Babe Ruth Barnstorms Through the Northwest in 1924, Part 4: Portland
Babe Ruth concludes his tour of the Northwest with a stop in Portland, where he discovers it's hard out there for a lefty.
It took me a bit, but here we have it, the final installment of our look at Babe Ruth’s barnstorming tour in October 1924 through the Northwest! We read about his adventures in Spokane, Tacoma, and Seattle. Today, he makes his final Northwest appearance in the Rose City.
But first. I want to acknowledge that this was a tough post to write, partially because there wasn’t as much available online information about this stop, and partially because as I was working on it we were getting closer and closer to the election and all the anxiety that has gone along with it. I’ve been feeling a lot of feelings since last Tuesday and if you are too, I hope you’re finding ways to take care of yourself. And I hope you’re finding ways to stand up and protect people. Be the change, even when it feels daunting.
Babe Ruth arrived in Portland with as much charm and enthusiasm as he had at every other stop along the way. His excitement at seeing a new city was not the least bit diminished by all his time on the road. In return, Portland welcomed him with the same adulation all the other cities had shown.
One notable difference about this stop was that it wasn’t sponsored by any of Portland’s daily newspapers. Instead, it was held as a benefit game for the Portland Elks Lodge and the Gul Reazee Grotto, which was (and still is) a Portland subdivision of the Freemasons. It appears as though Ruth played on the Elks team and his Yankee teammate and barnstorming buddy Bob Meusel played for the Grotto team, although this was not explicitly state by the newspapers.1
A visit like The Babe’s only happened thanks to the work of many people. A list in the newspaper give us some insight into what went in to planning that sort of event, when it published the sub-committees that worked to put on the game and the events surrounding it:23
Public speaking Public school children Special stunts Hoot Owls Reception Baseball team managers Free baseballs Tickets Publicity Street car signs Window signs Parade
The game was scheduled for a Tuesday afternoon and, as in Spokane, the Portland School Board offered a half holiday. They did not declare it for everyone, however, but they did allow “the dismissal of all boys who bring written permission from their parents, from school at noon.”4 Sorry, girls.
In response to the growing excitement about the chance to see Babe Ruth in person, the governor of Oregon, Walter Pierce, issued a proclamation urging Portland businesses to close early so their employees could attend the game:
On the afternoon of Tuesday, October 21, 1924 at 2 P.M., Portland will have the pleasure and honor of witnessing at the baseball park a game between two teams, one representing the Portland Elks lodge and other the grotto.
The star performer on this occasion will be Babe Ruth, one of the most wonderful men who ever stepped into a baseball suit. There will be other big league players in the lineup, many professionals and some amateurs.
The receipts of the game will be devoted to charity by these great fraternal societies.
As governor of the state of Oregon I request that as many business houses as possible grant a half holiday to clerks and employees that they may enjoy a real treat, the profits to be given freely to charity in our own metropolitan city of Portland.5
On Tuesday, October 21, Babe Ruth arrived in Portland, just in time for breakfast. Whichever committee was in charge of feeding him had planned a huge meal for the Bambino at the Multnomah Hotel: A t-bone steak and a couple stacks of pancakes. They were shocked when the man with a reputation for a huge appetite ate “a modest breakfast, including grape-fruit.”6
After breakfast he was whisked off to the Elks Club where he posed for pictures with “various citizens of Portland.”7 This likely included high-ranking Elks and Grotto members and other prominent local politicians and businessmen.
From there, he made his visit to the children of the city, stopping by the Shriners Hospital which had opened earlier that year. He made his rounds, with the oldest children recognizing him on sight and the younger children growing excited when they heard who this visitor was. He connected with the kids, asking them questions and offering them his charismatic charm. It was here that we find the only non-newspaper picture of his visit to Portland that I could locate online:
After Shriners, Ruth attended a ceremony and sermon as the cornerstone was laid for the new St. Stephen Catholic Church (which still stands at 41st and SE Salmon Streets). Then, Ruth was honored with a parade through the downtown business district, and on to the ballpark he went.
The game was played at the Vaughn Street Grounds, the home of the Coast League Portland Beavers, at NW 25th and Vaughn Street.8 The Grounds opened in 1901, and the park was the site of Portland’s top baseball teams until the stadium was condemned as a fire hazard and baseball moved to Multnomah Stadium (the site of the current soccer stadium in the Northwest neighborhood9) in 1956. The 1924 Beavers didn’t have as great a season as their rivals to the north, the Coast League pennant winning Seattle Indians, but some years later they could boast that their roster featured future Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane.
Like his previous stops, before the game began Ruth signed baseballs for kids and gave a hitting demonstration in which he tried to hit home runs. The Oregon Daily Journal worried that he “had writer’s cramp by the time the game started” and wrote of his batting practice home runs that one of them went out “over the right field fence, much farther than any drive ever made over that wall in the many years the park has been used by the Coast league season.”10 He also hit a home run into the centerfield bleachers.
In a new twist on pre-game entertainment, Portland brought in golf stars to see if Ruth could hit a golf ball farther than golfers could. Although the newspapers hyped the Babe showing off how far he could hit a golf ball with a mashie iron, the famous left-hander’s golf demonstration fell victim to a problem faced by left handers everywhere; it hadn’t occurred to the committee in charge of special stunts that golf clubs were mostly made for right-handed golfers and they needed to bring special left-handed clubs.11
But the Bambino wasn’t about to let something like that stop him. So he simply decided to hit golf balls with his baseball bat. Joining Ruth in the “divot pasture sport”12 where Dr. O. F. Willing, the Pacific Northwest golf champion, and Rudie Wilhelm, a former Oregon state champion. Wilhelm drove balls out over both the left and right field fences and Willing hit a couple out in right field. Ruth, using his baseball bat, hit a couple golf balls out of the park, but he was unable to hit his shots as far as the golfers had.
Then, it was time for the main event!
For all the hype around the game, newspapers accounts of the game expressed some disappointment at how it played out. Although Ruth had a couple hits, he also struck out a few times and hit pop flies and slow groundball outs. Bob Meusel provided entertainment for the fans in the fifth inning when he hit a home run. The Oregonian blamed the poor offensive showing on the pitchers who “seemed to think they were on exhibition, not the Babe” and complained that the bush leaguers were throwing hard, but couldn’t control their pitches, making it more difficult for Ruth to relax and hit home runs.13
In the seventh inning, as Ruth was about to hit, per the Oregonian, a 12-year-old yelled, “Daddy, are sure that’s Babe Ruth?”14 Whether he heard it or not, Ruth connected with a ball, swinging with “an indolently graceful motion that hardly seemed to nurse enough power to hoist the horsehide over the pitcher’s box”15 that “sailed over the new addition to the foundry, clearing the building by a wide margin.”16 The game may have been a bummer overall, but the Portland fans got to see Babe Ruth hit a home run in person, and surely that was worth the price of admission several times over.
In the eighth inning, in an echo of earlier stops on his tour, a horde of kids spilled onto the field, surrounding their hero. Attempts to push the kids back were futile and Umpire Ed Rankin eventually ended the game, yelling, “Game called on account of kids!”17
The Oregon Daily Journal put the score at 10-6, Ruth’s Elks coming out on top.18
After the game, Ruth and Meusel attended a dinner hosted by the Knights of Columbus. Then, they boarded a train headed for California and Ruth’s first trip to the Northwest was over.
Nicknames
One of the delightful parts of researching this series was reading the numerous nicknames given to Ruth in the newspapers. A sampling:
Nizan of Swat King of Swat King of Swatters Big Slambino Big Feller Swat King Big Fellow Bambino of Baseball King-Pin Clouter Monarch of the Realm of Swat Supreme Socker Bustin' Babe Scintillating Socker Bustling Babe Big Bat Basha of Bingle Tarzan of Slam Rajah of Smack Duke of Wallop Bambino of Bam
On the Road
One of the big changes for the Babe while he was traveling was the food he was served. His diet aboard the trains consisted of wild buffalo, wild duck, and wild rice on his train rides in the west. He was excited to eat new things and was particularly taken with the buffalo meat. He excitedly told reporters:
“I’m going to get me a flock of buffalo when I get back to my New England farm. I ought to hit a hundred home runs a year on a buffalo diet.”19
Autographed Balls
At each stop on his barnstorming tour, Babe Ruth signed untold numbers of baseballs, leading the Oregon Daily Journal to remark that “A ball autograph tour would be the proper term for “Babe” Ruth’s jaunt to the Pacific Northwest.”20
He poked fun at the clamor for his autograph, saying, “Those birds pay a buck to see me hit baseballs and then they make me spend half the afternoon signing for them instead.”21
Some of those baseballs are still kicking around, and they fetch quite a bit of money at auctions. One signed at his Spokane stop recently sold for $16,20022 and one from his Portland stop went for $48,000.23
‘Til We Meet Again
The 1924 tour wasn’t the only time Ruth came through the Northwest. He’d be back just two years later, in 1926, to promote his film work.
The Elks won the game and the book, Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth by Leigh Montville asserts that Ruth’s team won every game on the tour. Neither Ruth nor Meusel were members of the Elks or the Masons, although their contemporaries Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Honus Wagner were Masons.
“Committees Are Named.” The Oregonian, October 12, 1924, 24.
I would love to get into the Hoot Owls here, but other than this committee listing I don’t know how they factored into Ruth’s appearance. If you’re so inclined, here are a couple articles on them from the Oregon Encyclopedia: https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/kgw_hoot_owls/ and Weird Portland: https://weirdportland.blogspot.com/2016/03/keep-growing-wiser.html.
“School Kids to Get Chance to See Babe In Exhibition Game.” The Oregon Daily Journal, October 17, 1924, 16.
“Half Holiday Is Urged.” The Oregonian, October 20, 1924, 13.
“Famed Ruth Here for Swat Exhibit.” The Oregon Daily Journal, October 21, 1924, 1.
“Famed Ruth Here for Swat Exhibit.” The Oregon Daily Journal, October 21, 1924, 1.
This was also one of the locations the Portland Diamond Project was looking at before it settled on the site in Southwest Portland: https://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/erry-2018/04/0217ba62e47228/possible_northwest_portland_st.html
Yeah, I’m still mad about this.
“Ruth Autographs Baseballs By Dozens; Hits One Homer.” The Oregon Daily Journal, October 22, 1924, 10.
“Youngsters Greet Mighty Babe Ruth.” The Oregonian, October 22, 1924, 16.
“Babe Ruth To Play In Portland Today.” The Oregonian, October 21, 1924, 14.
“Youngsters Greet Mighty Babe Ruth.” The Oregonian, October 22, 1924, 16.
“Youngsters Greet Mighty Babe Ruth.” The Oregonian, October 22, 1924, 16.
“Youngsters Greet Mighty Babe Ruth.” The Oregonian, October 22, 1924, 16.
“Ruth Autographs Baseballs By Dozens; Hits One Homer.” The Oregon Daily Journal, October 22, 1924, 10.
“Youngsters Greet Mighty Babe Ruth.” The Oregonian, October 22, 1924, 16.
“Ruth Autographs Baseballs By Dozens; Hits One Homer.” The Oregon Daily Journal, October 22, 1924, 10.
“Babe Ruth Socks Two At Spokane”. Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 18, 1924: 15.
“Ruth Autographs Baseballs By Dozens; Hits One Homer.” The Oregon Daily Journal, October 22, 1924, 10.
“Babe Ruth Socks Two At Spokane”. Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 18, 1924: 15.
https://www.fanaticscollect.com/premier/bd6eec10-d3d2-11ed-bb0d-0a58a9feac02?srsltid=AfmBOopJQypx9Bq47f4Lh19njHYJW1KlWM-TStsFgbP10ug38_BT58FG
https://robertedwardauctions.com/archives/2023/Spring/2539/1924-babe-ruth-single-signed-baseball-with-provenance-jsa
I love how the game was called on account of the kids 🥰
I was gonna say, "we need more baseball coverage that incorporates primitive drawings of mustaches and eyepatches onto players' mugshots!" ... and then I realized that a goodly portion of social media baseball discourse kinda comes from that same vein of irreverence.