MAGAZINEand

BOOK SECTION Ufan oUUSv** färihmit MAGAZINEand

BOOK SECTION

PART VII TWELVE PAGES SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 1920 PART VII TWELVE PAGES

"Did Babe Ruth Get Another One To-day?"| Not "How Did the Game Come Out?"*| Now the Great American Question 4

<

By W. O. McGeehanIF THE lata lamented Shakes¬

peare were a' baseball writer hemight usa a line that hewested upon some more or less

obscure hero of antiquity and say of"Babe" Ruth, "He doth bestride thenarrow baseball fields like a Colos¬sus." For "Babe" Ruth is Herculesand Thor reincarnated, the Colossusof Swat. His bat is the club ofHercules and the hammer of Thor,the symbol of sheer, primitive mightbefore which the puny folk bow andoffer worship.But for the game of baseball, the

youngest game of the youngest peo¬ple, George Herman Ruth, the"Babe" Ruth who dwarfs all otherpersonalities in the daily news,might have been a peaceful cigar-maker or perhaps a third-rateheavyweight pugilist instead of thenational idol of the American people.The "Babe" was Fortune's dar¬

ling, though Fortune concealed hergreat and kindly intentions as far as

he was concerned when the "Babe"was 2. boy. For the "Babe" was

born left-hander!. Hercules was a

right-hander. Thor never was pic¬tured as wielding his hammer fromthe port side. None of the heroes ofantiquity, as far as can be ascer¬

tained, was a southpaw. Harry LeonWilson was the first novelist to put a

left-hander in the near-hero class,and he <i;d it in a half-heartedfashion.Moreover, little George Herman

Ruth was a half-orphan at a veryearly age and was sent to an insti¬tution for orphans. He was nearlyan orphan boy, and, according tothe San ford and Merton books, heshould have taken a morbid sort ofpoint of view at an early age andlearned something useful. But theyouth of "Babe" Ruth was appliedmostly to the study of the greatAmerican game of baseball.You are not going to draw any

conventional moral from the earlyboyhood of "Babe" Ruth. He was

not a particularly industrious or

thrifty lad, chockful of conventionalvirtues. He was just a normal,chuckle-headed combination of TomSawyer and Huckleberry Finn. HeWas Just natural and just human.

FORTUNATELY the boyhood of"Babe" Ruth was intrusted tomen who understand human

nature, and particularly the humanboy.the Christian Brothers, of Bal¬timore. The fraternity is not limitedto Baltimore. It is all over the*orld. It is made up of big-heartedäfcn. consecrated to the work of mak-lfig men out of the raw material.They had charge of the bringing

UP of George Herman Ruth and'hey have turned over to the world««Colossus of Swat. It is due toth*ir human understanding thatGeorge Herman Ruth was notwwarted and turned aside into moreWo**ic iine8 0f encjeavor,UÄKt lana&tiQ than «sqr *rf fbe

boy romances of Tattered Tom andRagged Dick, by Horatio Alger jr.is the rise of "Babe" Ruth. The Al-,ger heroes became mere bankers or

traction magnates, but George Her-man Ruth, the waif of Baltimore, be¬came "Babe" Ruth, at whose shrinebankers and traction magnates burnincense. Ever and anon these jadednear-successes pick up the tape, notto see the condition of the market,but to learn whether the latest is theforty-fifth or forty-sixth home runknocked out by the "Babe" for theseason.

And these heroes envy "Babe"Ruth the left-handed, the boy whowas regarded as far from bright in;his classes. For the "Babe" can hitthem out with the joyous freedom ofHei-culcs swinging his club or Thorthrowing his hammer through the'clouds. All the tricks of the pitchersare vain when he faces them, and allthe walls of the baseball parks are

lowered when his bat crashes againstthe baseball. Homer would haveloved him if the blind singer had hada season pass to the Polo Grounds.

THAT Ruth is the greatest bat¬ter of them all is admitted bytwo members of the old Orioles;

and when two members of the oldOrioles agree upon anything, thatmakes it official and irrefutable. Ifthere is anybody so ignorant of im¬portant American history that hedoes not know who the old Oriolesare, we will explain, more in pitythan in indignation, that the oldOrioles were members of the great¬est baseball team of a generation orso ago.

The two Orioles who made the ad¬mission that "Babe" Ruth was thegreatest baseball player in the wholeworld are Wilbert Robinson, mana¬

ger of the Brooklyn National Leaguebaseball team, and Joseph Kelly,scout for the Yankees. Both of thesegentlemen are grandfathers and citi¬zens of high repute in the city wherethey dwell, which also happens tobe the home of "Babe" Ruth. "Wil-1bert Robinson was a catcher, and stillholds the world's record for consecu¬

tive base hits in one game. JosephKelly was an outfielder of sorts on

the old Orioles, and his present oc-1cupation is "ivory hunting," lookingupon baseball playera and appraisingthem «at their true > jrtb to their

employers and to the national pas¬time.

These two authorities admitted" tome in thé presence of witnesses thatnever, even in the days of the oldOrioles, was there a baseball playerwho could hit like "Babe" Ruth. Con¬sider the importance of this admis¬sion. The members of the old Ori¬oles are the most conservative per¬sons in th vorld. Never beforehave they au. : ..ed that any playerof the present was anywhere near aswonderful as tl\e players of theirglorious day."He can hit them harder than any¬

body, and he can hit them oftener,"they admitted from the fullness oftheir hearts. They did not qualifythe statement, They did »ob assert

that the pitchers were less cannyand that the ball parks were smaller.They admitted that the heroes of

their day were lost in the shadow ofthe Colossus of Swat. They admittedthat even in the days when the oldOrioles were young "Babe" Ruthwould have loomed up above themall.That Ruth broke all big league

records for home run getting lastyear is in the book. That he hasbroken his own record this year andis on the way to setting a mark farbeyond the misty horizons «if thebaseball world is l«o\vn. But theold Orioles have explained away theperformances of other more modernheroes of baseball. Ruth's achieve¬ments they Jr&ott ungrudgingly.,

That is almost as marvelous as theachievements themselves.

ONCE upon a time the youth ofthis land worshiped anotheryoung giant, a right-hander

and an exponent of another and el¬der sport.John L. Sullivan. Theright arm of John L. »Sullivan was

mighty in its day, but the left arm

of "Babe" Ruth is mightier in itsday and generation in the matter ofsheer numbers of worshipers.They used to block the corridors

of the hotels, and even the streets,1to see the mighty John L. pass. Theydo that in the case of "Babe" Ruth,too. It is not for me to disparage

| the memory of John L. Sullivan, the| gladiator, in th» days-cf hi» greatest

-¿

ring glory, but I think, that his ad¬mirers saw that particular John L.through rose glasses and that theyworshiped an illusion.The John L. Sullivan of the later

day, the John L. who beat down hisown worst enemy and lifted up hisself-respect from the muck, was theJohn L. that should have been wor-

shiped, for that John L. Sullivanwas a mighty gladiator. The JohnL. Sullivan who knocked out ring an-

tagonists with a right-hand punch tothe jaw was a mere mass of brawnand muscle, but the gray and fat oldJohn L. who conquered himself was ithe true fighter.But we are considering the John L.

that was the popular idol, thebrawny man who was followed bythe men and the boys and cheeredwhen he stalked abroad. He was

not a particularly affable character.This big "Babe" Ruth is a far

more likable person. He is full ofgood nature and the joy of living.He is a modest enough young man,and he knows his limitations, thoughhe acknowledges no limitations as

far as the baseball diamonds andthe fences around them are con-

cerned. He is not falsely modest tothe point of affectation, for he hasthat supreme confidence in himselfthat comes after certain achievement.But he will not play to the galleryconsciously. He likes the galleryand he understands it, and he likesto have it understand him. «

Ruth is, perhaps, too simple, or

it may be too wise, to try to fool hisgallery, as other stars of his own

game or stars in other lines of en¬

deavor have tried to do in vain. Fornobody can fool his gallery. Notruly wise man ever tried.

THE best judges of a man ar«

the men with whom he worksor with whom he plays.

"Babe" Ruth, naturally, is the high¬est salaried ballplayer on the NewYork Yankees. He might, if he were

like some of the stars of baseball or

stars of some of the arts, claim allthe privileges of a star and holdhimself aloof from his fellow players.

Here again is the simplicity or thewisdom of "Babe" Ruth. He playsthe game with the team and for theteam, and the men he plays withknow it and appreciate it. "Babe'Ruth will even make the "collegetry" to get a base on an impossiblechance. The "cdllege try" is the vet¬eran professional's term of contemptfor zealous endeavor that seems fu¬tile on the facts of it.

an the "Babe" *nake»th» two

owners of the Yankees, ColonelsRuppert and Huston, shudder withapprehension when he hurls himselfagainst a wall to get a fly ball, or

when he throws his huge bulkthrough the air in the effort to steala base. They rejoice in his spiritand his wholehearted way of play¬ing, but at the same time they per¬spire with apprehension lest some¬thing should happen that would de¬prive them of the most expensive in¬vestment in professional baseball.Some stars have disrupted base¬

ball teams, rousing jealousies, but"Babe" Ruth, admittedly the great¬est star of them all, has made theYankees a team. The advent of the"Babe" has brought them the chanceof that "world's scries dough," whichshould be something like $7,000 a

player. It has also made them theteam of the big leagues. They do notbegrudge the "Babe" the homagethat is paid him. As far as Ruthis concerned, there is no professionaljealousy on the Yankee team.

Just to what extent the presentprosperity of professional baseballis due to "Babe" Ruth I would notcare to say, but it is considerableWhen I first trailed West with thtYankees, they told me in Chicagcthat there had been little or no intereat in the Chicago White Sox. Buwhen the Yankees came ta Cbicagi

they turned out to the extent of 20,-000 a day and upward to see the"Babe" "bust one."

Once, with the score 2 to 1 in theeighth and a tense pitchers' duelen,the Chicago pitcher passed "Babe"Ruth. Ten thousand people startedto walk out of Comiskey Park.There remained yet the chance ofthe melodramatic ninth inning rally,but the ten thousand had lost allinterest in the game for the after¬noon. It was clear thatr they werenot going to see "Babe" Ruth knocka home run, and nothing else mat¬tered.

Civic pride, inter-city rivalry, in¬terest in the national game wereminor considerations. The "Babe"was not due to "bust one."

IN CLEVELAND 1 was talkingto two tired business men earlyin the afternoon.

Said one of them gravely:"This 'Babe' Ruth is a menace. He

is responsible to a large degree forthe lack of production in thesemanufacturing towns around theLakes. Go out to the ball park to¬day and you will see thousands ofyoung men taking the afternoon offjust to see 'Babe' Ruth 'bust one.'It is really quite serious. What are