Sunday, March 27, 2011

Babe Bisignano

Babe_b
My grandfather Bill Hyland was quite the ball player in the early 1940's for Dowling Catholic High.  Later in life, after I came around, he was quite the storyteller.  The two came together often when he would talk about Babe Bisignano, a larger than life Des Moines business man who ran THE DSM restaurant "Babes" for 52 years.  As grandfather would tell it, Babe took him under is wing when he was playing shortstop and introduced him to all the important folks in town including all the sportswriters who might help him make it to the next level.  Just how deep this relationship truly was we will never know as both have passed away but I do know that my grandfather made it into the Yankees organization after HS and that Babe was a fixture in his stories until the end.  Reading this article by Chuck Offenburger tells a very similar tale, from the sounds of it he was the character my gramps talked about. 

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