Newspaper Page Text
Legends die hard
Ruth’s will live on
By FRED DOWN
UPI Sports Writer
NEW YORK (UPI) - Le
gends die hard and the legend
)f Babe Ruth will live on even
Jfter Hank Aaron becomes
baseball’s new all-time home
■un king.
It must be difficult for
current fans to understand why
luth, who died 25 years ago
oday, will remain the all-time
lome-run king in the minds of
nillions of Americans after
Karon surpasses his greatest
•ecord. Some of them undoubt
edly are racists and others are
>rofessional old-timers who
'earn for “the good old days of
heir youth.”
But many others are average
>eople who were awed by the
light of Ruthian majesty and
lave never been as emotionally
iffected by Aaron or any other
ithlete. Some of these aren’t
•ven baseball fans. They may
ie housewives who heard their
tusbands talk about Ruth and
hen saw him in a game or a
ailroad station and remember
t as a shining moment when
hey saw a special kind of
yeatness.
Those who will continue to
egard Ruth as the all-time
tome-run king can support
heir belief by showing the
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Babe averaged 8.5 homers for
every 100 at-bats while Aaron
has averaged 5.7 for every 100
atrbats. They also can point out
that Ruth often hit more
homers in a season than any
team in baseball... that as late
as 1927 he was hitting 14 per
cent of all the homers hit by
American League players ...
and that from 1920 through 1933
he hit a total of 637 homers or
an average of 45.5 per season.
Such figures form the basis of
the “case for the Babe” but
statisticians don’t create le
gends. Not like this one,
anyway.
Babe Saves Baseball
Ruth was a man who lived
the American dream beginning
with his youth which was spent
in St. Mary’s Orphanage in
Baltimore, Md. He joined the
Boston Red Sox in 1914, the
year World War I started, and
was acquired by the New York
Yankees in 1920, the year after
the Black Sox World Series
scandal. The latter date is
pivotal. Baseball’s honor lay in
the gutter as a result of the
scandal and the Babe reached
down with his 52-ounce bat and
lifted it to the status of the
national pastime.
This Ruth was not the
overblown Ruth of 1930 with his
250-pound Santa Claus-like body
supported by spindly legs. This
was a lean and hard, 6-foot, 3-
inch, 215-pound super athlete.
These were the Roaring Twen
ties in the United States which
had turned its thoughts to fun
after having taken part in the
“war to end wars.”
It was an era of wonderful
nonsense and Ruth strode
through it like every man
turned loose in the Garden of
Fun. He was big and coarse ...
tramping through life with a
reckless abandon ... eating,
drinking and brawling with
astonishing appetite. His Ruthi
an power literally saved and
transformed the game. Base
ball was a game of pitching,
stolen bases, bunts and hit-and
run plays before he appeared
on the scene. He gave the game
its new dimension of power—its
essential element of ex
citement.
The United States was
enjoying life on a scale the
work! may never have seen
before and no one was enjoying
it more than Ruth.
A Very Simple Man
Frank Graham, who traveled
with Ruth as a sports writer for
the New York Sun, described
the Ruth of that era as follows:
“He was a very simple man,
in some ways a primitive man.
He had little education and
little need for what he had. For
it was as if his life had been
ordered for him, so that he did
not have to turn a page in a
book or do sums in arithmetic
to gain the knowledge he
needed to become rich and
famous.
“He traveled the world over,
yet when his travels were done
he could tell you nothing about
the places he had been save the
places where he had had fun.
He literally walked with kings,
yet he couldn’t remember their
names. He couldn’t even tell
you the names of all his
teammates, although he had
names of his own for them such
as Chicken Neck, Flop Ears,
Duck Eye, Horse Nose and
Rubber Belly.
“His appetites were prodi
gious and as long as he was in
robust health—and he was for
almost all of his life—he made
no effort to restrain them. The
jug and the platter were as
much a part of his existence as
the bat and the ball. He had a
fondness for automobiles which
he drove at such terrific speeds
as to wear them out or, in
reckless moments, wrap them
around telegraph poles.
“He was warm-hearted, fabu
lously generous, genuinely fond
of children, greatly moved by
the ills and trials of others,
devoted to his family and his
friends—and would not have
known how to deal with an
enemy for the simple reason
that he never had one.”
This was the Ruth my father
took me to see when I was nine
years old. My father was a
Giant fan, who hated the
Yankees and believed John
McGraw was the greatest man
in baseball history but he
announced one day in 1934 that
we were going to Yankee
Stadium.
Never Went Before
“I’ve never gone there
before,” he said. “But I want
my son to be able to say he
saw Babe Ruth play.”
That son has only the vaguest
recollection of seeing Ruth play
in 1934 but in 1947, as a young
sports writer, he saw him
again. The occasion was one of
the earliest of the Old-Timers
Day promotions, the Yankees
having asked a batch of the
famous old heroes to take a
bow. Ruth, of course, was the
big attraction and I was in the
Yankee clubhouse along with
the players and other writers
when the word came that Ruth
had reached the stadium.
We had been sitting around
talking about Ruth and the old
days ... arguing whether, in
fact, Ty Cobb or Bonus Wagner
or Wee Willie Keeler was a
greater player... remembering
his exploits ... in short, talking
baseball.
And then, suddenly, the door
to the clubhouse flew open and
there he was.
Every man in the room rose
to his feet as Ruth stood in the
doorway, thinner and paler
than anyone had expected, but
still an imposing figure. He
hesitated a moment and then
strode down the center of the
clubhouse and with a wave of
his arm called out, “Hiya
kids.” I never again had to ask
whether he was, in fact, the
best of them all.
And yet a teammate like
Harry Hooper, who played in
the American League from 1909
through 1925, admits it all
seemed unbelievable.
He Couldn’t Believe It
“You know, I saw it all
happen from beginning to end
but sometimes I still can’t
believe what I saw,” Hooper
said many years later. “This
19-year old kid, crude, poorly
educated, only lightly touched
by the social veneer we call
civilization, gradually trans
formed into the idol of
American youth and the symbol
of baseball the world over—-a
man loved by more people and
with an intensity of feeling that
perhaps has never been equaled
before or since.
Ruth was an outstanding
pitcher who had successive 18-
8, 23-12 and 24-13 records from
1915 through 1917. He hit a total
of nine homers in 351 at bats
during those three seasons and
in 1918 was used as a pitcher,
first baseman and outfielder.
He had a 13-7 record as a
pitcher and tied for the league
lead with 11 homers. He
appeared in 130 games, but
only 17 as a pitcher in 1919, and
set a new major league record
of 29 homers in one season.
At this point, Yankee club
owner Jacob Ruppert learned
that Harry Frazee, who owned
the Red Sox, was short of
money. Ruppert offered Frazee
$125,000 and Ruth became a
Yankee. The man and the hour
were at hand.
From 1920 through 1933,
Ruth’s season home run totals
were 54, 59, 35,41, 46, 25, 47, 60,
54, 46, 49, 46, 41 and 34. The
figures are impressive enough
today but in that era were
awesome. He hit balls farther
and higher than anyone
dreamed possible. He hit more
home runs than teams did. He
made the fans forget the Black
Sox. Yankee Stadium was
constructed and called the
House that Ruth Built.
He Founds a Dynasty
He founded the Yankee
dynasty that lasted 43 years
until 1964. He combined power
and consistency at the plate so
that his lifetime average was
.342. He called a home run in a
World Series game. His once
lean and arrogant face of youth
became the jolly rdund face of
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NEW YORK—In anticipation of the 25th anniversary of the death of Babe Ruth,
groundskeeper Carlos Cortes polishes the monument to the Babe. The monument is located
in center field—along with others honoring Lou Gehrig and Miller Huggins. (UPI)
an American folk hero. Years |r- n | M p jg-fti
later, Japanese soldiers charg- |_L.H Ul Nil -M
BATTERS yd $ WRESTLING *
War II would cry out whal they J ■» ItW Ifal I'V *
‘^rh Ug h t i7 aS th q R U h il R at fV” By United Press International As Mid-South Sports
“The hell with Babe Ruth.” J KI, F:l‘,V)a n .■ C
Leading Batters Promotions 4(
The Yankees brought him National League £ w
back to a couple of old-timers g. ab r. h. pct. F* PALACE
games but he never filled Rose, Cin 121 501 89 173 .345 4( yt
Yankee Stadium in his life as Wtsn, Hou 123 458 79 144 .314
he did in death. He died on a Crdnl,Chi 111 404 63 127 .314 MAIN EVENT
steaming hot Aug. 16, 1948 and Cdno.Hou 102 385 66 121 .314 r-g fSk A MAN TAG TEAM *
there was, of course, only one Unsr.Phil 100 317 48 99 .312 4t I *
place in New York big enough Perz.Cin 114 420 54 130 .310 I -I W J- C. DYKES W
to hold the wake: Yankee Maddx,SFlo3 408 55 126 .309 F* Q ~'r AND "w
Stadium. Hunt.Mtl 109 392 61 120 .306 4( Z tuc INFFRNOS O' Ml F*
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had thrilled and awed—ln long Grubb - SD 91 320 43 93 .306 . 808 ORTON JR. »** ■Jr
lines for three days and nights American League
to pay their final respects, g. ab r. h. pct. 4C AND
filing slowly past the bier in the Carw.Min 111 435 71 155 .356 L 4 JACK & ROY LEE WELCH
rotunda of the huge stadium. Hortn.Det 80 294 35 97 .330 |O:
He was buried from St. May,Mil 117 479 74 155 .324 fttafe BUDDY COLT jMMfck L
Patrick’s Cathedral where Mrcr.NY 122 469 65 150 .320 W* 51 ! FT! ■yt
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delivered the eulogy. MAlou.NYlll 447 59 138 .309 % / 808 ARMSTRONG
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actmg as pall fearers carried NrU)rp „ Jm ■£ MM TRtHUIII TO IUM JONES J
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turned to Waite Hoyt, wiped the Home Runs -yf
sweat from his forehead with a National League: Evans, Atl Z TLI | C \ GRIFFIN SPORTS PALACE
handkerchief and said, “Boy, and Stargell, Pitt 34; Johnson, J / THIS \ OTUB O rHLHUC
could I use a beer about now.” Atl and Bonds, SF 32; Aaron, y* I CAT | ass
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Oak27; Mayberry andOtis.KC 0 X^~ r FlttE rAKMIW
The Babe would have loved 23; Robinson, Cal 22; Fisk, Bos
that one. and Hendrick, Clev 21.
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an American folk hero. Years
later, Japanese soldiers charg
ing U.S. positions in the
Southwest Pacific during World
War II would cry out what they
thought was the ultimate insult,
“The hell with Babe Ruth.”
The Yankees brought him
back to a couple of old-timers
games but he never filled
Yankee Stadium in his life as
he did in death. He died on a
steaming hot Aug. 16, 1948 and
there was, of course, only one
place in New York big enough
to hold the wake: Yankee
Stadium.
They came—the people he
had thrilled and awed—in long
lines for three days and nights
to pay their final respects,
filing slowly past the bier in the
rotunda of the huge stadium.
He was buried from St.
Patrick’s Cathedral where
Francis Cardinal Spellman
delivered the eulogy.
As his former teammates,
acting as pall bearers, carried
the coffin down the center aisle
of the cathedral, Joe Dugan
turned to Waite Hoyt, wiped the
sweat from his forehead with a
handkerchief and said, “Boy,
could I use a beer about now.”
“So could the Babe,” said
Hoyt.
The Babe would have loved
that one.
Page 19
Griffin Daily News Thursday, August 16,1973
Inter-circuit
play blocked
MILWAUKEE (UPI) — Base
ball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn
and American League owners,
their hopes for inter-league
play next year blocked by the
National league, broke up the
summer meetings today visibly
disappointed but still hopeful
for the future.
Kuhn appeared before the
major league executive council
and made a personal and
passionate plea for a limited
number of inter-league games—
something he felt would stimu
late fan interest.
But, he failed to shake the
unanimity of the National
League against the revolution
ary plan that would have each
American League team playing
one National League team in a
four-game, home-and-home se
ries.
“We still feel the same way,”
one National League official
said after separate sessions of
the two leagues Wednesday. “I
didn’t notice any sentiment for
inter-league play. We don’t
need it.”
Milwaukee Brewers’ Presi
dent Allan “Bud” Selig, a
member of the special commit
tee on inter-league play, still
planned to present his proposal
to the closing session of the
summer major league mee
tings, but it was doubtful if the
issue would be forced.