Baseball History Comes Alive Now Ranked #2 by Feedspot Among All Internet Baseball History Websites and Blogs!
Guest Submissions from Our Readers Always Welcome!
The Yankees slugger Babe Ruth advances to 3rd base on a Bob Meusel ground ball out in the top of the 4th inning in a game against the second place Senators. Ruth would score on a Benny Bengough line drive out to left field to tie the score at 1-1. But that would be it for the day as the Yanks would fall 8-1 with the Senators pounded out 14 hits, led by RF Sam Rice who had three hits and two RBIs and a home run for good measure.
And the game would help signify the 1925 Yankees season as it would be the only losing season with Ruth and Gehrig the Bronx Bombers would know, they would finish with a 69-85 record and an astounding 28.5 games out of first place placing next to last in the American League. The Senators would win the American League by 8.5 games but fail to repeat as they would lose to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series in seven games.
Also in the photo is the Senators third baseman Ossie Bluege with the late tag on the Bambino. And as you can see it’s not a big crowd for the game by the empty bleachers in the distance, the day was full of rain which kept the crowd at 5,000. The game played in two hours and 11 minutes.
Babe was out at third. My dad, Ossie Bluege, (pictured) tagged him out in this photo from 1925 at Griffith Stadium. See David J. Beattie’s analysis in his (2016) book, “Ossie and the Babe, Unlocking the Secrets Behind a Historical Baseball Photograph” from http://www.david-beattie.com.
Hi, can you give us more details, does Mr Beattie have the game as June 23, 1925 or another date?
Hi Ron, My analysis shows that the June 23, 1925 date, though it was the ‘best guess’ for that photo by the late George Michael, is incorrect. My book describes how I followed other leads, finally allowing me to deduce the correct date. Wilor Bluege is correct: Babe was out on the play!