OBERLIN — Growing up in Penfield, Willis “Buster” Gardner never expected that he’d end up meeting numerous baseball legends and icons, while being flown all over the country to make appearances at stadiums spanning from little leagues to the majors, not because of his skill on the baseball diamond, but because of the way he looks. “I would ask my dad, ‘Can I go play ball,’ and he would tell me, ‘When the chores are done.’ By the time the chores were done, it was dark,” Gardner said. “I’ve always had to work hard. Ever since I was five years old, I’ve worked hard.” After he and his wife, Cecile, started their own family, his children began to notice something about their father. In the family’s home, just outside of Oberlin, the Gardners had a picture of Babe Ruth hanging on the wall. “The kids would always say, ‘Dad, this is you,'” Gardner said. “I would say, ‘Nah, that’s not me,’ but the resemblance was uncanny.” While Gardner knew he looked like Babe Ruth, he really didn’t think much of it, until he went to the filming of “Babe Ruth” in Cleveland. Gardner was given cast as an extra in the film. The following year, a friend convinced Gardner to take a trip to Cooperstown N.Y., the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. After that trip, he knew he and his children weren’t the only ones who saw the resemblance. “It just happened to be induction weekend at the hall of fame. When we walked in, the people said, ‘The Babe is back!'”
Gardner talked with some people during the trip that told him he had to take advantage of his looks. A woman in Cooperstown made a replica of Babe Ruth’s uniform for Gardner. Suddenly, at age 53, Gardner became one of the world’s best know Babe Ruth look-alikes. Coincidently, Ruth passed away at that very age from pneumonia after a battle with cancer. The Babe Ruth League, a youth baseball organization similar to Little League Baseball, began having Gardner make appearances all over the country at its games. He also became a staple at the induction ceremonies at the Baseball Hall of Fame, an event he hasn’t missed in twenty years. “My wife and I have been all over the United States because of it,” Gardner said. “I’ve been the grand marshal at event all over for the Babe Ruth League.” At the events, Gardner usually is just asked to walk around and meet people in his uniform and throw out the first pitch before games. Gardner received recognition for his resemblance from someone very special to Babe Ruth during a chance encounter. One day, while walking down a street in Cooperstown, a woman pointed at him, walked over to him, and said, “You’re the grandfather I never got the chance to meet.” The woman was Linda Ruth-Tosetti, Babe Ruth’s granddaughter. “It was awesome to meet her,” Gardner said. “When she said that, it gave me chills.” “We met her on the street. She didn’t know us, and we didn’t know her,” Cecile Gardner. “They then went and had their picture taken together at a studio in Cooperstown.” For years Gardner and his wife would make 15 to 20 appearances a year all over the country. He also makes local appearances in places like Oberlin, and at the Woolly Bear Festival in Vermilion. In 1998 Gardner was asked to make an appearance at the opening of Bank One Ballpark, now named Chase Field, which is the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He’s also met numerous legends from the game of baseball such as Pete Rose, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, George Steinbrenner, Whitey Ford, Don Larson, Bob Feller, and Joe Torre, to name a few. He’s also met Billy Crystal and Rudy Gulliani, all because of the way he looks. “It’s been an amazing ride,” Gardner said. Over the past few years, due to getting older, Gardner hasn’t been doing as many appearances. But the 75-year-old still was more than willing to board a private jet and fly to Miller Park in Milwaukee earlier this year when asked to make an appearance before a Brewers game. A couple weeks ago, the Gardners traveled to New York City, to take part in a Babe Ruth look-alike contest at Gallagher’s Steakhouse in Manhattan. Gardner took first place in the contest. One of his favorite moments over the past 20 years was when Tosetti called him and asked him to come to Cooperstown because the Hall of Fame had renovated the room dedicated to her grandfather. Gardner and Tosetti were standing in the refurbished room when a man turned around and asked Gardner, “What the hell are you doing here?” “I just wanted to see what they did with my room,” Gardner replied. The man turned white, muttered an expletive, and hurried out of the room. “That’s the honest-to-God’s truth,” Gardner said with a wide smile. “It was so funny.”
