Happy Mother’s Day…..

Louisville Slugger preparing the special bats used throughout Major League Baseball honoring moms on Mothers Day. 

Celebrations honoring mothers date back to the times of ancient Greece and the Holy Roman Empire. However the American version of a Mother’s Day formally honoring moms was first introduced by none other than Julia Ward Howe.

Julia Ward Howe in 1861.

A pacifist and social activist, Howe was the first American to call for the celebration of Mother’s Day with her Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870. In November of 1861 she visited the White House and met this man,

After which she wrote new words to the song John Brown’s Body which, after appearing in the February 1862 issue of Atlantic Monthly magazine, quickly became a rallying song of the Union during the Civil War. Today it is known as the Battle Hymn of the Republic. 

In 1908, this woman held a memorial for her recently deceased mother and then began a campaign to have Mother’s Day officially recognized in the United States as a holiday.

Anna Jarvis, “founded” Mother’s Day.

Interestingly, she was specific that Mother’s Day be spelled with an apostrophe as her intent was for each individual family to take the day to honor their mother, not a collective honoring of all mothers of the world!

Her efforts were successful when this fellow signed a bill into law making the second Sunday in May a national day to honor mom and officially creating Mother’s Day!

President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill into law on May 9, 1914 creating Mother’s Day. 

The following day, the Red Sox took the field at the Polo Grounds in New York and lost to the Yankees 3-2 on the their first Mother’s Day game. They didn’t use pink bats.

Today at Fenway Park Daniel Bard will try to pitch his team to their third straight win over former Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson and his Cleveland Indians.

The bases and the bats will reflect the day.

Mom’s been gone for 27 years but there is not a day that goes by that I am not reminded of how fortunate was I that God chose her to bring me here. Thanks Mom and 

And so it is on this day in Fenway Park history, Mother’s Day 2012.