Babe Ruth Barnstorms Through the Northwest in 1924, Part 2: Tacoma
100 years ago today Babe Ruth visits Tacoma! And finds a pitcher who is eager to challenge him.
Welcome to Part 2 of our look at Babe Ruth’s barnstorming tour through the Northwest! Yesterday, we enjoyed his visit to Spokane. Today, we go on a whirlwind tour of Tacoma.
Imagine for a moment that you are a pitcher in the 1920s. You clearly love the one-on-one combat of facing a batter. You enjoy the strategy of pitch selection and approach. You’re competitive and want to best every single batter you face. But what would you do if you learned you were about to face the greatest slugger who ever played the game of baseball?
Even among the most competitive of a competitive breed, some pitchers weren’t eager to throw any pitches over the plate to the Bambino. It was part of the reason why he led the major leagues in walks in 1924. It was a sound strategy after all; a Babe Ruth walk required other batters to get him in. A misplaced pitch could allow him to score all on his own.
On his barnstorming tour the Babe had the chance to face a number of amateur and semi-pro pitchers. Some had been scared to face him. Some gamely stepped up to the challenge. And some were like Tommy Lukanovic:
Me, walk that big ‘egg? You just tell ‘em that if I throw him a single ball, it’ll be an accident. He’s either going to hit ‘em or take three healthy cuts, and if I have my way about it, he will take the cuts. The only direction he will walk, if I have anything to say, will be back to the bench.1
Tommy Lukanovic was 23 years old in 1924, and already a well-traveled ballplayer in the Northwest. He played on professional minor league teams in Vancouver B.C. and Portland, as well as a plethora of semi-pro and amateur teams. He’d also left this corner of the country for stints with minor league teams elsewhere. At one point the St. Louis Browns had been interested in him.
In 1924 he was the star moundsman for the then semi-pro Aberdeen Black Cats (and if you think the Black Cats is a great a great baseball team name, well then, I invite you to read more about them!) and was selected for the Southwest Timber League All-Star team that fall.
And as the star hurler for the Timber League All-Stars he was set to face Babe Ruth when he rolled into Tacoma.
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Like his excursion in Spokane, Ruth’s Tacoma appearance was sponsored by the American Legion. It was also sponsored by the newspaper, The Tacoma Daily Ledger. The Ledger put out pages and pages of Babe Ruth hype in the weeks leading up to his appearance. In contrast, the other newspapers in Tacoma made as bare a mention of the trip as possible.
Tacoma wasn’t satisfied to simply pull together two teams worth of its City League players. It wanted a bona fide baseball attraction, and only then they would add Babe Ruth and his Yankee teammate, Bob Meusel, to the mix. So Tacoma put together a team of the city’s best semi-pro players that would feature the Sultan of Swat himself. For Meusel’s team, they arranged a game with the Timber League All-Stars. The Timber League was a strong semi-pro league largely in the Southwest Washington area, fully of logging towns.
The game in Tacoma was to be a regular baseball game that just happened to feature the greatest baseball player of all time. It was scheduled to begin at 3:15 PM and like in Spokane, Ruth and Meusel would provide a hitting exhibition before it began. Tickets were $1 each and fans from Southwest Washington were expected to travel north to Tacoma to watch their All-Stars take on Ruth.
Babe Ruth wasn’t the only big attraction in town that day. The USS Shenandoah was also expected to draw big crowds and whip the people of the greater Tacoma area into excitement. The Shenandoah was the world’s first helium-filled rigid airship, and the first commissioned into the US Navy. In the spirit of the Roaring 20s, people were thrilled to see it in person when it came by Camp Lewis (now JBLM) to visit.
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Ruth arrived in Tacoma at 8:15 AM on Saturday, October 18, 1924, having taken an overnight train from Spokane after his exhibition performance in the Lilac City. It would be no lazy Saturday morning for Ruth and his entourage, however. The Daily Ledger detailed a busy day:
8:15 AM: Babe Ruth arrives at Union Station, immediately departs for the Landry & McCormick Barber Shop for a quick shave and haircut
8:40 AM: Breakfast at the Tacoma Hotel
9:15 AM: Leaves for the Cushman Hospital to visit bedridden patients
10:00 AM: Appears at the Bank of California
10:10 AM: Goes to the office of A.A. Houseman & Co., where the manager puts Ruth in touch with friends in New York by private wire
10:15 AM: Appears at the office of Havelock C. Hoyle & Co. in the Rust Building.
10:45 AM: Appears on the balcony of the men’s department at Rhodes Brothers and gives away several autographed baseballs
11:00 AM: Appears at Fiest & Bachrach’s
11:10 AM: Appears at Henry Mohr Hardware Company
11:15 AM: Visits the telephone company. While there, Ruth worked as a switchboard operator for a few minutes
11:30 AM: Official call upon the mayor and commissioners in City Hall
11:45 AM: Visit to the Cave, where special boxes of candy were prepared for the wives of Ruth and Meusel (their wives were not present)
12:00 PM: Open air reception at Ledger Square, where children were invited to meet the Babe.
This particular stop required special permission from the city. When Ruth came to town Tacoma schools had been closed for three weeks due to a polio outbreak. That’s the sort of thing that hits differently in the Covid Era, but this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. Cities often closed schools when polio began spreading, and they did the same during the 1918 flu pandemic. The city allowed the gathering, focused on children, as long as it remained outdoors. By the time the Babe left town, it had been 5 days since a new polio case had popped up and schools were able to reopen.
12:45 PM: Lunch at the Tacoma Hotel
1:30 PM: Left for St. Ann’s Home where Ruth met orphaned children
2:45 PM: Departed for the ballpark
Exhausted yet? And there was still a game to be played!
*****
At 3:00 PM Babe Ruth arrived at the Stadium Bowl to begin his batting exhibition. He put on a fun exhibition, hitting three balls out over the over the barrier at the end of the Stadium. Muesel only hit two out, but one of his was longer than any of Ruth’s.
At 3:15 the game was underway. Despite advertising it as a regulation baseball game, the rules were tweaked so that Ruth and Meusel would each bat in each inning.
Meusel was the first to give the fans what they wanted. In the first inning, he smacked a home run over the left field stands. Ruth tried to follow his act, in two at bats
…he lifted two flies in the game proper, which looked as if they never, never would come down, but when they finally did they nestled into the capable hands of Ham Hyatt far back in right field.2
The Ledger asserted that those flies would have been home runs in many major league ballparks.
The chance for drama presented itself in the bottom of the sixth inning when Babe Ruth came up to bat with the bases loaded and two outs. You’ll remember that the Timber League All-Star pitcher Tommy Lukanovic was eager to face Ruth and intended to go right after him, knowing the result could be a Ruthian blast. The score stood 5 to 3 with the Babe-led Tacoma All-Stars in the lead. If he connected, the game would be out of reach for the Timber League All-Stars.
Lukanovic threw his first pitch. The Babe swung and missed. Strike one. The second pitch. Another mighty cut. Strike two.
The crowd was on the edge of their seats. Were they rooting for Ruth to unleash a blast they’d remember seeing forever? Or were they rooting for the charming semi-pro to show the baseball world that the Northwest had great baseball players too?
Lukanovic delivered his pitch. The Babe would swing hard and either hit big or miss big. The pitch barreled toward him. He wound up and swung.
His swing had swung and the ball had found its resting place. According to the game story in the next day’s Daily Ledger, the only thing the Babe could do was grin his large, contagious grin. But this time, the Ledger said, it was a bit on the sheepish side.3 Stories about the game that ran in later years said the Babe was upset and reminded Lukanovic that the crowd was there to watch him hit, not a semi-pro pitch.4
Whatever happened, it was the moment of the game.
For Tommy Lukanovic had struck out the mighty Babe Ruth with the bases loaded.
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The teams played two more innings until the game was called on account of both the impending darkness and the fans who continued to spill onto the field in a repeat of the situation in Spokane, seeking out the Babe for autographs and hand shakes.
And though they didn’t see a Babe Ruth home run in the game, it was an evening they’d never forget.
After the game, Ruth and crew departed town with barely a moment to catch their breath. They were due in Seattle for another exhibition game the following day. And Lukanovic and the Timber League All-Stars were going with them.
Next Up:
The Stadium Bowl
The Stadium Bowl has a storied history in Tacoma; it was the site of many big events in the city over the years, with Stadium High School’s castled exterior looming above it. Here is a fun story from Grit City Magazine about some of the lesser known history.
Babe Ruth was obviously a big deal in the 20s and remains a big deal! But I’d argue this was actually the most famous performance that took place at the Stadium Bowl:
“Lukanovic Wants to Fan Babe Ruth,” The Tacoma Daily Ledger, October 13, 1924, 7.
“Ruth Shows Before Big Crowd Here,” The Tacoma Daily Ledger, October 19, 1924, 19.
“Lukanovic Hero of Clash Fanning Babe With Bases Loaded,” The Tacoma Daily Ledger, October 19, 1924, 19.
Walton, Dan. “Babe Ruth Retired 3 Times in One Inning,” The News Tribune, February 17, 1962, 27.