Babe Ruth walked these grounds in 1940 > Community News > Stories > Old Colorado City

YourHub.com \\ Old Colorado City \\ Stories \\ News \\ Community News

Babe Ruth walked these grounds in 1940

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

Contributed by: Danny Summers on 1/25/2007

The Babe stops here
The story of Babe Ruth's trip to Colorado Springs began on July 1, 1940, when his wife, Claire, and daughter, Dorothy, arrived at 8:35 a.m. on the Rock Island Lines passenger train. Jack Riddle, the Rock Island Lines district passenger agent, announced Claire's arrival. Claire checked into The Broadmoor. About a month earlier, the Ruths' other daughter, Julia, honeymooned there. The Gazette covered the Babe's arrival with articles and pictures. Five years removed from his playing days, and 46 years old, the Babe drew massive crowds wherever he went. Colorado Springs would follow suit. The Babe arrived July 4 with his business manager, Ray Doan. The Babe was traveling the country giving hitting exhibitions and was scheduled to demonstrate his still prodigious power at Sportsman's Park, near North Nevada Avenue and Fillmore Street.
After his exhibition, the Babe spent several days in the area golfing and sightseeing.
His Sportsman's Park exhibition was scheduled between games of a doubleheader between Pueblo and the Colorado Springs Orioles, semipro teams that played in the Colorado Semipro League. Admission to the games, as well as the exhibition, was 50 cents. Kids under 12 were admitted for 25 cents.
Plans changed when the Babe was introduced to the crowd between the fifth and sixth innings of game 1 by Colorado Springs Mayor George G. Birdsall, who also gave Babe the keys to the city and extended a wish that he "make himself at home" while in Colorado Springs.
Judge Irvin Jones, president of the Colorado Springs Baseball Association, also welcomed the Babe, as well as David Strickler, who represented the Myron Stratton Home.
The Babe was given a bouquet of flowers and had his photograph taken with two children who lived at the Stratton Home, Robert Morris Armentrout and Nancy Marie Martin. The Babe promised the children that he would make a visit to the Stratton Home before he left town.
He performed his exhibition in front of an overflowing crowd. Fans lined the baselines. Jimmy Thompson of the Orioles took the mound against the Babe, who promised the crowd he would "send one over the fence." Later, Jim Verrone of the Orioles pitched to the Babe, who still displayed his famous step-into-it swing.
After he was done, the Babe signed autographs for adoring fans, everything from new baseballs to gloves and candy wrappers. He spoke to fans in a voice made hoarse from a cold he picked up in Iowa.
The Babe told fans he was interested in seeing Ford Frick's home. Frick was a sports writer with The Gazette Telegraph and Ruths' ghost writer during his playing days with the New York Yankees. Frick, president of the National League at the time, became commissioner of baseball and was instrumental in starting the Baseball Hall of Fame.
About the Bambino
* Real name: George Herman Ruth.
* His 714 home runs rank second all-time behind Hank Aaron's 755.
* He didn't become a full-time position player until his seventh major league season (1920) when he was sold to the New York Yankees. His first six seasons were spent as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. His lifetime pitching record is 94-46. He led the American League in ERA (1.75) and shutouts (9) in 1916, complete games (35) in 1917, and was a 20-game winner in 1916 and 1917.
* Holds the World Series record for the longest complete game, a 14-inning victory over Brooklyn in 1916.
* Led the American League in home runs 12 times. In 1927, he belted a thenrecord 60 home runs, out-homering every other American League team. He led the American League in batting in 1924 with a .378 average.
* He hit 136 triples and stole 123 bases. He stole home 10 times.
Sources: The Baseball Encyclopedia, Total Baseball.

He was here? Really?
Little documentation remains from trip
Little is left from Babe Ruth's visit to Colorado Springs aside from the yellowed pages of old newspapers that recounted his exploits. Pictures were lost, plaques misplaced and memories faded.
The Broadmoor has no photographs of the Babe and there is no mention of him in their registries or history books. No one at The Broadmoor - including long-time Broadmoor photographer Bob McIntyre and Broadmoor historian Allison Scott - could find any record of the Babe staying at the hotel.
"We weren't aware he was ever here," Scott said. "This is a surprise to us."
Sportsman's Park was razed in the late 1940s and has been replaced by commercial and industrial buildings. The Elks Lodge No. 309, built in the 1950s at 3400 North Nevada Avenue, sits in the approximate location of Sportsman's Park.
None of the officials at the Elks Lodge were aware that the Babe played ball on their site.
"I didn't even know he was here," said Elks Lodge past president Michael Lanza, a 1940 graduate of Colorado Springs (now Palmer) High School. "I'm sure I would have gone to see him if he was here."
The Gazette has no photographs or hard copies of newspapers from the Babe's visit.
The Penrose Public Library maintains copies of The Gazette on microfiche, but the library has no record of the Babe ever coming to town. There is no mention in any of the library's books on Colorado baseball history of the Babe coming to the city. Library historian Dave Doman was aware that the Babe had been to town, but had no artifacts from his visit.
Kelly Murphy, the research coordinator for Starsmore Center for Local History, provided bound editions of original newspapers from July 1940, but had no photographs of the Babe's visit or of Sportsman's Park.
The search for Babe Ruth in Colorado Springs ended last week when four local folks came forward and provided detailed information of his visit to the city in July 1940.

Seeing Sultan of Swat a hit, fond memory with fans
Floyd Frame remembered the time he went to Sportsman's Park along North Nevada Avenue to see Babe Ruthput on a hitting display. Frame's friends, Lee and Maurice Baker, also recalled the day the Babe came to town and treated Colorado Springs to a piece of history.
The date was July 4, 1940. The Babe was on a nationwide tour giving hitting exhibitions. He arrived in Colorado Springs that morning and was escorted to a jam-packed Sportsman's Park as thousands awaited his arrival. The Baker brothers, 11 and 14 at the time, sat in the stands, while Frame, also 11, had to stand along the first base line for his glimpse at the greatest baseball player of all-time. "He hit the fence with the ball and it went 'crack,'" recalls Frame, who grew up on North Custer Avenue. "When he hit one over, everyone went wild." Following the Babe's hitting display, he took time to sign hundreds of autographs for fans of all ages. Frame had a baseball signed. "I stood in line and there were about 50 people ahead of me," said Frame, who lives in Vista Grande. "I gave the ball to a guy next to me and asked him to pass it down. I didn't think I'd ever see it again, but 20 minutes later I got it back."
The signed ball was with Frame for many years. He had it displayed in his home, but one day he noticed it was gone.
"It disappeared," Frame said. "You put something on the shelf and you kind of forget about it. I don't know whatever happened to that ball."
The Baker brothers were driven to Sportsman's Park by their father, Walter.
"You could tell that (the Babe) really enjoyed baseball," Lee said. "He probably hit 10 or 11 balls over the fence. It was a real thrill for all of us."
Lee had the Babe autograph his baseball glove.
"There were 50 people ahead of me in line," said Lee, of the Wasson neighborhood. "I pitched (fastpitch softball) with that glove for years. One day, probably in the late 1950s, I left it in the dugout and somebody came along and took it.
"Of course now I wish I never would have used it and kept it in a safe place. But at the time, it wasn't that big of a deal."
Maurice also had the Babe autograph his baseball glove. He lost his glove in 1947.
"I was a year out of high school playing intramural softball when I left it on the field during a game," Maurice said. "I went out there to get it between innings and it was gone. I never saw it again."
Maurice recalled the Babe talking to the crowd before his hitting exhibition.
"He was the friendliest guy in the world," Maurice said. "He showed us how to hit a home run. He said baseball is the greatest game in the world because when you play it, you don't get hurt."
Two days after his hitting exhibition, the Babe and his wife, Claire, attended a play called "The Coronado Entrada" at Spencer Penrose Stadium. Twelve-year-old Gloria Weaver, who performed in the play, went into the crowd afterwards and had the Babe autograph a program.
"My girlfriend and I went up to him and asked him to autograph our programs," said Weaver, now 77, of Patty Jewett. "We were a little nervous about going up to him. He signed it in red pencil. Years later I gave it to my son and he had it framed."
For the Baker brothers, Frame and Weaver, their brief encounters with the Babe 65 years ago have held a lasting impression.
"As time goes by, things in the past, if they were great then, they're even greater now," Frame said. "That's how I think of the Babe."
A fifth person, Lamar Kelsey, said he also saw the Babe give his hitting exhibition at Sportsman's Park.
"I don't remember a whole lot about it," Kelsey said. "But I do remember he was a pretty portly guy by that time. I thought he'd never make it around the bases. His stride was probably 20 inches."
Kelsey was 15 when his father, Floyd, took him to see the Babe on July 4, 1940. Kelsey, who lives near Kissing Camels Club, said the Babe's presence in Colorado Springs didn't impact his life all that much.
"I was more excited about my first airplane ride than I was about Babe Ruth being here," Kelsey said. "But I'm still glad I went to see him."
Kelsey became an architect and designed several area high schools, including Wasson, Mitchell, Coronado, Doherty, Rampart and Liberty.

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.