Ruth finishes in grand style....show Newspaper, Mags, etc excerpts of great BB events

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

In the first clip I think it is cool to read where they had a "shift" on defensively against Ruth, moving the SS to behind 2nd base. I think I read somewhere that the first recorded "shifts" were against Ted Williams? I could be wrong in that, but that article would prove shifts were alive and well long before Teddy Baseball...

Great stuff...thanks all for sharing for this baseball geek!



EDIT - No mention of a Ruth Shift here - Williams as I mentioned and Boudreau

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_shift

Another link mentioning Williams being the first -

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gamet...ctics-baseball

The Ted Williams infield "shift", contrary to some reports, was not the first "shift".

In the Babe Ruth days, opposing teams would situate their fielders in certain shifts. Usually depending on who their pitcher was. This article in
the Pittsburgh newspaper correctly reports that Pittsburgh's SS (Arky Vaughan) was positioned behind 2nd base in the inning Ruth hit a Single.

The more typical "Ruth shift", by opposing teams, was positioning the Left-fielder in CF....with the other two outfielders in Right-Center and RF.

Anyway, was this strategy really effective ? I don't think so.....since many times Ruth would just drive the ball beyond these outfielders.






TED Z
.

[tedzan]

Thanks Leon and Mark for posting your old newspaper BB clippings depicting Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Gomez, VanDer Meer, Derringer, and Moore.

I'm sitting here in the "frozen North", our home surrounded by 12" of fresh fallen heavy snow, hoping to see a few more excerpts from Sports
pages of old newspapers. Especially, if they are of significant events in BB. Pre-war or post-war....whatever....show us your stuff.


T-Rex TED

[Peter_Spaeth]

Was Ruth known contemporaneously as "The Great Man" or was that just spontaneous inspiration by the writer, I wonder? One could not write that story today -- imagine someone describing Barry Bonds that way.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Was Ruth known contemporaneously as "The Great Man" or was that just spontaneous inspiration by the writer, I wonder? One could not write that story today -- imagine someone describing Barry Bonds that way.

My wife's Dad, Joe (an avid Yankees fan), saw Ruth and Gehrig play. He didn't recall Ruth being referred to as "the Great Man". Joe had a bunch of sports page clippings
that he saved as a kid from the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Post, and Trenton Times (circa 1930's). It wasn't in any of these write-ups.

I may be wrong....but I'd say this term to describe Ruth was created by that reporter in the Pittsburgh newspaper.


TED Z

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by tedzan

My wife's Dad, Joe (an avid Yankees fan), saw Ruth and Gehrig play. He didn't recall Ruth being referred to as "the Great Man". Joe had a bunch of sports page clippings
that he saved as a kid from the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Post, and Trenton Times (circa 1930's). It wasn't in any of these write-ups.

I may be wrong....but I'd say this term to describe Ruth was created by that reporter in the Pittsburgh newspaper.


TED Z

It's wonderful writing. A bygone era. I love the line that he "pyramided" three home runs. And here I thought turning nouns into verbs (he "podiumed") was a modern thing.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

It's wonderful writing. A bygone era. I love the line that he "pyramided" three home runs. And here I thought turning nouns into verbs (he "podiumed") was a modern thing.

Funny, you should bring that up....just today I heard a weather dude on TV refer to pools of melting snow as "ponding".


TED Z

[Big Ben]

I picked up this old newspaper, The Sunday Star from Washington DC as a gift for a guy who was my college roommate. Before I sent the paper to him, I scanned some items as it was a bit of a time capsule. Batting leaders from September 1915!