The Bambino Visits Sportsmans Park

[portobob]

It was about 1947 and the American League and the Browns brought a baseball clinic to St.Louis Sportsmans Park. It was called "Joe Cronin's Play Ball Son",.... a free session for the kids. It was on Saturday morning and was followed by an afternoon Brownie game. It was an amazing session where kids had a chance to get on the field and get advice from professional players. The highlight of the day was Babe Ruth himself addressing the kids. Dressed in a camels hair topcoat and signature cap and standing in front of the third base dugout, he was obviously very weak and could hardly speak. The only thing I could understand was the Babe saying "This is the best game in the world kids...so Play Ball". I think he passed into history a very short time after that visit. Each kid got a great handout entitled "Play Ball Son"...Any readers remember this ?

[Aa3rt]

It was about 1947 and the American League and the Browns brought a baseball clinic to St.Louis Sportsmans Park.

The highlight of the day was Babe Ruth himself addressing the kids. Dressed in a camels hair topcoat and signature cap and standing in front of the third base dugout, he was obviously very weak and could hardly speak. The only thing I could understand was the Babe saying "This is the best game in the world kids...so Play Ball". I think he passed into history a very short time after that visit.

FYI-Babe Ruth died on August 16, 1948.

Babe Ruth Website (http://www.baberuth.com)

[CanadianKid]

Has same birthday as me lol

[Bill_McCurdy]

Fred Heger, one of the founders of the Browns Fan Club and its current president, was there at Sportsman's Park that Saturday. According to Fred, the year was 1948, and just a few weeks ahead of Babe Ruth's death. Fred has given me his permission to post here what he wrote to me about the experience in a recent e-mail.

Bill,

I remember this day very well as I was there. It did not occur in 1947 but happened in June, 1948. I was working as an umpire at the time for the YMCA and the Director asked me if I would accompany him to the ballpark to help keep an eye on the kids they were taking from the Y. Babe Ruth was in St. Louis to promote American Legion Baseball. Ford Motor Company was sponsoring what turned out to be his final tour.

I had never seen Babe Ruth but I was sorry I went as he looked so frail and could not speak well because of his throat cancer. It was especially sad because the kids kept asking me if Babe was going to hit a home run. I do have an autograghed ball from his visit which a Ford dealer who was a family friend obtained for me.

As a post script I bought a book 18 years later of Grantland Rice's old columns. Included was a moving column
he wrote at that time describing the Babe's last great effort to help kids and young men play baseball even though he was dying. If you're interested I can copy it and send it to you.

Fred Heger

[Bill_McCurdy]

Fred Heger of the Browns Fan Club sent me the following article by Grantland Rice about Babe Ruth's condition prior to his last visit for the sake of the kids in 1948. From the emotive tone of Rice's article, he may well have been the guy who did the screenplay for 1948's "The Babe Ruth Story" starring William Bendix. The emotionality and bias of the article is a pretty good match for that ancient first bio movie of The Babe's life.

Trail’s End of Glory

St. Petersburg, Fla., March 24. – There is a story making the rounds of Florida today that is beyond all telling. Its setting is deep in tragedy, but its outline is as brilliant as any rim of stars.

It is the story of Babe Ruth. Suffering beyond all comprehension, yet valiantly retracing his path of nearly thirty years ago for the good of baseball, for te good of all kids, and for the good of suffering humanity in general – whatever the cause may be.

It is the story of a man who is much greater nearing the trail’s end of glory than he ever was hitting his 714 home runs, and giving a vast nation more thrills than any sport has known.

Babe Ruth has been my friend for over thirty years … a great guy, set in mammoth proportions of build, heart and appetite, especially when he was starring from 1914 through 1935 in the box, in the field and above all, at bat.

Broken, but not beaten, a relic of the king that was, he is an even greater man today. His head may be bloody – but it remains unbowed.

I have watched his drawn face, wherein anyone could see his inward suffering, as he autographed baseballs and score cards.

Here, in the way of gold and glory, here in the way of continued thrills, is the greatest man sport has ever known. Jack Dempsey? One of the tops. Bobby Jones, Ty Cobb, Tommy Hitchcock, Red Grange, Earl Sande? All great. But the abe stood alone. He held the throne room and he wore the purple toga because he appealed to more millions, especially to more kids, than all the others put together.

He was Babe Ruth. Recently I’ve sat and watched him suffer through ball game. His face is drawn. His old bold voice is gone. Physically you wouldn’t know him. But the old spirit of sport’s all-time top man stills carries him along, almost jauntily at times.

The sheer courage of the man is appalling. It more than matches the power and skill of his home-run days. For here was something I had never seen before – the story of a great star remarching his old paths in agony,, with his aching head still head high.

As I recall the shifts and drifts of time, it was back in 1919, just twenty-nine years ago, that I traveled north from Florida with the Giants and Red Sox.

The Babe had just been launched as a home-run hitter. He had been one of the greatest left-handed pitchers of all time, with an average that still keeps its place around the top. But this was the year that Ed Barrow had picked for Babe’s debut among the sluggers.

Back in 1919, the Babe was about as robust as two atomic bombs. He was a young man of mighty appetites and unrestrained desires that were beyond all curbing. He was something the world of sport had never seen or known before. He was something the millions took to their hearts.

Big, rough, gentle, tough, powerful, kindly, generous, natural, profane, he caught the fancy of a world. The United States, Japan, India, England, France, Germany – Oriental and Occidental all knew about Babe Ruth.

Now again, through Florida’s heat, the Babe makes his way … St. Petersburg, Tampa, Miami, Clearwater, Sarasota, Bradenton, West Palm Beach, Orlando. I don’t believe anyone knows the suffering he has beaten off as he holds his head in two weary hands and bravely waits for the next ordeal.

It would’ve been so easy – so simple for the Babe to say, “I’m sick and need a rest.” For the Babe is sick and he needs rest. But Ruth won’t take a rest. No one today can keep him from visiting a sick kid or a broken or a blind human being. He seems to feel they belong to him – and he belongs to them.

He is taking an incredible physical beating for what the Babe believes to be the general good of the human race. This is true. How many have we like that today in public life, in public office? Just give me one name. Just one.

The Babe knows the “paths of glory lead but to the grave.” He has no worry about a grave. His only thought has been that he will travel the few remaining miles for the betterment of the kids, the cripples, the heart-weary and the underprivileged, those who might need help and inspiration, as he once needed such help so badly.

It might be discovered some day that big, rowdy, rough Babe is a much bigger man than a great pitcher or the game’s greatest home-run hitter.

If you had only followed him in the gray twilight of his career through Florida, you might have agreed with me that possibly the Babe has done more actual good in this country today than any dozen men you might mention, Or you might make that ten dozen, starting from the top.

There can never be another Babe Ruth. He sits in the twilight of the gods … a human being far above anyone we have in public life today.

- Grantland Rice, Sportlight, pp 244-246, March 24, 1948.