Dec. 18, 1961 - Ping Bodie (pictured left in 1920), the slugging outfielder who was a former roommate of Babe Ruth (right), died of cancer today in San Francisco. He was 74. In 1910, playing with the San Francisco Seals, he hit the then-fantastic total of 30 home runs, and quickly broke into the big leagues with the White Sox in 1911. Though he was Babe Ruth’s roommate after he became a Yankee, he always denied it. “It isn’t so,” he would say. “I room with his suitcase.” His name actually was Francis Stephano Pezzolo. He once lived in Bodie, Calif., a fact that accounted for the name under which he played. The Ping came from the sound made when his 52-ounce bat crashed into the “dead” baseball of his era.
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