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Documentary, Baseball -Ken Burns Babe Ruth Documentary by HBO
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LearningTranscript
00:00If Babe Ruth had not existed, it would have been impossible to invent him.
00:30He was the Fourth of July in a brass band and New Year's Eve all rolled into one.
00:40He was bigger in his dissipations, bigger in his volatility, bigger in his unpredictability.
00:51He was eccentricity and total excellence wrapped up in one person.
00:59He made the world more fun to be in. And everybody who was in his orbit felt more alive because of Ruth.
01:08He's my father. He was the only father I ever knew. He was such a lot of fun. I enjoyed every minute of it.
01:18He was celebrated for being the mythical figure he was, who at the same time was flesh and blood.
01:27And because he was flesh and blood, he gave us that feeling of something larger than life, of which we are part.
01:37He would get up to the plate. He would kick the dirt a little bit and take his stance.
01:49And then smile down at the pitcher. He'd take the bat and he'd point it out like that.
01:56And you saw people standing up, just applauding. He hasn't done anything yet, but there he is, they're applauding.
02:05He swung and missed once. You know, that tremendous swing, he swung around, he's looking up into the stands and he was looking right at me as far as I was concerned.
02:14Just looking, there's Babe Ruth looking at me. Wow.
02:20And what are you waiting to see? Hit a home run, Babe.
02:26Waiting for the pitch, there was a sense of a great coiled spring. And when he swung, bam, boom, boom, bam, there it went.
02:36It was so frightening, they all ducked.
02:39All of a sudden, see that ball go. Up, up, up, up, up.
02:46150 feet high as they passed first base, they just floated and floated and floated and went forever.
02:51Like a homing pigeon that would choose direction and leave town.
02:56That ball had to travel at least 600 feet on the fly.
03:01Over the fence, the parking lot, the restaurant next door, and four blocks down the street.
03:08And then, very suddenly, from this moment of immense power and the ball flying out...
03:14He ran with little mincing steps, thin legs, these delicate anchors, and he minced his way as though he were a dancer.
03:27Daffing his cab left and right, bowing and waving to everybody.
03:34And disappeared into the dugout.
03:40At Babe Ruth's massive funeral in 1948, a puzzled drama critic asked a sports writer,
03:52what did this man, Ruth, do? What did he have to merit this?
03:59History tells us that Babe Ruth was the greatest player in an era when baseball stood alone as a national pastime.
04:05His talents were beyond unique.
04:08First as a brilliant pitcher with the Boston Red Sox.
04:12Then a thunderous slugger with the New York Yankees.
04:17But was it just Ruth's astounding ability that allowed him to sit among the gods?
04:22How did the Babe's life pass from that of an ordinary human being?
04:26To star, to legend, and finally, into myth.
04:33Ruth was far from perfect.
04:36He could be loud and abrasive and impossibly immature.
04:39He was a perfect fit for the times.
04:42A man of mighty appetites and unrestrained desires,
04:47the Babe was a metaphor for the big, broadening shoulders of America.
04:51Ruth himself once said,
04:56I like to live as big as I can.
04:58In an era when our country was burgeoning with power,
05:01no one hit the ball farther and louder than Babe Ruth.
05:07No novelist or Hollywood screenwriter at the furthest extremes of their imagination
05:13would have dared invent somebody like this.
05:16This was science fiction.
05:22It's another dimension.
05:24Exponential is the word.
05:25The leap is wild and crazy.
05:28Something Einsteinian.
05:31You had scientists coming and examining Ruth
05:35and all kinds of strange, bizarre articles in the press
05:38about Ruth having superhuman vision or superhuman coordination.
05:42It was as though someone had come from another planet.
05:45The Babe's mammoth swing transformed baseball.
05:49He practically invented the home run.
05:51In 1920, he hit 54.
05:53A total no other team in the league could match.
05:56And he did it with an exhilarating presence
05:59and unmatched muscle that had never been seen before.
06:02John McGraw may have been the best inside baseball manager
06:07that ever came over the pike.
06:09This guy was the Baltimore chop, the bunt, moved the runner along,
06:14worked for one run at a time.
06:16Ruth came along and started breaking up ballgames with one swing.
06:23McGraw hated him.
06:24Here he'd been 30 years managing and working for one run.
06:27This guy wrecked the whole afternoon with one swipe.
06:31Pitchers were afraid of him.
06:35They'd lie at night knowing that the next day they're facing Ruth
06:39and they would toss in their sleep.
06:41I was on first base and Ruth hit a home run.
06:44I ran around second hitting a pretty good clip.
06:47Art Fletcher was at third base saying,
06:49whoa, whoa,
06:50because the ball was way up in the right field stands.
06:52I kept on going, you know, and I came and sat down.
06:55And when he came into the dugout,
06:56he reached over and patted me on top of the head and said,
06:58you don't need to run like that.
07:00He says something when the Babe hits one.
07:02He was doing it with such joy and simplicity.
07:05Almost as if he didn't know what he was doing.
07:07He just went up and did it.
07:09His hitting was just unprecedented.
07:12No one ever done that before.
07:14And that thrilled people.
07:15It excited people.
07:16It gave you a vicarious sense of accomplishment
07:17to see Ruth hit home runs.
07:19It became an exciting thing.
07:22For baseball,
07:23the timing of Ruth's accomplishments was perfect.
07:30At the beginning of the decade,
07:31a dark cloud of deceit had threatened the game.
07:34Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series,
07:37several Chicago White Sox players were tossed out of baseball.
07:41Disenchanted fans stayed away until they were lured back
07:45by the game's two new powers.
07:47In move to clean up game,
07:49team owners in 1920 made Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis,
07:53High Commissioner of National Pastime.
07:55And he brought baseball back.
07:57But Babe Ruth too was a big help to the commissioner
08:01with his spindle legs, beaming face, and booming bat.
08:04Even when the Bambino hit a single,
08:06thousands cheered and thousands more fought to see him play the game.
08:10The home team is in seventh place, going nowhere.
08:14On a weekday afternoon,
08:16we draw maybe 2,000 or 3,000 people.
08:18The Yankees came into town.
08:20The crowds suddenly were getting larger.
08:24Every seat was full on a hot Wednesday afternoon.
08:30And there was only one reason for that.
08:32Hey, the Babe is playing.
08:34Hey, this is somebody big, somebody we can root for.
08:38Their beloved game was embodied in this man.
08:40And they would sell out the house.
08:42People wanted to see this guy.
08:44In 1923, the Yankees took advantage of Ruth's popularity
08:51by building a brand new $2.5 million stadium.
08:54It held 65,000 fans.
08:58And because so many of them were there to see the Babe,
09:01it was quickly christened the house that Ruth built.
09:05His existence enlarges us just by looking at him,
09:11thinking about him.
09:12It's because you saw perfection.
09:14And it's so glorious that it's almost painful.
09:16And when you were at the ballpark,
09:18and Babe took that big swing,
09:20and the ball didn't fall down at the end.
09:23It whacked against the seat in the bleachers.
09:26You thought, I saw this.
09:28I was here.
09:29I was in the presence of greatness.
09:31And to be in the presence of greatness
09:33means that some tiny fleck of it is attached to you.
09:42The most exciting thing in baseball
09:45was watching Babe Ruth hit a home run.
09:47And the second most exciting thing
09:49was watching Babe Ruth strike out.
09:51One of the few quotable lines from Luke Gehrig,
09:54he said, I batted after him and never mattered what I did.
09:57Because they were always talking about what he had just done,
09:59even if he had done nothing.
10:01More than any other athlete during sports golden age,
10:06Babe Ruth's appeal ranged far beyond the man-made limits
10:09of the great ballparks he played in.
10:14By the mid-20s,
10:16Ruth was everywhere.
10:17Pushed along by the explosion of tabloid journalism,
10:20he would eventually become an inescapable part
10:22of popular American culture.
10:24In the eyes of the press,
10:26the Babe was a dream subject.
10:29He was made for them.
10:31Just as Al Capone was made for them.
10:34Or Charles Lindbergh was made for them.
10:36Because of the way he looked and because of what he did.
10:39When he would come to Chicago,
10:42one of the Chicago papers just had,
10:44Ruth in Chicago!
10:47an exclamation point!
10:49Ruth Home Run wins game.
10:51That kind of stuff got into every paper across the country.
10:54Every man had it with his breakfast coffee.
10:59Ruth Home Run, he got cheesy, he hit another one?
11:04The sports writers played a crucial part in it,
11:06and the photographers,
11:08because he was enough of a ham,
11:10he'd lend himself to publicity stunts.
11:17He put a beard on and buzzed him with a monkey.
11:20He was a photographer's dream.
11:21He was a quote machine.
11:22He was not some remote guy.
11:23He sat and talked and drank beer with them.
11:25They cherished him for that.
11:26He made their job easier.
11:27So the media really built Babe Ruth.
11:30Every reporter who covered Ruth
11:32had the illusion that he was a great friend of Ruth.
11:35Personally.
11:36And so the media really built Babe Ruth.
11:39Every reporter who covered Ruth
11:41had the illusion that he was a great friend of Ruth.
11:45Personally.
11:46And so the minute he started to write about Ruth,
11:49he was always writing about what he considered his friend.
11:54And you can't forget that face.
11:57He had the face of a happy catcher's mitt.
12:02He had a face that looked like a horse had stepped on it.
12:05That helped.
12:07He was as easy to recognize as the king of Siam's white elephant.
12:17The face seemed to fit Babe Ruth.
12:19I can't imagine a handsome Babe Ruth.
12:21Who has ever looked like him since Babe Ruth?
12:25Try to think of somebody who has looked like him.
12:27It's like he was created for this role that he was given.
12:31And he played it to the hills.
12:33The name helped.
12:36Babe Ruth.
12:37I mean, gee.
12:38If his name was Harold Thompson,
12:39I don't think he would have had the same impact.
12:40But Babe Ruth.
12:42Many Italian immigrants in New York,
12:44instead of saying,
12:45how'd the Babe do this,
12:46how'd the Bambino do yesterday?
12:47And so Bambino became his name.
12:49And the bam sound fitted in there.
12:51Bam hits one.
12:52Everything fit.
12:55You didn't forget him.
12:56He was indelible.
13:01Everybody who saw him had a story about him,
13:03remembered something about him.
13:04Every place he went,
13:05he sort of left a trail.
13:08As baseball's biggest draw,
13:10Ruth made a fortune criss-crossing the country.
13:13No town was too small or too far away.
13:18If the Babe's fans couldn't get to a game,
13:20he would get to them.
13:23Major League Baseball ended at the Mississippi River,
13:26where the St. Louis Cardinals were.
13:28Babe Ruth went on barnstorming tours after the season.
13:32He was spreading baseball across the country.
13:41People would be standing along the tracks
13:43or out in the meadows
13:45because they had heard that Babe Ruth was on that train.
13:48They were hoping to get a half-second glimpse of him.
13:51He would wave at them.
13:52He would show them his cards,
13:53you know, say,
13:54I got a great hand.
13:57And the Babe being on the back platform
13:59and kids running from all over the place
14:02and jumping up on the train to get his autograph
14:04to touch him, to look at him.
14:06You read about them, and you heard about them.
14:12But suddenly, to see these big league ball players
14:15on your local sand lots,
14:17and you're talking about the best players,
14:19like Gehrig, Lefty Grove.
14:23There in the middle of it all was Babe Ruth.
14:26Moby Dick in a goldfish bowl.
14:32Did you ever see one of those movies?
14:35At the top of his chosen game,
14:37the Babe even tried acting.
14:39Although his flair for the dramatic
14:41didn't come through on screen.
14:43Ruth's movies were far from an artistic or financial hit,
14:46but that didn't seem to hurt his popularity.
14:51More people know about Ruth
14:52than know about the president in this country,
14:54and a lot more cared.
14:57He transcended sport in the sense
14:59that people who didn't care about sport
15:01knew who he was.
15:03He went outside the limits of sport culture.
15:06Mo Berg shared a suite with Babe.
15:17Babe was in the bedroom with, what shall I call it,
15:20multiple feminine companionship.
15:23And the phone rang, and Mo thought it was for Babe.
15:26He didn't pick it up.
15:27But Babe came in, in some des-a-billet,
15:30he made his pants down and said,
15:32You're Babe Ruth.
15:34He's Father Flanagan.
15:36Tell him you'll be right down.
15:40My old friend,
15:41Hello, Father, this is Babe.
15:43I'll be right down.
15:45Later he said to Babe,
15:46Why couldn't you have said that?
15:48And Babe said,
15:49Me, with what I was doing,
15:51talk to a priest never.
15:54Ruth was a complex mix.
15:56He was crude and rough, uncultured.
16:00I was under the shower,
16:01and I had my face to the wall
16:03and the warm water coming down on me,
16:05and I was lathering my face and my chest
16:07and under my arms with soap.
16:09And all of a sudden,
16:10I felt something a little hotter
16:14than the water from the shower.
16:17And I turned around,
16:19and here was Ruth,
16:20standing outside the shower
16:22that was using the middle of my back
16:24for a urinal.
16:27And he laughed, guffawed,
16:29he thought that was real funny, you know.
16:31But at the same time,
16:33he was a very good man.
16:35He loved children.
16:37He loved making people happy.
16:38He loved doing things for them.
16:40Far beyond what you would expect
16:42from a man of his stature.
16:44When we were on road trips,
16:46he always made certain
16:47that I got the mass on a Sunday morning.
16:52If nobody else got the mass,
16:53he made sure that I got the mass with him.
16:55Perfect gentleman.
16:56Like a father to me.
16:59Babe Ruth could be both crude and kind.
17:02His personality was a paradox,
17:04shaped by two compelling and conflicting forces.
17:07Early in his childhood,
17:11George Herman Ruth learned the way of the streets,
17:14growing up an incorrigible kid
17:16in a tough neighborhood
17:17along Baltimore's seedy waterfront.
17:19The son of a saloon keeper,
17:22wherever Ruth went,
17:23trouble followed.
17:25When he was a little kid,
17:26he would drink things in the bar.
17:28He used to throw things at the cops
17:29and at the truckers,
17:30and he stole.
17:31A real pain in the neck little kid,
17:33the kind you could admire
17:34maybe if you weren't in charge of him,
17:36but it was a real nuisance to his parents.
17:39When he was eight,
17:40Ruth's parents had him committed to St. Mary's,
17:42a reform school for boys.
17:44Showered with tough love,
17:46he experienced kindness and compassion
17:48for the first time.
17:50The resulting inner struggle
17:51between right and wrong
17:53provided an interesting contradiction
17:55which would define Ruth's behavior
17:58throughout his personal and professional life.
18:01He had grown up a bad boy,
18:03and he didn't want any of us
18:05to go through what he went through.
18:07And he used to lixer us along those lines.
18:10Do what your mother tells you to do,
18:12and do what your father tells you to do.
18:14He'd hear a kid swearing,
18:16and he'd yell out,
18:17God damn it, stop that
18:19God damn swearing over there.
18:21You know.
18:26He had trouble managing a family.
18:28Didn't seem to much give a damn about that.
18:30He was a paradox.
18:34Ruth had become a major leaguer at 19.
18:37Just months after he joined the Red Sox,
18:39Babe married his first wife, Helen,
18:42herself a Babe, barely 16.
18:48It was typically impulsive,
18:49and Ruth quickly tired of the commitment.
18:52Even after adopting a child,
18:55rumor had him fathering by way of a maid,
18:58the Babe abandoned his family,
19:00apparently uncaring of his actions.
19:03For a man of Ruth's background,
19:05the temptations that fame and fortune brought
19:08were too great to ignore.
19:10If you've been a poor kid,
19:11and he had been a poor kid,
19:13what you want more than anything
19:15is more to eat,
19:17more to drink,
19:18more to enjoy
19:20than you ever had in those times
19:22when your pleasures were in the dribs and drabs
19:24of an extra piece of bread
19:26or a bed next to the wall.
19:28Here's a kid who grew up in an orphanage
19:30and probably had more animal appetites
19:32than 14 animals.
19:34He devoured food.
19:35He devoured sex.
19:36He devoured fun.
19:38He was always reaching out
19:40for something of enjoyment.
19:44Babe Ruth is the only guy
19:46that ever lived up to his reputation.
19:49He was a monster off the ball field.
19:52We left the Back Bay Station here in Boston,
19:56went down to New York
19:58and he got off at 125th Street
20:01and in that time,
20:04I saw him drink a quart of scotch.
20:09He was perfectly okay.
20:10He wasn't drunk or anything.
20:12When he got off the train,
20:13he was just very genial.
20:15The White Sox got a great idea.
20:19They're gonna take the babe out.
20:21They're gonna make a night of it.
20:23They took him out.
20:24He gets something burnt.
20:25Here we go.
20:26All right, sir.
20:27Told the bartender,
20:28Charlie mixed me up one of those things.
20:29A little important thing in there.
20:30The babe lifted that up.
20:31He says he went all the way,
20:34ice cubes included.
20:37For Pete's sakes, that guy's got a throat like a trombone.
20:52Three minutes before the ball game,
20:54here comes the babe.
20:55Miller Huggins looks at him.
20:56Look at him.
20:57He ain't even been in bed all night.
20:58He says that guy's gonna play today.
20:59Okay?
21:00He played.
21:01He butchered the White Sox.
21:02Okay?
21:03The game is over.
21:04Babe hurries up the steps
21:05to get to the White Sox before they disappear.
21:07Hey, where are we going tonight?
21:08He said,
21:09hey, where are we going tonight?
21:12Then, of course, he ate God knows how many hot dogs.
21:15He'd run me back into the dressing room during a game
21:18and get a couple hot dogs and a bottle of soda pop.
21:20I'd go back two, three, four times during a ball game.
21:23Hot mustard, relish, and a pot.
21:24He'd go back to the dressing room during a game
21:26and get a couple hot dogs and a bottle of soda pop.
21:31I'd go back two, three, four times during a ball game.
21:35him hot mustard relish sauerkraut he had the works oh good lord oh my yes he ate he was hungry and he
21:45had an appetite for everything he wanted to taste everything he chased women he used to go out with
21:53the kind of women everybody would like to go out with if they could the chorus girls broadway cuties
21:59what Ruth liked more than anything else was lying on his stomach and having a geisha walk on his spine
22:06from top to bottom and back again Ruth thought that was beyond belief I do believe the geisha was
22:13naked at the time I don't know about Ruth women look for him and he used to like to have his
22:21visitations in the morning before ballgames he was exhausted and didn't really have room in his
22:27schedule he still would allow one into his bedroom and do his duty called me up one day and said
22:35Devins can I use your room I said who's this babe he said why yes sir this guy was the king of the
22:47world imagine being Babe Ruth that'd be a ball wouldn't it
22:52there were times when even Ruth took access to the extreme he missed two months of the 25 season with
23:01a mysterious illness the writers called the bellyache heard round the world although others hinted that
23:07syphilis was the more likely cause it was even one time his insatiable appetite for women nearly led to
23:15his demise he had this Latin girl in Igbo city in Tampa he told her that the relationship had to end
23:24because he was going into spring training in reality he had found something that he liked somewhat better
23:29and this Latin girl came in the front entrance to the dining room and she looked around the dining room and saw
23:36Ruth and this other woman over there and as she was coming toward him she reached into her pocketbook
23:42and she pulled out this revolver and kept on coming this woman fired and Lazar said did she hit you
23:50he said yes I didn't mount to nothing and he says there it is right there and he showed the calf of his leg
23:57where the bullet had gone right through and the scar was there and they laughed about it and talked about it
24:05he did everything to excess the bad things and all of the good things too the two sides of Ruth's personality
24:16were markedly different equally compelling at times egotistical and selfish the babe could also be
24:23thoughtful and considering it was extremely generous with his time and money especially with kids
24:29Ruth reveled in the smile of a child in their eyes he saw himself he enjoyed the innocence and
24:38spontaneity of adolescence forsaken by his parents the babe wanted kids to experience the love and
24:45affection he felt he never really had Ruth's relationship with children was remarkable it was
24:52genuine he made children feel comfortable he made them feel happy you see these pictures surrounded by
25:00hundreds of kids there's always a smiling relaxed face so happily in his element and there is Ruth with
25:07his big happy smile spreading his joy and doing it with a naturalness it was so genuine that it just
25:15flowed into them almost every weekend Babe Ruth would come in and help us bagging peanuts he'd work for a
25:23couple of hours with us then he'd throw a ten or a twenty dollar bill on the table where we were working to
25:29take care of the kids he'd walk out I'd have an operation my father who worked at Yankee Stadium almost all
25:38his life was a very hard-working man but they didn't have that kind of money Dr. Smith he was the head of the
25:44hospital said because my name was Mary Smith we had to be related and I wouldn't have to pay but I was
25:52told later from another doctor that wasn't true it was paid for by the babe and they told me he was a
26:00friend of my father's I just kept looking at his face because he had such a beautiful smile we had a
26:08little orange juice stand it was right near the golf course he was playing golf he said to me his name
26:13was Babe Ruth and I saw where's your candy bars because that's all I knew was Babe Ruth was a candy
26:19bar well they laughed they thought this was real funny and I put my head down and sort of started
26:24to cry I guess he patted me on the head I see gonna be here tomorrow and I said yes and so he came back
26:30the next day gave us a whole big box of baby with candy bars he just said now little girl don't you
26:37forget who I am he had such beautiful blue eyes they sparkled in the roaring raucous 20s when America
26:47celebrated consumption and excess no other public figure was worshipped like the babe thanks to his
26:54friends in the press Ruth's repulsive behavior was never reported his vulgar side rarely seen to his
27:01adoring fans Ruth's indiscretions were harmless he was a humble everyman a kindred spirit he was loved
27:09because people who had flaws men and women even children who had flaws in their character knew he
27:16had flaws he was one of them he was not above them he was a spiritual force they loved them they'd like the
27:27feeling about him he was a joy to be around he left the things up he was alive I saw him a couple of
27:36times with Jack Dempsey when Jack Dempsey had the restaurant on Broadway and 48th Street and they
27:42used to sit in the window together and talk and you'd have crowds hundreds of them looking in the window
27:46there's Babe Ruth there's Jack Dempsey he relished the whole idea of being part of the scene as opposed to
27:56others who could come in and come out no one would even know they were there when he came into a room
28:00he was loud and positive and where he was was the place to be a professional barbershop quartet was
28:05singing as part of the entertainment and suddenly a husky and uncertain voice joined them and even though
28:14he was a lousy singer everybody was very happy that he did it you know how an aura exudes there was a
28:22quality about Ruth that just invited you in in
28:27hey Red they didn't care a whole lot about exhibition games and by and large you play half a game and that's it
28:34but the guys are complaining and says you're hearing his crouts let's get out of here and the Babe says you
28:39want to get out of here he says I'll stop the game next inning next inning some young kid ran out for his autograph
28:46and the Babe he signs for another kid to come on the first thing in the center field was filled up for the kids
28:57that's the end of the ball game
28:59he'd stand there for an hour and sign those autographs now Gehrig by contrast and Grove by contrast
29:12they didn't want to be bothered with people or bothered with kids and they'd come out on the
29:16same circumstances and they'd wade through them the instrument they use with the fountain pen
29:23fountain pens had a tendency to leak and squirt splashed with ink on his suit or on his face he never
29:31minded he never complained they would ask him why did you sit for so many hours babe just signing autographs
29:37and he said I'd like to make everybody happy
29:47he happened to see me over there in the corner he came over he says what's your kid's name he said let
29:53me get you a ball for your kid I said well I don't have any any kids in fact I'm not even married he said
29:59well we can fix that so he took a ball and he wrote something on it and when I looked at it he had on
30:05there hello to be from Babe Ruth he says when your kid comes along tell him Babe Ruth had something
30:12for him so this now is a very treasured possession of my daughter but if you took Ruth for more than
30:21what he was you were kidding yourself you wouldn't walk up to Ruth and say to him Babe what do you
30:26think of Einstein he'd probably say what's he hit a friend of Ruth sees him at the station and they get
30:36off the train hey babe did you hear about wait wait Hoyt no what about him he says he's got a case of
30:43amnesia and babe says he has hey you tell him to save me one of those bottles he came out to the dugout
30:52and complained to Doc Painter who was the trainer he said Doc he said my eyes feel a little cloudy
30:59today my vision's not too good and Doc Painter said well why don't you go down and get some of that
31:04uh vizine that ILO and Babe gave his eyes a good washing with that ILO and I think he got two for
31:12four or three for four that day and he attributed it to the ILO so the next day when he came out his
31:18eyes were all right but he used the ILO again and Lazeri a day or two later sneaked out there and he
31:24took the ILO bottle and he poured all the ILO out and filled it with water put it back in the medicine
31:30case and Ruth came out and started to use the ILO and then Lazeri yanked it out of his hand and says
31:36let me have some of that stuff and when he got the ILO from out of Babe's hand he drank it all and Babe is
31:43slapping his big old flies you know he says look at the day go he says drinking the baby's ILO and Lazeri
31:49got two or three hits so then Ruth following that started bathing his eyes and drinking it too
31:55he could never remember anybody's name and the people he played with and played side by side he
32:05called everybody kid there's my kid kid KWD hey kid how you get say that to a guy was 92 years old
32:13Lazeri said I'm gonna have a little fun with the Babe so he called Miles Thomas who was some distance
32:20away now Miles was a relief pitcher on the Yankees and had been with the Yankees for some three or four
32:26years and he called Miles over and he said to Babe he said I want to introduce you Charlie Devins who's just
32:34showed up from Harvard and gonna be with us while and Ruth stuck out that great big meat hand and
32:39said nice to see you kid welcome to the Yankees and Thomas had been on the ball club for three or
32:46four years who didn't appear to know that but he was glad to see him nonetheless
33:04he did what he wanted to do if it got him in trouble he was always startled he was totally
33:24spontaneous I was captain of a high school golf team so they'd like to play golf and said would
33:32you like to play golf with Babe Ruth now any kid would love something like that and I helped him on
33:37several holes because we were partners he won maybe fifty hundred dollars next day at high school I was in
33:45class about 12 30 or 1 o'clock Babe Ruth's out in the hallway looking for you to go play golf for him
33:52today I said what I couldn't believe it now it's the most surprised kid you've ever seen when he
33:57walked in that classroom had the principal was right with him Babe's here to take you to the golf course it's
34:03okay to go so I jumped up and went with him he never had any serious thoughts in his head really
34:11but you liked him you want a bad follow everybody has a story in Ruth and stories piled on stories
34:28become legends and of course the classic one is the 1932 World Series and the so-called called shot
34:35some extremely bad feelings had arisen between the two contending teams Yankees and the Chicago Cubs
34:44and they're yelling at him from the cub dugout the most obscene things and he's yelling back he was
34:50riding the Chicago bench from the batter's box and the pitcher Charlie root throws a cross strike one
34:55throws a cross strike two and here comes baseball's fabled moment he suddenly stopped and I vividly heard
35:04him yell out the Charlie root it only takes one and then he elevated his arm this one's going out
35:10pointing to the centerfield bleachers and by God the next wall he hit right where he had pointed I don't
35:20think he could have done it in a million other times but he did do it and I saw it I asked him I said you
35:27called that shot didn't you babe why don't you think I did he said that's where I point and that's where
35:32it went others however weren't so sure in home movies of the at-bat Ruth appears to be gesturing
35:39at something but at what remains inconclusive the next day in the papers there was barely a mention of
35:49Ruth's declaration just straightforward reporting of the home run but as time passed the notion caught
35:55on and soon took a life of its own newsreel accounts unashamedly showed Ruth's gesture as fact and Hollywood
36:02later took the myth to epic proportions he pointed to the flagpole in the centerfield bleachers plainly
36:17indicating that's where he means to park that next pitch
36:24it's a harmless little myth now a lot of people believe in Santa Claus
36:31there's nothing wrong with it
36:33babe was part of that old American folklore of the braggarts and the big ones Mike Fink and
36:40Pecos Pete Paul Bunyan and the blue ox it doesn't matter what is based in reality because a thing is what
36:51it is because we wish it to be Napoleon said once that history is the myth that men choose to believe
36:57whether he actually called it it's irrelevant because reality evaporates and the myth becomes the truth
37:05I want you all to remember what I said about smoking
37:09it'll stunt your growth
37:11look what it did to him
37:14a great deal of the Ruth legend is just
37:18well legend
37:20half-truths that became myth
37:22Ruth frequently visited hospitals
37:24so his home run promise to a dying kid might have been true
37:28but he couldn't possibly have taken a dog to the hospital
37:31in uniform before a game
37:33could he?
37:34where's your operating room?
37:35over there
37:36but you can't go in there
37:37get your best doctors in there in a hurry I got a sick dog
37:40I think he's a tremendous mythic figure but I think the history is as big or bigger than the myth
37:47the myth diminishes what he really was and establishes a sort of a false Ruth
37:51it's big but it's not the truth and I think the truth is bigger than the myth
37:55the true Ruth started out as a pitcher
37:58maybe the best left-hander in Boston Red Sox history
38:01in just five seasons
38:03the Babe won close to 90 games
38:05and helped the Sox win the World Series in 1916 and again in 1918 by throwing 29 consecutive scoreless innings
38:13he was on his way to the Hall of Fame as a pitcher
38:18until he picked up his bat and rewrote the record book
38:21for the last six weeks of the 1918 season he pitched one day then played the outfield the next three days then pitched again then played the outfield for the rest of the season
38:34so he was a man pitching and playing the outfield playing every day and hitting at the same time
38:39it's one of the most extraordinary things in baseball history
38:41Ruth's trade from Boston to the New York Yankees in 1920 was the catalyst for sports most renowned dynasty
38:50for the next nine seasons the Yanks played in six World Series winning three including 1927
38:57with Ruth the cornerstone of one of history's greatest teams
39:01the Yankees are hitting quartet
39:04Lou Gehrig
39:05Combs
39:06Lazare
39:07and Babe Ruth
39:08he was a fabulous beautifully coordinated athlete
39:13they all look at him and they call him fat
39:19he stole home
39:20he was fast
39:23he had a good arm
39:24there was nothing about baseball he couldn't do
39:27you know about his year 1921
39:34378
39:35hit 59 home runs
39:37scored 178 runs
39:39drove in 171 runs
39:42got over 40 doubles, 16 triples, stole 16 bases
39:46that was Babe Ruth
39:48Babe Ruth, Maddie
39:50wow, there goes one in the right field
39:52he had six of the most extraordinary seasons
39:55in 1926 to 1932
39:56that any ball player's ever had
39:59he averaged over 50 home runs a year for six years
40:01it's so hard to imagine
40:03he was so far ahead
40:04he had twice as many as the others
40:0656 homers
40:0858 homers
40:1060 homers
40:12slugging average
40:15690
40:17do you believe that?
40:18most of the hall of famers
40:20they're very happy with 500
40:22he's 690
40:24jeez
40:26jeez
40:26cruds
40:27people swim faster than Johnny Weissmuller
40:32people run faster than Pavel Nermi
40:35but to hit 60 home runs and back 340
40:39the things that he did are still remarkable
40:42nobody's ever come close to what he's done on the field
40:46name me one other guy
40:49who had as many records that could be broken
40:53he set them all
40:54lifetime average over 340, 714 home runs
40:58there was a lot of myth
41:01but there was a hell of a lot of mister too
41:04daddy loved the Lone Ranger
41:10and I loved to listen to that with him
41:13we'd always cheer him on
41:15we always had a wonderful time
41:16he was a marvelous dancer
41:22it was perfect timing
41:24and he taught me how to dance
41:26and I loved dancing with daddy
41:29Julia Ruth became Babe's daughter
41:34after Ruth married her mother Claire in 1929
41:37the year the stock market crashed
41:39by most accounts
41:41Babe handled marriage the second time around
41:43much better than the first
41:44but just when his family life seemed settled
41:47his baseball life started to come apart
41:50at first the crash of 29 and the resulting depression
41:57had little effect on Ruth
41:59or the money he was paid
42:00his enormous checks
42:02which were often 10 times greater than any of his contemporaries
42:05had reached $80,000 in 1931
42:08but at the same time the country began to sink deeper into economic despair
42:15Ruth's skills began to erode
42:18giving Yankee owner Jacob Rupert
42:22good reason to cut his salary
42:24and eventually cut him
42:25after 20 productive major league seasons
42:30the Yanks no longer needed Ruth
42:33the team that had been his for so long
42:35now centered around Lou Gehrig
42:37Ruth was playing his last year with the Yankees in Boston
42:41the ball went between his legs
42:43and went to the wall
42:44the fans in Boston booed him unmercifully
42:48and it made me sick
42:50even Ruth in his decline was monumental
42:56players would stop during pre-game workout
42:59and watch him struggling in the field
43:01running after a fly ball
43:02trying to bend over pick up a ground ball
43:04they couldn't believe what they were seeing
43:06a great statue beginning to crack and topple
43:10the god turning human
43:12colonel Rupert sent him a contract for a dollar a year
43:19and gave him his unconditional release
43:23I can't go on forever
43:31but you can bet your sweet life
43:33that I won't play until I drop
43:35but I'll play until I damn near drop
43:38thank you
43:39in 1935
43:41Ruth took his diminishing skills to the Boston Braves
43:44ever the showman
43:46he defiantly hit three homers in one of his final games
43:49but at age 40
43:50the babe retired as a player
43:52and spent three years away from the game
43:54feels good to be back in this uniform
43:57that Dodgers look pretty good on the front of you
43:59don't it?
44:00in 1938
44:03Ruth happily returned to New York
44:05as a coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers
44:07the babe had been led to believe
44:12the Dodgers would one day let him manage
44:14in reality the struggling franchise
44:17had signed Ruth as a gate attraction
44:19fans did come to see Ruth
44:21but the novelty soon wore off
44:23the babe was let go
44:25and the promise never kept
44:27they never had any intentions
44:31of making him a manager
44:33they just wanted him for his name
44:35it was almost like they lied to him
44:38he'd come home
44:40and he'd ask mother
44:42anybody called today?
44:44of course nobody ever did
44:46and all he wanted to do
44:49was just be in baseball
44:50he wanted to be a part of baseball
44:52because it was a part of him
44:53he was so disappointed
44:55he almost went into a depression
44:58they used to say about him
45:00how could he ever manage a team
45:02and he never learned to manage himself
45:03so in his post-baseball years
45:06whenever he went to Yankee Stadium
45:08it was always my impression
45:09when I sat close enough to look at him
45:11that he was very morose and sad
45:13he would sit there hunched over
45:15staring at the action
45:17you got the feeling about him
45:19that he had been involuntarily removed
45:21from his real environment
45:23the Yankees never came calling either
45:26so Ruth went on doing what he did best
45:29playing the role of the babe
45:31occasionally he would return to the stage
45:40he once dominated
45:41happy to display his old form
45:43although the significance of his homers
45:45had now greatly diminished
45:47Ruth still managed to thrill his fans
45:49even after he'd been out of baseball
45:52for eight or ten years
45:55he still attracted crowds
45:57he'd go over to the training camp
45:59and talk with the fellows
46:00people still asked him for his autograph
46:14they were still showing their love
46:17and appreciation for him
46:18even though he wasn't playing baseball anymore
46:20but by 1946
46:28it was becoming increasingly clear
46:30there was something seriously wrong with the babe
46:33I was in New Hampshire
46:37and there was a picture of him in the paper
46:40I called mother
46:42I said mother
46:43what on earth is the matter with daddy
46:46I said he looks terrible
46:48I really don't know
46:49she said he has these terrible headaches
46:53that winter
46:58Ruth had a throat operation
47:00and the prognosis was grim
47:02although he wasn't told of his condition
47:05the babe had cancer
47:07they kept the fact that he had terminal cancer away from him
47:11because they thought he would jump out a window
47:12he couldn't eat
47:17he couldn't swallow
47:18of course he was losing weight like crazy
47:21he just didn't look like daddy
47:23he would sit in the chair by the hour
47:27and look out over the Hudson River
47:29his spirits were very good
47:32he felt that he was going to beat this thing
47:35but the fact that he had the scar tissue
47:37up around his neck
47:39made it very difficult for him to talk
47:41on April 27th 1947
47:45baseball celebrated Ruth's accomplishments
47:47with a day in his name
47:49at every major league ballpark
47:50Ruth himself attended the ceremony
47:53at Yankee Stadium
47:54I knew how sick he was
47:57I guess that's the reason I didn't go in
47:59and I just stood outside
48:01he started to speak
48:05thank you very much ladies and gentlemen
48:08you know how bad my voice sounds
48:11well it feels just as bad
48:15you know this baseball game of ours
48:18they turned up that loudspeaker
48:20so everybody outside
48:23blocks around could hear them
48:25the train up on the platform
48:28people they just stopped in their tracks
48:31listening to this great man
48:33and after you were a boy
48:36and grew up to know how to play ball
48:39then you come
48:41to the boys
48:42you see representing
48:44themselves today
48:47in your national pastime
48:50the only real game
48:53I think in the world
48:55baseball
48:56there's been so many lovely things
48:59said about me
49:01and I'm glad
49:03that I've had the opportunity
49:06to thank everybody
49:08thank you
49:09give them away
49:10even when he was so sick
49:19he still wanted to be part of baseball
49:22he took a job with the Ford Motor Company
49:25traveling for the American Legion
49:26he made personal appearances
49:30the first year 47
49:32he made 15 appearances
49:33when I saw him get off the airplane
49:36I was shocked
49:37he came out puffing
49:38breathing hard
49:40his color didn't look good
49:42there he was with this white cap
49:44and the white and black wingtip shoes
49:47then we went back to the ballpark
49:50there was like 15,000 people there
49:53most of them kids
49:55it was a different man that appeared
49:57here he was smiling
49:58I think he was happier at the ballpark
50:03than he was anywhere else
50:04he didn't feel that good
50:05but the strength of being around
50:07those young people
50:07that he was working with
50:09and imparting knowledge to them
50:10I really think gave him strength
50:13he just seemed to gather strength from it
50:15he really was crazy about kids
50:17and you could see it
50:18as sick as he was
50:19and as weak as he was
50:20he wanted to be with those kids
50:22Dave was a very sick man
50:30we had a child in town
50:32that was dying of cancer
50:35who comes out in the yard with the babe
50:37and he spends time talking to all of us
50:41I got something for you
50:43here
50:43you look like you can catch
50:45there's a ball
50:46his attitude
50:48knowing that he was close to death
50:51and us knowing that our friend was dying
50:54and not understanding
50:55it was just so wonderful
50:57how you doing Dave?
51:03his health failing
51:04his glory days behind
51:06Ruth continued to make public appearances
51:08on June 13th 1948
51:11he helped celebrate the 25th anniversary of Yankee Stadium
51:15and wore his uniform
51:16for the final time
51:18I was there when he made his last appearance
51:22in Yankee Stadium
51:23even though by that time
51:26he was wasted away
51:28somehow on that day
51:30he filled the uniform
51:32to be once more
51:34for some last gasp
51:37a heroic figure
51:39you had just this moment
51:40which you tried to hold and keep
51:42I worked for the Herald Tribune
51:46and I did mostly human interest pictures
51:48I think it was terrible to know
51:52that all of this ovation comes to him
51:54and he knows
51:55down deep in his heart
51:56that he isn't long for this world
51:58they lined him up there
52:02in the front
52:03all the photographers were in the front
52:05I went around the back
52:07the thing that steered me
52:09was the number three being retired
52:10number three is out
52:12the bay bows out
52:13as it's a natural
52:15I knew I had something there
52:18later that summer
52:38Ruth's health took a serious turn
52:40for the worse
52:41in July he entered the hospital once more
52:44and this time
52:45he was made aware
52:47of what he was facing
52:48when he went into the Sloan Kettering
52:52he saw that it was for cancer
52:53and allied diseases
52:55and he said
52:56have I got cancer?
52:58they'd never told you
52:59if anything could have saved him
53:04believe me
53:05the prayers would have
53:06they'd stand outside the hospital
53:14once in a while
53:17he'd go to the window
53:18and look out
53:19and wave
53:20he knew
53:20that he had all their best wishes
53:22and that they were pulling for him
53:25here was somebody
53:30who had been through
53:31an awful lot of
53:32pain
53:33discomfort
53:34for over a two year period
53:36he'd had enough of it
53:38I'm tired of all this
53:39now
53:40he was very quiet
53:41he awaited the end
53:43in a dignified way
53:44but it was just a terrible thing
53:46for him to realize
53:48what had happened
53:49to his joy of living
53:50we interrupt this program
53:54to bring you a special bulletin
53:56New York
53:56Babe Ruth
53:57the all-time baseball great
53:59just died in Memorial Hospital
54:01of cancer
54:02Ruth's casket
54:04was brought to Yankee Stadium
54:06a spectacle in death
54:09as in life
54:10the Babe had come to rest
54:13where his legend had begun
54:15the people who came
54:18to get their last look
54:19at him
54:20just absolutely
54:22was staggering
54:23it amazed me
54:24we went up to the Bronx
54:29on the subway
54:30and there were people
54:31from every race
54:32every neighborhood
54:33the line moved very quickly
54:35and looking down at his face
54:37he looked exhausted
54:38and out past where he was lying
54:53was the field
54:54you could smell the odor of it
54:55the sort of loamy
54:57hot earth of August
54:59in New York
54:59I walked in there
55:04to see his memorial
55:05and the hair just stood up
55:06on the back of my neck
55:07and stood up on my arms
55:10because I had finally
55:12gotten to see
55:13where Babe hit them all
55:14I remember being ushered up
55:19to the casket
55:20imagine there was Babe Ruth
55:21I was handed a ball
55:23I had looked at the ball
55:24and some sensitive person
55:26had written on this ball
55:28safe at home
55:29I put the ball
55:30right next to his hand
55:32and I thought
55:33wow
55:34I mean here he is
55:35he's home
55:36he's where he belongs
55:37his passing was an event
55:44in the lives of many people
55:46because he represented so much
55:47and he took so much with him
55:50there never was a character like that
55:59and there never was going to be one again
56:01but in many ways
56:07he's never left the game
56:08the standards that he set
56:11the legends that he created
56:13are still very much with us
56:15Babe Ruth will never be gone
56:18he's still here
56:20he's always here
56:23he was a living man
56:29who became a mythic god
56:32and nothing can change that
56:34he will be a symbol
56:42of baseball
56:43as long as baseball is playing
56:45to me the babe's still alive
57:03he truly
57:04is like shakespeare
57:06he'll never die
57:08he's still here
57:09he's still there
57:21he's still there
57:22first time
57:24he's still here
57:24he'll never die
57:25or not
57:25overeto
58:56This has been a presentation of HBO Sports, the Network of Champions.
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