Posted By:
David McD"Did you know Babe Ruth was a woman? Real name was Ruth Herman. Wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't seen the proof with my own eyes. Got a tryout with the Baltimore club, this would be 1905. Same year Ty Cobb came up to the Tigers, I remember. They called me "another Ty Cobb" down in the Mediocre Association, and the Orioles were going to give me a good look. But nobody paid any attention that day, everybody was watching this ugly little fat girl in a dirty white pinafore just ripping Hell out of the ball. The kids on the sidelines said, "Oh, don't mind her, that's Baby Ruth Herman from the neighborhood." Well, we did mind her. I can tell you! Manager sent her on home, of course, baseball then being strictly a man's game. God amighty, never forget the shock about ten years later up in Boston! Never had the heart to squeal on her, and neither did anyone else. Amazing thing, Ruth Herman, "the Babe." . . . My, I haven't thought about the old days in so long. Thinking of Cobb and Ruth Herman, say, that brings back the memories. Good memories. Those ballplayers then, they were a grand bunch of fellows, with only one or two exceptions. Did you know Honus Wagner was a fairy? Him and Walter Johnson. I could tell tales. Both of them in an upper berth; you dreaded those long overnights.
But I never was a knocker and I won't start now. You ask me about Major League ball in the old days. I'd just say that was the life and I'd leave it at that. Let sleeping dogs lie. Let the dead stay buried. Probably gabbed too much for my own good already. Get out!"
- Zube LaRue, "The Glory of Their Hindsight," National Lampoon, ca. 1975