• A fun fact inspired by a recent Chronogram answer

• Answers to last week's games

• A Metazooa update

Babe Ruth wasn’t a pitcher, but he was a stitcher

The young son of a saloon owner was determined from a very early age to make his mark. Whether that was by breaking windows or making trouble for local shopkeepers, his notoriety soon earned him an invitation to leave home.

At age seven, young George Herman Ruth was sent to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. While it’s true he played baseball every chance he got, playing in as many as 200 games per year, his sights were not always set on clearing the fences. During his time at St. Mary’s, George discovered he had an incredible talent — for making shirts! So much so that he was hired for an apprentice position in the school’s tailor shop. Of course the rest of the world knows him for uncanny ability to blast homeruns. Recruited at the age of 19 by famed professional baseball recruiter Jack Dunn, the young baseballer became known as “the Great Bambino” or “Babe” Ruth (Chronogram guest #369).

While his career as one of the greatest sluggers in the history of the game has been widely celebrated for over a century, few people celebrate the vocational skill of the young man determined to set his life straight and hold a meaningful job. The patience required to make and cut patterns, create button holes and stitch a perfect collar must have, in some way, contributed to the confidence of a young pitcher who also would become master of the bat. From the pitcher’s mound in Boston to the batter’s box at Yankee stadium, the Bronx Bomber tailored the game of baseball to his own design, hitting 714 career home runs, a record which stood for 40 years, captivating a nation of fans and historians alike. His overwhelming success is a constant reminder that legends are much more than the records they hold.

Answers to last week's games

Monday, March 25 to Sunday, March 31.

Linxicon

The following are the shortest paths from last week:

• #49 draw -> drawings -> landscapes -> rural

• #50 rarely -> regularly -> monthly -> payments -> mortgage

• #51 even -> every -> often -> few

• #52 thus -> furthermore -> additionally -> addition -> offer

• #53 generate -> making -> feeling -> touching -> soft

• #54 concentrate -> habit -> daily -> annual

• #55 agreement -> disagreement -> dialogue -> directed -> direct

• #56 Play now!

Forgeous

de Crayer, Gaspar. Philip IV (1605–1665) in Parade Armor. 1628, oil paint on canvas, 182.9 x 118.1 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436049.

Play Forgeous for April 7.