PEABODY – With balloons donning the back of his wheelchair, wearing his favorite Red Sox jacket and surrounded by some of his closest friends, Joseph Taliger turned 100 years old Wednesday.The ceremony at the Pilgrim Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Peabody, where the long-time Lynn resident has lived for the last three years, was more than just a birthday party; it was an opportunity for dozens of individuals to show their appreciation and respect for a family man who has made a difference in the lives of countless individuals over the last century.Taliger was born March 19, 1908 in Watervliet, N.Y., but moved to West Lynn at the age of five, where he would spend the next 92 years becoming ingrained in the community.As a child he ran down Revere Street to a local farm to pick up milk for his mother, and spent his days and nights on the baseball diamond at Little River Park, near what is now Barry Park, where Lynn once hosted some of the era’s best baseball players – including one George Herman “Babe” Ruth.To hear Taliger talk about baseball in early 1900s Lynn, one would think he just took off his spikes and sat down for a post-game meal. The former catcher remembers every detail, from players and managers’ names, to which teams in the area his Lynn Outlaws used to beat up on during their “scrub” baseball games after school.”I used to come home from school and go right to the playground – that is where I spent my life,” he said. “My stepfather was great to me, but he never wanted me to play baseball because he was afraid I’d get hurt. Of course, I did anyway. I played with the Lynn Outlaws until I was 16.”Taliger can remember battling teams from Salem, and the Outlaws’ fiercest rival, the Lynn Flyers, who were even given the opportunity to play at Fenway Park.Then there is Ruth.Arguably the greatest player in baseball history, and the original Home Run King in an era where hitting the long ball was no easy task, Ruth paid a visit to the City of Firsts as a member of the World Champion Boston Red Sox in 1919, just months before he was famously sold to the New York Yankees.Ruth and other major-leaguers came to Little River to play an exhibition game against the semi-pro Lynn Coronets that summer, and an 11-year-old Taliger was not only in attendance, he was lucky enough to sit just a few feet away as the Bambino launched a home run.”Babe Ruth hit a home run over the 470-foot center field fence at Little River that day,” Taliger remembered. “It landed behind the park in a small dump on Laurel Street. I ran back there to try and find it, but I never could.”Like so many others in Lynn, Taliger moved on to spend his adult life working at the General Electric plant, where he was employed as a carpenter from 1936-1973 when he was forced into retirement because he had reached age 65.Taliger is better remembered among his peers at the plant for his work in the labor rights movement, where he helped organize the first worker’s union in 1936 to fight for fair wages and benefits for all employees.As his long-time friend and legal guardian Kevin Mahar added, Taliger was more than dedicated to the effort, having been on every single picket line – to this day – since 1936.In his retirement, Taliger saw GE pull out of West Lynn in favor of a new plant in Wilmington, and has continued to fight for the rights of retired workers who are receiving what he perceives as low-ball pensions from the company. He holds true to the movement, still donning his IUE 201 Retirees hat, and standing firm that former GE CEO Jack Welch “ruined Lynn.”Taliger was married to his wife, Eva, for 69 years before her death, and raised a son and daughter in the Spencer Street home that his stepfather helped re-build, and that he still owns today.”I lived on Boston Street for about 12 years, then we moved to 88 Spencer St. I lived there for over 70 years,” he said. “We did a lot of work on it. Nobody had any money to spend on houses back then – they used what