{"id":1314,"date":"2009-06-29T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/29\/babe-being-babe\/"},"modified":"2009-06-29T06:01:11","modified_gmt":"2009-06-29T13:01:11","slug":"babe-being-babe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/29\/babe-being-babe\/","title":{"rendered":"Babe Being Babe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eighty-eight years before “Manny Being Manny” finally put Ramirez in the commissioner’s dog house, another popular slugger thumbed his nose at the baseball establishment in 1921 and drew a six-week suspension.\u00c2\u00a0 It was just another case of Babe being Babe.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bryan Holt’s fantastic article about Manny Ramirez<\/a> coupled with a question from a friend reminded me of an incident that occurred during the offseason between 1921 and 1922.\u00c2\u00a0 Larry Richards wondered about the public’s reaction to Ramirez’s stint in the minors in relation to previous incidents: “I’m just wondering if this pathetic fan behavior has always been around or if this is something relatively new,” he wrote.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m sure there are many examples of how fans reacted to the return of their fallen heroes, but here’s one I’ve actually researched.<\/p>\n

Upon completion of the 1921 World Series, Yankees slugger Babe Ruth announced that he planned on taking a handful of teammates with him to Buffalo to begin a barnstorming tour.\u00c2\u00a0 That was problematic because the rules prohibited the two World Series participants from engaging in the practice of barnstorming so that the integrity of the postseason games wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be cheapened by a series of staged exhibitions. Kenesaw Mountain Landis warned Ruth about the rule, but Ruth stood firm and insisted that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be playing baseball until November 1 and there was nothing Landis could do about it.<\/p>\n

Landis warned him again, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you do, it will be the sorriest thing you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever done in baseball.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Legend has it that sportswriter Fred Lieb was with Landis when he refused Ruth permission to go on the trip.\u00c2\u00a0 Lieb rushed over to Yankee co-owner Tillinghast Huston\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room at the Martinique Hotel in Manhattan to convince him to stop Ruth only to find Huston and Boston Red Sox owner and drinking buddy Harry Frazee passed out in a drunken stupor.<\/p>\n

Carl Mays and Wally Schang, who were supposed to accompany Ruth on the trip, wisely reconsidered and dropped out. Outfielder Bob Meusel and pitchers Bill Piercy and Tom Sheehan continued onward to Buffalo with Ruth. Public opinion swayed in Landis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 favor. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He [Ruth] will not gain friends, neither among fans or elsewhere, by an attitude of defiance towards the commissioner, who has taken upon himself the task of ridding baseball of abuses and keeping it free from them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d opined a newspaper editorial. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Baseball needs a Landis much more than it does a Ruth.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Huston and his partner Jacob Ruppert were frantic. They did everything they could to talk their slugger out of making the trip, but Ruth was persistent. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I still think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in the right and Judge Landis is wrong,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the slugger decreed. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I see no reason why this rule should be invoked against us when [George] Sisler of St. Louis, and others, who shared in the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s series money are playing exhibition games unmolested by Judge Landis.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Landis had threatened to fine Ruth his World Series share, but the Babe would earn almost as much in his first three exhibition games, so he was willing to make the sacrifice for a larger chunk of change. But it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a fine Huston was worried about; it was the thought of a suspension, which he feared might be for the entire season. The Colonel traveled to Pennsylvania to convince Ruth to stop the tour, which he eventually did by paying off the promoters and the players involved. But it was too late.<\/p>\n

Landis suspended Ruth, Meusel, and Piercy for the first six weeks of the 1922 season and fined them their World Series shares. Since Sheehan was not on the Yankees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 World Series roster, he was neither fined nor suspended.\u00c2\u00a0 The Red Sox also suffered from Landis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ruling; Piercy was acquired in a trade that sent Everett Scott, “Bullet Joe” Bush, and “Sad Sam” Jones to the Yankees on December 20 and now the Sox were without his services until May 20.<\/p>\n

With Ruth and Meusel on the ineligible list, the Yankees were without two-thirds of their outfield and their two best hitters for the first six weeks of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 The team responded well, however, and jumped out to a 22-11 mark thanks to the hitting of center fielder Whitey Witt and the pitching of Jones and Waite Hoyt.\u00c2\u00a0 The day before Ruth and Meusel returned to the lineup, the Yankees trounced Cleveland, 12-4, and increased their lead to two games over the second-place Browns.<\/p>\n

Some newspapers trumpeted Ruth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s return like that of a conquering hero. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is joy in Gotham and also in Mudville,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wrote the Boston Globe<\/em>. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On this day the exile of the King of Swat expires, and the fans are crowding at the gates or waiting expectantly for news, confident that the Babe will knock one, perhaps two, out of the lot.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And the New York Times<\/em> celebrated the occasion. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was a long time coming, but the baseball season will finally start this afternoon\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe real season that is, with Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel and the Ruthian home runs as the decorative trimmings.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em> was less than excited about the fans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reaction to the behemoth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s return, calling his rise in popularity despite his disruptive behavior \u00e2\u20ac\u0153deplorable\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and accusing him of being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one of the spoiled darlings of the fickle public.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Before his first game, Ruth received a silver loving cup filled with dirt from his old baseball diamond at St. Mary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore. He was also given a silver bat and a floral wreath shaped like a diamond from the National Vaudeville Association. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where the love ended; Ruth wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t greeted by fans as warmly as expected. The Polo Grounds stands were packed with 38,000 patrons, who were \u00e2\u20ac\u0153willing to cheer the returned warrior, but were not willing to worship at his shrine\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6they broke out into a storm of applause when he toed the plate for the first time. But it was a storm and not a hurricane.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the Inquirer<\/em> owed the New York fans an apology; they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so fickle after all.<\/p>\n

Ruth and Meusel went hitless in an 8-2 loss to the Browns, who were nipping at the Yankees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 heels; at 20-12, St. Louis was only a game behind New York with three games left in the series. Ruth doubled in his second game back, a 6-5 win over the Browns, then hit his first homer of the season in a 4-3 victory on May 22. But he was struggling at the plate and the fans were getting on him. Ruth doffed his cap sarcastically a couple of times when fans derisively cheered two routine catches he made prior to hitting his first circuit clout. It was obvious that they were bitter about his suspension, and the fact that he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hitting home runs at will, as if any batter could, made matters worse.<\/p>\n

Three days later the slugger finally snapped. In the third inning of New York\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game against the Washington Senators, Ruth slapped a single to center and attempted to advance to second when outfielder Sam Rice fumbled the ball. Rice recovered and his throw nipped Ruth at the bag. Umpire George Hildebrand called Ruth out, which prompted the slugger to throw dirt in Hildebrand\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face. Hildebrand immediately ejected Ruth from the game and the booing began immediately. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Every step of the journey was a signal to the crowd to jeer and hoot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wrote the Times<\/em>. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To this demonstration Ruth\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6lifted his cap in courtly manner; a satirical gesture that had only the effect of increasing the volume of jeers and hisses.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Things went from bad to worse in a hurry. Insults rang out from behind the Yankees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dugout; Ruth turned his attention to two Pullman car conductors who were particularly harsh. He jumped into the stands to confront the men, who scampered to a safe distance before being verbally pummeled by the irate slugger. The fans seemed to be on the conductors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 side\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsomeone yelled out \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hit the big stiff!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut other than to stand between Ruth and the target of his ire, no one dared challenge him. He jumped back onto the field and began the long march across the diamond to the clubhouse, which was located beyond center field. Again the fans booed, although some cheered and applauded. To those few admirers, he lifted his cap.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They can boo and hoot me all they want,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ruth later told reporters at the Ansonia Hotel where he had an apartment. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter to me. But when a fan calls insulting names from the grandstand and becomes abusive I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t intend to stand for it. This fellow today, whoever he was, called me a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclow-down bum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and other names that got me mad, and when I went after him he ran.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The Sporting News<\/em> took him to task, claiming that he was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153under the delusion that he owned the national game\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that he had \u00e2\u20ac\u0153made a fool of himself\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by going into the stands to confront the hecklers. The weekly also opined that it would take \u00e2\u20ac\u0153exemplary conduct\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and a return to form in the batter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s box for Ruth to regain the adoration of fans, or he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lose out to new heroes who were hitting the ball out of the park.”<\/p>\n

The 1922 season proved to be Ruth’s worst in the seven-year period from 1918-1924, but he overcame it all, and indeed regained the adoration of fans.\u00c2\u00a0 The Yankees overcame it as well, winning their second straight American League pennant.\u00c2\u00a0 And TSN’s claim that Ruth would “lose out to new heroes who were hitting the ball out of the park?”\u00c2\u00a0 The Bambino enjoyed a full season in 1923 and smashed a league-leading 41 four-baggers, then continued his assault on the record books with seven more home run crowns, including 1927 when he belted a record 60 roundtrippers.\u00c2\u00a0 From 1923 to 1934, his last with the Yankees, Ruth blasted 511 home runs, 163 more than runner-up and teammate Lou Gehrig.<\/p>\n

Ruth belted six more homers at the age of 40 for the 1935 Boston Braves before calling it quits in late May with a career total of 714.\u00c2\u00a0 At the conclusion of the ’35 season, Gehrig was a distant second on the all-time list with “only” 378 home runs.\u00c2\u00a0 So much for “new heroes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eighty-eight years before “Manny Being Manny” finally put Ramirez in the commissioner’s dog house, another popular slugger thumbed his nose at the baseball establishment in 1921 and drew a six-week suspension.\u00c2\u00a0 It was just another case of Babe being Babe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}