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The Search for Babe Ruth’s Piano: Divers Locate Section of Piano in Willis Lake, Sudbury, MA

Since I play piano, and like to party, I completely understand all the possible reasons why, back at the turn of the century,  someone like Babe Ruth would want to invite people to his cabin on Willis Lake in Sudbury, MA, roll his piano out onto the icy surface, have a party out there and then forget to roll the piano back into the house. Those Red Sox must have been really something.

Low and behold, piano experts confirmed yesterday that a piece of wood found by divers at the bottom of Willis Lake is a section of veneer from a piano.  A local Sudbury Resident, Kevin Kennedy, has been on a mission to locate the piano which as local lore has it, was burned and sunk by two youths in 1973, who now live in Grafton, MA.

“The shape of the veneer matches the side of an upright piano that gives you the clue that it’s from a piano. The veneer is approximately 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick” says, David Sanderson, owner of Sanderson Piano in Littleton, MA.

Babe Ruth was an American sports hero and icon whom everyone loved.  He could do everything. He pitched lefty for the Red Sox in 1914 and in 1918, led the American League with 11 home runs, in only 59 games as an outfielder. The next season he started just 15 games on the mound and led the league in homers again, with an unheard of total of 29.

Then came that fateful day in 1920 when Babe Ruth, our beloved Bambino,  was traded to the Yankees, where he continued his magic and ended that season with an astonishing .847 average.  Boston was crushed  and the impact of the trade was looked upon as “the curse”.  Over the next fifteen years Ruth hit hundreds of home runs. The Yankees won seven World Series. Babe’s trade to the Yankees, “the curse”, continued to haunt Red Sox fans for another 86 years.

“The curse” became such a part of Boston culture and lore that when the familiar road sign on Storrow Drive was vandalized from “Reverse Curve” to “Reverse The Curse”, the city left it in place until after the Red Sox won the 2004 Series.

The victorious Sox defeated the Cardinals four games to none in the best-of-seven series between October 23 and October 27, 2004. Fans pasted bumper stickers that said, “The curse is reversed”.

Wouldn’t it be a sacred moment to have in our hands a shred of evidence that the great, legendary slugger, Babe Ruth, lived and partied on such a small, obscure Lake in Massachusetts?

Check out this video commemoration of that victorious day in October of 2004: