The small museum located in the house where Ruth was born provided some interesting information about Ruth’s early days. The coolest piece of memorabilia in the house that formerly held the Baltimore Sports Museum (before it outgrew the small 19th century two-story house) was a Babe Ruth baseball card from when he played with the Baltimore Orioles. Yes, the Baltimore Orioles. Before he played for the Red Sox or Yankees, Ruth was an Oriole. This was, of course, when the Orioles were only a minor league team.

When I finished watching film of Ruth’s called shot in the 1932 World Series against the Cubs (at the fourth different venue on my trip to have video of the infamous home run), I had a game-time decision to make: either head home and then to Mississippi or Texas for small exhibits OR drive back through Kansas City and try to meet up with an author of a number of Negro League books. While I wanted to be able to sit down with the author and pick his brain, the allure of meeting the nephew that was named after me for the first time was too overwhelming.

I basically drove 10 hours out of my way to travel back home and see my friends and family for all of 14 hours and 40 minutes. I made the most of what little time I had, seeing everyone for only the second time in a year. Then it was back on the road and off to Lone Star College – CyFair in Cypress, Texas.

The traveling “Pride & Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience” exhibit that is being displayed in libraries across the country has been in Cypress for just over a month. Last month, they had speakers and hosted a group discussion. Too bad I read it as Aug. 21 rather than July 21 when one of the events actually occurred. Nonetheless, it was a relief to get out of the hot sun blazing down on Yolanda and I as she carried me through the small country known as Texas.

Time for a nap and then back on the road so that I make it back to USC before classes begin.

Next Stop: University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Interesting Fact of the Day: Japanese soldiers charging American positions during World War II screamed, “To Hell with Babe Ruth,” knowing there could be no worse insult to Americans.

Bonus Interesting Fact: For every home run at Camden Yards that clears the fences and reaches Eutaw Street on the fly, the Orioles embed a bronze, baseball-shaped plaque that lists the player, team, date and distance of the round tripper.

Quote of the Day: “I swing big, with everything I’ve got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.” – Hall of Famer Babe Ruth

Part 7 Tallies:
- Days: 4
- Full Meals: 4
- Hours of Sleep: 22
- Miles: 2,115
- Non-Destination Stops: 6
- Tolls Paid: 7
- Cost of Tolls: $39.95
- States: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas
- Rivers: 37
- Big Rig Trucks Passed: 305
- Pictures Taken: 208

Totals:
- Days on the Road: 16
- Full Meals: 21
- Hours of Sleep: 85
- Miles: 6,575
- Tolls Paid: 16
- Cost of Tolls: $70.30
- States: 26
- Rivers: 71
- Times Heard “Love the Way You Lie”: 32
- Non-Destination Stops: 29
- Big Rig Trucks Passed: 831
- Pictures Taken: 1,789

To reach reporter Shotgun Spratling, click here.