Babe Ruth on hitting

[Theoldmole]

http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2015/04/09/babe-ruths-autobiography-as-written-in-1920-section-iv/

[Zvon]

This is a great read. I love the Babes antiquated lingo. A left-handed batter is "port-sided". A ball field is "the lot". Some of it I don't even understand.

Re pitchers: They put all they�ve got on the ball and I�ve had to beat them with the lamps.

Does that pertain to batting under lights? This was written around 1920. Not sure what he means by "lamps".

[dinosaur jesus]

Sounds like about 90% ghostwriter, 10% Babe. It's funny how the sportswriters in those days didn't really try to capture how baseball players really talked. With some exceptions, I guess, like Ring Lardner.

"Lamps" could mean his eyes, though that doesn't really make sense here. Maybe it's a scanning error.

[Zvon]

dinosaur jesus wrote: Sounds like about 90% ghostwriter, 10% Babe. It's funny how the sportswriters in those days didn't really try to capture how baseball players really talked. With some exceptions, I guess, like Ring Lardner. "Lamps" could mean his eyes, though that doesn't really make sense here. Maybe it's a scanning error.

Oh. I think you're right. There were quite a few typos in that but I do think you're right. It makes sense in context and he's always going on about his batters eye. Man, watching Ruth play in those days must have been a treat.

[Guest cooby]

Agree. We have seen a lot of greats in our day but Babe Ruth must have been a real marvel.

[Zvon]

You see the films but that doesn't do him justice. I wanna see the ball burst off his bat, hear the crack of the bat. Fire up the DeLorean!

[Guest themetfairy]

And by the time games were filmed regularly he was beyond his prime.

I would have loved to have watched him pitch.

[Edgy MD]

The footage here shows him warming up and bringing it from about 2 o'clock. But about a minute in, it shows some game action and he's totally sidearming it.

[youtube:d2jxnavs]JqjlSDME7B4[/youtube:d2jxnavs]

[Guest d'Kong76]

Hard to think he wrote all that, based on other stuff
that's been, ahem, said about him... but cool read.
The only footage I really have in my mind of Ruth is
from the Burns series.

[Guest themetfairy]

Edgy MD wrote: The footage here shows him warming up and bringing it from about 2 o'clock. But about a minute in, it shows some game action and he's totally sidearming it. [youtube]JqjlSDME7B4[/youtube]

Was he pitching or just warming up there?

[Edgy MD]

He's on the mound, but apparently just taking his warmups.

They later show Walter Johnson, bringing it from the right side eight o'clock to eight-thirty and he looks scary.

[Zvon]

That might be Stengel-Huggins Field (Butterball-Clendenon Field) in the opening shot.

[Theoldmole]

Has to be eyes. The pitcher puts everything he's got on the ball, and my only defense against what he's got is my batting eye - being able to see the ball clearly enough to hit it.

[Theoldmole]

John Thorn has a piece from Westbrook Pegler on ghosting the Babe.