Sunday, May 25, 2014

May 25, 1922: The Babe Flips His Lid

     On May 25, 1922, Babe Ruth went into a full tirade after being called out at second base in the third inning of a contest that had his Yankees facing the Senators in New York. After being called out by Umpire George Hildebrand, the Bambino proceeded to argue, before he picked up a handful of dirt and threw it in Hildebrand's face. The umpire promptly ejected Ruth from the contest, however, the fireworks were far from over. As Ruth was vacating the field, some fans booed and heckled him. Ruth took exception to this, and decided to go after one fan in particular by dashing into the crowd. The fan, whose mouth was bigger than his heart ran away when he realized that Ruth was coming for him. The incident happened after Ruth had served a six-week suspension for barnstorming. After he rejoined the Yankees lineup on May 20th, he was named the team's captain. The title was stripped from him after the incident that happened five days later, and was given to the team's shortstop Everett Scott. Ruth was also fined $200 for the tirade, which would be the equivalent of $2,800 today. Despite the incident, the Yankees still went onto claim a 6-4 victory over the visitors from Washington.

2 comments:

  1. Yes, I sure miss those good old days of player-fan violence. Luckily that void usually gets filled today by hockey. ;-)

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