When Babe Ruth Rocked the Boat One Last Time
A SABR member highlights the final days of Babe Ruth's historic career in part four of this series
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . On Sunday, the Colorado Rockies lost their 50th game of the season, dropping their record to 9-50 with a weekend sweep on the road against the New York Mets. Incredibly, no team in baseball even has 40 wins as the Rockies cross the 50-loss threshold, and only one team in the majors even has 40 losses, the 18-41 Chicago White Sox, who have double the victories on the season as the Rockies do.
. . . Baseball-Reference offers a positional comparison chart to note how each team stacks up in wins above average for the season. The Rockies are by far the worst team overall, and they rank last in seven of the 15 categories in the chart. The only positions where the Rockies have received positive contributions as a position this year are in the bullpen and at second base.
Leading Off
When Babe Ruth Rocked the Boat One Last Time
By Bob LeMoine
The 80,000-ton luxury liner S.S. Normandie, hailed as the “Queen of the Seven Seas,” left port on May 29, 1935, on its maiden voyage from France to New York. The ship was state-of-the-art in size, speed, and style. Popular Mechanics featured the bright, sparkling vessel, which could supply electricity for a city of 300,000. The glistening upholstery, lustrous chandeliers, and jubilant atmosphere guaranteed each passenger travel in style. You could visit the library, gym, art gallery, theater, or pop in for a haircut and shave. A crowd of 200,000 in New York Harbor anticipated the Normandie breaking the transatlantic speed record on June 3.
Babe Ruth wanted to go. In terms of his baseball career, the icon’s ship had already sailed. His last hurrah as a Boston Brave was to be a perfect tale of the hero returning home, but optimism in Boston soured as the floundering Braves’ franchise inched closer to bankruptcy. Ruth and the Braves were shipwrecks. His age and immobility overshadowed his nostalgia. He rose to the ranks of immortality on one memorable day in Pittsburgh when he slammed three home runs. He could and should have retired then, but he wanted to honor fans who were longing to see him. But in Cincinnati, fans saw Ruth going into the wall and coming out gimpy. In Philadelphia, the hobbling Bambino again injured himself, and he took his creaking joints to the clubhouse. Unbeknownst to anyone, his last at-bat was a weak grounder to first. Ruth had had enough and was ready to quit.
Back in Boston, Braves owner Judge Emil Fuchs and manager Bill McKechnie discussed ridding themselves of Ruth, their wobbly player, assistant manager, and “second” vice president. Pitchers complained of Ruth’s fumbling in the outfield. The Braves lost both games of a doubleheader to the Giants on May 31, dropping them to 9-27. Ruth’s doctor announced that the legend had fluid on the knee, a strained ligament, and needed rest. Since he couldn’t play, Ruth asked Fuchs for permission to visit that big boat steaming into New York. Fuchs had more steam coming from his ears than the exhaust of the boat. This experiment had been a disaster, and Fuchs didn’t allow Ruth to go. Fuchs, who once strove to get Ruth to as many public appearances as possible, now simply wanted his aging star to go away. Ruth failed to appear for a June 2nd meeting in which Fuchs would have asked him to resign. So Fuchs composed a letter which Ruth never saw. This made for one final, crazy end to Babe Ruth’s career.
Ruth told his Braves teammates he was going on the voluntary retired list. When the shock and silence were over, players surrounded him, seeking one last autograph. Ruth sat in the dugout watching the Braves pull out a 2-0 win, just their fifth win since May 4. During the game, Fuchs sent a statement to reporters that he no longer had the financial resources to sustain the franchise. He was seeking a buyer. Meanwhile, Ruth called the press box and invited sports writers to his press conference in the clubhouse during the eighth inning. Telegraph operators remained behind to keep the final stats of the game while scribes ambushed their way to Ruth’s side.
Ruth said he felt disrespected over the Normandie issue. “What about your vice president position?” a reporter asked. “You can take that job and throw it out the window,” he boisterously responded. “I never did find out what that was all about, anyway.” He went on to call Fuchs a double-crosser. Paul Gallico wrote that Ruth’s monologue was “truly Ruthian and splendid,” as he “went out in a blaze of fine expletive, most of it beautifully unprintable.” At the end of the day, Fuchs announced he had officially released Ruth. He denied double-crossing Ruth and blamed him for not following through on his responsibilities.
“Hell, kid,” Ruth said to a reporter as he and wife Claire were packing up to leave. “We all strike out sometime.” Some of the press blamed Fuchs, while others blamed Ruth. John Kieran wrote that Fuchs, McKechnie and Ruth were like three men on a horse: Fuchs, holding the reins but clueless about where the horse was heading, McKechnie sandwiched in the middle, and Ruth on the end, barely hanging on. Dizzy Dean had a unique perspective. “What is baseball comin’ to,” he asked, “when a guy can’t get a day off to see a boat?”
Grantland Rice summed up Ruth at this time as one suffering the “shock that suddenly comes when all dreams and illusions suddenly blow up, when one suddenly feels tired and old and out of date, bewildered and a trifle dazed, wondering what it is all about.” Ruth’s (ghostwritten) editorial in the August issue of American Magazine reflected on his life when “they (fans) used to cheer me because I could hit a baseball often and hard.” But exploring the big picture of life took him back to his days as a troubled youth under the care of Brother Matthias. “I knew an old priest once. His hair was white, his face shone. I have written my name on thousands and thousands of baseballs in my life. The old priest wrote his name on just a few simple hearts. How I envy him.”
In the final installment of this series, we will look back at Ruth’s final days when he signed his name on the hearts of the youth he loved.
Bob LeMoine is a librarian, adjunct professor, high school teacher, and union president who still dreams of working in baseball. He is a SABR member, researcher, and author of the book When the Babe Went Back to Boston: Babe Ruth, Judge Fuchs and the Hapless Braves of 1935 (McFarland, 2023). You can see his numerous SABR writings and can be reached at LIBRARYBOBL@GMAIL.COM. Bob lives in New Hampshire
Extra Innings
Darnell Coles turns 63 today. Coles was drafted sixth overall in 1980 out of high school in California and quickly ascended to the major leagues, playing 14 seasons across eight organizations. Coles has the unique career statline of playing 937 career games, with a negative bWAR value for his career, accumulating -1.5 bWAR in his time. Coles is one of just 60 players in all of major league history to play 900+ games with a negative career bWAR. The player with the most games with that distinction is Chris Gomez, an infielder who played 1,515 games from 1993 to 2008 across eight organizations.
Coles began coaching and has found success as a hitting coach, a role he currently fills for the Washington Nationals. The 1986 season was Coles’ best by bWAR, the only season he topped 20 home runs in a single year.