*Babe Ruth Thread*

[SHOELESSJOE3]

I was just watching an excerpt from Harold Lloyd`s silent movie "Speedy" on YouTube.This is the movie where Babe Ruth makes a cameo appearance as himself as Lloyd(the taxi driver) drives him to Yankee Stadium for his game.Ruth frantically endures Lloyd`s madcap driving.This clip is under the title of "Driving Around New York City-1928".The movie was filmed in mid-September of Ruth`s historic 1927 season(and released in April of 1928).He hit several homers during the duration of his taping.The clip last just over 5 minutes.If you press pause at 3:11 you will see a smiling Lou Gehrig making a cameo appearance in Ruth`s cameo appearance!He can be seen directly over the Babe`s left shoulder.I posted my observation on YouTube,but only baseball fans,such as you good folks,would possibly find this of some interest.

Did see that one a few years ago, I will revisit it.

[Nimrod]

Have never seen this anywhere in the news archive. You would think that over the years someone would have asked Root about the point. All he ever said was if Babe pointed he would have knocked him on his A_ _ Here he is at a high school with a more detailed account, found this in the library.
This would also account for those at the game who claimed they did see Babe point, they were not lying.
Easy to understand if he pointed at the pitcher who is aligned with centerfield they could have thought the point was to CF

Root`s nickname was "CHINski"for a good reason as Gehrig found out on the next pitch(but to no avail-Gehrig hit the following pitch for HIS 2nd homer of the game)!I read were George Sisler was in attendance at this game and stated that he thought for a split second that Ruth`s "called shot"would be caught by the center fielder running IN to make a shoestring catch.The drive must have taken off like a jet to end up landing 491 feet away.Some accounts have Ruth yelling out to Root that he was "going to hit the next pitch down your G_ _ D_ _ _ throat"!Maybe Ruth came a lot closer to fulfilling this boast than was realized,if his drive really started out at as low as Sisler stated.Ha Ha.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Root`s nickname was "CHINski"for a good reason as Gehrig found out on the next pitch(but to no avail-Gehrig hit the following pitch for HIS 2nd homer of the game)!I read were George Sisler was in attendance at this game and stated that he thought for a split second that Ruth`s "called shot"would be caught by the center fielder running IN to make a shoestring catch.The drive must have taken off like a jet to end up landing 491 feet away.Some accounts have Ruth yelling out to Root that he was "going to hit the next pitch down your G_ _ D_ _ _ throat"!Maybe Ruth came a lot closer to fulfilling this boast than was realized,if his drive really started out at as low as Sisler stated.Ha Ha.

According to Gehrig who was on deck, those were the words of Ruth to Root.
Here is where the drive went, the ticket booth.
Also Ruth pushing, telling the Cubs to sit down. At one point in that at bat Cub pitcher Guy Bush Babe's chief tomentor was so far out of the dugout, the ump told him to get back to the bench. When Ruth was in left field some lemons were tossed his way and now again when he came to bat.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Obviously, no accident. Next game, it's Guy Bush on the mound and in Babe's very first at bat, Bush hits Babe on the arm.
Babe downplays the hit...............you didn't hurt me. But he did, after the game Babe's arm was swollen and black and blue.
Here we see Babe making flicking motions, as though brushing away a pesky insect.
More according to Gehrig on deck............."Babe yelled to Bush, hey lop ears, was that your fast ball".
A couple of batters later, Bush is out replaced by Lon warneke

[Nimrod]

Yeah,you can just tell by the way the Babe circled the bases that this was a special occasion.He usually kept his head down and had a somber look on his face while making his voyage around the bases.He sure got even with Guy Bush three years later in Pittsburgh.

[stuarthouse]

As I recall, the Sisler comment related to the centerfield line drive that Ruth hit in game 4 of the '26 Series off Bell. Can anybody out there break this tie?

Root`s nickname was "CHINski"for a good reason as Gehrig found out on the next pitch(but to no avail-Gehrig hit the following pitch for HIS 2nd homer of the game)!I read were George Sisler was in attendance at this game and stated that he thought for a split second that Ruth`s "called shot"would be caught by the center fielder running IN to make a shoestring catch.The drive must have taken off like a jet to end up landing 491 feet away.Some accounts have Ruth yelling out to Root that he was "going to hit the next pitch down your G_ _ D_ _ _ throat"!Maybe Ruth came a lot closer to fulfilling this boast than was realized,if his drive really started out at as low as Sisler stated.Ha Ha.

[csh19792001]

Ruth couldn't hit slow ones.

How'd he do against these guys?

The 17 spitball pitchers designated after the 1920 season were:

National League:

Bill Doak
Phil Douglas
Dana Fillingim
Ray Fisher
Marv Goodwin
Burleigh Grimes
Clarence Mitchell
Dick Rudolph

American League:

Doc Ayers
Ray Caldwell
Stan Coveleski
Red Faber
Dutch Leonard
Jack Quinn
Allan Russell
Urban Shocker
Allen Sothoron

[SHOELESSJOE3]

As I recall, the Sisler comment related to the centerfield line drive that Ruth hit in game 4 of the '26 Series off Bell. Can anybody out there break this tie?

I would think the same 1926.
Here we see Babe bantering with the fans. This pic may be from the 1926 or 1928 WS. Doesn't really matter.In both 1926 and 1928 news archive from both years describe Babe and the fans shouting at each other, all in fun.
But, in 1928 there were some bottles thrown his way in the outfield. He completely disarmed those in the bleachers. Picking up a bottle and rearing back faking a throw into the bleachers, some ducked. Then grinned and tossed the bottle aside, now they stand up and give him a hand.

His first two homers were off of slow pitches by Flint Rhem, ordered by Hornsby and you can see this one was a fast ball.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

How'd he do against these guys?

The 17 spitball pitchers designated after the 1920 season were:

National League:

Bill Doak
Phil Douglas
Dana Fillingim
Ray Fisher
Marv Goodwin
Burleigh Grimes
Clarence Mitchell
Dick Rudolph

American League:

Doc Ayers
Ray Caldwell
Stan Coveleski
Red Faber
Dutch Leonard
Jack Quinn
Allan Russell
Urban Shocker
Allen Sothoron

Took a quick look at some.
Ruth had the most hr hit against Leonard with 5 then Tillie Walker with 4.
The most off of Ray Caldwell with 6.
Doc Ayers 1 HR
Ruth and Ken Williams with 5, the most hit off of Coveleski.
The most hit off of Faber 9 then Goose Goslin with 8 HRs.

About here I stopped searching because I realize this does not answer your question or prove anything. How Babe hit these guys for average.
Because as we know Babe was going long ball before the others.
Does anyone out there have any stat sheet or source for batter/pitcher match up with some numbers, Ruth of course being the batter.

[Lpeters199]

Babe hit the roof of Roesink's Pant Store outside Navin Field, a mighty blast.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Long before Ali there was another athlete who liked to predict. Only a fluke, a lost home run in July stopped him from hitting 60 in 1921. The year before (1920) he predicted he would hit 40 which was saying a lot for that time period, 40 had never been hit, ended up with 54.

[Lpeters199]

Gotta love that old-time writing. "...a fan reached forth from the stand and touched the ball before it had surmounted the fence."

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Not that unusual, Babe the pitcher helping his own cause with the bat.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Baseballs two giants meet.

[pheasant]

Excellent articles, Shoeless. You really do a good job of bringing the Babe back to life. I'm currently reading about how the Babe smashed 104 HRs 1921. This is obviously ridiculous since each additional home run that he would have hit would have affected the way the opposing pitchers threw to him. But he did get robbed of a bunch of HRs. I haven't finished the book yet, but I am guessing that the other 33 of his 104 HRs hooked foul. I already read about 12 balls that he hit in fair territory of 450 feet that were either a double, a triple or a long out(and thus, 1921 has 71 HRs so far, according to the author). I.e, in total, he hit 37 balls 450 feet+ in fair territory The boy clearly used a softball swing, a swing that has never really been used before in baseball. I played both baseball and softball. I could hit asoftball pretty well, farther than a baseball during an actual game. With slow pitch softball, you can literally turn your body into a coil and spring loose with a very large stride while using a much heavier bat. Or you can hit with your foot in the bucket. Either way, you'll generate much more power with a softball swing. However, I found out that it takes way too long to use that approach hitting a baseball. I've tried using a heavier bat in baseball and ended up whiffing several times against 75-80 mph heat. Ruth clearly used a softball swing against pitchers during his day. He made a joke of the league. Granted, Ruth was ONLY hitting against against 85-90 mph heat and sweeping curves, which isn't great by today's standards. I'm guessing on the heat, but I can't be too far off since two high school friends of mine had been clocked at 78 and 80 and they had no special training. I could out-bench and outrun both of them(but not out-throw). I.e, throwing a baseball 80 mph is no big deal for a high school pitcher that hasn't had much training. Thus, I have to believe that pro pitchers 90 years ago would at least have been able to throw 85-90. If my beer drinking, cigarette smoking bean pole of a friend hit 80 on the gun, then I would think that the good guys in the bigs 90 years ago hit 90 mph; some(but every few) went much faster.But to do that using a softball swing approach to me is unheard of. And that swing of his was needed to blast 60 HRs back in the day with the bigger ball parks. I know that there are some people that think he played in a weak era, and thus, he couldn't hack it today. But for anyone that has played the game, he'll realize quickly like I did that hitting a fastball is the toughest th thing to do in sports. And using a softball swing against 85-90 mph heat is something that I doubt that any player could do as successfully as the Babe did with such a heavy bat and ridiculous swing. I believe that the bigger parks actually swelled batting averages in the day, but lowered HR totals. I simply can't imagine would Ruth would have done with a much lighter bat(say, 34 ounces) hitting in these small parks today. Actually, I'll try and quantify it: I believe that he'd hit around .290 with 60-65 HRs a year. Due to park size, far better trained pitchers throwing 95-100 mph, he'd need to shorten his swing drastically. But with a time machine, I want to first see Ruth swing a 42+ ounce bat using that softball swing of his. Afterall, who knows what his limits were using that swing. I'm pretty sure that he'd whiff. But the fact that he hi 85-90 mph pitches using that approach to me is insane.