Yankees history: Babe Ruth’s return to pitching

Most baseball fans are aware of the fact that Babe Ruth spent the early part of his career as a pitcher. By the time the Yankees acquired him, he was spending most of his playing time in the outfield. However, he still threw over 100 innings in his final season with the Red Sox in 1919. He was decent on the mound that year, but by that point it had become clear that he was an otherworldly hitter and that’s where his future was.

When Ruth came to the Yankees in 1920, he made the switch full time. He threw four innings during a spot start that year, and pitched nine more across two games in 1921, however after that, he appeared done with it.

Ruth did not make any appearances on the mound during the next eight years, and for good reason. He was putting up hitting numbers that led him to become the legendary figure he is today, and the Yankees won several World Series during that period. The pitching staff was doing perfectly fine without him.

Late in the 1930 season, the Yankees seemed locked in to finishing third in the American League. Their record wasn’t bad, but the Philadelphia Athletics were in the midst of a 102 win season and ran away from everyone else in the league.

A team that was even further back than the Yankees was the Red Sox. The Red Sox would end the season with 102 losses, 50 games back of Philadelphia. So there wasn’t a lot on the line when the Yankees went up to Boston to end the season on September 28th.

Knowing the game was meaningless for both teams, Ruth went to manager Bob Shawkey with an idea that could draw fans to the otherwise inconsequential game: he would pitch the season finale. Shawkey agreed, and after nearly nine years, Babe Ruth was given the ball on September 28, 1930.

He was Babe Ruth and there are countless stories of his baseball career that make him seem like a mythical figure. So naturally, in his return to the mound after nine years, and roughly 11 years after he was last a fixture on the mound, he threw a complete game and got the win.

Against the Red Sox that day, Ruth scattered three runs on 11 hits in nine full innings. All three runs and eights of those hits came in the sixth inning or later, at which point the Yankees already had a pretty sizable lead. Not only did he have an okay game on the mound, but he also picked up two hits and drove in a run.

Ruth wasn’t the only one to play out of position that day. After hearing about Ruth pitching, Lou Gehrig offered and was allowed to take Ruth’s position in left field. The Yankees won 9-3 and ended their season on a high note.

Three years later, Ruth similarly got the start in a meaningless final game of the season against the Red Sox. He again threw a complete game as the Yankees won 6-5.

Yes, he had done it for a large portion of his career, so it’s not completely improbable that this happened. However, that is some Babe Ruth nonsense to take nine years off from pitching and come back and immediately throw a complete game.

Sources

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1930.shtml

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/sports/baseball/17ruth.html

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ruthba01.shtml