Mike Brown works in Manhattan, lives in New Jersey and is a star at 216 Emory St. in Baltimore.
The little rowhouse at that address is the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum. A few weeks ago, Brown paid a memorable visit to the museum, leaving a collection of Ruth memorabilia that would startle even the Sultan of Swat.
Brown, 55, lent the museum dozens of rare items worth tens of thousands of dollars, many of which go on display Monday, when the refurbished museum opens.
Included is a 1928 Babe Ruth baseball board game, a Ruth wristwatch bearing the slugger's image and signature and a series of Ruth comic books published shortly after his death in 1948.
The collector isn't getting paid for his trouble, nor does he want to. His reward, Brown said, simply is being part of the museum's yearlong celebration of the Babe's 100th birthday, which is Monday.
"It's my 15 minutes in the spotlight, if you will," said Brown, who runs a marketing research firm in New York. "I can imagine people walking through [the museum], stopping and saying, 'Wow, I can't believe they had Babe Ruth dolls or baseball games. . . . Never saw that before.' I'll get a big kick out of that."
Brown is among the many Ruth collectors and fans eagerly awaiting the Babe's busiest year in a long, long time.
The museum's festivities include a 100th birthday party for Ruth on Monday night at Oriole Park. The Babe would have approved of the menu: champagne, beer and hot dogs.
If guests wander over to the Babe Ruth Museum, that would be fine with executive director Mike Gibbons. For more than a year, Gibbons and other officials have been planning for the Ruth centennial and the national exposure it brings.
An extensive renovation of the museum was completed this week. The 12-foot-wide rowhouse -- Ruth's actual birthplace, which sits within the larger museum -- pain- stakingly has been restored to its condition when the home run hitter was born there, Feb. 6, 1895.
Exhibit areas have been changed. In recent years, the museum broadened its focus, becoming an archive for collectibles having to do with the Orioles and with ballplayers or teams coming from Maryland.
One-man gang
When the refurbished museum opens Monday, Ruth will be almost the whole show. His life will occupy almost every room and display case. A second-floor room is now a gallery of Ruthian fine art, including about 40 paintings and sculptures.
