May 25, 1935: Babe Ruth's Last Hurrah

May 25, 1935, 90 years ago: Babe Ruth has his last good game. It is the icing on the cake of his legend.

George Herman Ruth Jr. had started his career in Boston, with the 1914 Red Sox. He became a star with them, and was sold to the New York Yankees for the 1920 season, becoming the biggest star in the history of North American sports.

But he wanted to manage, and the Yankees wouldn't let him. After the 1934 season, Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert gave him his release, so that he could seek a managing job elsewhere. Judge Emil Fuchs, owner of the Braves, desperate for attendance in the Great Depression, told Ruth he would be "assistant manager" to Bill McKechnie for 1935, and would become manager for 1936, with the promise of a part-ownership of the team. The Sultan of Swat jumped at the chance, and returned to Boston.

The Babe was often very gullible, but he wasn't stupid. He soon saw that McKechnie wasn't listening to him in the slightest -- not that he needed to, having already won a World Series managing the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1925 -- and that the Braves had absolutely no intention of making him the manager the next season. (McKechnie remained their manager through 1937, and won another World Series managing the Cincinnati Reds in 1940.) The Great Bambino was nothing more than a drawing card to the Braves, and he figured it out.

To make matters worse, the 40-year-old Ruth hurt his elbow, making it difficult to swing. When he wasn't in pain, he could still hit. He hit a home run on Opening Day, April 16, giving the Braves a win over the New York Giants. He hit another on April 21. But then the injury got worse, and he went into a slump. By the time he hit his next home run, an entire month later, he was batting just .149.

On May 25, the Braves played the Pirates at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. In the top of the 1st inning, Ruth came to bat against Charles "Red" Lucas, and hit a home run off him, making the score 2-0. Lucas pitched to only 5 batters, getting 1 out, before Harold "Pie" Traynor, the Pirates' Hall of Fame 3rd baseman now also serving as manager, took him out due to a nagging injury that had already cost him all but 1 of his 1st 8 starts, and would cost him 3 more in June.

Guy Bush ("Guy" was his real first name, not a nickname) was brought in, and he pitched the next 6 innings, although not very effectively. Ruth batted against him in the 3rd inning, and hit another 2-run homer. Ruth singled home another run in the 5th. In the top of the 7th, once more against Bush, Ruth hit a drive over the right-field stands at Forbes Field, making him the 1st player ever to do that. It was considered the longest home run ever hit there, and it was the 714th home run of his career, and his 2,873rd hit. Overall, he went 4-for-6 with 6 RBIs on the day.

It wasn't enough: The Pirates won, 11-7. The Pirates' last pitcher, and the winning pitcher, was Ruth's former Yankee teammate, eventually a fellow Hall-of-Famer, Waite Hoyt.

Legend has it that, thinking it wasn't going to get any better than that, he retired right after that game. Maybe he should have. But he didn't. The next day, he pulled a muscle playing the field. He continued to try to play every day, but that homer over the Forbes Field roof wasn't just his last home run, it was his last hit.

On May 30, at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, the Braves were swept in a Memorial Day doubleheader by the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-6 and 9-3. It wasn't much of a matchup. The Braves would finish 8th and last, winning only 38 games and losing 115, the most of any NL team between the 1899 Cleveland Spiders and the 1962 New York Mets. The Phillies were much better, but still finished 7th, at 64-89 -- and, by their standards, that was a good finish.

The Braves' season was so bad, that for the 1936 season, they decided to, as would be said today, rebrand: They changed their name to the Boston Bees, and the name of their ballpark from Braves Field to National League Park, a.k.a. the Bee Hive. The new names never caught on, and the old ones were restored in 1941.

Basically, the only reason to go to these games was to see Ruth -- and he didn't play long. He started the 1st game, in left field, batting in his usual 3rd position. In the top of the 1st inning, batting against rookie Jim Bivin, he grounded to 1st baseman Dolph Camilli, who made the putout himself.

In the bottom of the 1st, Ruth was unable to get to a fly ball, and it dropped in for a hit. The next batter, Lou Chiozza, hit another fly to left. Not only couldn't the Babe catch it, but it rolled past him, all the way to the wall. While he wasn't always the fat man of the public imagination, by this point, his gut and his pulled muscle rendered him as slow as molasses.

When he finally got to the ball, Chiozza was trying to stretch it into an inside-the-park home run. With the left arm that had won 94 games as a pitcher still strong, Ruth threw the ball to 3rd baseman Pinky Whitney, who threw to catcher Al Spohrer, and Chiozza was out. Ruth got credit for an assist.

It was his last statistic. Instead of going back to the dugout, he walked to center field, where both teams' clubhouses were located. The fans, realizing he was taking himself out of the game, gave him a standing ovation. Three days later, he announced his retirement.

Ruth was lucky that there was no constant replaying of his fielding, so he wasn't embarrassed the way Willie Mays was with the New York Mets, and Johnny Unitas was with the San Diego Chargers, both in 1973. Or Joe Namath was with the 1977 Los Angeles Rams. Or any number of boxers having one last fight too many, like Muhammad Ali against Larry Holmes in 1980. There was no ESPN to show him as a Boston Brave, the way they showed Michael Jordan as a Washington Wizard, or Jerry Rice as a Denver Bronco, or Roger Clemens in his 2nd go-round with the Yankees.

The Babe never did get an offer to manage a major league team. The Brooklyn Dodgers hired him as 1st base coach in 1938, but they really hired him to hit pregame batting practice, as they were in a rebuilding year, and were desperate for attendance. Ruth played in old-timers' games to raise money for war bonds at Yankee Stadium in 1942 and 1943, batting against Walter Johnson, and that was it. He died of cancer in 1948.