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HISTORY WITH HAYES: The day Babe Ruth came to Bristol 

(U.S. News & WOrld Report)
April 5, 2020

It was a few minutes past noon on April 5, 1922 when the brakes screeched and hissed on train No. 26 as the locomotive arrived from Memphis, Tennessee, and came to a halt in front of the Bristol station. Zack Wheat, Burleigh Grimes, Dutch Ruether and the rest of the

It was a few minutes past noon on April 5, 1922 when the brakes screeched and hissed on train No. 26 as the locomotive arrived from Memphis, Tennessee, and came to a halt in front of the Bristol station.

Zack Wheat, Burleigh Grimes, Dutch Ruether and the rest of the Brooklyn Robins (also referred to as the Superbas, Dodgers and Nationals by newspapermen of the time) disembarked and stepped on the platform.

The New York Yankees did the same as Wally Pipp, Bob Meusel, Waite Hoyt and manager Miller Huggins were among those breathing in that fresh Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia air on an overcast spring day.

Yet, the crowd that had gathered at the station and those who were already lined up to purchase tickets at Tenneva Field were mainly there to see just one man.

A 27-year-old outfielder for the Yankees by the name of George Herman “Babe” Ruth, who had slugged 59 home runs the season before, was already an icon and Bristolians wanted to catch a glimpse of the Great Bambino.

The Bristol Herald Courier had summed it up in that day’s edition, writing “Babe Ruth, who is perhaps more widely known than any sporting personality who has ever basked in the limelight of the public gaze, will be the principal attraction.”

A crowd of more than 5,000 showed up at Tenneva Field (which was located on what is now Commonwealth Avenue where Strongwell Corporation sits) to see the Babe swing the bat.

These were the days when Major League Baseball squads played exhibition games in various cities as they traveled north to open the season. The Yankees had held their spring training camp in New Orleans.

Ruth pounded some home runs during batting practice, but didn’t go deep once the game started at 3 p.m.

The largest crowd reaction came when he crushed one offering that sailed over the right-field fence during one plate appearance, but it curved foul.

In the first inning, the Babe struck out against Leon “Caddy” Cadore.

In his next at-bat, he popped out to third baseman Jimmy Johnston.

In the seventh inning, Ruth smacked a double and eventually scored when Frank “Home Run” Baker (in what was his final big-league season in a Hall of Fame career) lived up to his moniker by smashing a ball that cleared the right-field wall.

In the ninth, relief pitcher Art Decatur struck out the Babe.

Ruth’s final stat line playing near the state line: 1-for-4, double, run scored, two strikeouts.

Gene “Pappy” Thompson, later to become the longtime sports editor at the Bristol Herald Courier, was in attendance that day and recalled Ruth’s highlights.

“Ruth slammed one clothesline double off the right field wall, but his big moment was defensively,” Thompson wrote in 1948. “A Dodger runner was on first when old Zack Wheat pulled a drive deep down the right field line. Ruth played it beautifully, whirled and in the same motion lined the ball to Baker ahead of the runner sprinting from first to third. Babe didn’t hop the ball. He just threw it on a line, a long, whistling throw that could have threaded a needle’s eye as it killed off the sliding runner.”

Brooklyn posted a 10-7 win over the Yankees, despite manager Wilbert Robinson getting ejected in the third inning after disputing a call by umpire George Moriarty.

Tommy Griffith had hit what originally looked like a triple, but was ordered back to second base by Moriarty due to the fact three fans were standing in fair ground.

“Moriarty has old-fashioned ideas,” Robinson told the Brooklyn Eagle following the game. “He evidently learned in his callow youth that two’s company and three’s a crowd and never got over it. There were just three people out there when Griffith’s drive hit the fence, yet he set a ground rule.”

Hal Janvrin and Wheat each had three hits for the winners, while Hi Myers hammered out three RBIs.

Yankees starter Waite Hoyt was hammered for 15 hits in just five innings of work.

As the New York newspapermen filed their dispatches back to the Big Apple before the traveling party loaded back up on a train and departed for Norfolk, Virginia, at 8:30 p.m., most of their stories centered on the growing friction between Yankees pitcher Carl Mays and manager Miller Huggins.

Two days earlier in Little Rock, Arkansas, Mays had chucked a ball over the grandstand when Huggins marched to the mound and removed him from the game in the middle of an inning. Mays had played 18 holes of golf that morning and obviously didn’t have his best stuff.

After arriving in Bristol, Huggins informed Mays that Yankees co-owners Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston and Jacob Ruppert had fined him $200 for his outburst.

“I am through with the Yankees if that fine is collected,” Mays told the New York Evening World. “I have told Huggins so. I will go to New York with the team and start the season. If, when our first payday comes, that $200 is deducted I will turn in my uniform and go to playing independent ball.”

They must have hashed things out as Mays went 13-14 with a 3.60 ERA in 34 outings and helped the Yankees claim the American League pennant. They would subsequently lose the 1922 World Series to the New York Giants, who rolled into the city on April 6 as Bristol continued to be big time.

The matchup between the Yankees and Robins was the first of four consecutive days in which MLB players would take the field in Bristol.

The 1921 (and soon-to-be 1922) World Series champion Giants cruised to a 13-3 triumph over the Chicago White Sox the day after Ruth and company left town.

Manager John McGraw’s team was paced by George Kelly’s three hits and impressive pitching from Cecil “Red” Causey.

An estimated crowd of 1,000 was on hand, a major dip in attendance from the day before. One of those spectators, however, made up for the disappointing turnout with some vociferous heckling.

“Had it not been for one of those rabid fellows to be found at every ballgame, there would have been absolutely nothing to amuse the customers,” Charles A. Taylor reported in the New York Herald. “This particular one had a slang vocabulary that astonished both the Broadway and Chicago boys, hardened as they are.”

Future Hall of Famer Bill Klem was the umpire for the second exhibition game and he had to lay down the law early.

“The local Chamber of Commerce also furnished a perfectly good brass band, but umpire Bill Klem became offended when the bass drum stifled his decisions and ordered the musicians to shut up,” Taylor wrote. “Afterward Klem rescinded his edict to the extent of allowing a minimum of jazz between innings.”

A seven-run second inning sparked by Emil “Irish” Meusel highlighted the victory for the juggernaut that was the Giants.

New York pounded out 11 hits in six innings against starting pitcher Charlie Robertson of the White Sox. Robertson would fare much better just 24 days later when he tossed the fifth perfect game in MLB history against the Detroit Tigers.

The second team (what would be called a split-squad today) comprised mostly of Giants rookies beat the Appalachian League’s Bristol State Liners by a 2-1 count on April 7, scoring twice in the top of the ninth inning to eke out the win.

The Giants B-team managed just three hits against the trio of Farley, Mehaffey and Weldon (first names weren’t reported) of the hometown team and none of them came from the guy starting in center field. Casey Stengel was 0-for-3 that day.

On April 8, Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics wrapped up the four-day festivities with a 6-2 win over the Bristol State Liners. One of the original locals in the pros – Telford, Tennessee, native Tilly Walker – had two hits for the Philadelphians, who scored three times in the first inning.

Exhibition games in small communities used to be common, events of a bygone era when folks relished the chance to see heroes they’d only glimpsed in newspaper pictures or movie reels.

Could you imagine the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers facing off at Bristol’s DeVault Stadium one evening, the Washington Nationals tangling with the Chicago White Sox the next and then the Appy League’s Bristol Pirates playing a couple of games against MLB teams?

The New York Giants and Cleveland Indians were supposed to play an exhibition game on April 11, 1946 at Shaw Stadium in Bristol, but that contest was rained out.

The Brooklyn Robins went on a barnstorming tour after the 1923 season and played a two-game series in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, against a squad of Appalachian League All-Stars.

The Peoria (Illinois) Redwings and Fort Wayne (Indiana) Daisies who were in a league of their own called the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League when they played exhibitions at Bristol’s Shaw Stadium in May 1947. Peoria won the first game 16-6, while Fort Wayne prevailed the next day by a 7-5 count.

George Kell crushed two home runs as the Boston Red Sox bopped the Milwaukee Braves, 7-2, on April 7, 1954 at Bluefield’s Bowen Field. Rookie Hank Aaron had a hit in the loss.

Cleveland Indians legend Bob Feller pitched in a three-inning old-timers game at DeVault Stadium on July 30, 1974. It preceded the Appalachian League game between the Bristol Tigers and the Pulaski Phillies.

The U.S. Olympic softball team played Milligan College in 2008 at Johnson City’s Cardinal Park and was scheduled to do the same next month, but the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has canceled that contest.

The Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles played a NFL exhibition game at Bristol Motor Speedway (then known as Bristol International Speedway) in 1961 and the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks tuned up for the 1983-84 NBA season with an exhibition at Bristol’s Viking Hall.

Those were certainly neat moments, but it’s hard to top the Babe swinging his bat in Bristol on this date 98 years ago.