On a sunny Saturday afternoon on May 25, 1935, Babe Ruth hit the final three home runs of his career at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. As would future stars Willie Mays and Henry Aaron, Ruth finished his career in the city where it began, but with a different team. In Ruth’s case, the 40-year-old was finishing up with the Boston Braves. On that afternoon, he had no inkling as to how close he was to “finishing up.” Ruth would play just five more games afterward, ending his career with 714 home runs.
On this day in 1935, Babe Ruth hit home runs No. 712, 713 and 714 – the final three of his larger-than-life career. pic.twitter.com/TTpDN0DfuF
— ESPN (@espn) May 25, 2016
Babe Ruth Hit His Final Three Home Runs 90 Years Ago Today
It seemed secondary that the Pirates won the game, 11-7. Pittsburgh’s third baseman, Tommy Thevenow, delivered perhaps the most overlooked five-RBI performance in baseball history. That’s what happens when Babe Ruth goes 4-for-4 with three home runs and six RBI. “Ruth Smashes Three Homers, But Bucs Win, 11-7,” read the headline in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph sports section the next day, in big bold type usually reserved for declarations of war. In a more subtle typeface, The Pittsburgh Press headline read, “Ruth Hits Three Homers, But Bucs Win, 11-7.” Sportswriters of the era were more fans than journalists. Volney Walsh of The Press repeatedly referred to Ruth as “the Great Man” in his report. He’s “the Great One” in a caption to a photo that ran in the Sun-Telegraph.
“Boy, That Last One Felt Good”
It was his third home run of the day that had everybody talking. It came in the seventh inning against Pirates right-hander Guy Bush. Bush, “throwing everything he had on every ball,” according to Walsh, fell behind in the count, 3-0. Ruth swung and missed the next pitch. Then Bush came in with a slow curveball. Ruth unleashed a mighty swing and sent a “prodigious wallop that carried clear over the right field stands” and into Panther Hollow as the Pirates fielders “stood in their tracks” and watched. No ball had ever been hit over those stands. It was the longest homer ever hit at Forbes Field. The Pirates led, 7-6. However, by then, wrote Charles J. Doyle of the Sun-Telegraph, “The onlookers didn’t seem to be worried about the progression of the game from that point.”
Pirates fans roared as Ruth trotted around the bases. Ruth touched home plate and tipped his cap. Then, recalled Pirates rookie pitcher Mace Brown to author Jim O’Brien in Glory Years, “He ran directly into our dugout and sat right beside me on the end of the bench! He sat there for four or five minutes, right next to me! The only thing I remember him saying was, ‘Boy, that last one felt good.’” From there, legend has it, Ruth disappeared into the Braves’ clubhouse for the remainder of the game. It makes for a nice story: Babe hits his final home run and disappears. But it wasn’t true, according to attendee James Calderone (Uncle Jimmy to me), although Ruth was replaced in right field by Joe Mowry.
The Babe Arrives in Pittsburgh
There was palpable excitement over Ruth playing in Pittsburgh for the first time since he played against the Pirates in the 1927 World Series, going 6-for-15 with two home runs in the New York Yankees’ four-game sweep. On Thursday, May 23, the Sun-Telegraph ran a front-page photo of Ruth in downtown Pittsburgh, being mobbed by children. He was in high demand. The night before, he spoke at a testimonial dinner at the Schenley Hotel for Rabbit Maranville, a former Pirate and his current teammate on the Braves. Ruth obliged a special request to autograph a baseball to be delivered to a boy in a hospital in nearby McKeesport. The Babe could never turn down kids.
Before the Sunday game, he met with a group of boys and girls who were guests of the Sun-Telegraph. One dozen of them received autographed baseballs from Ruth. For three days, the Sun-Telegraph wouldn’t shut up about it. It ran a photo of Ruth and the children the next day. One child was Black. The paper noted that Ruth “rubbed the little colored fellow’s head for luck.” These weren’t politically correct times. Doyle even devoted a paragraph to the meeting with the children in his game story, probably under orders.
Ruth was 1-for-8 in the first two games of the three-game series at Forbes Field. Even so, the Pittsburgh media covered Ruth’s every move during the games. Headlines in the local papers noted he was hitless in the Thursday game. The Saturday papers ran large photos of him. That the Pirates swept the three-game series was secondary.
The Babe Arrives in the National League
That Ruth would end up with the Braves was a story in itself. His three-year contract with the Yankees expired after the 1934 season. The Yankees saw him as a player in decline. Ruth hit 22 home runs in 1934 to go with a .288/.448/.537 slash line. That kind of production would land him an eight-figure annual salary today.
Ruth, now a high-profile free agent before anybody used that term, hoped to become a player/manager on his next team. A rumor had him going to the Philadelphia Athletics as a player/assistant-manager-in-waiting. Athletics manager Connie Mack, who also owned the team, quashed that rumor. “I’m going to manage the team until I’m 80,” Mack told George Kirksey of United Press, “so you see he’ll be an old man waiting for the job.” Meanwhile, Ruth denied rumors that he’d be returning to the Yankees.
“I’ll Give Everything I Have”
The rumor mill churned. The Yankees didn’t send Ruth a new contract, believing he was retiring. The 101 Ranch Circus offered Ruth $75,000 to join the circus and tour the country. That would more than double Ruth’s $35,000 salary with the Yankees in 1934. Ruth said he would spend 1935 writing a book rather than playing baseball. Yet he was seen training intensively for the next season. Meanwhile, National League president Ford Frick was making a “determined effort” to get Ruth to join an NL club. He would be a gate attraction there. He was no longer a novelty in the American League. Finally, on February 26, 1935, Ruth signed a one-year contract with the Braves. He would be a player, vice president, and assistant manager to Braves manager Bill McKechnie.
Ruth sounded an optimistic tone, telling the Associated Press, “If the old legs stand up, I hope to play in at least 100 games for the Braves this year. I’m in good shape now. I think I can still do my share of hitting and I’ll give everything I have to help make things click for the Braves.”
Numbers 712 and 713
Ruth entered the May 25 game with only nine hits in 59 at-bats, although three hits were home runs. Wearing his familiar number 3, batting third and playing right field for the Braves, Ruth stepped up in the first inning before many of the reported 10,000 ticket holders were in their seats. Facing right-hander Red Lucas with a man on, “the Bambino” hit a towering fly ball to right field that “barely cleared the screen and dropped into the lower deck,” according to Walsh.
When Ruth stepped up to the plate in the top of the third, again, a man was on base. Replacing Lucas on the mound was Bush, who ran the count to 3-2. Ruth crushed his second home run of the day, a shot that landed in the second deck in right field. “That one was a tremendous drive in itself,” wrote Walsh, “equaling some of the other record homers Forbes Field has seen.” The three home runs accounted for numbers 712, 713, and 714 in the storied career of Ruth.
Ruth also had an RBI single in the fifth inning, after which he scampered to third on Wally Berger’s single. Additionally, he recorded three putouts in right field. One of those plays was a nice running grab of a sinking line drive off the bat of Bush, as if Ruth hadn’t caused him enough trouble on the day. Apparently, the aging slugger still had some wheels.
The End
Alas, nine days later, Ruth’s playing career would come to an abrupt end. It was more like a messy divorce between Ruth and Braves president Judge Emil Fuchs. Their dialogue was straight out of a 1930s B movie. “Dirty double-crosser” and “liar” were the words Ruth used to describe Fuchs. Fuchs called Ruth “a prima donna” who wanted special treatment.
The Braves were scheduled to play an exhibition game in Bridgeport, Connecticut on that June day. The French ocean liner, SS Normandie, was scheduled to arrive in New York on the same day. Ruth had been out with a knee injury since leaving a game on May 30. He asked for permission to skip the exhibition game and attend the celebration in New York. Ever the goodwill ambassador, Ruth thought his presence there would be good publicity for baseball. The Judge insisted Ruth be in uniform for the exhibition game. A fierce dispute ensued. Ruth went on the voluntary retired list. Or Fuchs asked for his resignation. Each had his own story.
Frank Murphy of United Press asked Ruth whether he “had words” with Fuchs. “I’ll tell you,” said Ruth, “but you can’t put it in the papers.” Wrote Murphy, “He told me and he was right. I can’t.”
Ruth intended to keep playing, but nobody came calling. Just like that, it was over. But for one glorious, sun-splashed spring day in Pittsburgh, he was “the Sultan of Swat” one last time.
Photo Credit: © Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
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