Old Footage Now Identified as Showing Babe Ruth Setting a Home Run Record

It doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while there's a jewel hidden in plain sight. Sometimes it just takes a little research to uncover that jewel. Herewith the story of a classic silent movie that contains two such jewels.

Jewel 1: The Earliest-Known Celebrity Photo Bomb

In the 1920s, there was no bigger star on the baseball diamond than slugger Babe Ruth. And during the same decade, you'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger star on the silver screen than comedian Harold Lloyd. So when the Bambino made a cameo appearance in Lloyd's 1928 silent film "Speedy," fans of both our national pastime and motion pictures were elated.


Motion Picture News, January 28, 1928

You can watch the film here, with the Ruth appearance running from 49:03 to 53:20.

In the 85-minute-long movie, Lloyd plays Harold "Speedy" Swift, a rabid Yankees fan whose obsession with baseball results in his inability to hold a job. Speedy eventually becomes a cab driver and is lucky enough to pick up the Babe for a fare. Ruth asks Speedy to take him to Yankee Stadium and so begins a wild ride through the streets of Manhattan en route to the ballpark in the Bronx.



At the end of the trip, an exasperated Ruth exits the automobile, relieved to have made it to his destination in one piece. He turns to Lloyd and exclaims:



But the real gem comes just prior to that title card. Pay close attention to the end of the scene at approximately 52:42 as Ruth exits the cab. In the background at far right you will see a familiar face:



Yes. That's Lou Gehrig! This discovery was made by Kevin Dale back in 2011 and was first revealed at silent film historian/detective John Bengtson's always entertaining blog.

Jewel 2: A Ruthian Record Captured On Film

In the scene that follows Ruth's taxi cab ride, "Speedy" watches a ball game at Yankee Stadium. The scene includes two separate shots of Ruth at bat. The movie doesn't call out the footage as coming from a specific event (or events). Instead, it is simply used to establish that Speedy is at a Yankees game and Ruth is playing in that game. The following video shows both sequences:

The First Sequence: Ruth Strikes Out ... But When?

The first sequence lasts just two seconds and shows Ruth striking out and the catcher juggling the third strike or, perhaps, the foul tip on the third strike. The umpire quickly raises his fist to call Ruth out. Here are a few stills from the sequence.







First, it is clear that the action was not staged for the movie cameras. This is a real, in-game sequence. And since "Speedy" was released on April 7, 1928 (four days before the Yankees opened the season), the action must have taken place in 1927 or earlier.

Since Ruth is seen in pinstripes, we know that the action took place in New York. And the proximity of the dirt track near the grandstand (seen at the upper-left hand corner of the above stills) is consistent with the layout of Yankee Stadium, not the Polo Grounds. Thus the footage must have been taken at Yankee Stadium sometime between 1923 (the year the park opened) and 1927 (the year that "Speedy" was filmed).

The catcher's uniform provides some additional clues. He wears a cap with a white crown and dark bill, his stockings feature a thick dark band near the top, and a thin stripe runs down the side of his pants. From 1923 to 1927, the only major league clubs to wear such uniforms on the road were the 1923, '24, and '26 St. Louis Browns and the 1923-27 Boston Red Sox.

Unfortunately, there is not much else to go on to help narrow down possible dates for this first sequence. I suspect that the competition was the St. Louis Browns, as the Red Sox road uniforms for the years noted featured pinstripes and, though it is difficult to state with certainty, it appears that the catcher's uniform is not pinstriped.

My research into this first sequence is ongoing, so for now, all I can say is "Stay Tuned."

The Second Sequence: Recording Ruth's Record Round-Tripper

The second sequence shows Ruth hitting a home run and trotting around the bases. Here are a few stills from that sequence.















Once again, this is actual, in-game action from 1927 or earlier. And Ruth's pinstripes, the opposition's darker uniforms, and the dirt track near the grandstand (seen at the upper-left hand corner of the fifth still above) all point to action taking place at Yankee Stadium.

The uniforms worn by the catcher and the rest of the fielders are quite different from that worn by the catcher in the first sequence. This time each fielder is wearing a cap with a light-colored crown and dark bill, and gray stockings with three dark bands (the middle band being thicker than the ones above and below). For the time period between 1923 and 1927, only one club wore such uniforms on the road: the 1925 and 1926 Cardinals. However, the 1925 Cardinals wore special patches commemorating the 50th anniversary of the National League on their left shoulder, and the fielders in this footage do not have such patches. Here's an image that shows the patch on the left shoulder of Cardinals pitcher Leo Dickerman in 1925:



So, if this sequence shows action between the Cardinals and the Yankees in 1926, we are left with the question: When did these clubs face each other that year? The answer, of course, is in the 1926 World Series. You may recall the story that prior to Game Four, Ruth made a promise to hit a home run for a sick boy named Johnny Sylvester. As it turns out, the Babe hit three that day.


Boston Globe, October 13, 1926

Those three homers (the first three that Ruth hit that post-season) set a single-game World Series record that has since been tied, but never surpassed. However, none of those homers is seen in this sequence, since Game Four took place at St. Louis's Sportsman's Park and the footage from "Speedy" was certainly taken at Yankee Stadium.

So when did Ruth hit his fourth home run of the 1926 Series? In the third inning of the seventh and final game, October 10. Play-by-play for that game corroborates what we see in the footage. With two outs in the bottom of the third and no runners aboard, Cardinals pitcher Jesse Haines surrendered Ruth's fourth and final homer of the Series. With the blast, Ruth set another record: most home runs (four) hit in one World Series. It took over fifty years before Reggie Jackson broke that record in the 1977 World Series.

Game Seven of the 1926 World Series is also known for the drama of its final innings. The Yankees were trailing 3-2 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh when they mounted a rally and loaded the bases. Cardinals player/manager Rogers Hornsby pulled starter Jesse Haines and brought in Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander to face New York's Tony Lazzeri. In one of the most celebrated moments in the history of the Fall Classic, Alexander struck out Lazzeri to end the threat. Two innings later, Ruth was caught stealing second base to end the game, and the Cardinals celebrated their first modern World Championship.

We can now identify the various individuals seen in the Ruth home run sequence. Catching for the Cardinals is Bob O'Farrell and all four infielders can be seen as Ruth rounds the bases: at first is Jim Bottomley, at second is Rogers Hornsby, at shortstop is Tommy Thevenow, and at third is Les Bell, who can be seen tossing a new baseball to pitcher Jesse Haines. The Yankees third base coach is likely Benny Bengough. The umpires are George Hildebrand at home, Bill Dinneen at second, Hank O'Day at third. (First base umpire Bill Klem is just out of the field of view as Ruth rounds first.) The Yankees bat boy is Eddie Bennett and awaiting his turn at bat is New York's Bob Meusel.

Some avid baseball fans might be surprised to see Meusel following Ruth in the Yankees' lineup, as that spot was usually reserved for Lou Gehrig. Indeed, Gehrig spent most of the 1926 season batting fourth, with Ruth batting third. But in mid-September of that season, Yankees manager Miller Huggins began experimenting with different line-ups for the heart of the Yankees order (3-4-5 hitters): Gehrig-Ruth-Meusel, Ruth-Gehrig-Lazzeri, and Ruth-Meusel-Gehrig. For the World Series, Huggins settled with the latter combination.

What a wonderful surprise: an old sequence found in a silent movie can now be identified as footage showing Ruth's record-breaking moment in the 1926 World Series.

A Yankee Stadium Mystery: Rare Footage of Babe Ruth and the Puzzling Panorama of a Packed Park

Back in October of 2009, New York Times reporter John Branch broke a story about some newly discovered footage of Babe Ruth. The "never-before-seen" film was found in a collection of home movies belonging to an unnamed individual in New Hampshire and ultimately ended up at Major League Baseball's Film and Video Archive. The folks there suspected that the footage dated from 1928 and, according to archivist Frank Caputo, guessed that "it could be a world series game, could be opening day, maybe a holiday, July fourth?" But, as noted in a video accompanying the Times article, "the archivists are still trying to pin down the exact date of the footage."

Soon after the story came out, I decided to take a crack at solving the mystery.

Of course, it was simple to confirm that the location seen in the footage was Yankee Stadium. Not only do shots showing its structure match perfectly to the well-known stadium, but the Yanks are wearing their familiar pinstripes. That part was a piece of cake.

Next, I needed to establish the correct year of the photograph. Outfield advertisements can often be helpful in dating baseball images. They generally change every season (sometimes multiple times within a season) and can act as chronological "finger prints" that are uniquely associated with a particular year. (Outfield advertisements at New York's Polo Grounds were instrumental in solving a mystery in my blog titled "Take Me Out to the Ball Game Polo Grounds.")

Here is a frame from the new footage showing some of the outfield advertisements beyond the left field bleachers.



Alas, the sun is shining brightly on the walls, washing out many of the distinctive graphics. Still, take a look at the picture below, taken during Game Three of the 1928 World Series and published the following day in the Hartford Courant. While the quality of this halftone image is not great, careful examination shows that the outfield advertisements match those seen in the still from the footage:



While this comparison was helpful, I hoped to find a higher quality photo that would show the exact same advertisements as seen in the footage. I turned my eyes to this magnificent photograph from the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum:



The panoramic image, shot by the Cosmo Foto Service, is actually a composite of three separate photographs, each "seamed" together to make a single, large-format picture. The process is less elegant than the stunning images made by special panoramic cameras (see my blog titled "Nix Flicks Sticks in Box for Sox in Rox"), but it is still an effective way to create a dramatic print.

According to the caption written contemporaneously on the front of the photograph, the image was taken at the 1928 World Series between the Yankees and the Cardinals. Since the outfield ads matched those seen in both the Hartford Courant and the footage, my initial reaction was that the panorama confirmed the year as 1928. But after a closer look, I began to worry ... not about the year, but about the claim that it pictured action from the World Series.

An article in the Washington Post published the day after the first World Series game at Yankee Stadium that season stated that "the grand stand tiers were bedecked in bright bunting and the national colors in much more profusion than ever before." But the panorama showed the famed park devoid of the traditional decorative bunting.

Furthermore, when I examined the player closest to the camera, the right fielder, I saw that he was wearing a uniform inconsistent with what the Yankees or the Cardinals wore during the 1928 World Series:

Note that the player's cap, pants and jersey are light-colored and his stockings are dark-colored with two white stripes. Now take a look at this photograph of Cardinals manager Bill McKechnie and Yankees skipper Miller Huggins posing at Yankee Stadium during the World Series:


New York Yankees History

Huggins and the Yankees wore pinstriped uniforms with dark caps and dark stockings ... quite different from the outfit worn by the left fielder. McKechnie and the Cardinals also wore pinstripes, and their stockings are nearly the opposite of those worn by the left fielder: light colored with multiple dark stripes.

In short, the player in left field was neither a Yankee nor a Cardinal, and the park was not decked out for an occasion such as the World Series. And yet the shot is certainly from 1928, as the outfield ads matched those seen in the 1928 Hartford Courant photo. What was the scoop?

In 1928 only one major league club wore road uniforms consistent with that worn by the right fielder: light-colored uniform and cap, and dark-colored stockings with a pair of white stripes. That club was the Philadelphia Athletics. Here are drawings of the uniform worn by the 1928 Athletics from the National Baseball Hall of Fame's online exhibit, Dressed to the Nines:



For this reason, it seemed likely that the team in the field as seen in the panorama was the Athletics.  Embracing this theory, I set out to see if I could come up with an exact date for the image.

The Athletics played 11 games at Yankee Stadium in 1928. Checking attendance records for each of these games, I found that only one date attracted the astounding crowd seen in the panoramic: a doubleheader played on September 9. On that day a record 85,625 fans packed Yankee Stadium. All signs point to the panorama capturing the scene at Yankee Stadium that very day.

Why did so many fans attend that game? Well, first of all, it was a Sunday doubleheader. And secondly, there was the very real feeling that the Sunday twin-bill (along with the subsequent two games of the four-game series) would have a major impact on just which club would advance to the post-season. The A's entered the day with a half-game lead over the Yankees, but after losing both games of the doubleheader and splitting the last two contests, Philadelphia left the Bronx trailing by 1.5 games. As the Yanks went 10-5 over their remaining 15 games and the A's posted an 8-5 mark in their final contests, one could argue that the four-game set was indeed the difference-maker in the pennant chase.

Taking another look at the mislabeled panoramic, I noted that the shadows were quite short. Thus, the photographs making up the panoramic image were assuredly taken early during the first game of the doubleheader. The second game can also be eliminated as a possibility since lefty Rube Walberg pitched the first 6.2 innings of that contest and the pitcher in the panoramic is right-handed:



With the date and game nailed down, a look at the box score revealed just who was in the field for the A's. On the mound was Jack Quinn who, at 45 years of age, was the oldest player in big league baseball. Catching the veteran moundsman was Mickey Cochrane, who ultimately earned the Most Valuable Player Award that season. Around the infield was Jimmie Foxx at first, Max Bishop at second, Jimmy Dykes at third, and Joe Boley at short. And the outfield featured Al Simmons in left, Mule Haas in center, and Bing Miller (whose stockings were so helpful in researching the photo) in right.

Just why the panorama was misidentified is not known, but I suspect that the folks selling the picture figured it would sell better if they passed it off as a World Series game, instead of a regular season contest.

Having gotten significantly sidetracked clearing up the misinformation written on the front of the panorama, I returned my attention to the newly discovered footage and the parade of batters captured on film.

Early in the footage, a left-handed batter is seen swinging and running to first. The stride and follow-through is unmistakably that of Yankees legend, Lou Gehrig:



The footage then quickly cuts to another unmistakable lefty at the plate: Babe Ruth. Interestingly, in this same scene, we see Gehrig (far left), who had failed to reach base just moments earlier, returning to the Yankees dugout:



However, the narrator of the New York Times video states that "Lou Gehrig waits on deck as the great Bambino strikes out."

Wait a second. How could Gehrig be waiting on deck when he just completed his at bat and is seen returning to the dugout? Here's how: That isn't Lou Gehrig waiting on deck!

Sure, throughout their careers together, Gehrig almost always followed Ruth in the batting order: Ruth batting third and Gehrig batting cleanup. But, in this particular footage, that just wasn't the case.

It's not clear who misidentified the on-deck batter, the folks at the New York Times or the folks at MLB Productions, but even though the quality of the video is rather poor, one can tell the on-deck batter is taller and leaner than Gehrig. More about that fellow in a moment.

At this point I had established that the action in the film took place at Yankee Stadium in 1928 and that Gehrig batted ahead of Ruth. A quick check at the always-useful retrosheet.org web site revealed that manager Miller Huggins flip-flopped Gehrig and Ruth in the batting order for a stretch of some four weeks near the end of the season: from August 25 (starting in the second game of the double-header) to September 20.

Here's what was reported in the New York Times the day after the of August 25 doubleheader:

After our boys, in the first game, had given one of the most terrible exhibitions ever seen of bad pitching  puny hitting and general indolence, Miller James Huggins instituted the most drastic shake-up of the last several years.

What Miller James did to the batting order between games was nobody's business. He took it apart to see what made it tick and then threw the pieces together in a very careless manner.

The one and only Babe Ruth was dropped from third to fourth place. Henry Gehrig ascended from fourth to third, Joseph Dugan was made lead-off man, Combs fell to second and Mark Koenig landed with a sickening thud in sixth. To make matters unanimous Tony Lazzeri was benched and [Leo] Durocher played second base.

One of the few Yankees to be unaffected by the line-up reshuffling was the man who batted fifth: Bob Meusel. He remained in that spot during Huggins' late-season switcheroo. Indeed, that's the 6' 3" Meusel seen waiting on deck during Ruth's at bat in the footage, not the 6' 0" Gehrig. Here's another frame from the film, showing "Long Bob" Meusel (at left) leaning on his bat as Babe Ruth stands at home, clearly upset that he was called out on strikes:



At this point, I had made good progress with the footage, determining that it was shot sometime between August 25 and September 28, 1928. I next took a closer look at the opposing team's catcher. Here's a still from the footage:



We can determine the following about his uniform: the crown of his cap is light-colored and his stockings are dark-colored from knee to shoe, possibly with light-colored stripes. This combination of cap and stockings was worn by only one American League club on the road in 1928. That club was none other than the Philadelphia Athletics.

The Athletics played just four games at Yankee Stadium during the time-period noted above: the doubleheader of September 9, and games on September 11 and 12.

Hold on! Is it possible that the film footage was taken on the same day as the mislabeled panoramic picture? Certainly the massive crowd shown in the footage points to that date, but I wondered if there might be a way to tell for sure that they matched. Happily, I found a way.

I decided to overlay a still from the footage (below) on the panoramic picture. Both images show the crowd down the third base line.



Despite the fact that the cameras shot action from significantly different angles, I was able to align the images such that the gates at the bottom of stairways (see arrows) were aligned perfectly:



Note that some of the fans in the front row have draped clothing atop or over the railing. While the still from the footage is much blurrier than the photograph, I was able to match the shadows created by the clothing (see arrows). Take a look:



There's really no question about it. The footage and the panoramic picture were both shot at Yankee Stadium during the first game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics on September 9, 1928. In fact, reviewing play-by-play of the game, the action captured in the film fits perfectly (and only) with what occurred in the bottom of the fourth inning. After Mark Koenig led off the frame with a single to left field, Gehrig popped out to second. Ruth then struck out, after which Meusel flied to center. No other sequence in the game matches what we see in the footage.

I found additional corroboration of these findings in a Boston Globe story published the day after the game:

When the Yankees came up again, Koenig snapped out a sprightly single to left but Gehrig popped out to Bishop. Ruth fanned again and Meusel flied out to Haas. The canny Quinn pitched low and outside to the Babe, to prevent a rightfield catastrophe. The Babe was considerably peeved when the third strike was called and threw his bat toward the stands, narrowly missing [New York City mayor] Jimmy Walker.

To bad the footage didn't stay on Ruth a bit longer so we could witness his bat throwing tantrum. Oh, well. At least now the mystery has been solved.

By the way, back in 2009, Keith Olbermann also came to the conclusion that the footage came from the September 9, 1928, doubleheader. Both of our work was featured in John Branch's follow-up New York Times article.

Finally, if you're interested in obtaining a copy of the rare 1928 panoramic image, don't hesitate to contact John Horne in the Hall of Fame's Photo Department (jhorne@baseballhall.org).

Woodrow Wilson's Opening Pitch

In October of 1917, less than half a year after the United States entered World War I, the White Sox faced the Giants in the World Series. Chicago topped New York in six games. The cover of the Giants' World Series program featured an image of President Woodrow Wilson, ball in hand, accompanied by the caption:

PRESIDENT WILSON THROWING OUT BALL AT THE OPENING OF THE
AMERICAN LEAGUE SEASON AT WASHINGTON.

A BIG ENOUGH BOY TO ENJOY THE NATIONAL
GAME - AND - A MAN BIG ENOUGH TO GUIDE
OUR COUNTRY THROUGH ITS GREATEST CRISIS.

Here's an image of that World Series program:

Yes, that's President Wilson throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in Washington, D.C. … but not in 1917, as implied. Actually, as noted in The Washington Post of April 21, 1917, "Vice President Marshall took President Wilson's place in the Throw-out-League. With the President unable to be present on opening day, for the first time since he has been lead-off man for Uncle Sam, because of the pressure of state affairs, his understudy threw out the ball at 3 o'clock …." It is understandable that President Wilson was unavailable for the ceremonial pitch, as it was just two weeks since the country had declared war on Germany.

Accompanying the article was this image of the Vice President taking part in the honors on opening day at Griffith Stadium, April 20, 1917:



The photo upon which the 1917 program was based was actually taken exactly one year earlier. Here's an image of President Wilson at opening day of 1916 as reproduced in The Washington Post of April 21:



Note how the flag draped over the wall is identical to that seen in the World Series program cover, and the position (and hat) of his wife Edith (just to the left of Wilson) also match up well.. Additionally, here's the exact image used for the 1917 World Series program as found at the Library of Congress, with the caption "Opening game 1916":


Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-18475

The cover of the program is a classic … even if it was a year out of date.

Early Cubs Footage

Back in 2006, Paul Lukas, the guru of sports uniforms whose UniWatch column can be found at ESPN Page 2, alerted me to an interesting video on YouTube. The video can be seen here.

Originally billed as footage from the 1929 World Series at Wrigley Field, research reveals that almost half of the footage is actually from 1930.

The park is definitely Wrigley Field from the era. Here is the scoreboard in center field seen at 1:44 of the YouTube video:



Compare this with a photo showing the scoreboard in center field at Wrigley Field during the 1929 World Series from the Chicago Daily News collection at the Library of Congress's American Memory web site.


Chicago Daily News negatives collection, SDN-069131. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.

The first clue that the footage is not all from 1929 comes from 00:30 to 00:43 of the video, which shows the Cubs wearing their 1930 uniforms. Here's a still from 00:31 of the video:



In 1929, the Cubs wore uniforms that featured a wishbone "C" with an image of a bear-cub inside it. In 1930, however, the club featured the letters "UBS" inside the wishbone "C," combining to make the word "CUBS." Compare the photo above to the drawings of the 1929 (top) and 1930 (bottom) Cubs uniforms at the Dressed to the Nines online exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame's web site:




By the way, the Cub at far right (with the noticeably white hair) is coach and former major league player Jimmy Burke. Though the Library of Congress lists the photo below as "unidentified," it is clearly of Burke:


Chicago Daily News negatives collection, SDN-068569. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.

From about 1:05 to 1:42 or so, the Cubs are seen carrying a large flag and, directly behind them, members of another club are seen with uniforms that clearly have some sort of markings on the backs of their jerseys. Here's a still from 01:13 of the video:



And here's another from 1:29 that shows the unusual markings on the back of the visiting club's uniforms (at far right):



From 1:43 to 2:05 it becomes clear that what the players were carrying was a pennant and it is being raised on the flagpole next to the scoreboard in center field. The pennant says: "CHAMPIONS / NATIONAL LEAGUE / 1929". Here are stills from 1:56 to 2:05:







During the flag raising, the scoreboard is visible. Here's a still from 01:44 of the video:



Note that at the top of the scoreboard it shows that the "CUBS" are playing "BOSTON." New York is at Pittsburgh (the game is in progress around the sixth inning or so), Brooklyn is at Cincinnati, and Philadelphia is at St. Louis.

According to the Retrosheet web site, these clubs played one another on June 21, 1930. Indeed, the partial line score from the Giants vs. Pirates game on the scoreboard matches Retrosheet's line score for the game.

These clues pinpoint the date of the footage as Flag Day, June 21, 1930, an appropriate holiday to raise the National League pennant. The Cubs paraded toward center field with the pennant, followed by the visiting club, the Boston Braves, who in 1929 and 1930 wore an Indian head logo on the back of their jerseys, as seen at the Dressed to the Nines online exhibit:



The same indian head can be seen on the back of the third baseman in this photo of Kiki Cuyler running to third as the Cubs host the Braves at Wrigley Field in 1929:


Chicago Daily News negatives collection, SDN-068978. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.

The Chicago Daily Tribune of June 22, 1930, published the following photo of the Cubs with the pennant that is clearly from the same event:


Chicago Daily Tribune, June 20, 1930

The caption, in part, reads: "Champion Cubs celebrate the formal raising of the National league pennant with a double victory over the Boston Braves. ... The entire Bruin personnel parades before the crowd of 42,000 with the 1929 bunting, which was later unfurled in the stiff northeast breeze."

From 2:06 to 2:37, the two teams parade back to the infield, with the Cubs on the third base side, and the Braves on the first base side. And from 2:38 to 3:14, action is seen from the doubleheader played that day. From 3:11 to 3:14 one can even see Cubs southpaw pitcher Bud Teachout deliver a pitch.

Note that at 3:01 there is clearly no bunting visible on the façade of the second deck:



But soon afterward the footage switches from Flag Day 1930 to pre-game and game-action from the 1929 World Series. Note that at 3:29 the bunting one would expect to see at the World Series is now visible:



The rest of the film does indeed appear to be from the 1929 World Series at Wrigley Field, though it is not clear if the action is from Game One (October 8) or Game Two (October 9).