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THE BABE
ARRIVES ... July 11, 1914 ... The Red Sox introduced Babe Ruth, one of the three Baltimore recruits, today to the crowd at Fenway Park. With the assistance of Dutch Leonard, the young man led the home club over the wire by a score of 4 to 3. It was a fine crowd and they enjoyed the short, snappy contest immensely. Only 1 hour and 13 minutes was taken up in playing the game. All eyes were turned to Ruth, the giant left-hander, who proved to be a naturally gifted player and went through the game like a seasoned veteran. He has an effortless delivery, fine control and a fastball that moves in toward the batters. There will undoubtedly be room for improvement but he will ultimately become a fine pitcher in the opinion of manager Bill Carrigan. The Babe held Cleveland to five hits in six innings with one strikeout, but was hit hard in the seventh, when the Naps tied the score by scoring two earned runs on singles by Jay Kirke and Ray Chapman, a sacrifice and a single by Steve O'Neill. That was the curtain for the young man from Baltimore and after having Duffy Lewis pinch-hit for him in the seventh inning, in came Dutch Leonard. Dutch pitched the last two innings, getting six men out in order, four of them on strikeouts. Leonard's pitching is the best of anybody in the American League and is the one member of the staff that Bill Carrigan and count on. The Sox grabbed an early lead in the first inning on a single by Everett Scott and a triple by Larry Gardner. The Naps tied the score in the fourth inning, when Jack Graney reached second base on a muffed fly ball after a long run by Tris Speaker and was knocked in by Joe Jackson. Two more Red Sox runs came in in the bottom of the fourth, on singles by Gardner and Carrigan, and a wild throw by O'Neill, to make the score 3 to 1. After Cleveland tied the score in the seventh inning, Lewis came in to bat for Ruth and got two bases as Kirke threw past first base on a ground ball. Olaf Henriksen failed into attempts to sacrifice and then popped out. Everett Scott forced Duffy out at second in a rundown, and took second when he was finally caught and tagged out. Tris Speaker followed and hit a sharp single to center that scored Scotty and gave the Red Sox the lead back. Dutch Leonard came into pitch in the eighth and struck out Graney and Terry Turner, then getting Jackson on a groundout. In the ninth-inning Nap Lajoie was thrown out by Dutch, then he struck out Kirke and Chapman to end it and save the game for Ruth. Babe Ruth received a great ovation when he went to bat, and it looks like he could also shape up as a good man with the stick. |
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