Babe Ruth 1948 Farewell Speech

[EddieP]

Two weeks ago was the 75th Anniversary of Babe Ruth’s Farewell. The Washington Post had a nice article about it:

“ On his way to Yale Field to meet a 24-year-old future president, Babe Ruth was worried about the rainy weather. Would it ruin the day’s festivities, when he was going to donate the black-bound manuscript of his new autobiography to the university library?
“In coming here this afternoon, on the way out it looked terribly damp and I was very disappointed,” Ruth said, referring to the rain that had cleared just in time for the Saturday afternoon college baseball game, 75 years ago this month.
Ruth, 53, both physically and audibly diminished, made the remarks during a pregame ceremony June 5, 1948, to 5,000 people in New Haven, Conn., as he delivered the manuscript to Yale’s first baseman and team captain, George H.W. Bush.
Eight days later, Ruth made his final appearance at Yankee Stadium, a ballpark so indelibly linked to him that it was known as “The House That Ruth Built.” Those two visits, on consecutive weekends about 75 miles apart, would be baseball’s poignant send-off to its most dominant figure, a man who had revolutionized the game with prodigious home runs and outsize personality. He died that August of cancer.”