Babe & the Kid: The Legendary Story of Babe Ruth and Johnny Sylvester
154
Babe & the Kid: The Legendary Story of Babe Ruth and Johnny Sylvester
154eBook
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Overview
On the eve of game four of the 1926 World Series, Babe Ruth heard that a young New Jersey boy, Johnny Sylvester, was laid up with a deadly illness. Ruth autographed a ball for Johnny, inscribing it, “I’ll knock a homer for you in Wednesday’s game—Babe Ruth.” The rest was history.
Ruth delivered on his promise, and Johnny made a miraculous recovery. In Babe & the Kid, author Charlie Poekel traces the story behind the sensational headlines, and follows Johnny’s remarkable life in the aftermath of Ruth’s incredible feat.
Includes photos!
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781614230960 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Arcadia Publishing SC |
| Publication date: | 01/23/2019 |
| Series: | Sports |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 154 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Americans would rather watch a game than play a game. — Robert Frost
The year 1926 marked the 150 anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the country wanted to celebrate. In 1921, Philadelphia had been selected to host the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition. Louis Kahn, a world-renowned architect, was commissioned to be the chief designer. The exposition was going to be a mini world's fair, and it contained a giant stadium known as Philadelphia Municipal Stadium. The stadium had a classic 1920s style consisting of a horseshoe surrounding a track and football field with a seating capacity of over 110,000 people. The entrance to the exposition featured an eighty-foot-high Liberty Bell, the symbol of the fair, adorned with 26,000 fifteen-watt lights. Everyone entering the fair passed under the giant Liberty Bell. It was hoped that the French government would send over the Mona Lisa for the exposition, but the French feared it wouldn't be safe in a land where too much looting took place. When someone announced the painting "was the most famous masterpiece of French art," he was quickly told that it had been painted by an Italian.
The exposition also featured replicas of Mount Vernon, George Washington's Virginia homestead, as well as Sulgrave Manor, his English ancestral home. New Jersey's contribution was a stone replica of the Hessian barracks at Trenton during the Revolution.
The country was ready for the "greatest and gaudiest spree in its history," as F. Scott Fitzgerald had predicted, and it was about to witness one of the greatest years in all of sports history. It would become known as the "Golden Age of Sports," as America's athletes stood out in the country and the world as the greatest stars ever produced by a nation. They would topple old records and mark out new ones that still exist today. Golf in 1926 would witness a twenty-four-year-old Georgian named Bobby Jones win both the British and the U.S. Opens — the never-before-seen "double." Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey would battle it out for heavyweight championship of the world before 120,000 eyewitnesses at Sesqui-Centennial Stadium. Red Grange, the "Galloping Ghost," would take his college exploits and bring the nation into professional football. "Big Bill" Tilden would show that an American could beat anyone from any country on the tennis courts. Gertrude Eberle, an eighteen-year-old girl from New York City, would become the first female to swim the English Channel and beat the record of the fastest man by two hours. And the king of the Golden Age would be George Herman "Babe" Ruth, whose seemingly unlimited number of home runs at the end of his Louisville Slugger galvanized the nation. In the words of sportswriter Tom Meany, the Babe "was the golden age."
The year 1926 marked Babe Ruth's seventh year as a New York Yankee. Yankee Stadium, "the House that Ruth Built" in the Bronx, was three years old. The Babe was thirty-two years of age, and he was determined to get in shape and bring back the greatness that he had lost the year before. Ruth worked with Artie McGovern, his own personal trainer, at whose gym he spent four hours a day in a regimen that included weights, pulleys and quick action on a handball court to tone his reactions. By mid-January, Ruth had lost twenty-three pounds, his waist had shrunk from 48Â1/2 to 39Â3/4 inches and his neck size went from 17 to 16.
Just to show off his well-muscled body, Ruth reported to spring training in St. Petersburg, Florida, on February 3 — ahead of the rest of the team, which reported on March 3. Ruth felt good about himself, and he felt good about the Yankees. He had a prediction: "There is no doubt about it. The signs are unmistakable. The Yanks are going to win the pennant." Only one sportswriter, Fred Lieb, agreed with the Babe. Years later, Ruth would say, "Fred Lieb and I sure had our necks out on that one, but the team came through for us." Most sportswriters felt that either Washington or Philadelphia would win the pennant. Famed sportswriter Westbrook Pegler was the most pessimistic of all the New York sportswriters, and his prediction was last place for the Yankees, the team that had finished seventh in 1925.
Just as Ruth was sure that the Yankees would win the pennant, there was another great hitter — who that year was serving as manager as well — Rogers Hornsby, "the Rajah," who was confident that the team he was playing on and managing — the St. Louis Cardinals — would win the pennant in the National League. Hornsby, a Texan, had replaced Branch Rickey as the field manager of the Cardinals. Baseball in the 1920s was the age of the player-managers. Besides Hornsby there were six others: Ty Cobb with the Detroit Tigers, Tris Speaker with the Cleveland Indians, Dave Bancroft with the Boston Braves, Eddie Collins with the Chicago White Sox, George Sisler with the St. Louis Browns and Bucky Harris with the Washington Senators. Hornsby was a blunt man who hated anyone who went to college and everyone knew he swore like a Texas trooper.
In the first address to his team at their spring training camp at Terell Wells, just outside of San Antonio, Hornsby presented his own version of what the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizzaro had told his men, saying,
I want you fellows to listen to every word I am going to say. We are going to win this year's pennant. Don't go around telling everyone we're going to win. But we are going to win just the same. If there's anybody here who doesn't believe we are going to win, there's a train leaving for the north tonight and our secretary, Clarence Lloyd, will have a ticket for him. I'll trade away anyone who doesn't think we are going to win. If there's a man here who thinks we are a second division ball club, well, I just don't want him around.
The Yankee skipper in 1926 was the diminutive Miller Huggins. Huggins, a native of Cincinnati, was five foot, four inches and weighed only 146 pounds. He held a law degree, but his presence was needed at the ballpark — not the courtroom. After being a player and manager for the Cardinals for five seasons, Huggins became manager of the Yankees in 1918. He would constantly struggle with nervousness and headaches and gaining respect. He was once barred from a banquet, being told, "How can a little twerp runt like you be Babe Ruth's manager?" He would constantly strive to win the respect of his players and the fans, and in the end he did.
After spring training in St. Petersburg, the Yankees had a schedule of eighteen exhibition games. They won the first six and then beat the Dodgers in twelve consecutive games.
The season opened for the New York Yankees on April 14, 1926, in frigid Boston. It was a day not without added excitement for Ruth. Upon arriving in Massachusetts, he was told that there was an arrest warrant for him for failure to pay state income taxes. Ruth had a home in Sudbury, but he considered New York City to be his primary residence, and he had not filed Commonwealth of Massachussetts tax returns in either 1923 or 1924. Ruth immediately went to straighten the matter out with the commissioner of taxation at the statehouse in Boston, parking his car at Court Square. Ruth argued that his primary residence was New York and he simply maintained a summer house in Sudbury. While Ruth was inside making his arguments, a Boston policeman was ticketing his car outside. The end result was that the policeman withdrew the ticket, but Ruth had to pay the taxes.
Ruth then joined the team at Fenway Park, where he managed to hit two doubles, a single and steal a base. The Yankees, with Ruth igniting them, eked out a 12 — 11 win over the Red Sox and the 1926 season had begun.
Making his debut that cold day in Boston was the Yankee second baseman Anthony Lazzeri. Anthony "Tony" Lazzeri was from San Francisco and was the son of Italian immigrants. His father was a blacksmith. He was bantamsized, weighing only 165 pounds, and he was an epileptic at a time when there were no drugs to control the condition. He had acquired the nickname of "Poosh 'Em Up Tony" while playing for Salt Lake City in the Pacific Coast League, where in 1925 he had "pushed up" 60 home runs and batted in 222 runs. Lazzeri would be part of a rookie Yankee infield. He would be teamed up with Mark Koenig at shortstop, who had only played twenty-five games with the Yanks in 1925, and with Lou Gehrig at first base, who was starting his first full season as a Yankee.
By the end of April, the Yankees had a record of 13 — 3 after an 8-game winning streak. On May 6, 1926, the Sporting News wrote, "[Manager] Miller Huggins has real 'Murderers' Row' with Ruth doing his part and aiding toward fine team spirit." This was the first time that the Ruth-centered Yankees would receive that appellation. The Sporting News would mention "Murderers' Row" another five times in 1926, although the term is most closely associated with the 1927 Yankees. "Murderers' Row" consisted of Earle Combs, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Tony Lazzeri and Bob Meusel. In 1926, unlike future seasons, Gehrig would bat ahead of Ruth and Meusel would follow him.
Ruth hit four home runs in April and then eleven in May, including one on May 25 that is still considered the longest home run at Boston's Fenway Park. His shot that day traveled 512 feet horizontally and hit a bench in the bleachers forty-five rows from the bottom and five rows from the top. By the end of May, the Yankees had a 16-game winning streak with a record of 30 — 9.
The 1926 season saw the Yankees' pitching staff rise to the top. Leading the staff was Herb Pennock, who finished the year with a record of 23 — 11 and an ERA of 3.62. Next came Urban Shocker, whose record was 19 — 11 with an ERA of 3.38. The third best pitcher was Waite Hoyt, who had a record of 16 — 2 with an ERA of 3.85.
Waite Hoyt had started his Major League career at age nineteen with the Boston Red Sox. It was with the Red Sox that Hoyt met Ruth and the two became lifelong friends. In their first encounter, Ruth looked at Hoyt and asked him, "Pretty young to be in the big league aren't you kid?" Hoyt's response was "Yep — same age you were when you came up, Babe." Three members of the 1926 Yankees' team had played previously for the Boston Red Sox. Harry Frazee, owner of the Red Sox, sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees on January 3, 1920. In December of 1920, Frazee also sent Hoyt to the Yankees. And in 1923, Boston sent Herb Pennock to the Yankees. During the early 1920s, Hoyt supplemented his income by appearing in vaudeville, where he sang and told baseball stories. He also ventured in 1924 into the mortuary business and eventually opened a funeral home in Long Island. It didn't take long before he earned the nickname of the "Merry Mortician." One famous story about Hoyt had him driving a hearse to the Polo Grounds with a body in it, pitching a game and then delivering the putrefying corpse to his father-in-law's funeral home in Brooklyn.
The Cardinals solidified their team midway through the season. In a trade on June 14 with John McGraw of the New York Giants, one that was later referred to as McGraw's worst trade, the Cardinals obtained Billy Southworth for Heine Mueller. Mueller would have a mediocre season with the Giants but Southworth, the pride of Harvard, Nebraska, would be energized by the Cardinals' quest for the pennant and bat .329 for the season and play exceptionally well in right field.
Eight days after the trade, the Cardinals made another brilliant move in the acquisition of veteran pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander when Joe McCarthy of the Chicago Cubs put him on waivers. Alexander had suffered a broken ankle in spring training and had been institutionalized the winter before for his alcoholism. McCarthy felt that Alexander was too much of an alcoholic and that his best pitching days were over. Hornsby was able to pick up Ol' Pete for the paltry sum of $4,000. Hornsby would say later about Alexander, "He had the greatest control I've ever seen. He could almost nick the corners of a soft-drink bottle cap." Hornsby, the player-manager, asked Branch Rickey, the general manager, to claim Alexander. He wanted him on his team even though he had heard that Ol' Pete carried a gin bottle more often than a glove. And he wasn't an impressive looking man. One biographer wrote, "You could stand Grover Cleveland Alexander among a group of farm laborers and he would blend in." In his first appearance as a Cardinal that year, Alexander faced his former Cubs' teammates and pitched a four hitter, winning the game 3 — 2. After the game, Alexander tipped his hat, which was always too small for him, to McCarthy.
During 1926, Ruth continued helping children and children's causes. Reverend E.J. Flanagan, founder of Father Flanagan's Boys' Home, announced on June 13 that Ruth had joined Father Flanagan's campaign to end profiteering in homeless boys. Ruth wrote Father Flanagan that he was "all for the boys and takes a deep interest in them." This publicity was good for Ruth, especially since it followed by one day reports of Ruth being arrested for fishing without a license in Michigan on June 11, five days before the season opened. Although an arrest warrant was issued, the press was quick to point out that the Babe's catch was reported to have been "only a few scrawny bluegills."
While Yankee pitcher Waite Hoyt was known as the "Merry Mortician," left-handed Herb Jeffries Pennock was known as the "Knight of Kennett Square." He had an estate in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where he raised silver foxes and headed fox hunts. Ruth would often be a guest of Pennock's at Kennett Square and would remark that riding horses after a bunch of foxes was harder than it looked.
In July of 1926, Pennock was being honored by his hometown, and after a game in Philadelphia, he invited Waite Hoyt, Joe Dugan and Babe Ruth to accompany him to Kennett Square. The four Yankees were featured at a parade and a dinner. After dinner the Yankee players attended a street fair that had been set up as part of the celebration. At the fair there was a booth where you could win prizes by throwing balls. The Yankees went wild at throwing the lightweight balls and ended up winning almost all the prizes in the booth. Hoyt in particular couldn't stop tossing the balls; he started throwing curves and knuckleballs to hit the targets. At the end of the street fair episode, Babe and his teammates returned most of the prizes to the distraught street fair barker. All was not good, however, as Hoyt had severely injured his pitching arm. The next day he told Miller Huggins that it had happened during a game. One doctor examined Hoyt's arm and said he would be out for the rest of the season. Huggins, however, had Hoyt go to Rochester, New York, where Doc Knight, a famous sports bonesetter, worked on Hoyt's arm and had him back in shape in about three weeks.
Besides seeing greatness in sports, the Roaring Twenties also saw unbridled frivolities. On July 23, 1926, the Babe took time off for a publicity event to aid the Citizens' Military Training Camps. He donned an army uniform and attempted to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane at Mitchell Field in Long Island. The army plane took off and dropped a ball at one thousand feet, but the exhaust from the propellers carried the ball beyond the field. Five more balls were dropped with the Babe desperately trying to get under them, all the time in grueling heat. On the seventh attempt, the plane dropped to three hundred feet and, according to the New York Times account, Ruth "steadied himself and neatly caught it." Ruth had set another world record. The new record didn't impress Yankees' owner Colonel Rupert, who told Ruth, "No more of that. Play ball in the ballpark."
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Babe & the Kid"
by .
Copyright © 2007 Charlie Poekel.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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