Babe Ruth: Legends in Sports

by Matt Christopher

  Ruth howled in pain. The middle knuckle of his pitching hand started to swell. Manager Barry was understandably upset. “You fool,” he snarled. “You’re supposed to pitch tomorrow!”

  A chagrined Ruth knew he’d messed up. He gritted his teeth and said, “I’ll be okay. I’ll pitch tomorrow.”

  Sure enough, Ruth took the mound for the fourth game of the series. His swollen hand made it difficult for him to grip the ball. Despite giving up a large number of hits and walks, he managed to keep the Cubs in check.

  In the fourth inning he came to bat with two men on base. After working the count to 3–2, he smacked a long drive over the head of the right fielder for a triple. As one newspaper reporter put it, the hit made “a sound like rifle shot [that] echoed through the park.” Boston led 2–0 at that point.

  Unfortunately, Ruth tired in the eighth inning and the Cubs scored twice to tie the game. Few people realized it at the time, but these two runs ended an unbelievable streak. Ruth had pitched 292/3 consecutive scoreless innings in the World Series, a new record that would stand for another 42 years until broken by Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford.

  In the Boston eighth, the Red Sox managed to push across another run to go ahead 3–2. Ruth started the ninth, and then he left for a reliever. The Red Sox won to go ahead in the series, three games to one.

  Two days later, the Red Sox took the world championship. Ruth received credit for two wins, but apart from a late appearance in the outfield in the final game, he sat on the bench the rest of the series.

  It had been an incredible year for the Babe, and one that was never to be repeated. No one knew it yet, but Ruth’s career as a pitcher — and as a member of the Boston Red Sox — was just about over.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  1919–1923

  Becoming the Bambino

  On November 11, 1918, World War I ended and baseball returned to normal. Most of the players the Red Sox had lost during the war rejoined the team. The defending champions looked even stronger than before.

  Buoyed by his stellar season the previous year, Ruth felt he deserved more money. The trouble was, he already had a contract for $7,000 a year. When Harry Frazee refused to raise his salary, Ruth held out, refusing to play in 1919 unless he received a big raise. Spring training had already started when Frazee reluctantly signed him to a new three-year contract worth $10,000 a season, one of the biggest contracts in baseball. Ruth reported to camp in Tampa, Florida, and immediately got everyone’s attention.

  In the off-season Ruth had come to a decision. Even though he was one of the best hurlers in baseball, he didn’t want to pitch anymore. He just wanted to hit. So the first time he took the field, in the first exhibition game against the New York Giants, he played the outfield.

  He came to bat in the second inning. The pitcher threw and Ruth took a great wallop. Boom! The bat connected with the ball and made an unmistakable sound. In a heartbeat the ball sailed over the right-fielders head and just kept going. By the time the outfielder hopped over the short fence and retrieved the ball, Ruth had long since reached home plate.

  After the game several people attempted to measure how far the home run had traveled. According to some accounts the ball traveled an amazing 600 feet!

  When the Red Sox opened the season a few weeks later, Ruth was still in the outfield. In less than a week, he found himself in big trouble.

  While the Red Sox played in Washington, Ruth stayed out all night. A hotel worker woke Barrow when Ruth returned at six in the morning. The manager knocked on Ruth’s door. Ruth, still dressed and smoking a pipe, quickly jumped under the covers, pulled them up to his neck, and told the manager to come in.

  Barrow entered, walked over to the bed, and pulled the covers down, revealing Ruth still in his street clothes. He gave Ruth a disgusted look and snapped, “I’ll see you at the ballpark!” Later, he suspended Ruth for a day and gave him a piece of advice. “Turn your life around,” Barrow told him.

  For a while, Ruth heeded the advice, at least off the field. On the field, however, he struggled. Once the season started his big bat was silent and the move to the outfield seemed like a big mistake. By the first of June he was one of the worst hitters in the league. The Red Sox weren’t scoring runs with Ruth in the lineup and they missed him on the pitching mound. The World Series champs were already out of the pennant race, their season effectively over.

  Barrow and Frazee begged Ruth to return to the mound. He reluctantly agreed, but only if he was still allowed to play the outfield between starts. Almost immediately his bat perked up and he started hitting home runs at a record rate. It was too late to help the Sox that season, but fans began to turn out in droves to see him hit, particularly in New York, where for some reason he always hit the ball better than anywhere else.

  Ruth loved the attention and stayed hot for the rest of the season, breaking Cravath’s record with twenty-nine home runs. He helped out on the mound occasionally, too, but the turnaround came too late for the Red Sox. They finished in sixth place.

  Then Ruth made another bad mistake. Just a few days before the end of the season, he left without permission to play an exhibition game for extra money. That angered his teammates, manager Barrow, and Harry Frazee.

  Over the past few seasons Frazee had been fighting with Ban Johnson, the President of the American League. Johnson didn’t want Frazee to own the Red Sox anymore and Frazee didn’t think Johnson should be league president. The other teams took sides, with the Red Sox, Yankees, and White Sox battling Johnson in the courts over a variety of issues.

  In the midst of all this trouble, Frazee didn’t need more aggravation from his players. Over the past few seasons Ruth had put himself above the team, running around all hours of the night and not taking care of himself. He was a great player, but he was also becoming a huge headache. When Ruth demanded yet another raise and a new contract, Frazee decided he’d had enough. He knew Ruth was a popular and talented player that many clubs would be interested in acquiring. He decided to sell Ruth while the price was high and rebuild.

  The New York Yankees needed a star attraction. Since joining the American League in 1903, they had never won a pennant. But in 1919, new owners Jacob Ruppert and Cap Huston had money to spend. They decided to build the team around Babe Ruth, as a hitter, not a pitcher.

  Harry Frazee held out until Ruppert and Huston offered him $100,000 for Ruth. Just before the New Year, Frazee agreed to sell Ruth to the Yankees.

  Some fans and sportswriters in Boston were angry about the sale, believing that Frazee had thrown away their best player. Others agreed with Frazee who said “the Yankees are taking quite a risk” with Ruth. In New York, some thought Ruth would become a star and lead the Yankees to a pennant. Others worried that Ruth was too out of control and that he might never again hit as well as he had in 1919. The sale was a gamble on both sides.

  Ruth played to the press in both places, telling Boston reporters he hated to leave and telling those in New York he was thrilled to be a Yankee. That thrill was made even sweeter when the Yankees gave him a new contract worth $20,000 a year in 1921 and 1922.

  The Yankees got Ruth at a time when baseball was going through some changes. In August of 1919, a player named Ray Chapman was struck in the head by a pitch and died in a hospital twelve hours later. After Chapman’s untimely death, Major League Baseball instigated some new rules about pitching. Spit-balls were made illegal, for one thing. For another, new baseballs had to be used whenever the one in play became discolored. New balls were harder, brighter, easier to see, and also easier to hit for home runs than worn-out balls. For home run hitters like Ruth, new balls were good news.

  The Yankees’ home park, the Polo Grounds, was also tailor-made for a pull hitter like Ruth. The right-field fence was much closer than the one in Fenway Park. Although Ruth would have undoubtedly hit plenty of home runs if he had stayed in Boston, he never would have set the records he set at the Polo Grounds.

  Baseball was also
beginning to feel the effects of the recent “Black Sox” scandal. Rumors were swirling that in 1919 the Chicago White Sox had thrown the World Series. Although it would take nearly a year before the scope of the plot was fully known, baseball was in desperate need of a hero. Babe Ruth was ready-made for the role.

  It didn’t seem that way at first, however. Ruth got off to a rocky start with the Yankees. Although he hit well in the spring, his behavior raised many eyebrows. In the middle of one exhibition game, he went into the stands and tried to attack a fan who had been teasing him. He caused problems for management, too, when he insisted on playing center field. When manager Miller Huggins resisted, Ruth went over his head to make his case with the Yankee owners. They agreed, although eventually Ruth settled into right field.

  Then the season began and all eyes turned to the newest Yankee. Unfortunately, on opening day Ruth misplayed a fly ball that cost his team a win. In his second game he struck out three times! Then the Yankees played the Red Sox in Boston. Ruth did nothing and the Red Sox swept New York. So far, the Babe was a big bust.

  Things didn’t improve when the Yankees played their first home game. Ruth swung too hard at a pitch in batting practice and separated his ribs. After that, swinging a bat was painful for him and he struck out repeatedly. By May 1, the Yankees were only 4–7. Meanwhile, the Red Sox were in first place — without Ruth.

  Ruth’s ribs finally healed by the beginning of May, and he finally hit his first home run as a Yankee, a long blast at the Polo Grounds. That belt seemed to shake him loose. For the rest of the season he blasted home run after home run and in mid-season New York surged into first place. On July 15, Ruth broke his own home run record when he smacked his thirtieth round-tripper of the season. Every home run he hit for the remainder of the season set a new record.

  Baseball fans everywhere were thrilled, packing stadiums wherever the Yankees played. They may not all have been Yankee fans, but they were all Ruth fans.

  There was something about Ruth that fans found irresistible. He did everything in a big way. Even his strikeouts were exciting, as the momentum of his swing nearly knocked him to the ground every time he missed. Ruth knew how to play to the crowd, and fans were thrilled when he tipped his cap and revealed his smiling, moon-shaped face after hitting a home run, or grimaced after missing a pitch, or bellowed a complaint to an umpire.

  Around that time, George Herman “Babe” Ruth got a new nickname. Many of the fans living around Yankee Stadium were Italian. They christened Ruth “Bambino,” which is Italian for “baby” or “babe.” New York sportswriters also used nicknames when describing him, such as the “Colossus of Clout,” the “Mauling Monarch,” the “Prince of Pounders,” and the “Sultan of Swat.” They wrote about him every day throughout the season. Every home run he hit was news, and so was every strikeout.

  However, despite Ruth’s prodigious hitting, 1920 simply wasn’t the Yankees’ year. In August, Yankees pitcher Carl Mays accidentally hit Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch. Chapman died, and after the tragedy the Indians bounced back to take the pennant.

  Ruth finished the season with a batting average of .376 with a record fifty-four home runs, a total that was higher than that hit by all but two teams in baseball. There seemed to be no limit to what he could accomplish. Fans wondered if he would one day hit sixty or even seventy home runs in a season.

  His performance changed the game forever. After seeing what Ruth could accomplish, other players changed their approach at the plate. Instead of just trying to make contact, more hitters began to swing from their heels like Babe Ruth. Before Ruth, most batters hit home runs by accident. Now they tried to imitate Ruth. In a few years the home run would become more common.

  Ruth soon cashed in on his fame. He starred in a movie called Headin’ Home, endorsed all sorts of products, and had a sports column written under his name by sportswriter Christy Walsh. He also went on a long “barnstorming” trip, playing a series of exhibition games after the season and hitting home runs against local teams before thousands of fans. Although organized baseball considered such tours illegal, Ruth didn’t care. He was the most famous man in America, and he was making more money off the field than on it.

  Of course, having lots of cash made it even more difficult for Ruth to stay out of trouble. Even though a new law known as Prohibition, which banned the sale of alcohol, went into effect, that didn’t slow down Ruth, who spent much of his time in what were known as “speakeasies,” illegal taverns that served alcohol. Life in the off season was one big party, and he turned up for spring training covered in a thick layer of fat.

  Ruth managed to get in shape in the spring and rapidly resumed his record hitting in 1921. Pitchers were afraid of him and rarely gave him a pitch to hit. When they did, he knocked it out of the park.

  Ruth and the Yankees took the American League by storm. At the end of the season Ruth had increased his home run record to an incredible fifty-nine, and the Yankees won the pennant and the right to play the New York Giants in the World Series.

  The Giants, led by feisty manager John McGraw, were a terrific team. Unlike the Yankees, who waited for Ruth to hit home runs, the Giants still played baseball the old-fashioned way, scratching and clawing for runs with bunts, base hits, and stolen bases. McGraw, considered the best manager in baseball, promised everyone that his pitchers would shut down Ruth and the Yankees — a promise he made good on.

  In a sense, the Yankees lost the series in the second game. After winning game one, the Yankees also took game two. But in the middle of the game, Ruth, who had already walked three times, slid roughly into third base. As he twisted away from the tag, he scraped his elbow.

  Ruth shrugged off the injury, but in game three, a 13–5 Giant win, he scraped it again. By game four the elbow was infected and badly swollen. By the next game, he could barely see the bat, and struck out three times, collecting his only hit on a bunt. By then it was obvious he couldn’t continue to play because of the pain. For the rest of the series he made only one appearance, as a pinch hitter.

  Without Ruth, the Yankees were an average team. The Giants stormed back to win the best-of-nine series five games to three. Despite his record 59 regular season home runs, 1921 ended in disappointment for Ruth.

  After the season, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis warned Ruth not to go on another barnstorming tour. Ruth ignored him and went anyway. He felt as if he were bigger than the game.

  He wasn’t. In December Landis suspended him for the first six weeks of the 1922 season.

  Fortunately, the Yankees had earned so much money the previous season that they were able to acquire a number of other valuable players, many from the Red Sox. Although they missed Ruth at the start of the season and sometimes struggled after his return, the Yankees still had enough firepower and pitching to win the pennant.

  However, Ruth was in a slump, at least for him. His batting average dropped to .315 and he hit “only” thirty-five home runs, not enough to beat the new league leader, Ken Williams (of the St. Louis Browns), who hit thirty-nine.

  Meanwhile, his behavior was once again a cause for concern. When he returned to the team after the suspension, he was out of shape and never really got going. As the season progressed, he spent night after night out on the town and often showed up at the ballpark bleary-eyed. One of his Yankee roommates later said he didn’t really room with Ruth, he roomed “with his suitcase,” because Ruth was always out. On the field, Ruth argued with umpires and was suspended several times for using bad language. Manager Huggins was powerless to change him. Everybody was.

  The Yankees met the Giants in the World Series for the second season in a row. This time, it wasn’t even close. The Giants won in five games and Ruth was terrible, collecting only two hits.

  At a banquet Ruth attended shortly after the end of the series, speaker after speaker lectured him about his behavior and the way in which he had disappointed not only his teammates
but the fans. New York Mayor Jimmy Walker said, “You have let down the kids of America … they have seen their idol shattered and their dream broken.” Babe Ruth was humiliated and told everyone, “I’m going back to my farm to get in shape.”

  His career was at a crossroads and he knew it. If he didn’t do something fast, he wouldn’t be Babe Ruth anymore. This time, he didn’t have anyone like Brother Matthias to bail him out. Ruth would have to help himself. It was time for him to grow up, at least a little.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  1923–1925

  Ups and Downs

  Babe Ruth kept his promise that winter. He returned to his Massachusetts farm, reuniting with Helen after a long separation, and rarely ventured into the city. He stopped drinking, watched what he ate, and spent the winter doing farm work, skating, chopping wood, and going for long hikes. He knew he had messed up in 1922 and was determined to prove that he was still the best player in the game.

  New York fans were looking forward to the 1923 season. At the cost of $2.5 million dollars, the Yankees had finally built their own ballpark, Yankee Stadium. The new park in the Bronx was huge, capable of holding more than 70,000 fans, most of whom were looking forward to seeing the Babe hit some home runs. The park designers had done what they could to satisfy them by making sure the fence in right field was short enough for Ruth to hit home runs with the same frequency he had at the Polo Grounds.

  This year, the Bambino didn’t let them down. He showed up at spring training in tremendous shape, weighing 209 pounds. And on opening day at Yankee Stadium he announced his return in dramatic fashion.

  With the score 1–0 in favor of the Yankees in the fourth inning, Ruth came to bat. Boston pitcher Howard Ehmke let a ball over the plate and Ruth gave it everything he had.