Babe Ruth was 40 years old, with a pot belly that couldn't be supported by his spindly legs and a fast-growing realization his career was over.
His batting average hovered nearly 200 points below his career average of .343, and the Boston Braves' pitchers were upset at his inability to run down even the easiest of fly balls. He couldn't run, couldn't field, couldn't hide in a sport that was 35 years away from having a designated hitter, writes Alan Robinson of The Associated Press.
But the Babe still had something left in him exactly 71 years ago today, when he and the downtrodden Braves wrapped up a three-game series in Pittsburgh. Ruth still had the grandest home-run stroke the game has ever seen, and he powered not one, not two, but three homers that sunny Saturday afternoon – Nos. 712, 713 and 714, the last the Sultan would ever swat.
Fittingly for the man who almost single-handedly brought the home run into prominence and remains a household name to this day, Ruth's last home run was something grand, something enduring.
No. 714 was the first to travel over the mammoth right-field roof at then 26-year-old Forbes Field, a feat only nine other men achieved before the ballpark closed in 1970. The prodigious drive was estimated at more than 500 feet, a Ruthian shot indeed.
He would play one more game for the Braves and then retire – gone but never forgotten.
Trivia time
Pete Rose is the all-time hits leader with 4,256. His teammate, Joe Morgan, finished his career with 2,517 hits. Which player had the better on-base percentage?
Young gun
Lee Jenkins, New York Times News Service, writes:
“Two games in the big leagues, and Cole Hamels already goes by multiple nicknames, dates a Playboy cover model and has a Web site in his honor.
“Two games, and much of the Northeast already knows that Hamels went to a high school in San Diego (Rancho Bernardo) that produced six first-round draft picks in the past decade, that he developed his change-up watching Padres closer Trevor Hoffman on television and that he once hit a batter who dared to try to bunt while he had a no-hitter going.
“Such obscure biographical details often take years to become common knowledge, but Hamels' legend is traveling faster than his 93-mph fastball. He broke his left arm throwing a pitch, and he broke his left hand in a bar fight, only to come back and prove himself unbreakable.”
Update: The Phillies placed Hamels on the 15-day DL yesterday with a strained left shoulder.
DNA match
In a low-stakes mule race in a remote corner of the West, nature vs. nurture will be put to the test as two of the horse family's earliest clones challenge naturally bred runners next month in Nevada.
It's not exactly the Kentucky Derby, but two cloned mules named Idaho Star and Idaho Gem will compete in a professional mule race in Winnemucca, Nev., where the professional mule racing season begins, according to an AP report.
Because Gem and Star have been separated for two years and trained separately, watching how they perform against each other will offer insight into the role played by environmental variables, such diet and training regimens, in developing racing mules.
Parting shot
Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle:
“(Barry) Bonds' pursuit of the longball legends has brought out the worst in baseball. Managers who lack the courage to allow their pitchers to pitch to a semi-invalid .220 hitter. Pitchers who plunk Bonds because they lack the courage to stand up to their managers. Fans who, even if you believe Bonds is the world's biggest cheater, make your skin crawl – booze-reeking, obscenity-spewing yahoos who would cause you to shudder if they moved into the trailer next door.”
Trivia answer
Morgan's career on-base percentage was .395, Rose's .377.
Classic quote
“If I'd just tried for them dinky singles, I could've batted around .600.”
– BABE RUTH
