Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Bride of the Yankees
Today brings word of the passing of the actress Teresa Wright, best known for her mid-40s "girl next door" roles that brought her multiple Oscar nominations. Baseball fans may remember her idealized portrayal of Elinor Gehrig, the Iron Horse's wife, in Pride of the Yankees, yet another Oscar-nominated role. In one of those very odd confusions of fictive entertainment and reality, the Yankees invited her -- as the one-time person who played the part of Gehrig's wife -- to throw out a ball at the Stadium in 1998 to honor the anniversary of the real Lou Gehrig's "Luckiest Man Alive" speech. At the time, this seemed to me to be the height of the absurdity of baseball's self-mythologizing.
There's a nice ending to the story, though. Wright had, at the age of eighty, never been to a baseball game in her life. She apparently became entranced by the "theater" of baseball, and the old trouper became a devoted baseball fan thenceforth. Never too late to become a fan!
So today let's honor the memory of Teresa Wright -- baseball fan.
posted by The Crank 7:46 AM
