By Fred Heger

Babe Ruth made his last appearance at Sportsman’s Park 60 years ago on June 19, 1948. This may have been his last appearance in a big league ball park as he had appeared at Yankee Stadium for the last time a week earlier. Although only 53 years old, Ruth was dying of throat cancer and would pass away eight weeks later.

The purpose of Ruth’s visit was to promote American Legion Baseball. His final tour of baseball parks, which he started during spring training, was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company.

June 19, 1948, was a Saturday. Kids from youth groups and baseball teams throughout St. Louis were invited to the park that morning to hear Babe Ruth speak about baseball. They were invited by the Browns to stay for their afternoon game against the Yankees at which Ruth was the honored guest.

In the summer of 1948 I worked for Joe Causino at the Southside YMCA while attending college. I umpired for the YMCA’s summer baseball league in Tower Grove Park. Joe asked me if I would mind coming out to the ball park on Saturday morning to help him supervise the many boys from the YMCA who were planning to attend the festivities.

There were several thousand boys on hand when Ruth appeared on the field looking very sharp in a navy blue suit and black and white summer shoes. Ruth, however, was very thin and looked frail. As he was dying of throat cancer, he was very hoarse and hard to understand when he spoke. It was almost heartbreaking when the kids with us kept asking when the Babe was going to hit a home run.

I had grown up hearing stories from my father and uncle about Ruth’s great feats as a player. As a result, I was sorry I had gone to the park as the only time I saw Babe Ruth in person he was fighting to stay alive.

Hall of Fame sportswriter, Grantland Rice, described Ruth’s last tour in his Sportlight Column on March 24, 1948:

“It would have been so easy – so simple for the Babe to say, I’m sick and need a rest. But Ruth won’t take a rest….He is taking an incredible physical beating for what Babe believes to be the general good of the human race. This is true.

How many have we like that today in public life, in public office? Just give me one name….There can never be another Babe Ruth. He sits in the twilight of the gods, a human being far above anyone we have in public life today.”

“I’ve seen a few I thought could hit,
Who fed the crowd on four-base rations;
But you, Babe, are the only It-
The rest are merely imitations
I’ve seen them swing with all they’ve got
And tear into it for a mop up;
But what they deem a lusty swat
To you is but a futile pop-up.”

In Dan O’Neill’s book about Sportsman’s Park published last year he has pictures of that day and the Browns’ bat boy posing with Ruth. The bat boy today is president of the St. Louis Cardinals, William De Witt, Jr.

(Photo from the Library of Congess)

Originally published in Pop Flies: The Official Newsletter of the St. Louis Browns Historical Society

For more information about the St. Louis Browns, visit the The St. Louis Browns Historical Society & Fan Club website at www.thestlbrowns.com.