Babe Ruth: Legends in Sports (8 page)

The last three seasons had been the best of Ruth’s career, and the happiest. He was again the greatest player in the game,
and the Yankees were the greatest team in baseball. But the next few seasons would not be quite so enjoyable.

In January of 1929, Ruth received some tragic news. Helen Ruth had been killed in a fire. Although they hadn’t been together
for years, he was still saddened by her loss. He asked the press to respect her privacy. In April, he married Claire Hodgson.
It was clear to everyone that Ruth had settled down.

But no ball club can stay on top forever, and in 1929, the Yankees were in transition. Although Ruth and Gehrig still formed
a potent combo, New York’s pitching staff wasn’t as strong. The Yankees were
shaken even further by the death of Miller Huggins late in the 1929 season. Although Ruth and Huggins had clashed, after Ruth’s
1925 suspension he and the manager had grown close.

All of a sudden, the Philadelphia Athletics were the best team in baseball. Sluggers Jimmie Foxx and Al Simmons were almost
as powerful as Gehrig and Ruth, and fireballing pitcher Lefty Grove led a terrific pitching staff. The A’s took off in 1929
and didn’t look back. Philadelphia won three straight pennants and two world championships.

Still, Ruth remained one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball. As he grew older, he managed to make small adjustments
at the plate to adapt to his slowing reflexes, using a lighter bat and standing a bit further away from the plate. In 1929
he became the first man in the history of baseball to hit 500 home runs in his career, and in 1931 he became the first man
to hit 600.

But Ruth and the Yankees really wanted another championship. Ruth realized that at age thirty-six his career as a player would
soon come to an end. As early as 1929, after Huggins’s death, Ruth hoped to be named Yankee manager. But the ball club wasn’t
confident that he had the self-discipline for the job. Ruth held onto his hope of becoming the manager sometime in the future.
He knew that helping the Yankees win another world championship would help.

In 1932 the Yankees were invigorated by the performance of some younger players, such as catcher Bill Dickey and the emergence
of pitcher Lefty Gomez. For the first time in three years, the team finally had enough pitching depth to overtake the A’s
and win the pennant.

At age thirty-seven, few people expected Ruth to be the star of the World Series against the Cubs. Ruth had hit in only forty-one
home runs, far fewer than league leader Jimmie Foxx, who was closing in on Ruth’s record with fifty-eight. The Babe’s legs
were giving him trouble, too, and in September he had been hospitalized with stomach trouble. Before the World Series there
was even some speculation that Ruth wouldn’t be in the Yankees’ starting lineup.

When the series began, however, Ruth was in his usual spot in the right field and hitting third in the Yankee lineup. Although
Lou Gehrig had a
wonderful World Series, hitting over .500 as the Yankees swept Chicago, all the headlines, as usual, went to Babe Ruth. He
did something even he found hard to believe — if he even did it at all.

Former Yankee Mark Koenig had joined the Cubs in mid-season and keyed their pennant run. Yet his teammates had voted him only
a half-share of the World Series money. His old teammates on the Yankees, particularly Babe Ruth, thought the Cubs were being
unfair to Koenig. In the first two games in New York, both teams razzed each other from the bench. Ruth kept calling the Cubs
“cheapskates,” and the Chicago players gave it right back to him.

When Ruth and the Yankees went to Chicago for game three, Ruth didn’t let up. Wrigley Field, the home of the Cubs, was much
smaller than Yankee Stadium. During batting practice Ruth hit home run after home run into the stands. He told a reporter,
“If I could hit here all the time I’d play for half my salary.”

When the game started, the bench jockeying continued. Even Cubs fans got into the act, and Ruth kept up a running conversation
with Cubs players
and fans. It grew worse after his first at bat against pitcher Charlie Root. Ruth clubbed a pitch into the stand to give the
Yankees a 3–0 lead.

But in the fourth inning Ruth gave the Cubs and their supporters something to howl about. He tried to make a shoestring catch
and missed the ball. The hit went for a double and the Cubs were able to tie the game 4–4. Cub fans threw paper and lemons
at Ruth and hooted him unmercifully.

Ruth was embarrassed, and also a little mad. He stepped to the plate to lead off the fifth inning determined to quiet the
crowd.

As he approached the plate he was booed loudly and the Cubs called him all sorts of names. Ruth listened and then cupped his
hands over his mouth and yelled back at them.

The fans started booing even louder. Then Ruth stepped into the batter’s box.

Pitcher Charlie Root buzzed a pitch over the heart of the plate and Ruth just watched it pass. Then he turned to the Cub bench
and held up one finger, as if to say “That’s one.”

The howling increased. The Cubs and their fans
wanted to see Ruth embarrassed and humiliated by a strikeout.

Root threw two more pitches for balls, and again Ruth didn’t take the bat from his shoulder. It appeared as if he wasn’t going
to swing.

Then Root threw another strike. Ruth again watched it pass like he was just a spectator. Then he looked at the Cubs and held
up
two
fingers as if to say “Strike two.”

The crowd was roaring at a fever pitch and Cubs were on the dugout steps screaming at Ruth. He stepped out of the box and
gestured to them as if he were pushing them away, like he was some kind of colossus they couldn’t touch.

He turned to the Cub catcher and said, “It only takes one to hit it.” Root yelled something at Ruth and he yelled back, “I’m
gonna knock the ball down your throat.”

All the while, Ruth was grinning widely. His gamesmanship was driving the Cubs crazy!

Then Ruth gestured again. To some observers it looked as if he gestured to the Cubs bench again. Others thought he waved at
Root. But some were
convinced he pointed to the center field bleachers as if that’s where he intended to hit the next pitch.

Root wound up and threw. This time Ruth was ready. He took a tremendous swing at the pitch.

Boom!
The sound of the bat hitting the ball echoed over the park and stilled the crowd. The ball rocketed directly over Root’s
head on a line and kept rising, growing smaller and smaller. The Cub center fielder ran straight back and then ran out of
room as the ball sailed over his head and deep into the stands in center field.

Ruth just watched, and then, as he jogged toward first base, started to laugh. He had a choice comment for each Cub infielder
he passed, plus a few things to the Cub bench as he trotted past third to home.

The Cubs were silent. Ruth had spoken in a way no other player in the game could.

On the very next pitch, Lou Gehrig homered, and the Yankees went on to win the game 7–5 to take command of the series. They
won big the next day to capture the series.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. Everyone at
the park knew that Ruth had held up his fingers before hitting the home run, and everyone knew that he had made some kind
of gesture before belting the home run.

One newspaper reporter captured the mood of the moment, if not entirely accurately, by writing that Ruth had pointed to center
field before the pitch and then “punched a screaming liner to a spot where no ball had ever been hit before.” The blast became
known as the “called shot,” and soon everyone was saying Ruth had pointed to center field before hitting the home run.

Witnesses were divided about whether he actually did point, but the story seemed like something only Babe Ruth could have
done, or would even have dared to do. Ruth himself claimed that he had pointed “but not [to] a specific spot. I just wanted
to give that thing a ride out of the park.”

Although film footage turned up later that seemed to indicate that Ruth didn’t exactly point, that hardly matters. The legend
of the “called shot” already had a life of its own. And even if Ruth didn’t point, there is no question that he waited for
one pitch and then hit that pitch out of the park. The incident put a
tremendous exclamation point on his wondrous career.

He had already done things on the baseball field no one had thought possible, and in doing so had somehow evolved from a sad,
lost little boy into one of the most beloved figures in sporting history. Even if Babe didn’t point as people claimed he did,
there was no question in anyone’s mind that if anyone in the history of the game could hit a home run at will, it was Babe
Ruth. He was bigger than life, a legend.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Not even Babe Ruth could play forever, though. Over the next two seasons it became clear that his strength and stamina were
ebbing and that his career was winding down. The Yankees finished second each season and Ruth’s performance slowly declined.
After hitting .301 with 34 home runs in 1933, in 1934 he hit .288 with only 22 home runs.

Yet Ruth was still the most popular player in baseball. If anything, he was even more popular than ever as fans who had grown
up with him now took their children to see him.

On occasion, he could still be the most dynamic player in the game. In the first All-Star game ever, played in Chicago in
1933, Ruth — who else? — hit the first home run in All-Star game history.

He still commanded a big salary, but it was now
more than the Yankees felt he was worth. They wanted him to return in 1935, but only as a pinch hitter and at a reduced salary.
Ruth knew his career as a player was coming to an end, but he hoped that his time with the Yankees wasn’t over. He hadn’t
given up his dream of becoming the team’s manager.

There was just one problem. The Yankees were happy with current manager Joe McCarthy. When Ruth asked if they were thinking
about replacing McCarthy and if he had a chance for the job, he was told no. Although his behavior had improved dramatically,
the owners worried that he wouldn’t be able to command respect from his players. After all, everyone knew that for most of
his career he had flouted the rules. “That’s all I need to know,” said Ruth when told of the club’s decision. Sadly, no other
team seemed interested in hiring Ruth as manager either.

While his future hung in the balance, in the offseason he traveled to Japan to help popularize baseball in that country. The
game had caught on in Japan, and Ruth was greeted like a conquering hero. But when he returned to America in February, he
still didn’t know if or where he would be playing in 1935.

Then Judge Emil Fuchs, owner of the Boston Braves, approached Jake Ruppert and asked if he would sell the Babe. The Braves
were desperate to draw fans. Fuchs offered Ruth the chance to play one more season as well as a position as a team vice president
and assistant manager. He even said he would consider making Ruth manager in the near future.

“If he can better himself elsewhere,” Ruppert responded to Fuchs’s offer, “the Yankees won’t stand in his way.” He agreed
to release Ruth. If Ruth wanted to sign with the Braves he was now free to do so.

Ruth met with Fuchs and agreed to accept the Braves’ offer. He opened the season in the Braves outfield before 25,000 freezing
fans in Boston. Ruth, now forty years old, was magnificent. He hit a two-run homer and made a diving catch as the Braves won
4–1. Boston fans went crazy.

Then he stopped hitting. Over the next month he got only two more hits and was bothered by a cold. He also found out that
his title as team vice president meant nothing and that Braves manager Bill McKechnie had little use for an “assistant manager.”

In early May a frustrated Ruth wanted to retire. But Fuchs talked him into staying with the team through its next road trip.
Thousands of fans had already bought tickets to see him play.

Ruth reluctantly agreed. Except for one last day in Pittsburgh, he played terribly But on that day he was as good as he had
ever been.