<header id="story-header" class="story-header"> [h=3]HistorySource[/h] [h=1]Babe Ruth, Knocked Out[/h] <time class="dateline" datetime="2014-05-16">MAY 16, 2014</time>
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Michael Beschloss
On a sunny July day in Washington, 90 years ago this July, the Yankees were in Griffith Stadium, playing a doubleheader against the Senators. In the fourth inning of the first game, before 24,000 fans, the home team’s Joe Judge swung his bat; the ball sailed just over the right-field line, heading toward the bleachers in foul territory.
<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency has-lede-adjacency layout-large-horizontal ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/05/16/upshot/17UP-BABE/17UP-BABE-articleLarge.jpg" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"> Photo
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="description"> Babe Ruth unconscious at Griffith Stadium in Washington during a game against the Senators on July 5, 1924. Credit National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress </figcaption> </figure> Racing to make the catch, Babe Ruth slammed into a concrete wall and was knocked unconscious. He was already a national phenomenon, already the best-paid major league player there had ever been. As he lay unconscious on the field, the Yankees’ trainer, Doc Woods, rushed to him with a first-aid kit and poured icy water onto his face.
<aside class="marginalia related-coverage-marginalia" data-marginalia-type="sprinkled" role="complementary"> Continue reading the main story</aside> Ruth was out for five anxiety-producing minutes. The District of Columbia police (led by one Captain Doyle) kept the curious and concerned at bay. When the Babe finally opened his eyes, the Yankees’ manager, Miller Huggins, offered to take him out, but Ruth would not hear of it. Nowadays a player so injured would be taken to a hospital for neurological tests, but this was 1924. Ruth went back into the game, showing a conspicuous limp (he had damaged his left hip) as he recorded two more hits, drawing louder cheers than usual, for his fortitude, as he rounded the bases. He even kept playing through the second game.
Besides showing us the robust Ruth in a moment of utter helplessness, this photograph offers a glimpse of baseball during the unholy era of racial segregation. As it happened, Ruth collapsed next to the section reserved for African-Americans, who were there as loyal fans, although no black player would be allowed onto a major league field until Jackie Robinson in 1947. The baseball scholar Brad Snyder noted that among the African-Americans there was “almost certainly” a 16-year-old Buck Leonard, witnessing his first major league game. Leonard later starred in baseball’s Negro leagues and come to be known as the “black Lou Gehrig.”
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Michael Beschloss
On a sunny July day in Washington, 90 years ago this July, the Yankees were in Griffith Stadium, playing a doubleheader against the Senators. In the fourth inning of the first game, before 24,000 fans, the home team’s Joe Judge swung his bat; the ball sailed just over the right-field line, heading toward the bleachers in foul territory.
<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency has-lede-adjacency layout-large-horizontal ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/05/16/upshot/17UP-BABE/17UP-BABE-articleLarge.jpg" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"> Photo
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="description"> Babe Ruth unconscious at Griffith Stadium in Washington during a game against the Senators on July 5, 1924. Credit National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress </figcaption> </figure> Racing to make the catch, Babe Ruth slammed into a concrete wall and was knocked unconscious. He was already a national phenomenon, already the best-paid major league player there had ever been. As he lay unconscious on the field, the Yankees’ trainer, Doc Woods, rushed to him with a first-aid kit and poured icy water onto his face.
<aside class="marginalia related-coverage-marginalia" data-marginalia-type="sprinkled" role="complementary"> Continue reading the main story</aside> Ruth was out for five anxiety-producing minutes. The District of Columbia police (led by one Captain Doyle) kept the curious and concerned at bay. When the Babe finally opened his eyes, the Yankees’ manager, Miller Huggins, offered to take him out, but Ruth would not hear of it. Nowadays a player so injured would be taken to a hospital for neurological tests, but this was 1924. Ruth went back into the game, showing a conspicuous limp (he had damaged his left hip) as he recorded two more hits, drawing louder cheers than usual, for his fortitude, as he rounded the bases. He even kept playing through the second game.
Besides showing us the robust Ruth in a moment of utter helplessness, this photograph offers a glimpse of baseball during the unholy era of racial segregation. As it happened, Ruth collapsed next to the section reserved for African-Americans, who were there as loyal fans, although no black player would be allowed onto a major league field until Jackie Robinson in 1947. The baseball scholar Brad Snyder noted that among the African-Americans there was “almost certainly” a 16-year-old Buck Leonard, witnessing his first major league game. Leonard later starred in baseball’s Negro leagues and come to be known as the “black Lou Gehrig.”
