Stan Baumgartner vs. Babe Ruth: A Real Life Casey at the Bat

It is a story as old as baseball itself. The mighty slugger comes to the plate with the game on the line, in the grandstands the fans rise and cheer in anticipation, on the mound the pitcher is trying his best to preserve a precarious lead. Ernest Lawrence Thayer immortalized this tale in his 1888 poem "Casey At the Bat." The scenario has played out hundreds of times on sandlots, Little League fields, and major league stadiums throughout the country over the next 130 years or so. One such occurrence was on May 30, 1924 at Yankee Stadium before 50,000 people. The mighty slugger was the immortal Babe Ruth. The pitcher was a little known left-hander for the Philadelphia Athleticss named Stan Baumgartner.

A side-winding lefthander with a sweeping curve ball, Baumgartner pitched in parts of eight seasons in the major leagues with the Phillies and the As. His career began with the Phillies in 1914 when he was 19-years-old and included several trips to the minor leagues and five years when he pitched exclusively with semi-pro teams in the Philadelphia area. In only two seasons, 1924 and 1925 with the As, was he on the major league roster for the full year. 

Despite a rather mundane professional career played mostly on bad Philadelphia teams and despite feeling the wrath of the notoriously cranky Philadelphia fans on more than one occasion, Baumgartner cherished his time in the bigs. After his pitching career ended, the college educated Baumgartner became a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1942, long after his baseball career was over and after he had established himself as a writer, he gave a remarkable interview to none other than J. G. Taylor Spink, editor and publisher of The Sporting News. In that interview he tells the story of his one shining moment in the major league sun.

Coming into the May 30th game, the second game of a doubleheader, the As (13-21), under Connie Mack, were in last place in the American League. The Yankees (21-13), managed by Miller Huggins, were tied for first with the Boston Red Sox. Baumgartner relieved Phillies starting pitcher Eddie Rommel in the seventh inning with the As behind, 4-1. He held the Yankees in the seventh and eighth as the As staged a four-run rally in the eighth inning to take a one run lead, 5-4. The big hit was a Bing Miller three-run homerun. 

In the bottom of the ninth, Baumgartner got the first two batters out easily. Bullet Joe Bush then pinch hit for Yankee pitcher Sad Sam Jones, and singled on a slow roller to third. Earle Combs came in to run for Bush. Wally Schang batted for Whitey Witt and worked a walk. With Ruth lurking in the on-deck circle, Baumgartner hit Joe Dugan with a pitch to load the bases. In stepped Ruth with the game on the line. 

I'll let Baumgartner tell the story from here.

"Frank Bruggy, who was catching, walked out to the mound. He told me, 'You're  gonna' throw this big lug three curve balls - one in  the dirt, one a foot outside, and one three feet outside. Babe will swing at anything, but if you get one near the plate, I'll come out to the pitcher's box and sock you in  the chin.'"

"The first pitch was low. Ruth swung and missed - as only Ruth can swing and miss - and the throng roared and moaned. The second curve was a foot outside, Ruth swung and missed it by only an inch or two. Bruggy shook his head menacingly and again walked out to the mound. 'This is the one kid. Break it wide enough so that it lands in Miller Huggins lap (in the dugout).'"

"The third curve did not go near the plate. As it started Bruggy jumped out of the catcher's box. He caught it some four feet away from Ruth. Babe, determined to knock the ball out of the lot, swung and missed. 

"Sixty-five thousand* fans moaned and screeched. Hundreds tossed their hats on the field. As I walked across the field to the dugout, four young fellows picked me up and carried me to the stairs. It was the first time I had been carried off the field since I pitched the University of Chicago to the Western Conference championship in a twelve-inning, 2-1 game against Illinois."

"The memory of that one strikeout, Taylor, overshadows all the heartaches, lean years, razzing by fans."

 In 1953, Baumgartner wrote the definitive history of the Phillies with colleague Fred Lieb. It was called The Philadelphia Phillies and is still in print. He covered the Phillies for the Inquirer until his death from cancer in 1955 at age 60.

*Baumgartner is engaging in a little hyperbole here. The announced crowd was 50,000.