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Health & Fitness

God Bless You, Ruth Gruver

Sometimes fields of dreams come true.

Ladies' league hardball ended in Bingen, Lower Saucon Township, as the summer of 1942 ended. Several locals say that Ruth threw the fastball at a greater velocity than the rest of female hurlers and all the men in the leagues of their own.

If you are fortunate enough to own Volume 1 of Saucon Secrets, you need to locate the story of Ruth Gruver and the Bingenettes. Recently, in conversation with her niece, Janet Gruver, she told me that she had found an old baseball in the Gruver Hotel of Bingen, her aunt's home. Since I had known them for several years, I asked for permission to purchase the keepsake to add to my very small collection of baseballs, autographed by my favorite ball players over the years: Rich Ashburn, center fielder of the famed 'Whiz Kids' who played for the Phillies in the 1950 World Series against the Yankees; Jim Eisenreich, right fielder for the Phils on that zany 1993 team who played against the Blue Jays in the Series; and Robert "Bobby" Weidner, who played several years of Hellertown Little League at first base during the 1990s.

Thank goodness and the Gruver ladies that the old weathered ball is now part of my collection. Little did I know that it was the last ball thrown in the last gameof the last season of the Bingenettes. It rests on the "baseball bookshelf" in my apartment and is equally cherished as the other three.

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Another personally valued piece of memorabilia is the same Horlacher's Beer tray from 1902 used to serve pretzels at the Gruvers' Hotel bar room. It is pictured in Saucon Secrets being held by Ruth when I interviewed her about seven years ago.

However, that's another story. Incidentally, my new baseball is signed "Ruth Gruver, 1942, Bingenettes," by that gracious lady. Sometimes fields of dreams come true.

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