THEN1: In front of 9,000 fans on Oct. 19, 1924, in a barnstorming game at Dugdale Park, Babe Ruth eyes the arc of a hit after a mighty swing. The photo is featured in the “Baseball All-Stars” exhibit at the Museum of History & Industry. At right, Ruth’s name is etched backward in the image’s negative. (Courtesy Museum of History & Industry, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection)NOW1: Mike Burns of Fremont uses a Babe Ruth-model bat to mirror the slugger’s 1924 swing at the home-plate display at Lowe’s Home Improvement, formerly the site of Dugdale Park and Sick’s Stadium. Burns’ grandfather, Bobby Burns, starred at first base for Seattle amateur teams and is named in a program for the Oct. 19, 1924, exhibition game as batting fifth behind Ruth. Mimicking the catcher with period mask and mitt is Devorah Romanek, exhibit chief at the Museum of History & Industry, whose “Baseball All-Stars” exhibit runs through Nov. 5. (Clay Eals)
Published in The Seattle Times online on Oct. 5, 2023
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on Oct. 8, 2023
The charming, barnstorming Babe Ruth captivates Seattle in 1924
By Clay Eals
With major-league baseball’s post-season swinging into high gear, “Now & Then” eagerly commemorates the first sighting of the Babe in our woods — George Herman “Babe” Ruth, that is.
Given today’s seemingly endless playoffs, this year’s champion team may not emerge before Nov. 4. But in the simpler schedule of 1924, the sole post-season play was the World Series, which that year ended Oct. 10. Immediately afterward, star ballplayers barnstormed, playing coast-to-coast exhibition contests, mostly west of the Mississippi — land of no big-league ballclubs.
Thus, 99 years ago, Seattle caught its first in-person glimpse of the megawatt New York Yankees outfielder known as the Bambino.
At age 29, Babe Ruth already had patented the persona of a slugger, having hit 284 of what became 714 career regular-season home runs. His 1924 batting average (.378) topped the American League. Sportswriters’ synonyms for him soared. (Sample: the “Supreme Socker.”) And his on-field performance reinforced a joyful, larger-than-life charisma. People of all ages, especially kids, revered the man.
THEN2: From grass near home plate, Babe Ruth watches a hit fly away, perhaps during a pre-game session in which he batted balls to more than 1,000 kids stationed in centerfield at Rainier Valley’s Dugdale Park. In Portland the same day, the Seattle Indians clinched the Pacific Coast League pennant.(Courtesy Museum of History & Industry, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection)
Sponsored by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Ruth visited Seattle with teammate Bob Meusel.
In front of 9,000 fans in an Oct. 19 game enlisting local amateurs at Rainier Valley’s Dugdale Park, Ruth played errorless first base and, befitting his roots, pitched one inning.
A Babe Ruth home-run ball from the Oct. 19, 1924, exhibition game at Dugdale Park, signed by the Babe. (Courtesy Dave Eskenazi)
In nine at-bats, he belted three homers and a double. His first four-bagger, the P-I’s Royal Brougham reported tongue-in-cheek, “hit Mount Rainier on the first bounce!”
During a late inning, Brougham wrote, a “curly-headed tot” ran out to Ruth, who bent over, shook the boy’s hand, patted his head and “sent him away happy.” Seventy-one years later, Dr. Bill Hutchinson told the P-I the boy was his 5-year-old brother Fred, who later gained fame as a big-league pitcher and manager and cancer-center namesake.
THEN3: During his 1924 visit to Seattle, Babe Ruth perches on a car to toss baseballs to two-dozen capped boys. That fall, Ruth’s and teammate Bob Meusel’s teams traveled 8,500 post-season miles and played in 15 cities for 125,000 fans, Ruth hitting 17 homers. Ruth returned to Seattle in 1926 and 1947. He died in 1948 at age 53. (Courtesy Museum of History & Industry, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection)
Ruth, here for two days, also hit balls pre-game to 1,000-plus kids in centerfield, visited hospitalized children, spoke at a banquet, “directed” conjoined twins who played “The Strike-Out Blues” on saxophone, and tossed autographed balls to fans from the P-I building at Sixth and Pine.
He even spoke against a statewide initiative to abolish private schools, saying that if not for a Baltimore industrial reform school, he “probably never would have been heard of.” The measure was defeated.
Before leaving Seattle, Ruth penned for a Western Union messenger a homily both touching and timeless:
“You can knock a home run always doing your work properly and travel the bases until you reach home plate. Success. Don’t alibi if you miss one. Play the game fair. Be there in the pinches, and in your business life you can be the ‘King of Swat’.”
WEB EXTRAS
Thanks to Dave Eskenazi, Mike Burns, and, at the Museum of History & Industry, Devorah Romanek, Julianne Kidder and Allie Delyanis for their invaluable help with this installment!
To see Clay Eals‘ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos, and to hear this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.
In addition, here is a special letter from 1944 from Babe Ruth to P-I sports editor Royal Brougham, courtesy of Cathi Soriano:
Gathering at the Lowe’s home-plate display for the “Now” photo shoot are (from left) Seattle baseball historian Dave Eskenazi; Devorah Romanek, exhibit chief at the Museum of History & Industry; and Mike Burns, grandson of Bobby Burns, who batted behind Babe Ruth in the Oct. 19, 1924, exhibition game. (Clay Eals)Before the “Now” photo shoot, Mike Burns (left) talks with historian Dave Eskenazi about the Babe Ruth-model bats that Eskenazi brought to the shoot at Lowe’s Home Improvement in the Rainier Valley. (Clay Eals)In the Museum of History & Industry’s “Baseball All Stars” exhibit, which runs through Nov. 5, private-collection game-worn jerseys and bats from Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Ichiro Suzuki and Ken Griffey Jr. mix with gems contributed by historian Dave Eskenazi, the Black Heritage Society, the Seattle Mariners and MOHAI from Seattle’s pre-Mariners years, including local Black, Asian and Native teams such as the Seattle Owls, a 1938 state-championship Black women’s softball team. (Clay Eals)Newly added first-floor panels at the Museum of History & Industry for its “Baseball All-Stars” exhibit depict gems contributed by historian Dave Eskenazi, the Black Heritage Society, the Seattle Mariners and MOHAI from Seattle’s pre-Mariners years, including local Black, Asian and Native teams. The exhibit runs through Nov. 5. (Julianne Kidder)A newly added first-floor panel at the Museum of History & Industry for its “Baseball All-Stars” exhibit. Panels depict gems contributed by historian Dave Eskenazi, the Black Heritage Society, the Seattle Mariners and MOHAI from Seattle’s pre-Mariners years, including local Black, Asian and Native teams. The exhibit runs through Nov. 5. (Julianne Kidder)A newly added first-floor panel at the Museum of History & Industry for its “Baseball All-Stars” exhibit. Panels depict gems contributed by historian Dave Eskenazi, the Black Heritage Society, the Seattle Mariners and MOHAI from Seattle’s pre-Mariners years, including local Black, Asian and Native teams. The exhibit runs through Nov. 5. (Julianne Kidder)A newly added first-floor panel at the Museum of History & Industry for its “Baseball All-Stars” exhibit. Panels depict gems contributed by historian Dave Eskenazi, the Black Heritage Society, the Seattle Mariners and MOHAI from Seattle’s pre-Mariners years, including local Black, Asian and Native teams. The exhibit runs through Nov. 5. (Julianne Kidder)A newly added first-floor panel at the Museum of History & Industry for its “Baseball All-Stars” exhibit. Panels depict gems contributed by historian Dave Eskenazi, the Black Heritage Society, the Seattle Mariners and MOHAI from Seattle’s pre-Mariners years, including local Black, Asian and Native teams. The exhibit runs through Nov. 5. (Julianne Kidder)Outside its front entrance on July 4, the Museum of History & Industry issues a pre-All-Star Game welcome to its “Baseball All-Stars” exhibit, which runs through Nov. 5. (Clay Eals)A portion of the Oct. 19, 1924, exhibition-game program shows Babe Ruth batting fourth, followed by Bobby Burns batting fifth. Contrary to the program details, however, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Ruth, not Burns, played first base for most of the game. Batting first, “Torrence” represented later Seattle sports legend Roscoe “Torchy” Torrance. (Courtesy Mike Burns)A full page of the Oct. 19, 1924, exhibition-game program showing the “Seattle All Stars,” including Babe Ruth batting fourth, followed by Bobby Burns batting fifth. Contrary to the program details, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Ruth, not Burns, played first base for most of the game. (Courtesy Mike Burns)Another full page of the Oct. 19, 1924, exhibition-game program showing the opposing team, the “Timber League Stars,” and showcasing the sponsoring Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Courtesy Mike Burns)Another full page of the Oct. 19, 1924, exhibition-game program. (Courtesy Mike Burns)In this September 1924 view of the City Sash & Door town team at Dugdale Park. Bobby Burns, grandfather of Mike Burns in the “Now” photo, stands in the back row, third from left. (Cowan photo, courtesy Mike Burns)In this alternate view from September 1924 of the City Sash & Door town team at Dugdale Park. Bobby Burns, grandfather of Mike Burns in the “Now” photo, stands third from left. (Cowan photo, courtesy Mike Burns)In this 1916 view of the Stacy Shown Jewelers town team, Bobby Burns stands at center. (Courtesy Mike Burns)Four generations of Burnses in 1957: (from left) Mike Burns, nearly 3; Mike’s dad, Bob Burns, 22; Mike’s grandfather, Bobby Burns, 61, who batted fifth, after Babe Ruth, in the Oct. 19, 1924, exhibition game; and Mike’s great-grandfather, Bill Burns, 83, in front of his house in Ballard. (Courtesy Mike Burns)
NEWS CLIPS
The following clips are related to Babe Ruth’s two-day visited to Seattle in 1924.
The following clips are related to Bobby Burns and to the Seattle town teams he played for (Stacy Shown Jewelers and City Sash & Door). Burns was selected to bat fifth behind Babe Ruth in the Oct. 19, 1924, exhibition game.
Excellent piece. Thanks to Mr. Burns and Mr. Dave Eskenazi, Seattle’s sports historian, for taking care of the treasure and sharing it with us.