1960STHE OLD BALL GAME

[Music] I'm Mr Ruth it's a mighty nice thing of you to come up here and see these boys say a word to them by the best and largest smile I'm going to give this autograph BTO so we let you cut the pie first how you that's a funny oh look at that guy well now who won now I got to leave it up to the audience chin chinan look like a chinan one then we have to give it to him then I'm going home Saturday babe and then I'm coming out to the ball park and watch to play ball [Applause] [Music] aahah [Music] n [Music] you you ask me what is the game you mean what what has caused it to endure how does it come to be what it has come to be well there pops into my mind immediately a half dozen answers it's an inexhaustable question PR I remember in my youth down in the hills of Southern Ohio where uh cast country folk we took the weekly Cincinnati enquire and very early I got a a a followup hero worship of bid MC and Beckley and Mr kamsky who was passing out of the picture at the time and um the old catcher pites I do not believe that I misplaced my hero worship it was proper boys short of physical maturity uh boys are not interested intellectual Pursuits youth do not have creative minds they go easily in the direction of least resistance but George Herman Ruth never had capacity for a sense of failure he came from Baltimore at 7even years of age he went into an orphanage he was a slim chap those who knew him best at that time say that he was a standout as a physical prodigy his passion was really a diamond in a schoolyard he met Jack Dunn and he played that year with Baltimore in International League and at the end of his first season or before it his contract was sold to the Red Sox this youth who was to become the king of Home Run hitters hit his first home run a year later in 1915 against the Yankees he was known then as a pitcher and then later he was sold to the New York Yankees a notable event in the history of baseball in 1921 only 7 years out of the orphanage he astonished baseball by making 59 home runs in a single season Then followed the Yankees great years of startling success but in the main the New York yanes were to be regarded as Babe Ruth he was baseball he had the largest personal following in the history of the game there's no doubt about it the sudden spring of Ruth into baseball Fame didn't exactly give him the big head I don't think he ever had exactly that he followed easily his appetites and um in 1925 for example there was a time when he became overweight he was careless of his physical condition then Knoxville came about the famous Legend of his strange overeating 18 hot dogs was a story said to produce a stomach ache that was heard about the world apocryphal or no he was really seriously ill and the rumors multiply and went about everywhere that perhaps Ruth was through baseball the formal game itself that goes back some 70 years before the entrance of Babe Ruth the year 1846 was the year of the first game that was played over in Hoboken New Jersey across the river from New York the New York team was made up of an aristocratic group of New York gentlemen Alexander cartright was responsible for the nicker boers responsible for the origin of baseball in America not double day this thing was done 122 or three years ago by Alexander cartright when he wrote practically all the rules which are intact today identical with them you must come to understand that there was an adaptation of of the distances to the ability of humans to act the agility the running speed the throwing arms all of those things that made this game endure without change very little change in the rules of of the concept of Alexander cartright 123 years ago even during the Civil War her brother was against brother the union prisoners in Confederate caps played the game it even went out to the Pacific coast where the original team was known as the pacifics about 1868 the first really professional Club was formed of all places in Cincinnati Ohio it was known as a red stockings then came into the picture a very unusual character who was a great pitcher Mr Al balding and he help form the national league Mr dimples Tate of the Boston cap adson captain of the Chicago White stockings born in Georgia 1886 Tyrus Raymond cop by 1890 every boy knew of the Baltimore Orioles slide Kelly slide Wilbert Robinson and Mr John Joseph McGraw teams and names are changing now in Los Angeles it's the owes Mr Napoleon lway the American League's first great hitter piter Sai Young home run Baker of the 1911 Series 7 million people come to see the big ball games each year many of them here at the Polo Grounds watching Christian maton among many others and the man who had be known as the big train Mr Walter Johnson Roger Hornsby the alltime Nation League champion with a lifetime batting average second only to cop who can forget the sentiments of Franklin P Adams Tinker to ever to chz words that are weighty with nothing but trouble Tinker to ever to chance this picture of Miller Huggins brings back fond memories to me Miller Huggins was an ual in the game far in excess of the may I say without any discourtesy to our managers past or present uh far more in the field of uh background of training than most managers he was a graduate at the University of Cinna law school and a real one he was a very able Chap and he had many ideas uh as a tactician he was perfect he was a you know in size but mentally he was a almost a giant the game was changing rapidly changing and it was these men who were contributing to it but chiefly almost alone Mr Baron banro Johnson the new president of the American League by 1919 baseball had embarked upon a new Prosperity the world was said to have been saved for democracy you'll recall and at home people celebrated by going to the ballpark as never before the 19 and 19 World Series the great teams the Chicago White Socks and the Cincinnati Red Chicago highly favored and then everything happened the height sacks uh fed or did they this series is lost to Cincinnati it seems a a natural upset and yet a year later the series is baseball's biggest Scandal due to one man and one man only the insistence of B Johnson that something was wrong then came judge Landis into the picture he relieved Mr Johnson of all authority and uh really expelled all the guilty players for Lifetime including a a very drastic pen that is almost un understandable by some of us in America in regard to Joe Jackson these were the 20s and the Young Nation Letting Go the past was past the byword was action and what happened was scintillatingly attractive a new breed of Heroes accommodates the scene on the Range Tom Mix in the streets of reality the boot leer the hero in Reverse The Angry Young Man from Manasses Jack Dempsey in a glamorous rectangle of tennis Bill Tien golf provided the champion in Bobby Jones these would one day be called baseball's Golden Years yet in the 20s only one Chief clown one Chief hero one Chief everything in the game George Herman Ruth the Bambino the KE the sutan of SWAT baseball needed a Revival of faith and in the 20s Babe Ruth was exactly that a necessary focal point of public confidence and agulation he was the Babe honest outspoken and with the babe to believe in basball went on for Babe Ruth every honor from New York York's mayor Jimmy Walker to what the papers called the great unw people came to pay him homage to watch him practice the art of something he seemed almost to have invented the home run with the exception of 1925 he traveled a land engaged in Breaking records he made 74 home runs in his career a total that is probably matchless and if he was adored by adults their offspring paid him double homage for in the years of his Supremacy and afterwards as well the children of the nation truly adored the babe A Love Affair aided by all the trappings of publicity and it was in need of none for the Adoration was sincere and it's not too much to say that Babe Ruth always responded so warmly oh and the Press Damon ran and Grantland rice granny and Arthur bugs bear they spanked him but they loved him they reported his triumphs and his ills often they disapproved but they too were in love with the Babe inevitably his glory was supplemented by solid Hollywood a career punctuated with a series of monumental uh paychecks distinguished only by the by the spectacular ineptitude of the leading [Applause] [Music] man the movies were only at temporary and profitable interlude for George Herman Ruth was by Nature by inclination and aptitude above all and almost exclusively a player of the game of baseball and in the year of 1927 no longer the slim boy he was threatening his own home run record of 1921 in the 154th game the very last game of the 1927 season the object of all this attention hit his 60th home home run this was perhaps the Apex of baseball appeal in the [Music] 1920s we Americans have more sense of ritual than we sometimes care to admit take the spring April crisis in Europe frightening headlines from the Orient the dollar is up the dollar is down but each April in Washington the president of the United States no matter what his name or what his party or what his governmental duties or even his athletic prowess he takes upon himself a task for which he is universally envied a happy ritual this throwing out of the first ball in the year of 1933 when Franklin Delano Roost performed the deed happiness was in short supply Grim years the 30s a rough and terrible time Depression was the word breadlines apples on street corners oh all the cliches of economic upheaval with baseball upheaval as well attendance down receipts dropping off but baseball still optimistic changing Lou Garrick was in his prime now and Babe Ruth was almost America's number one export $80,000 a year a lot of money at that time more than former president Hoover just defeated in 32 of whom the babe was said to comment well I had a better year than he did so he had and of course Fresh Faces baseball producing its new Heroes among them a young Cardinal pitcher named Jerome Dean well I hope that I can beat him today I think it's a great honor for me to pit the opening day of the World Series in 1934 1934 the culmination of much planning much hard work and some luck Frankie F managing the club The deans pepper Martin Joe medick Delany Collins and a shortstop named Leo de roer I might name every man Frank Graham of the New York son called it the Gas House Gang and what a gang it was but with all a gang of gentlemen in the 193 4 World Series the Cardinals fought the Tigers down and in that last game in Detroit Dizzy Dean pitched an 11 to nothing shutout that was the same day that the Cardinal left fielder Joe medwick came sliding into Marv Owens the tiger third baseman hard and high Detroit was outraged they showed it with a complimentary shower of fruit and vegetables and bottles commissioner Landers called it garbage it was his decision that medick be taken out of the game for reasons of his own safety Fierce moments Fierce later in the final play of the game Owens of Detroit grounds out to short and the game is over the Cardinals over Detroit 11 to zero the Gas House Gang champions of the world like Ruth neither of the dean boys was overly Afflicted with the gift of modesty well Paul we ought to win 45 ball game this year I think we will D if you'll win 35 I'll take care of the rest nice going boy it was yane time again Joe mcarthy Yankees now and in the American League in the late 1930s it seemed that Yankees and excellence in baseball were synonymous then in 1939 a bitter circumstance for baseball the departure of lugary at 16 he led his high school team to the greater New York City Championship always in evidence the famous Gary grin in 1925 a rookie with the greatest team of the ti the New York yanes a team composed of many many stars G's first time up at bet he hit a double and two singles from that time for 14 years Lou gar would be first baseman of the New York Yankees yet his playing ability took second place to his sportsmanship for Lou gar was genuinely a nice guy truly a gentle man for many years he played in the shadow of Ruth the fatom star eternally the Crown Prince never the king in a lesser man resentment would have been routine but Lou gar was not that kind of a man but Lou knew his own share of Fame though he appeared shy there were times when he'd clown and carry on with the best of them but mostly Lou gar played ball then Tuesday May 2nd 1939 after 2,30 consecutive games L garri pulled himself out of the Yankee lineup for L garri was suffering from a rare form of paralysis that July 4th was one of baseball's saddest days he was reunited at Yankee Stadium with his teammates deeply grieved by his tragic illness they had gathered to honor a man who had so Faithfully honored the game today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the [Applause] Earth in June of 39 more ritual CER toown New York commissioner Landa Spectators by the thousands baseball's most glamorous figures why all this fuss and hubbub this was coer town and henceforth it would house the Hall of Fame would be the shrine the sanctum sanctorum of the [Music] game in 1941 a team known as the bums Underdog source of many years now Leo de roer a graduate of the Gas House Gang his manager and suddenly the Dodgers win their first pennant in 21 years to challenge the Yankees the bums from Brooklyn and challenge them they [Music] [Applause] [Music] did the famous play and turning point of that series came in the fourth game in the ninth inning with two out and New York at bat nobody on the bases and Brooklyn leading four to3 Tommy Henrick struck out swinging but the ball got by catcher Mickey on allowing henrix to reach first base the Yankees went on to score four runs in the inning and won the game 7 to four and made the series stand 3 to one it was the most unique losing play that has ever gotten into a World Series in this fall of 1941 considerable change is contemplated but on December the 7th that terrible Sunday the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor many of the game's biggest names would soon be absent from the rosters men like Joe deio and Hank Greenberg then 1945 the conflict is at its end once before B baseball had spread with war into every Hamlet of a land this time the game had ventured into lands made newly free the guns had stopped their firing men were at peace and children were playing [Music] ball later we would call this a post War era almost 20 million people attended professional League games 52 organized leagues in the land 388 ball clubs people spoke of returning to normaly which in baseball means involved progress and in 1946 involved progress indeed baseball refreshing itself once more with new players eager men among them a talented athlete from the University of California at Los Angeles a second lieutenant in the war his name was Jackie Robinson well now here's Robinson coming into the picture you see the first colored fell that ever came in belatedly the very first move I made when I came into Brooklyn was to investigate the the the the first problem of the six that faced me in the employment of negro and that was the the approval the support of ownership I couldn't do anything without ownership being back of it and and I and I didn't own any part of it at that time and uh there when this chap came into the picture and I got ownership back of it I said what are the prospects of successfully doing it I was convinced then that there was a timeliness about it after waiting a hundred years these people legally free not spiritually free never morally free we all know that and we know it now in what's happened in the last 15 years there was a a need for it and I felt that if the right man not to exploit a sociological problem but if the right man an ability on the field and with control of himself off the field if I could find that kind of a man the American public would accept it I felt that there was that kind of sportsmanship in America that would not turn thumbs down on a NE grow of high intelligence a fine character and of great physical skills there couldn't be any doubt about it and of course the employment of the fellow was was in order no player in the history of baseball I think was ever subjected to the vile baitings from opposing Ventures the basely unkind criticisms in print he played admirably in spite of it all he really turned the other cheat he a credit to baseball and to America in 1947 baseball was to pause and share a moment with a champion from the past Babe Ruth and he had returned to Yankee Stadium to say farewell over 50 years old The Glory Days Gone there was pain in his body and his and his voice would would show it comes up from the you that means the boy and if you're a boy and grow up to know how to play ball then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in your National P time the only real I think in the world baseball [Applause] in 1951 two teams come together the Giants and the Dodgers in a playoff for the pennant and in the third deciding game one of baseball's incomparable Thrills a kind of sporting moment that is really without compare in the last half of the nth the score is 4-2 Dodgers in the lead the Giants have two men on FY lockman at second on the mound Ral branker up at bat a young man named Bobby Thompson the first pitch a strike the next Thompson's tra Brooklyn sorrow this one home run by Bobby Thompson was possibly the highlight of the entire season almost eclipsing the World Series which followed and though Thompson may never make the Hall of Fame the bat he used that day is already on display at CER toown 1951 Joe deio leaves the [Music] game a rookie named Willie Mays on his way in in 1953 a great change takes place some 50 years of tradition ending as Boston loses the Braves the Braves from Milwaukee now with almost 2 million Spectators visiting their new home this move was the first big one to market the formal exit of Cornelius millotti Mr Connie Mack always Mr Mack to me he had entered the game in a time of stridency and turmoil after 50 years of managing in Philadelphia he left the game universally beloved there were seemingly angels in Brooklyn in 1955 some said they could be seen hovering over ebbit field a very gross exaggeration yet it was a fortunate season the culmination of a dream a very American Dream indeed the Brooklyn Dodgers in their eighth try finally winning their first World Series it was a great team they deserve to win with the power of Duke Snider the speed daring and knowhow of Jackie Robinson and in 1956 another fantastic dream comes true the Dodgers and the Yankees faced each other once again and in the fifth game of the World Series Yankee pitcher Don Larson achieved what many had felt was impossible in World Series play the perfect game 97 pitches and not a single base gained all afternoon the memory of Larson's miracle almost that remains unique in professional baseball New York City lifetime capital of baseball with three major league teams but only for one more year would that be so in 1957 Mr Horus stonum of the Giants was the gentleman who called the play at a meeting of our board today they voted uh permission for us to transfer the the New York Giant franchise to San Francisco does that mean you will definitely do it that's right on the subway circuit there were sad times farewell to the Polo Grounds the Giants heading for the hills and veils of San Francisco controversy controversy as usual battles raging in the New York Press but the Giants are on their way beckoned by the promise of the West at efield the same perhaps more controversy here than anywhere else the Cathedral of the underdog vacated in a year when more than 1 million customers had paid to see their beloved Dodgers ahead Los Angeles an uncertain future and a new stadium that existed only in Blueprints and now we see the last game at field for baseball moving day had truly come by the end of that same baseball year the economic wisdom of the move was proven the Braves had set National League attendance records in Milwaukee only four years in its new home and Milwaukee had won won it from the Yankees of Casey stangle and and it and it remained for Mr stangle to compose the series epap I just want to say that the New York Yankees were defeated and while the players actually feel bad about it I'll have to say as the manager that the Milwaukee Club was well managed and the ball players went out and win that championship by outplaying possibly the New York Yankees and Out manag Mr stle the time 196 60 in a healthy United States a pocket of Gloom disaster the place is Brooklyn the occasion farewell to ebot's field as always in baseball statistics Galore to Mark the moment so many thousands of games played so many thousands of strikeouts of home runs of angry players angrier fans for three4 of a century this field had been making statistics millions of Statistics one fact just as unhonorable and just as true the Dodgers had left Brooklyn [Music] forever and a house filled with ghosts had to come [Music] down again this ever renewing cycle of the nation itself reflected in its favorite sport progress involved progress I call it perhaps the Hallmark of baseball in the Years following 1957 new homes for new clubs and old in Los Angeles an aggregation known as the Los Angeles Dodgers will play in Memorial Coliseum their new home already underway settled on a Hilltop overlooking the smog and soon an example of change in Personnel a tragic example of how real are all these changes of How Deeply baseball has affected so many people 1958 a tragic accident not to a labeled object not a person of color simply a brave and stricken ball player Roy Campanella Roy what's the best medicine you've had so far well uh I I'd say but going home uh to my wife and children last weekend that's the the best pill I've had so far within the game his presence is missed and gentlemen not known for their sentimentality tender him their best wishes among them y Hodes what do you say poochie tried to get him to see you this last month before coming down here to Spring training uh of course they wouldn't let anybody in I just want to know let you know that that Joan and I have been talking to Ruth several times uh checking on you and all the boys down here really miss you we think about you every day all the time really praying for you to get better stay with them now buddy and Harold Reese peeee Reese oh Roy there's no need me to tell you that we miss you down here especially me as I told you the other day Roy I miss saving that much T off of you the most thing I miss everyone says I'm the oldest man down here since you're not here I know you'll be back Roy told hundreds of people that if anybody can do it you can do it God bless you ran hurry back at first the Dodgers had not fared well artistically in Los Angeles dropping from 3rd to 7th but in 1959 having defeated the Braves for the pennant the Dodgers of Los Angeles won a series of their own in six games against the white socks the first time in history that World Series play had been held west of St Louis in Los Angeles receipts reflecting the financial wisdom of move Westward over 990,000 Spectators each day paying for the privilege of watching a World Series and there were new Dogers men who would shine in Seasons to come Mari wills and a young left-hander named Sandy kfax and in Washington DC the hearings subject the third Major League it is difficult to imagine anyone finding overall fault with a bill that lets a major league club come into New York where 16 million people will see only one major league club about 70 days out of the 365 why why indeed trouble ahead trouble ahead and you'll hear it from Mr trotman and Mr frck it will tend to destroy the minor leaks it will abolish hundreds of player jobs it will downgrade The Prestige and standard of the major league classification and it will impair public acceptance of the case this will happen that will happen the other thing will happen upon assumptions that are wrong their associations have been so long with the with the kindnesses Andes from the major leagues that they're they're they're within the sphere of it and they can't imagine what will happen if they get outside and a Gentleman who almost found himself out talked Mr Casey stangle and there is now uh through the farm system a major Le control of the professional occupation of baseball playing is that a correct summary well you have uh that uh from the standpoint of what you've been reading you've got that down very good but if you are a player I'm trying to get it down from your standpoint as a 48-year man in baseball you give me yours I've been discharged 15 times and rehired so you get rehired on ability and they don't want a good ball player leaving and I always say a high price baseball player should get a high salary just like a moving picture actor he should not have to get the same thing as the 25th man on a ball club that that's very fortunate that he's sitting there on your ball club and I say it's very hard to have skill in baseball you're not changing the subject I Mr that same year the perpetuation of another ritual the socalled $100,000 club imagio for the three years until he retired had been first reportedly to reach this plateau and others Williams new and now in 1960 another member Mickey mat the coming year matal would compete in one of baseball's most publicized batting races with a fellow member of the Yankee team Roger Maris I don't think that you can beat bab Bruce home run record to start with and uh if I did of course I'd be happy but it's going to be just accidentally it's not going to be because I'm shooting for it and on the last day of the season in the fourth inning number [Applause] 61 and in the series the Yankees of Casey stangle are defeated by the pirates for a dozen Seasons stangle had provided fine leadership and and his Yankees had earned 10 penants and seven World Championships but 1961 was not a Yankee year and Mr stangle never at a loss in a verbal situation don't I know made his sentiments know precisely Casey no team has ever won three games so overwhelmingly as yours in this series and then lost the Series what do you think that signifies about the an well I'll tell you I'd like to own it if that's the if they were race horses you could sell them for a lot of [Applause] money the baseball tradition of upset had been sustained the mighty had been defeated for the first time in 36 years the crown of world championship rested at top the head of a grateful [Music] Pittsburgh somewhat early earlier that season on the afternoon of September the 28th another noteworthy event far less a caused for public celebration but nevertheless significant in Fenway Park Mr Ted Williams hit home run number 512 it was his last certainly one of the great players one of the very best like Williams a full generation of Idols men still young were beginning now to retire from the game Yogi Bara Stan miio Phil rosuto Feller Jackie Robinson Reese and once again replenishments a young Dodger shortstop named Mari Wills pilfering more bases in the single season and Ty cob himself Georgie peach these 60s what a marvelous time new Heroes new Champions new underdogs as well the city welcomes the metropolitans filling the void left by Brooklyn the Mets are a paradoxical phenomenon of baseball they were last in percentage and yet they outdrew the Yankees marvelous really this strange American formula and and in a sense a Mets our baseball a young club building and developing itself under the toage of a veteran gentleman somewhat past his own first youth a man not unknown for baseball ability and or his effective sense of humor if you want rapid advancement and you want to go in baseball a new career and if you want to be the greatest thing that in the world in sport a big league player you could become one with the mess I told you the new uniform we have the equipment we got the bonus money we leave him by your glove and always the Solace of the future knowing that existence is change and that change is good spitballs and sand lots to air conditioned [Music] Acres baseball still baseball the fences shorten and recede then all but disappear and here they do [Music] day turns to electrified night the gamblers go ladies replace them scoreboards explode and television transmits but it's it's baseball baseball all the same it's an honorable profession many a boy can be properly advised to elect it as a career some should not it must be candid with young fellas who who lack ability to go all the way but it it it is in our country it has been to me a way of life a Charming challenge that comes from from a little object little round ball made up of rubber inside and the yarn about it and horide cover with 162 stitches or what have you what is it that would challenge the interest of a man for 58 years I tell you it has blessed me I bless it it has blessed our country and our country must bless it as it must all of its Recreations we need it badly n [Music] the [Music] [Music]