Home Plate Farm is located on 558 Dutton Road in Sudbury, Massachusetts

Sudbury, Massachusetts

Sudbury is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, population 17,659. The town was incorporated in 1639, with the original boundaries including what is now Wayland. Wayland split from Sudbury in 1780. When first incorporated, it included and parts of Framingham, Marlborough, Stow...

. It was the home of baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 legend Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth

George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...

 from 1922 to 1926. Ruth sold it to Herb Atkinson who established Sudbury Laboratories on the site. It was in this neighborhood that the celebrated but possibly apocryphal 1918 incident occurred when Ruth supposedly threw a piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 into a pond to demonstrate his strength.

Another urban legend

Urban legend

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...

 concerning the site revolves around a teenaged boy, Lee Gavin, who was struck by a batted ball during an August 31, 2004 baseball game at Fenway Park

Fenway Park

Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...

 between the Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...

 and the Los Angeles Angels. Gavin lived at the Home Plate Farm site, and this incident is supposed to have presaged the Red Sox winning the World Series later in 2004, thus ending the Curse of the Bambino

Curse of the Bambino

The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004...

. The Red Sox won the game 10-7 while the New York Yankees

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

 lost 22-0 to the Cleveland Indians

Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...

 on the same night.

External links

• Historic Sudbury Trail website, including description of Home Plate Farm
• Aerial view of Home Plate Farm from USGS via Microsoft Research Maps
• News account of Lee Gavin incident from the Boston Globe