A Remembrance of Babe Ruth
by Richard Hill

However, there would not be much sleep this summer's night. My father had promised that the next day he would take me to see Babe Ruth--if it didn't rain. The exuberance and expectation were overpowering. Several times during the night we would awaken, rush to the window and be assured it was not raining.

This would be my first time to see the greatest legend in baseball, and as a New York Yankee. My father, a great sports fan, had seen Ruth before, as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. A Red Sox fan all his life, he would tell me stories about watching the Red Sox, before Fenway Park, at the Huntington Avenue Fairgrounds, now occupied by a citadel of learning known as Northeastern University.

The price of admission, my father boasted, was a quarter; an unbelievable bargain that obviously existed long before Major League owners would be accosted by today's stratospheric player salaries.

George Herman Ruth was born over a Baltimore bar in 1896. He was raised in an orphanage, and playing ball there Brother Gilbert, a Christian Brother, recognized his potential. At age 19, he was pitching for the Baltimore Orioles of the International League. His contract was purchased by the Boston Red Sox, who paid the Orioles $2,900.00. They gave Ruth a contract for $2,500.00.

My father often told me of Ruth's prowess as a pitcher, later to be recognized as The Great Bambino of the Home Run. The first pitcher of his time (southpaw), he was a member of three world championship Red Sox and pitched 29 consecutive scoreless innings in World Series play.

To Red Sox fans over the years one name became tyrannical. Harry Frazee. Why? Because he sold Ruth to the hated Yankees. He was despised in Boston history like King George III, who would be linked in history with throwing the tea in the harbor and Paul Revere's Ride. In 1919, Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees. Ruth was making $30,000.00. Frazee sold him to the Yankees for $125,000.00 and a $300,000.00 mortgage on Fenway Park. Sexual implications were always a gossip link to the trade. Frazee was trying to underwrite a Broadway show entitled "No, No, Nanette," and reportedly was interested in drowning long-legged members of the chorus in mink.

There is the fabled story that Jacob Ruppert, a beer baron and owner of the Yankees, once met in contract negotiations with Ruth who wanted a deal over $80,000.00. Ruppert, as the story goes, told the Home Run leader that he would be making more than the President of the United States. "Yeah," came back the Babe, "But I had a better year than he did."

The approaching end of the century has produced an avalanche of the Top 20 Athletes of the 1900s. George Herman Ruth leads our list. Indeed, Muhammad Ali deserves his ranking as Number Two. When he was in Albany a couple of weeks ago, we asked Pete Rose his nominations. He conceded that, being a close friend of Ali's, the choice was a tough one. But he pointed to Ruth's role as the savior of baseball following the Black Sox scandal in Chicago. We can quote Rose verbatim: "I think if Babe Ruth had been a soccer player, soccer would be our national pastime."

In conclusion, back to that next day in Boston where this tome all started.

It didn't rain. On the way to Fenway I asked my father to guarantee that, as a Yankee, Babe Ruth would hit a Home Run. The guarantee was not forthcoming. However, Ruth satisfied the exuberance and expectation. Babe Ruth hit a Home Run that summer afternoon. It was one of the great moments in this lifetime. Those spindle legs on that huge body and the puppy-like steps as he rounded the bases. Even in Boston, there was a thunderous ovation. And a youngster stood there with his father, his 10-year-old eyes welled up with tears, always to be number one in our memory.

Copyright (c) 1999 by Richard Hill

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