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Memory Lane Inc. Premier Collectibes Auction - March 30th, 2006 |
Bob Considine, Columnist, New York Daily Mirror
Here’s how the Babe Ruth remembered that great day himself in his autobiography of and how he and Walter Johnson, (two of the top 5 players ever to play the game), felt after:
“The war came along and, indirectly, it brought about my last appearance in uniform in the Yankee Stadium. In the summer of 1942, Walter Johnson and I put on an exhibition for the benefit of the Army-Navy Relief... It made quite a show and brought back a lot of memories. many years...
We went out on the field and it was one of the great thrills of my life in the game. It (ED. Ruth speaking of the crowd) stood on its hind legs and gave us a terrific ovation… The catcher (Benny Bengough) had to jump for the first one, but then Walter found the groove…
I stepped into his third pitch and knocked it in the lower right field stands… They were still yelling for us as we disappeared into the Yankee dugout and started down to the dressing room… but there was a kind of sadness in both of us. Walter had been the greatest pitcher in the league; I had been the greatest slugger. But he was no longer a part of the game, and the same was true for me.”
The Babe Ruth Story, by Babe Ruth as told to Bob Considine, EP Dutton and Co. 1948.
Walter Johnson’s pitching accomplishments are extraordinary. Johnson is also named in The Sporting News, list of Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players as the No 4 on the List just below Ruth at No.1, and the highest ranked pitcher on the List, and the only pitcher in the top 5. He was named by ESPN as the #60 of the top100 greatest athletes in the 20th Century!
And like Ruth, Johnson was named as one of the first 5 inductees to the newly founded Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Johnson’s side arm delivery fast ball was the fastest of its times – believed to be in the 99 miles per hour range. Even by today’s standards this kind of power and speed is exceptional. His career record of 417 wins is second best in baseball history.
Walter Johnson and babe Ruth.
WHAT MAKES THIS BALL SO ALLURING?
WHAT GIVES THIS BALL SUCH INCREDIBLE VALUE?
“This ball”, was held in the hands of the great HOF Walter “Big Train” Johnson Johnson rolled this ball around in his hands! He gripped this ball with his fingers. Then he threw “this ball” toward an anxious “greatest baseball player of all time”!
(A man, whose wife noted , was worried about producing for his fans – about “rising to the occasion” at his beloved Yankee Stadium – the House that Ruth Built.).
| AND SMACK! This ball was sent flying into the lower right field stands (affectionately called Ruthville by fans and press) of Yankee Stadium. This Ball, shot out from the plate and traveled the 310-315 feet so fast – so hard – that fans in right field could see it coming right at them but couldn’t react fast enough to jump up and catch it! Suddenly it hit the stands with a force – bouncing and rolling down to the feet of a father and son whose sole purpose for being there that day was to see the great Ruth hit one! (Whose journey to get there, took over two hours one way, and required changing trains three times). |
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This was Ruth’s greatest departing moment as a baseball immortal! Swinging for the fence! (And as history now knows, Ruth was in the twilight of his life – never to hit a home run again at his beloved Yankee Stadium.)
THIS IS BABE RUTH’S LAST HURRAH!
THIS BALL IS THE ONLY SURVIVOR OF A GREAT FEAT BY A GREAT PLAYER!
Sold for $86,250.00 with buyers premium.
Click to see the auction lot.