BABE RUTH
THROUGH PITCHER'S LEGS - OVER CENTER FIELDER! Ruth Actually Did It - But T'was Like This"It just goes to show. If you keep digging long enough, you're bound to strike oil sooner or later. No statement we ever wrote evoked quite as much skepticism as the one that Babe Ruth once hit a ball so hard that it shot through the legs of the pitcher and over the head of the center fielder. Folks generally have been willing to believe anything and everything about the Babe but this was one they had trouble digesting, much less swallowing whole.
Letter writers challenged this chronicler to name names and cite sites. The best he could do in defense, however, was to repeat what Babe Ruth wrote in his autobiography, that he once had hit such a ball off Hod Lisenbee. But now a full report on the incident is available and it comes from the best possible source, Hod Lisenbee himself. It seems that it did happen and then again it didn't. At any rate, you'll just have to bear with us for a little while.
From Atlanta, Ga., Lisenbee writes: 'I've just read your article on the ball hit between my legs by the mighty Babe. If only I could have seen you in advance, I'd have given you the true version but now I'll have to do it in this letter to the best of my writing ability.
'I recall the game perfectly. It was in 1926. There was a man on second base and two out. I was pitching for Cleveland against the Yankees and had two strikes on the Babe. Tris Speaker was playing center field for us and he came sneaking in an attempt to trap the runner off second, an old trick of his.
'Tris had crept to within only ten feet of the bag when for some unaccountable reason I whirled and threw to the plate. The Babe hit the ball so hard right back at me that I barely had time to raise my right leg slightly. The ball nicked my pants as it passed through my legs.
'It hit just over second base and then struck either a pebble or hard spot there. Thereupon it bounded high over Speaker's head. The left fielder fell down and old Tris had to chase the ball at top speed more than a hundred yards out to the center field fence.
'I still laugh when I think of old Tris with his tongue out, cussing me at a blue streak for pitching to the Babe when he was only ten feet in back of second.
'That was the hardest hit ball of my career and even now I look at my right knee and thank the Lord that it is still there.
'The Babe rounded the bases easily for a home run, but we won the game by a 5-2 score.
'That is the only time Babe Ruth ever hit a ball through my legs.
'I think that the Babe was kidding Bob Considine when he told him that part of the story because he was one of the greatest kidders in the game. It's impossible for a ball to go between a man's legs on the pitching mound and go over a center fielder's head in normal center field playing depths. Best regards. Horace (Hod) Lisenbee.'
Well, that settles it. As you can see by now, it happened and then again it didn't happen. It occurred not quite in the unvarnished style that had been originally pictured but with trimmings. To tell the truth, this reporter had been as skeptical as most of the correspondents except for the fact that Ruth had been such an impossible character that anything could be believed about him.
Anything can happen in baseball but it's nice to have the Ruth-Lisenbee incident finally straightened out to the satisfaction of all concerned."
-Arthur Daley, condensed from the New York Times (Baseball Digest, January 1949)
NO MORE STRAWBERRIES
"During his early playing days, the late Babe Ruth possessed an enormous appetite. Often, at the ball park, he would eat a half-dozen frankfurters at a sitting.
One afternoon in the locker room before the game, Manager Miller Huggins noticed that Ruth looked a little green.
'Is something, Babe?' he asked.
'My stomach's acting up,' said Ruth. 'It must be that party I went to last night. I never saw so much food in my life: lobsters, crabs, clams, roast turkey, fried chicken and to top if off- strawberries.'
'And I suppose you helped yourself to everything in sight,' said the manager.
'Yes,' confessed Ruth with a groan. 'But that's the last time I'll ever eat strawberries!'"
-E.E. Edgar, reprinted from December 1948 Coronet (Baseball Digest, February 1949)
"Greatest of all home run hitters. Babe smashed 714 round-trippers- 60 in 1927 and 59 in 1921. He smacked 15 in World Series play. He hit 40 or more homers every season for 11 years.
Babe led the American League in batting with a .378 average in 1924. He once walked 170 times in a single season (1923).
He started as a pitcher with the Red Sox. He hurled the longest World Series game- 14 innings- beating Brooklyn, 2-1, October 9, 1916. He topped American League pitchers that year with a 1.75 ERA.
Babe is a member of the Hall of Fame."
-1949 Leaf No. 3
THE "INSIDE" ON RUTH'S ALL-STAR HOMER
"We pass on the inside story, never before told, of the circumstances attending Babe Ruth's game-winning home run in the first All-Star Game back yonder in 1933. For this gem we are indebted to Fred McGuire, who was a talent scout for the New York Giants from 1905 to 1912 and an intimate friend of their fiery manager, the late John McGraw.
Fred tells it like this: 'After the 1933 All-Star Game, Jack Hendricks, one-time manager of the Cincinnati Reds, Dick Kinsella, a Giant scout, and I had dinner with McGraw, who that day had managed the National League All-Stars against Connie Mack's American Leaguers, who won, 4-2. Among other things, McGraw told us of his clubhouse meeting with his players before the game, in which he said, 'You are All-Star players and know the game. My only instructions are to the pitchers. When the big fellow (Ruth) is up there, don't give him any fast balls. Pitch him nothing but curves and keep them low.'
'Bill Hallahan (the Nationals' pitcher) thought he would experiment after getting a count on the Babe in the third inning,' concludes McGuire.
'He gave him a high fast one, which Ruth promptly parked in the right field stands. McGraw never said a word to Wild Bill about the pitch, as he knew the fans were happy about the home run.'"
-Arch Ward in the Chicago Tribune (Baseball Digest, July 1949)
WITH ANY BAT, HE WAS RUTH
"Clyde 'Bucky' Crouse, the old Chicago White Sox catcher, tells of an incident which occurred during a game that the New York Yankees played in Chicago. At the end of the eighth inning, Babe Ruth, coming in from his position in left field, sat down in the White Sox dugout instead of crossing the infield to his own bench, which was along the first base line.
Chicago had a four-run lead but the Yankees put on one of their famous rallies and tied the score. It became Ruth's turn to bat- and there he sat in the Chicago dugout!
'The big fellow did not hesitate an instant,' Crouse remarked. 'He grabbed a bat from the Chicago bat rack (it belonged to Ted Blankenship, one of our pitchers), walked up to the plate and hit a home run!'"
-Ed Satterfield in the Muncie (IN) Star (Baseball Digest, August 1949)
LOU GEHRIG
Five Candidates This Time, But- TEN YEARS- AND SECOND GEHRIGS STILL CAN'T GET TO FIRST BASE
"The New York Yankees have been looking for a successor to the late Lou Gehrig for ten years and they are no closer to their objective today than they were on May 2, 1939, the day the 'Iron Horse' reluctantly quit the game.
In Detroit that day, a pale and tired-looking Gehrig announced mournfully to Manager Joe McCarthy:
'You better put Babe Dahlgren on first today. I'm not doing the club any good out there.'
And with those words, Gehrig spelled finis to a brilliant career, a career which had afforded the Yankees the best possible first base insurance for over fourteen years.
Dahlgren, an exceptionally fine fielder but an ordinary hitter, did the best he was able but didn't come close to filling Gehrig's brogans. The Yankees ultimately peddled him to the Boston Braves in 1941, McCarthy claiming that 'Dahlgren's arms are too short for a first baseman.'
It was a bum rap but it didn't matter. McCarthy didn't care for Dahlgren, and Dahlgren, realizing the situation, was just happy to go to another club.
Since Dahlgren's departure from the Yankees, there have been a number of pretenders to Gehrig's first base throne, including Johnny Strum, Buddy Hassett, Ed Levy, Nick Etten, George McQuinn, Tom Henrich and Steve Souchock.
McQuinn was the standout of the bunch although Henrich did well for a converted outfielder. Neither made the fans forget Gehrig, though. McQuinn moved to the Yankees after he literally was on his last legs and did well enough to help New York to a pennant in 1947. Henrich is slated to return the outfield next season.
Which brings us to the lackluster crop which will compete for the post in 1949.
Norman (Babe) Young, a thirty-three-year-old veteran who has played with the Giants, Reds and Cardinals during his eight years in the big leagues, reportedly has the inside track for the job. He hit .237 in ninety games last season and no matter from what angle you look at him, he isn't exactly a ball of fire.
Next in line is Souchock, who enjoys some sort of priority inasmuch as he spent the entire 1948 campaign with the Bronx Bombers. It wasn't much of a season as seasons go because Steve only managed to hit .203 forty-four games. Unless he shows a sharp reversal of form next spring, his days as a Yankee appear to be numbered.
There's a dead-heat for the third spot in the Yankees' 'first base derby' between two Newark grads- Jackie Phillips and Joe Collins. Their strongest recommendations are youth, hustle and ambition.
The dark horse is young Dick Kryhoski, moving up from the Kansas City Blues of the American Association with some fine press clippings and even more impressive recommendations.
Probably the closest the Yankees ever came to landing another Gehrig was when they scouted big and awkward-looking Hank Greenberg on the Bronx sandlots. But Hank cast his lot with the Detroit Tigers.
So the Yankees still look and hope.
It could be, and it certainly is beginning to look like they'll never find a really genuine successor to 'Old Biscuit Pants.'"
-Milton Richman, United Press (Baseball Digest, February 1949)
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