How Babe Ruth Helped Change the Game of Baseball

 

            In the early-20th century, strategies differed greatly from the ones of today. Though rules prohibiting pitchers from defacing baseballs existed, they were rarely enforced. Hurlers used every dirty trick in the book, scuffing up balls and covering them with mud and/or tobacco juice. Rather than replacing the old ones in a timely manner, umpires kept balls in play until they were lopsided and spongy. Most major league ballparks had spacious dimensions in the outfield, putting hitters at a further disadvantage. Runs were manufactured one base at a time using old school tactics such as bunting, stealing, and sacrificing. Home runs were a somewhat rare event.  

            In August of 1920, Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was struck and killed by a Carl Mays pitch. The sound of the ball hitting Chapman’s skull was reportedly so loud that Mays assumed his offering had made contact with the infielder’s bat. When the ball rolled toward him, Mays actually scooped it up and threw to first base. Chapman collapsed on the field, dying hours later at a nearby hospital. Things took another dark turn for the sport in September of that year when pitcher Eddie Cicotte of the White Sox admitted that he had conspired with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series. Eight Chicago players were permanently banished in the wake of the scandal.

            Prior to the 1920 season, major league executives decided to enforce a ban on spitballs (with the exception of 17 pitchers who were allowed to use the pitch under a grandfather clause). In the wake of the Chapman incident, umpires were encouraged to put fresh balls into play more often. The result was an offensive explosion unparalleled in the game’s history.

            In his first campaign as a full-time outfielder, Babe Ruth set a new single-season record for home runs with 29. With the new guidelines in place, the Babe eventually increased that number to 60. Ruth wasn’t the only one breaking down fences. In 1930, Hack Wilson pushed the National League single-season home run mark up to 56—a record that stood for nearly 70 years.   

            With Ruth and Wilson leading the way, baseball was transformed from a ponderous game of strategy to an explosive exhibition of raw power. The outcome of games could be changed with a single swing of the bat. And as balls began flying out of parks with regularity, old strategies were virtually abandoned. There were 3,265 stolen bases recorded in 1910. By 1930, that number had dwindled to 1,080—a decrease of 67 percent. Baseball historians now refer to the 1920s and ‘30s as the “Lively Ball Era.”

            Conditions in the major leagues continued to favor hitters until the 1940s, when collective batting averages fell into the .260-range. Prior to then, they had hovered in the .280s for nearly two decades. Baseball’s offensive renaissance peaked in 1930 with an average of 5.5 runs scored per game. The composite major league batting mark that year was .292—the highest single-season average since the dawn of the 20th century. By way of comparison, the game has seen a sharp decline in batting averages over the past several years. Between 2010 and 2021, collective major league averages ranged from .257 to .244.

Read More about this topic in my latest book, Lore of the Bambino: 100 Great Babe Ruth Stories. 

Little Known Facts About Babe Ruth

 

--Ruth’s father was accidentally killed by a family member. George Ruth Sr. owned a number of taverns in Baltimore. While tending bar one day, a fight between two of his brothers-in-law erupted on the street outside. Ruth Sr. attempted to separate the two men but ended up slamming his head on a curb and sustaining a fatal skull fracture.

--Ruth’s first wife, Helen, was killed in a house fire. The two were separated but still legally wed at the time. Since the fire took place under somewhat suspicious circumstances, Ruth was implicated as a suspect along with Helen’s boyfriend—a Boston dentist named Edward Kinder. In the wake of a formal investigation, both men were absolved of any guilt.

 

--Ruth worked tirelessly over the course of his career to interact with fans. In October of 1933, he actually visited a leper colony during a barnstorming tour of Hawaii. He did so against the wishes of his handlers.

 

--Ruth purchased a number of fancy sports cars during his playing days. He had little regard for the rules of the road, parking his vehicles wherever he pleased, driving them too fast, and smashing into things repeatedly. In 1917, he collided with a trolley car in Boston, derailing it. In July of 1920, he drove his expensive Packard off the road with his wife and several teammates in it. The vehicle flipped over, but no one was seriously hurt. In June of 1921, Ruth was stopped for speeding and arrested. Police officials released him from jail in time to appear in an evening game.

 

--Though Ruth was generally good-natured, he demonstrated his hot temper a number of times on the field. In 1922, he was thrown out of a game for tossing dirt at umpire George Hildebrand. After getting booed by fans, he climbed into the stands to confront two men who were heckling him. Unable to reach them, he jumped onto the roof of the Yankee dugout and challenged anyone in the crowd to a fight. There were no takers.

 

--Much has been made of Ruth’s alleged “called shot” off Cubs pitcher Charlie Root in the 1932 World Series. Few people are aware that he called one of his October shots four years earlier. Facing pitcher Bill Sherdel of the Cardinals in Game 4 of the 1928 World Series, the Babe engaged in some semi-friendly banter at the plate, bragging that he was going to deposit the next hittable pitch into the outfield seats. He made good on the boast, laughing all the way around the bases and waving mockingly to the St. Louis crowd.  

 

--The use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball has generated a lot of controversy over the past several decades. But it is not a new problem. In the 1920s, team trainers began injecting players with a substance made from sheep’s testicles, which was said to increase stamina. Ruth agreed to give it a try, but he became severely ill after a single injection and abruptly ended the experiment.    

You can read more about all these topics in my latest book: Lore of the Bambino: 100 Great Babe Ruth Stories, which is set for release in early-April of 2022. Pre-order it now on Amazon!    

Jackie Mitchell: The Girl Who Struck Out Ruth and Gehrig

 Greetings, fans of old-time baseball!! Over the next couple of months, I'll be posting a series of blogs to help promote the release of my latest book, LORE OF THE BAMBINO: 100 GREAT BABE RUTH STORIES. The book is scheduled to hit the shelves in early-April. You can pre-order it on Amazon. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy this little snippet. The full story appears in my book.  

                         

            During the heart of the Great Depression, most major league teams reduced the number of spring training games to cut down on travel costs. The Yankees broke with this trend in 1931, scheduling more than 30 stops on their annual spring tour. A visit to Chattanooga in early-April produced one of the most memorable moments in baseball history as a teenage girl named Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession.

            A Chattanooga native, Mitchell learned the basics of the game from her father. As the story goes, she was taught by Hall of Fame pitcher Dazzy Vance (who was a neighbor) to throw a sinking fastball. Mitchell mastered the pitch and began playing for local teams. She caught the eye of Chattanooga Lookouts owner Joe Engel at an Atlanta training camp.

            A savvy promoter, Engel was known to stage unusual publicity stunts to draw fans to the ballpark. He once traded a player for a turkey that he cooked and fed to sportswriters. Recognizing a golden opportunity, he signed Mitchell to a minor league contract and booked a pair of games against the Yankees.   

            In the wake of a rainout, the Lookouts faced the Yankees at Engel Stadium in front of 4,000 fans. After Earle Combs and Lyn Lary led off the game with a pair of hits, Chattanooga manager Bert Niehoff summoned Mitchell from the bullpen. Fans were cheering wildly as Ruth stepped up to the plate to face her. Mitchell’s windup consisted of a dramatic windmill motion and sidearm delivery. The Babe swung through two of her first three offerings. After failing to connect a second time, he asked the umpire to inspect the ball. Finding nothing amiss, the arbiter called for play to continue. Mitchell’s next pitch caught the outside corner for a called third strike. Ruth flung his bat in disgust and barked at the umpire. Gehrig’s at-bat was far less dramatic in comparison. He swung through three straight pitches and returned to the dugout without complaint.

            After disposing of the Yankees’ primary offensive threats, Mitchell walked Tony Lazzeri and was promptly removed from the game. An ongoing debate as to whether or not her strikeouts were legitimate has never been definitively settled. Outfielder Ben Chapman, who was in the lineup that day, believed that Ruth and Gehrig were willing victims. Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Gomez was of a different mindset, insisting that Yankee manager Joe McCarthy would never have allowed such a stunt—even in a meaningless exhibition game. Years later, Engel said that Mitchell’s appearance was an elaborate hoax, but Mitchell denied that this was true until the time of her death in 1987.

            Ruth and Gehrig never publicly admitted to intentionally striking out. In fact, Ruth seemed a bit peeved by the incident. After the game was over, he remarked to reporters, “I don’t know what’s going to happen if they let women in baseball. Of course they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball every day.” Commissioner Landis was inclined to agree, voiding Mitchell’s contract on the grounds that baseball was “too strenuous” for her. She continued to play for various barnstorming teams into the late-‘30s.