Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/742011
46 • S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S In 1946 Bing purchased a stake in the Pittsburgh Pirates, providing comedic fodder for his friendly rivalry with Bob Hope, his friend and co-star in seven hilarious "Road To" pictures. Hope, a part-owner of the Cleveland Indians, which won the 1948 World Series, slung barbs at Bing for a dozen years until the Pirates took the pendant in 1960. Hearing of Bing's death earlier on the day of the start of Game Three of the 1977 World Series in Los Angeles, the opening pitch was briefly delayed when Major League Baseball honored one of its most devoted fans with a moment of silence. Bing's support of baseball extended beyond the major leagues: the Bing Crosby Stadium in Front Royal, Virginia, honors its namesake for the important contribution he made in the building of a new ballpark for the youth of that community. Hardy fame), and businessman Charles S. Howard (owner of Seabiscuit, the greatest thoroughbred race horse of all time)— formed the Del Mar Racing Association. They pooled their resources to build the Del Mar Racetrack, a thoroughbred racing track 20 miles north of San Diego, and Crosby wrote and recorded "Where the Turf Meets the Surf" as its theme song. On August 12, 1938, Bing stood at the front gate to personally welcome a record crowd that gathered to watch his colt, Ligaroti, challenge "the people's champion," Seabiscuit, ridden by Canadian-born jockey, George "The Iceman" Woolf in a one-on- one, $25,000 winner-take-all race. In an amazing rivalry, Lindsay Howard, son of Seabiscuit's owner, Charles Howard, rode Ligaroti. Broadcast on NBC Radio, the crowd went wild as Seabiscuit won by barely a nose in one of the most incredible finishes in the history of horseracing. and created the Bing Crosby National Pro- Am Tournament, affectionately called the "Crosby Clambake." Rechristened in 1985 as the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Golf Tournament, it is one of the oldest tournaments on the PGA circuit and continues to raise millions of dollars for charity. Bing made history again in the early '70s when he fought with the PGA to allow women to play—among the players on the distaff side, his second wife, actress Kathryn Grant Crosby, mother of the three youngest of his seven children. (Bing's youngest child, investment banker Nathaniel Crosby, was low amateur in the 1982 U.S. Open and winner of the Porter Cup that same year.) Bing also had a passion for fast horses. A few months after the first Crosby Clambake, he and some friends—actors Pat O'Brien and Gary Cooper, comedic stars Joe E. Brown and Oliver Hardy (of Laurel & Bing Crosby on a quail hunt at medway Plantation in 1966. Image CourteSy College oF CharleSton