1918 or 1919 Griffith Stadium / Babe Ruth?

[Brian Campf]

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[Hankphenom]

The pitcher is almost certainly Johnson. Wonder who caught him in that May 7 game? Looks to be a big guy, almost comparable in size to Ruth

[Brian Campf]

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[GKreindler]

With those broad shoulders and skinny little ankles, it's GOTTA be Ruth. I can't imagine anyone else trotting like that.

Graig

[thxforthebp]

Has to be Babe looks exactly like his trot as he would cross the plate even the arm position and how he is carrying himself looks right.

[prewarsports]

Without being able to see second base, there is no way to tell whether this is a player coming home after a Home Run, or if someone hit a ground rule double and Ruth or the player scoring was able to trott home on that as well. There were more Ground Rule Doubles in the mid 1910's that out of the park home runs. I just wanted to throw that out there so you dont limit your searches to just Ruth Home Run games. Either way it looks like Ruth to me as well!

If this is from the Baseball Magazine Archives there is a good chance the photo was used in a publication somewhere by that magazine.

[Big Six]

What teammate who scores on a home run doesn't wait at the plate for the guy who hit the home run to congratulate him? Add to that the fact that home runs were significantly more rare than they would be just 5-10 years later and I would assume anyone who scored on a home run would be giving the hitter a big hug.

I think this was a solo shot and the person walking to the dugout was a coach who ran out to give the ump a replacement ball (since I would doubt they kept 5 balls in a hip bag back then)...just my observation.

[yanks12025]

Plus you can see second base and no one is there, and you can see the shadow of the shortstop.

[Brian Campf]

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[maniac_73]

More info: Ruth hit home runs as a Red Sox player only twice against Johnson - the games I noted above - and in each his homers came with a man on base and were his only RBI's in those games. Therefore, if the photo does indeed show Johnson and Ruth, it would depict a home run (and a player who should have stayed at the plate to congratulate him).

I've always read that until Ruth redefined the game that homers weren't admired as they are today. Managers in the day thought getting on base was more important then hitting homers. This may explaiun the lack of congrats at the plate?

[BigJJ]

Was on hiatus for a few days - interesting insights - looked for photos of the stadium 1918-1919, cant find one!

[ramram]

Yeah, with those crop markings on the photo you'd have to think it was published somewhere. I think that is your best bet.

Rob M.

[Big Six]

Even more strange...where is the on deck batter???

[prewarsports]

If you follow the baselines, I dont think that is second base in the photo, way too close to the infield grass, you can see the shortstop but not the bag and if someone was standing on it you would not see their shadow the way the sun is shining either.

Just saying, dont limit your research to just home runs because ground rule doubles were MUCH more prevelant than out of the park homers where you could trot around the bases at a slow pace in the 1910's.