BASEBALL: Babe Ruth played in Scranton 100 years ago

Babe Ruth poses with Harold Clancy of Archbald, left, and Alfred Balderson of Underwood prior to an exhibition game at Brooks Athletic Field in Scranton on Oct. 14, 1926. The boys were the winners of a contest sponsored by The Scranton Times that enabled them to meet the Babe. (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)

Four days earlier, he played in Game 7 of the World Series.

On Oct. 14, 1926, New York Yankees great Babe Ruth was in Scranton to play in an exhibition game. Wednesday marks the 100th anniversary of that visit.

More than 3,500 fans — most of them youngsters — came to Brooks Athletic Field on Providence Road to see the Bambino and fellow major leaguers Joe Shaute of the Cleveland Indians, Yankees teammate and Olyphant native Mike Gazella and Frankie Loftus of the Washington Senators. World welterweight boxing champion Pete Latzo was also in attendance. They appeared in a scheduled nine-inning contest between Archbald and Weston A.C., two big leaguers on each team.

Ruth played for Archbald, started at first base and played at every position expect pitcher and catcher. He would have played those, too, had the game not been called after seven innings. According to newspaper accounts, they ran out of the 132 baseballs brought to the game because the youngsters in attendance grabbed one whenever it was within their reach, then run to the dugout and have Ruth autograph it for them.

During batting practice, Ruth hit six home runs. In the game, he homered off Shaute in his first at-bat over the right-field fence. He singled in his second at-bat, then homered again off Shaute his fourth time up. When only one baseball remained, the crowd demanded that Ruth be allowed to bat. Facing Olyphant High School star pitcher Radio Williams, he lined a single to right field. When a youngster swiped that ball, the game ended. Weston A.C. won, 5-3.

Before the game, Ruth made several stops around the area. First, he went to St. Ann’s Monastery. He then visited two sick children, spoke to school kids in Olyphant and appeared at Ludwig’s on Adams Avenue in Scranton to sign autographs and do an interview on radio station WGBI. Then he headed to Brooks Field.

His appearance was part of a barnstorming tour that began two days earlier at Artillery Park in Kingston. It was there on Oct. 12, 1926, that Ruth hit what is believed to be the longest measured home run in baseball history. He played for Hughestown in an exhibition game against Larksville. After the game, he asked Larksville pitcher Eddie Corkran to return to the mound and “put his fastest ball over the plate.” Ruth hit the ball out to right center. It was still rising when it cleared the fence 400 feet away and landed on an athletic field in the adjacent Kirby Park. Ruth asked that it be measured and it was an estimated 650 feet.

“When I hit that ball, it felt as if it was going to be the best clout I ever took at one,” Ruth was quoted in the Oct. 13, 1926, edition of The Wilkes-Barre Record.

On Saturday, the city of Wilkes-Barre and Visit Luzerne County held the third annual Babe Ruth Sultan of Swat Home Run Derby at the Kirby Park softball field next to where Ruth’s ball landed. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ruth’s home run, Ruth’s 74-year-old grandson Tom Stevens attended.

“It’s an awful lot of fun for me to come to these events,” Stevens said. “When people want to go to this trouble, it almost seems ingracious to me to not show up if I possibly can to thank everyone for honoring him and remembering him the way that they do. He hasn’t had a uniform on since 1935, and he’s still relevant to the game today.”

In the 1926 World Series, the Yankees faced the St. Louis Cardinals. Ruth batted .300 (6 for 20) with four home runs, five RBIs and 11 walks. Three of his home runs came in Game 4 on Oct. 6. Then in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium, he hit a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. But the Cardinals scored three runs in the top of the fourth and led, 3-2, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when Ruth came to the plate. Facing Grover Cleveland Alexander, he walked on a 3-2 pitch — his fourth walk of the game. But with Bob Meusel batting, Ruth attempted to steal second base on Alexander’s first pitch. He was thrown out by catcher Bob O’Farrell for the final out of the series, giving the Cardinals the title.

Two days later, Ruth was in Wilkes-Barre and then Scranton two days after that.

“He didn’t take a break,” Stevens said. “Barnstorming was a special thing for him. You’ve got to realize, back in those days, this was even before radio and the only exposure that people had to Babe was newspapers. So for him to actually appear in town was unworldly. I’ve seen pictures of a sign in a bank that said, ‘Bank closed today. Babe Ruth in town.’”