OTD: Babe Ruth, Dodger coach
by Mark Langill
Babe Ruth’s job description was pretty straightforward when baseball’s home run king received a surprise offer to join the coaching staff of the Brooklyn Dodgers three years after his Hall of Fame playing career had ended.
“Just be Babe Ruth.”
The heralded arrival of Ruth at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field on June 19, 1938, coincided with first-year team president Larry MacPhail’s plan to turn around a Dodger franchise that had languished in the second division of the National League for most of the decade.
“Is Brooklyn still in the league?” was the famous quip uttered by New York Giants manager Bill Terry prior to the 1934 season when asked about the Dodgers, coming off a sixth-place finish in 1933. Although Brooklyn exacted revenge against Terry’s Giants by knocking them out of the pennant race in the final week of the 1934 season, the Dodgers averaged only 67 wins between 1934 and 1937.
Ruth’s arrival as first base coach in the middle of the 1938 season attracted publicity, but also led to some behind-the-scenes drama in the clubhouse. Because the Dodgers were going nowhere in the standings and would eventually finish seventh in the eight-team league with a 69–80 record, MacPhail needed to evaluate the status of Burleigh Grimes, a Hall of Fame pitcher still trying to prove himself as a manager. Grimes didn’t need Ruth as a coach, but he went along with MacPhail’s idea.
The other key character in the drama was coach Leo Durocher, who didn’t get along with Ruth during their days as teammates with the New York Yankees. Ruth reportedly accused Durocher, a light-hitting shortstop, of stealing his watch in the clubhouse. Decades later, when Durocher was managing the New York Giants, Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe said Brooklyn players liked to needle Durocher during games by yelling, “Hey Leo, what time is it? Check your Babe Ruth watch …”
Toward the end of Ruth’s career with the Yankees, he had aspirations of becoming the team’s manager. He declined a chance to manage New York’s Minor League affiliate in Newark prior to the 1934 season, saying he wasn’t yet ready to quit playing. The Boston Braves signed Ruth as a box-office attraction in 1935, but he retired in early June after a .181 batting average in 28 games.
Ruth initially thought he had a chance to manage the Dodgers, but MacPhail never gave it much consideration. Neither Ruth nor Grimes returned after the 1938 season. MacPhail hired Durocher as a player-manager in 1939. The brief Dodger tenure would be Ruth’s final job with a Major League team.
