At 100, a visit to Fenway stirs memories of the Babe

Longtime Lynn man recalls 1919 meeting

Joseph Taliger, 100, was greeted by Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia Sunday at Fenway Park. (Kevin Mahar)

Walk around Fenway Park enough and you'll hear your fair share of baseball folklore, but Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia hung around the field a few extra minutes to hear Joseph Taliger's story.

Everyone knows a little something about Babe Ruth, but Taliger is one of the few people alive who can say he actually met the legendary slugger.

The meeting came in October 1919, Ruth's last season in a Red Sox uniform.

Ruth had made his way up to Lynn, Taliger's hometown, to play an exhibition game.

Taliger was 11 at the time, and he worshipped the Babe the way any wide-eyed baseball fan would, so he headed over to Little River Park, now Barry Park, to watch.

The way Taliger remembers it, Ruth hit a ball that's still in orbit somewhere, and after the game Taliger got to meet the Bambino himself.

The Red Sox invited Taliger, now 100, to Fenway for last Sunday's game against the Orioles, and Pedroia couldn't believe he was standing next to a walking time capsule.

"He couldn't get over that Joe met Babe Ruth," said Kevin Mahar, Taliger's legal guardian and friend of nearly 40 years.

The Sox gave Taliger a tour of the stadium and took him down to the field. Then Taliger watched the game from a box sponsored by General Electric, where he worked for 33 years as a carpenter. "It was like Make-A-Wish for an elder," Mahar said.

Taliger, a longtime Lynn resident, lived in the same house for 70 years before moving to the Pilgrim Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Peabody. He and Mahar became friends when Mahar worked as the union president at GE.

"He walked every single picket line at GE," Mahar said. "Out in the cold snow, rain, and the wind, but he's been there."

Now Mahar checks in on Taliger almost every day at Pilgrim Rehab, where Taliger's room is a shrine to the Sox and the host is the resident sports expert.

"He's like the mayor of Pilgrim House," Mahar said. "He's quite a guy."

The Red Sox learned about Taliger when members of the organization attended his 100th birthday party on March 19. The team was in Japan but the organization sent ambassadors to Pilgrim Rehab to meet Taliger, staying in touch and then inviting him to the park this past weekend. "It was certainly a day he'll never forget," Mahar said.

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.