Babe Ruth: Legends in Sports (9 page)

In his first at bat he cracked a two-run home run. Then in his next trip to the plate he hit a second home run. After singling
in his third time up, Ruth came to bat one last time.

The pitcher was Guy Bush, who had once pitched for the 1932 Cubs. The bases were empty.

Babe Ruth was forty years old. For a ballplayer, he was old and fat. He had already decided he would retire in a few days.

But he still had one great swing left in him. Bush threw and Ruth hit the pitch on the sweet part of the bat. The ball rocketed
into the sky until it was just a small speck. Then it dropped down and down, all the way over the double-decked grandstand
in right field at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. It hit the roof of a house across the street, bounced off another rooftop,
and rolled to a stop in a nearby lot. Witnesses later said a young boy walking by saw the rolling ball, picked it up, and
went on his way, probably wondering where in the world the baseball had come from. The vacant lot was more than six hundred
feet from home plate!

Guy Bush later said, “I’ve never seen a ball hit so hard before or since.” No one had ever even hit a ball onto the roof of
the grandstand, much less over it. The blast was the 714th of Babe Ruth’s career. It was also his last.

After the game, Duffy Lewis, an old Red Sox teammate who worked for the Braves, told Ruth he should quit at the top and never
play another game. But Ruth had promised Fuchs he’d finish the road trip. A few days later, in Philadelphia, he struck out
in the first inning, then wrenched his knee and had to leave the game. He never played in the major leagues again.

Less than a week later, he told reporters simply, “I’m quitting.” He felt the Braves had broken their promises to him. “I’d
still like to manage,” he added.

But baseball never really found a place for Babe Ruth after retirement. Yet it never forgot him either.
In 1936 the National Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York. Only five players in the history of the game —
Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, and Honus Wagner — were selected for induction in that first season.
A few years later, in 1939, Babe Ruth coached one season for Brooklyn, but when it became clear they didn’t intend to make
him manager either, Ruth quit again. He spent most of his time with his wife, Claire, playing golf, giving speeches at clinics,
and just relaxing.

He returned to Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, for Lou Gehrig Day. His old teammate was dying of a degenerative disease called
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, now commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. On July 4, the Yankees honored Gehrig with
his own day After Gehrig gave a speech in which he referred to himself as “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” for
having the opportunity to play baseball, Ruth gave him a big hug. A few years later, Ruth even played himself in a movie based
on Gehrig’s life.

During World War II, Ruth helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Red Cross
and made many appearances in exhibitions, hitting home runs and making people smile, like he always had.

In April of 1947, baseball commissioner Happy Chandler declared that it was “Babe Ruth Day” all across the country and Ruth
was invited to appear at Yankee Stadium again. He’d been sick and was starting to lose weight. Ruth didn’t know it yet, but
he was dying.

All his old teammates turned out. So did Johnny Sylvester, the young boy he had hit a home run for, who was now well and a
grown man, and 58,000 people in Yankee Stadium to whom he had given such joy. Before the game, he spoke to the crowd with
a raspy voice:

“The only real game, I think, is baseball,” he said. “You have to start from way down at the bottom … You’ve got to let it
grow up with you, and if you’re successful and try hard enough, you’re bound to come out on top.” He was speaking about the
game of baseball, but he could have been describing his own life.

Ruth made one more appearance at Yankee Stadium a year later on the twenty-fifth anniversary of
“the House that Ruth Built.” He was too ill to speak but had one last chance to see his old friends and teammates. Two months
later, on August 16, 1948, Babe Ruth died.

Yet a figure as legendary as Babe Ruth can never truly die. When he retired from baseball he held virtually every slugging
record — most total bases, highest slugging percentage, most extra base hits, and of course, the most home runs, a total of
714. He even led in career strikeouts and walks.

Although those records no longer stand, no player since has ever been loved as much as Babe Ruth. Wherever children gather
to play baseball and dream of making the major leagues and hitting home runs, Babe Ruth, the tough kid who grew up to become
the greatest slugger in the game, lives in the hearts of each and every one.

Baseball Flyhawk	Dive Right In
Baseball Turnaround	Double Play at Short
The Basket Counts	Face-Off
Body Check	Fairway Phenom
Catch That Pass!	Football Double Threat
Catcher with a Glass Arm	Football Fugitive
Catching Waves	Football Nightmare
Center Court Sting	The Fox Steals Home