Babe Ruth in Early 1920

Already a star.

Babe Ruth in Early 1920

For years I believed in the traditional baseball narrative.

It went something like this:

• The 1919 White Sox were a crooked team, deliberately throwing the World Series to gamblers for money.

• Baseball was in shambles and was in danger of falling apart in the wake of the scandal.

• Babe Ruth came along to save the sport.

• Ruth’s incredible 1920 season caused fan interest to rise massively, helping everybody to forget the scandal.

It’s not quite that simple, of course. Ruth did have a massive season in 1920, of course, and was easily the greatest drawing card in all of sports. And we do know that the Black Sox scandal was a massive black mark on the game — but that’s a topic for another time.

However, that scandal didn’t really break until the tail end of the 1920 season, by which time Ruth had already established himself as the greatest offensive power in the history of the game. As for Ruth himself — well, it seems that he was already a star before the 1920 season even started.

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A Star In 1919

Ruth was a huge draw in 1919. In fact, he was such a huge draw in 1919 that it’s hard to believe that this isn’t better known.

I’ll give you an example. This comes from a Portland, Maine newspaper from October 1, 1919. The Red Sox had just played an exhibition game with an all-Maine all star team:

From Portland Evening Express and Advertiser (Maine), October 1, 1919, page 10

This was huge news — bigger news than the World Series preview that appeared on the same page.

The crazy thing is that I could have chosen from a number of newspapers that carried Ruth articles that day. Despite the fact that the Red Sox season was already over, papers across the United States carried a variety of articles about Ruth — all on October 1, 1919.

And it doesn’t stop there.

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The Legend Before The Legend

Below are examples of coverage before the 1920 season began, much of which speaks for itself. This isn’t even close to comprehensive. Note as well that this covers numerous newspapers throughout the United States, in cities big and small.

From The Evening Capital News (Boise, Idaho), November 5, 1919

The article above, which comes from an Idaho newspaper, was a wire piece that saw print in numerous papers around the country. Note the language: “he is the biggest drawing card right now that baseball ever has known, barring no one” — and remember that Cobb was still active.

From The Charlotte News (North Carolina), January 6, 1920, page 10

I usually don’t think of Charlotte, North Carolina as a baseball city. This article made me reconsider — especially since it came in early January 1920. Yes, I know that Ruth’s purchase was huge news. But was it really the biggest sporting news in all of Charlotte?

From The Washington Times, January 8, 1920, page 15

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 18, 1920, page 21

It’s probably been a good century since anybody last wrote an article about a slugger who would have had more home runs if he only would have run them out.

The very same sports page included this gem as well:

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 18, 1920, page 21

Wikipedia has a good article on Torriente.

From The Tacoma Sunday Ledger, March 21, 1920, page 19

This, though, more than any other article, made me realize that the legend had already been born:

From The Spokane Press, April 13, 1920, page 7

I guess Ruth did see more “real pitching” in 1920 than he had ever seen before. He knew what to do with it, too.