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04-08-2018, 09:10 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-08-2018, 09:13 PM by
Mick.)
Speaking of Ruth's final days as a player in baseball, some interesting items:
1) Ruth wanted to manage the Yankees in the worst way, and he'd been mentioned for openings from 1932 to 1934, but Yankee management liked Joseph McCarthy who would manage the Yankees for 12 more years.Â
2)Â The Yankees wanted Ruth to manage in the minors -- which Ruth's wife didn't want.Â
3) In 1934, Frank Navin of the Tigers offered to trade for Ruth as a player-manager, but Ruth refused to go to Detroit for the interview because Ruth was going to Hawaii for a celebrity golf tournament. They talked over the phone, but Ruth demanded a percentage of the gate receipts and Navin balked.
4) Judge Emil Fuchs, owner of the Braves wanted him as a full time player, assistant manager, and possibly part-owner...and Fuchs suggested that Ruth might take over from Manager Bill McKechnie in 1936. So Fuchs started negotiating with the Yankees in earnest.
5) In Ruth's first game as a Brave, he accounted for all four runs in a 4-2, then knocked in two runs the next game. Went downhill from there.
6) Babe Ruth has always been portrayed as a joke for the 1935 Boston Red Sox, but he had the second-highest OPS and OBP of all players with at least 90 at bats on that team. He only had 13 hits, but he also had the second most home runs with six. And in 92 ABs, Ruth only grounded into two DPs. That's about 1/3 the rate that SF Giants leadoff batter Austin Jackson had last year.
7) Everyone knows that Babe Ruth hit three home runs in one of his last games. Not everyone knows that two of the three home runs were hit off of Guy Bush, Ruth's nemesis and the pitcher for Ruth's famous "called shot" home run. Also, not everyone knows that Ruth's last home run was the longest ball hit at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field, and in fact was the ONLY ball hit out of Forbes Field until Ralph Kiner bested it several decades later.
8) Also of interest is that Babe Ruth was not the only famous old player on the team. Rabbit Maranville was 43 years old and on that team.
9) Ruth's final at bat was against Jim Bivin. Bivin induce Ruth to ground out to first baseman Dolph Camilli. Ruth took a tumble, injured his knee and never played again. Bivin went 2-9 that year, his only year in the majors. Bivin played in the minors from age 22 to age 39, save for three years in WWII and one year in the majors.
Audaces fortuna iuvat
![[Image: Norman_Rockwell_-_Tough_Call.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/Norman_Rockwell_-_Tough_Call.jpg)
