Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 03, 2007
Oldest Red Sox Fan Passes

The Boston Globe notes the passing of Kathryn Gemme at 112 years. Not only did she attend Fenway Park the year it opened, but was one of the few people alive who was old enough to remember all of the Red Sox championship seasons.

Long before any of today's players were alive, Mrs. Gemme used to sit next to a crystal radio set summer after summer and listen to the games, filling page after page with notes about each at-bat.

"She always had a yellow legal pad in her lap and she would write every play -- runs, hits, errors, she kept everything," her daughter said. "She knew all the team members, she knew their batting averages. She'd yell at them, 'Do it, do it! You can do it!' "

When her husband, Ovella, returned home from work, "we'd sit down at the table and she would read it to him," her daughter said.

My grandmother Pinto didn't score the games, but she used to listen and tell my father and brothers the details when they came home from work. I suspect that was pretty common in the era of day games. My condolences to her family and friends. What a great age, however.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:33 AM | Deaths • | Deaths | TrackBack (0)
Comments

My grandparents watch (and score) just about every Red Sox game. They are 94 years old, so they MAY remember the last Chamionship... My grandmother is the person that taught me how to keep a box score. Somewhere in their attic is probably a box of steno pads with 75 years of box scores in it...

Posted by: Mr. Furious at January 3, 2007 03:31 PM

Rest easy, Mrs Gemme.

Posted by: Josh at January 4, 2007 07:28 PM
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