Our Forgotten But Notable Neighbors The Rocklanders Who Contributed to the Story, Legend, Myth and Legacy of Babe Ruth

Although it may be debatable as to who baseball’s greatest player of all time is, what is indisputable is that Babe Ruth is, by far and away, the most influential and important person to ever play the game.  Even now, some 80 years since his passing, and 90 since he played his last professional game, his effect on the sport is immense. You would be hard pressed to find a baseball fan anywhere who doesn’t know about him or who cannot identify his photo. In fact, one could confidently argue that he has had a greater long-term effect not only on baseball, but on sports in general, than any athlete who ever lived.

What very few are aware of, is that despite never having played even one official game of baseball in Rockland, a number of people from the county can lay claim to have made significant contributions to the development of the story, the legend, the myth and the legacy surrounding George Herman (alias The Babe) Ruth, Jr.

The year 1920 played a crucial role in Babe’s story.  As the world was transitioning into a new decade that would be remembered as The Roaring Twenties, the future of professional baseball was not bright.  Besides the doldrums the country was experiencing in the wake of the recent Spanish Flu epidemic and the tragic losses suffered by American troops during World War I, the Black Sox game-fixing Scandal during the 1919 World Series had cast a dark pall over the sport. The nation needed heroes to brighten up its mood, to energize its confidence and to give it a jolt of positivity. Babe Ruth happened to be the right person at the right time to fill this role.

On January 7, 1920, one week before Prohibition became the law of the land, Babe Ruth was traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees. A few months later, with the start of the baseball season, he would begin to hit home runs at a rate previously deemed inconceivable.  His startling achievements were not only able to override much of the negativity the country was mired in.  They would also have a profound effect on the way the national pastime is played.

Before coming to the Yankees, Babe had been an extremely successful pitcher for Boston from 1915-1919, during which time he had a composite record of 94 wins against 46 losses, an overall ERA of 2.28, and had already won three world-series rings.   However, at a time before the Designated Hitter and when pitchers still batted, his hitting ability was noted, especially his ability to smash the long ball.  In 1919, his last season with the Red Sox, he was already playing every day, pitching in the rotation and playing outfield in the other games.  That year he hit 29 home runs, more than any player ever before. In fact, during the 1918 season, while only pitching, he won the American League home run crown with 11 dingers. 

By the time Babe joined the Yankees, he was already a star, but during the 1920 season he went beyond plain vanilla stardom – way beyond. He came on to the New York scene like a nuclear explosion, and his popularity spread throughout the land.  He became a phenomenon like none before.

As a Yankee, Ruth no longer pitched.  Instead, he played outfield full-time. In 1920 he hit 54 home runs, nearly twice as many as the previous year, exhibiting a level of power that a naturally skeptical public literally could not fathom. In fact, a group of experts from the federal government were dispatched to scientifically confirm the legitimacy of Babe’s home runs – he passed their tests with flying colors.

It can be said that the effect that Babe Ruth had after joining the New York Yankees changed the face and pace of baseball.  Home runs, which previously had never been a major part of the national pastime, captured the imagination of fandom, and knocking the ball out of the park came into vogue, much like knockouts are in boxing.  With Babe Ruth’s ascent to the pinnacle of stardom, the total number of home runs hit in professional baseball increased year after year, much to the delight of the spectators. Even today, the demand for home runs is still great.

With the ascendance of Babe’s popularity, attendance at Major League Baseball games skyrocketed. The total number of paid attendees at Yankee home games in 1920 was nearly twice that of 1919; for MLB in general there was a 50% increase.  When Babe joined the Yankees, their home field was the Polo Grounds in Northern Manhattan, but with the uptick in gross revenues due to Babe’s popularity, Col. Jacob Ruppert, the team’s owner, signed a contract to build a new ballpark in the Bronx, which would be larger than all others.  Opening in 1923, it would officially be called Yankee Stadium, but popularly it would be known as “The House That Ruth Built”.

Such was his popularity that that summer there was even a 12-part syndicated autobiography of Babe Ruth that appeared in newspapers throughout the country.  In fact, although it may be hard to believe, in late August of 1920, Babe’s former team and the Yankees’ most bitter rival, the Boston Red Sox, held a Babe Ruth Day in Fenway Park to honor him.

But despite his sky-rocketing popularity, and the tremendous nationwide demand to see him in action, in 1920 the only places where people could watch him play baseball were the cities with American League teams — New York, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Washington, DC.  TV had yet to be invented, and games were still not broadcast on the radio, which was still in its early infancy.  The only way that most Americans throughout the country would be able to see him swing his bat and launch a ball into the stratosphere was on the Silver Screens of their hometown movie theaters. But first a movie, had to be made.

To be continued in next week’s edition of the RCT