Babe Ruth Barnstorms Through the Northwest in 1924, Part 3: Seattle
The Bambino puts on a show for Seattle on and off the field on October 19, 1924.
Welcome to Part 3 of Babe Ruth’s 1924 barnstorming tour through the Northwest. We already relived his visits to Spokane and Tacoma. Today, Babe Ruth does a lot of Babe Ruth Things in Seattle.
Babe Ruth’s appearance in Seattle was met with just as much hype as the earlier stops on his tour. His trip to the Emerald City was sponsored by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which ran articles nearly every day leading up to his visit, promising a “cracking good ball game between two fighting teams.”1
Ruth was to headline a team of Seattle semi-pro All-Stars, made up of the best players in the city, and his Yankee and barnstorming tour teammate, Bob Meusel, would lead the Southwest Timber League All-Stars, just as he had in Tacoma the day before. The game was to be played at Seattle’s premier ballpark, Dugdale Field, in the Rainier Valley. It was then the home of the Seattle Indians of the Class AA Pacific Coast League. The team was engaged in a tight race for the Coast League pennant when the Babe Ruth exhibition was announced.
As elsewhere, most tickets for the event were sold for $1. In the fancy Seattle park, however, 700 box seats were available for those willing to play the price of $1.50. Fans who wanted to buy tickets in advance were instructed to purchase them at “leading downtown cigar stores.”2 (It must have been a real blow for the cigar stores that didn’t have tickets to sell to discover they weren’t a leading store.)
Children had even more reason to be hyped for Babe Ruth to come to town. The Post-Intelligencer announced that all children under the age of 12 who arrived on time for the 2 o’clock game would be admitted at the bleacher entrance free of charge. Perhaps the P-I had taken note of the mobs of children who did their best to sneak into other games on Ruth’s tour and decided they couldn’t fight it.
Ruth and his crew arrive in Seattle the evening of October 18th, after his whirlwind visit to Tacoma. His Seattle agenda didn’t begin until late the next morning, so he had the opportunity catch up on sleep. Knowing what we know about the Bambino, it’s likely he didn’t get all that much sleep at the Washington Hotel that night.
*****
Unlike his whirlwind visit to Tacoma, where he visited seemingly every business in town, Ruth’s only stop before the ballpark in Seattle was an orthopedic children’s hospital. His love for children was well-known and when the P-I suggested a hospital for him to visit, he responded by saying, “Sure, let’s go up and give them a visit! I’m crazy about kids.”3
The kids were crazy about Babe Ruth too, although they exhibited their best behavior as they greeted the idol of all American children. The P-I’s account of the visit describes wide smiles and shy greetings among the kids as Ruth hung around the children for a couple hours.
At 1 o’clock he arrived at the ballpark and began his official game appearance by spending yet more time with kids. The left field bleachers were already full when he sauntered over; the children of Seattle took full advantage of being allowed free entrance to the ballpark. Ruth “was greeted with an ovation that would have gratified a presidential candidate.”4
He gave the kids the thrill of a lifetime when he invited the kids onto the field to shag fungoes. The Babe signed buckets of baseballs and hit them all to the kids in the outfield who excitedly snagged whatever they could get their hands on. Of the spectacle, the P-I wrote that “The crowd extracted great enjoyment from the scramble in center field as the boys chased the balls from Ruth’s bat.”5
After the kids had their fun, Ruth’s batting exhibition began. He was trying to hit one out at the longest part of the ballpark, by the flag pole in center field. He hit long line drives that would have cleared shorter fences, but the crowd wasn’t given the satisfaction of seeing a Babe Ruth home run. They’d have to hope he could knock one out during the game itself.
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As in games played elsewhere, the rules were modified to allow more batting opportunities for Ruth and Meusel. They would have their regular turn in the lineup and they would hit in place of the pitchers on their respective teams. (The idea for the designated hitter? Must credit Babe Ruth. Don’t fact check this, it’s true, trust me.)
The Timber League was widely considered one of, if not the, top semi-pro league in the region and it’s clear they wanted to win against Babe Ruth’s Seattle All-Stars. In the top of the first inning, they scored four runs on a Ham Hyatt grand slam, jumping to a lead they’d hold long enough to think they had a chance at the win.
In the bottom of the first with two out and one on base, Ruth came up to bat. He must have been chuffed not to have a home run in Tacoma so he was determined to give the Seattle fans something to talk about. The first pitch was right down the middle. He swung his mighty swing and “at 2:07 PM, Babe Ruth smacked this first Seattle home run, and the ball hit Mount Rainier on the first bounce!” Or so wrote legendary P-I sports writer Royal Brougham.6
The home run was said to have flown over the top of the gasoline station across the street from the right field fence at Dugdale Field. Newspaper accounts gushed over the run and everyone declared that it was the longest home run ever hit in Seattle, although there doesn’t seem to be any official records on that point.
Hyatt drove in two more runs for the Timber Leaguers in the second inning and the team scored two more in the third to lead Ruth’s All-Stars 8-2. In the bottom of the third inning, Babe Ruth came up to bat and again smacked a long home run over the right field fence. Although newspapers said it was as long as the first, there was little other commentary about it. The Seattle All-Stars scored a couple more runs to narrow the gap to 8-5.
Ruth came up again in the fourth inning and hit a big double described as a “screeching grass cutter.”7 In the bottom of the sixth, the score hadn’t changed but Ruth came to bat again, this time with two on. I’m sure you can guess what happened next.
“A farmer down around Renton is reported to have found a new ball that bore marks of having suffered a terrible massaging,” the Seattle Daily Times reported8. The ball was estimated to have cleared the fence by nearly 40 feet, and with one swing of his bat, Ruth had tied the game.
The Seattle All-Stars added 3 more runs to the board in the seventh inning. In the top of the ninth with his team leading 11-8, Ruth decided to show off his pitching chops.
After he allowed a base on balls, his Yankee teammate Meusel stepped up to the plate with two outs. The newspapers seemed skeptical that Ruth pitched to his friend with much effort. Whether that was true or not, Meusel got a hold of a Ruth pitch and launched it into the left field bleachers to score two more runs for the Timber Leaguers. I imagine whoever caught that home run must have been thrilled to have a home run ball pitched by Babe Ruth.
After the home run, Ruth rallied and struck out the last batter to end the game. On the mound he “did everything a pitcher can do except hit a batter, unloose a wild pitch or make a balk.”9 Which is to say, he struck out one and walked one and gave up one home run: the three true outcomes (again, must credit Babe Ruth).
Babe Ruth’s Seattle All-Stars squeaked out a win, 11-10.
Though the hitting was entertaining, another moment was just as memorable. In one of the late innings, “a curly-headed tot who could count his age on the fingers of one hand scrambled over the wall and ran to Ruth on the coaching lines. Babe bent over the little fellow, shook his hand, patted him on the head, and sent him on his way happy. The crowd cheered this little act uproariously as when Ruth his his first home run.”10 Apparently, this curly haired tot was none other than future big leaguer and Seattle-area cancer research center namesake, Fred Hutchinson, who would have been 5 at the time.11
Kids rushed the field before the game was officially over, but they were pushed back and the game was allowed to finish. At that point, the crowd overwhelmed the Babe and “half a dozen policemen had to clear the way for the kid’s hero through the howling masses of his admirers and one sturdy cop had to support the Babe himself.”12 He only escaped because a rumor spread that he was going to hit more flies to the outfield, so the kids ran that way.
Needless to say then 9,000 fans in attendance went home happy. It was an incredible performance from the Babe.
*****
After the game, Ruth was swept away to attend a banquet hosted by E. C. Griffith, the publisher of the Post-Intelligencer at the Rainier Club. Ruth spoke at the banquet, talking about the Yankees’ 1924 season, praising the Washington club that beat them for the pennant, and complimenting the city of Seattle in front of “prominent Seattle sportsmen.”13
Ruth spent another night in Seattle. Upon returning to the Washington Hotel following his banquet, he became a musician for the night. Also staying at the hotel were Lucio and Simplicio Godino. They were conjoined twins from the island of Samar in the Philippines. Among the first well-known sets of conjoined twins, an American promoter discovered them in the Philippines and brought them to the United States where they starred in a series “freak shows” including the famous one at Coney Island. It probably goes without saying that the twins were exploited by the promoter; even by the standards of the time, their treatment was considered abhorrent.
They were 16 years old in 1924 and by this point were out of the control of the promoter. They were in Seattle performing with their “Siamese orchestra” in vaudeville shows. They ran into the Babe and handed him a large saxophone. The Babe took to it immediately and had a great time playing music with the twins. The impromptu concert ended when the twins were laughing so hard at Babe’s antics that they couldn’t continue.
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The next day, Monday October 20, Babe Ruth made a couple more appearances before leaving town. At one o’clock that afternoon he appeared at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer building, then at Sixth and Pine. He and Meusel stood on the roof of the building and threw autographed baseballs down into the crowd that gathered on the street below.
Traffic had to be redirected and police officers were amongst the crowd trying to keep order. Everyone was jostling each other, willing to risk life and limb for a chance to catch one of those precious baseballs.
He signed and tossed as many balls as he could before he had to bid the Seattle public goodbye. He sped off for a quick visit to Seattle College (now Seattle University) on Capital Hill.
Then the Babe reboarded the train and headed south to Portland for the final stop on his Northwest tour.
The 1924 Seattle Indians
When the Babe Ruth stop in Seattle was announced, the Indians were playing for the pennant. On the day of the game, they won it. It wasn’t the first league pennant in Seattle baseball history, but it was the first in a prominent league. Even in 1924, the Pacific Coast League was a big deal.
Since Babe Ruth was in town, he sent congratulations to the team and their manager, Red Killefer.
Ruth’s Final NW Barnstorming Stop:
Babe Ruth Barnstorms Through the Northwest in 1924, Part 4: Portland
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.
“Bambino To Bat Twice in Line-Up.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 17, 1924: 17.
“Babe Ruth To Play Ball Here.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, Washington), October 16, 1924: 23.
“Shut-In Tots vote Babe Ruth’ Good Scout’.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 20, 1924: 6.
Steedman, William. “Young Fans Howl Praise of Bambino.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 20, 1924: 13.
“9,000 See Babe Ruth Hit 3 Homers At Seattle Park.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 20, 1924: 6.
Brougham, Royal. “Bambino’s Bat Breaks Tribe Park’s Record.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 20, 1924: 1.
Steedman, William. “Young Fans Howl Praise of Bambino.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 20, 1924: 13.
“Bambino Poles Homers For Seattle.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, Washington), October 20, 1924: 20.
Steedman, William. “Young Fans Howl Praise of Bambino.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 20, 1924: 13.
Brougham, Royal. “Bambino’s Bat Breaks Tribe Park’s Record.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 20, 1924: 1.
https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/the-charming-barnstorming-babe-ruth-captivated-seattle-in-1924/
Steedman, William. “Young Fans Howl Praise of Bambino.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 20, 1924: 14.
“Ruth Day Program.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington), October 19, 1924: 27.
Interesting series Amanda!