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For the last several months, baseball fans have been treated to endless commentary about record-chasing sluggers at or near the end of their careers. Sammy Sosa failed to land a Major League deal to his liking and seems to have disappeared from public view. Barry Bonds, of course, is the focus of everyone’s attention as he creeps toward home run #714.
As Bonds makes his way toward Babe Ruth’s record, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the Bambino’s last few home runs to see how that legend managed his last days as a player. I expected to find fawning reports of a farewell tour alongside good-natured jibes about the Babe’s bad habits. Instead, I found a saga almost as acrimonious as some of the debates surrounding Barry Bonds.
Babe’s last all-star quality season was 1933, when he was 38 years old. He hit 34 home runs, batted over .300, and drew over 100 walks. It was becoming clear that his teammate Lou Gehrig was the superior player—certainly Larrupin’ Lou was the future of the Yankees, and Ruth was fading fast. After the 1933 season, Babe made clear his desire to manage. His desire wasn’t abstract speculation: Ruth wouldn’t have minded if Yankee skipper Joe McCarthy was relieved of duty, opening up a position for the legendary slugger.
He wanted to manage a “first-rate club,” but he didn’t need to stay in New York. The Babe may have missed his chance. He spent the winter before the 1934 season in Hawaii, and his absence may have prevented Detroit Tigers owner Frank Navin from hiring him. Navin called upon Mickey Cochrane instead and Ruth went back to the Yankees as a player, setting aside his managerial aspirations until the following offseason.
If Babe recognized his error spending the offseason abroad, he didn’t change his behavior accordingly. After the 1934 season, in which he hit only 22 home runs and batted under .300 for the first time in nearly a decade, he spent November barnstorming in Japan. Ruth proved he could still thrill the crowds, even when younger stars such as Lou Gehrig and Jimmy Foxx could not. On the 20th in Shizuoka, a 17-year-old named Elji Sawamura held the Americans scoreless except for one run: a solo shot by the Babe in the seventh. Ruth, as always, was the primary draw: the tour drew over a quarter million fans for 18 games. He was rumored to have made over $20,000 for those couple of months' work.
The Bambino's popularity, of course, made him a target for anyone who wanted publicity for their organization. While Ruth had his sights on a managerial position, Ernest Mehl, a sportswriter in Kansas City, figured Babe would be a perfect fit to run the nationwide amateur Ban Johnson youth league. He could be employed by Major League Baseball, theorized Mehl, and his presence would ensure plenty of attention for the enterprise.
Ruth, however, aspired to a more prominent position. He openly sought the reins of the Yankees, buth while New York boss Jacob Ruppert kept his faith in McCarthy, he shopped his aging slugger, trying to find a new home for the Babe. He wanted to cut payroll, so it’s possible he wanted Ruth gone just as much as his unhappy star wanted out. The Red Sox were eliminated when Tom Yawkey bought player-manager Joe Cronin from the Senators right after the '34 World Series. Ruth was later rumored to be heading to Connie Mack's Philadelphia A's, but Mack prophetically told a reporter that he'd be managing "until he was 80."
Other rumors correctly had him headed for the Braves, but when Bill McKechnie was retained to manage that team, it looked like just another scenario to be ruled out. The Boston rumor was particularly persistent; a power struggle was taking place among the ownership of the franchise between Judge Emil Fuchs and C.F. Adams. Adams supported hiring the Babe as manager, but McKechnie had the loyalty of Fuchs, with whom he apparently had an "oral agreement."
In the end, Ruth did go to the Braves, but not as manager. This didn't stop the rumor mill, however: after the deal was consummated in early March, the talk of the town was that Fuchs would step aside as President, McKechnie would assume that role, and Ruth would become manager. More circumspect scribes simply speculated that the Bambino's role would change in 1936. The Babe, of course, was better at courting a positive image than his 21st-century counterpart. Whatever behind-the-scenes power struggles may have ensued, sportswriters kept them under wraps for as long as Ruth remained a Brave.
Everyone knew that, on the field, Ruth was fading, but the move to add star power to the Braves wasn't greeted with cynicism. Instead, fans and pundits alike welcomed it as a necessary antidote to the franchise's suffering. Fuchs’s crosstown rivals had made a splash earlier in the offseason when the Red Sox acquired Cronin for a record-setting price, and until Ruth was signed, the squabbling within the Braves front office kept the focus away from any on-field hopes.
As the season drew near, it was still unclear what role Babe would play with the 1935 Braves. Rumors now swirled that McKechnie would be out by the middle of June. For the time being, though, Ruth still found occasion to prove he'd be a useful addition on the field as well as at the ticket office. In one pre-season game, he hit the longest home run ever struck in the stadium at Savannah, Georgia. In another exhibition, he hit two home runs in Newark.
Ruth opened his Braves career on a high note: Opening Day, April 16th, brought career home run #709 against New York Giants hurler Carl Hubbell. However, a week later he was “nursing a bad cold” that he thought he came down with during that first game. Regardless of its origin, he didn’t give Braves fans anything more to cheer about, lending credence to the claims of detractors like Walter Johnson, the Hall of Fame pitcher, now manager of the Cleveland Indians. Johnson didn’t like Babe’s chances of prolonging his career after his performance in 1934: “He couldn’t field, he couldn’t run, and my young pitchers troubled him last year. He can’t be of much help to the Braves.”
After recovering from his cold, as well as a flu that struck many Braves players, Ruth’s last truly prolific outing came on May 25th against Pittsburgh. Facing pitchers Red Lucas and Guy Bush, the Sultan of Swat went deep three times. A week later he would announce his retirement.
Due to a conflict with Judge Fuchs and doubtless encouraged by a knee injury, Ruth went on the “voluntary retired list” on June 2nd. He accused Fuchs of a double-cross; he didn’t explain the details at the time, but most assumed that since he wasn’t about to take over as manager, he had no interest in hanging around. His departure hurt the team’s box office, but McKechnie must have been relieved, what with his increased job security. What’s more, his pitchers were much happier: two had been “on the point of mutiny when told to work while Babe was in left field.”
But it certainly wasn’t all good news in Boston. With the Babe, the 1935 Braves were going nowhere. Without him, they went nowhere even faster, finishing the year 38-115, dead last in the National League, not to mention one of the worst seasons of all time. Even accounting for the generally acknowledged fact that Ruth took a month or two to get going, his statistics suggested he wouldn’t have done much to help the team. Six home runs in 28 games wasn’t at all bad, but his .181 batting average only looked good next to that of his teammate Rabbit Maranville, another washed-up Hall of Famer, who managed a .149 mark.
However, it’s clear that the Sultan of Swat still inspired fear at the plate. He strode to the plate 92 times in his last year and was given 20 free passes. That gave him an on-base percentage of .359—very low by Ruthian standards, but better than that of any Brave regular, and far better than the league average of .331. Even his .431 slugging percentage rated second-best on the team and also far exceeded the league average. Much like the struggling, 2006 edition of Barry Bonds, Ruth remained an offensive force despite a low batting average and obvious defensive liabilities. Unlike Bonds, however, Ruth didn’t have the option to finish out his career as a designated hitter.
While it’s too early to speculate on the legacy of Barry Bonds, that’s sure to be another area in which Barry will differ from the Bambino. After his retirement, Ruth remained a familiar figure in the newspapers, but more because of his status of a sort of world baseball ambassador and all-around beloved figure than any lingering controversy. He never did manage a Major League team, but looking back, one suspects that it was best for the Babe for things to work out that way.
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