Boston's Fenway Park, 1915.
Lefty Gomez squares off against lefty rookie Ruth.
Yankee starter Vernon 'Lefty' Gomez walks out onto the field. Both squads are casually loosening up... tossing baseballs here, smacking fungoes there... guys cracking jokes in the midday New England springtime sun. It's Lefty's 7th season with the big club. He knows his routine before a start... knows how to pace himself. He intends to go nine. And he intends to win. He stretches and limbers up slowly and looks around. He says to no one in particular...
"I know this is Fenway. But it don't look like any Fenway I've ever seen!"
"I'm thinking the same thing..." Lefty turns to his right and sees the tall youngster from San Francisco, rookie Joe DiMaggio.
"Don't be sneaking up on me like that!" Gomez retorts.
"Sorry." Young Joe grins. So does Lefty. "But seriously Lefty, look at that left field! It's banked. And look at centerfield. It's enormous. Huge."
"Just about five hundred to the deepest part!" Comes another voice with a Texas drawl.
"Hello, Tristam!" Barks Gomez. "Tristam. Want you to meet my newest project... Joseph P. DiMaggio. He runs down all of my mistakes, and hits everybody elses!"
Joe extends a hand and Tris Speaker shakes it.
"Glad to meet you son." Tris nods. "Like the way you stand up there at the plate. All business. No bull."
"Thanks, Mr. Speaker." Answers Joe quietly.
"Tris! Call me Tris." Joe nods respectfully. Tris continues. "How you feelin' today Lefty? Gonna go nine?"
"Well, Tris... with these fences being so deep and all..." Lefty looks around. "I might stand a chance."
"We're starting a southpaw today too... big kid from Baltimore. George Ruth."
"Heard about him." Nods Gomez.
"He's some piece of work." Continues Speaker. "Swings his bat harder than he throws his fastball. And he has a real good fastball. Gets wild sometimes. Better stay loose." Gomez glares at Speaker with mock suspicion.
"Saaaaay, Tristam! Are you trying to coach us, or scare us." Speaker winks and grins. He shrugs his shoulders.
"He's big as a water buffalo, about as strong... and he's only twenty. I guess I'm coaching you." Tris grins again. "So stay loose!"
The Red Sox and Yanks have split the first two games of the brand new season. Now, with Game three about to begin, the Red Sox rookie southpaw George "Babe" Ruth indeed walks out and takes the mound and the ball. He begins to toss warm-ups to catcher Forrest Cady. After only five he signals to Cady he's ready. Cady whips the ball to third baseman Larry Gardner, who sends it around the infield... Everett Scott... Jack Barry... Dick Hoblitzell. Rookie Ruth walks around the mound and looks at his outfielders... Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper... considered by many the best defensive outfield yet to take the field. Ruth takes a deep breath as Hoblitzell tosses him the ball. Ruth snags it, rubs it up, and walks up the mound. Umpire Bill Klem dusts off the plate one final time as Frankie Crosetti, the Yankee shortstop, gets ready to dig in.
Ruth peers in for the signal from Cady. Crosetti sets himself in the right-hand batters' box. Ruth grins, then wheels and fires. It's a high hard one... very high. It sails over Cady's mitt... over the right shoulder of umpire Klem, and clear to the backstop, where it clangs against a support beam. Ball One! The ball rebounds near Cady, who picks it up and fires it back to Ruth. Ruth walks back up and toes the rubber. He nods, winds, and a fires another high, hard one. Crosetti's eyes widen as the ball nears his neck... and he quickly bails out. The ball sails inside and Cady leaps up again to snag it.
"SETTLE DOWN!" Yells Cady as he flips the ball back to Ruth. But then he winks. Ruth turns to face the outfield and rubs up the ball. Crosetti and Klem cannot see him grin. Ruth turns back around, slams the ball into his glove in mock anger, and toes the rubber. Two-and-oh. Ruth winds and 'fires' a dandy of a change-up. Crosetti swings. And audible crack is heard around the park as Crosetti's bat shatters. Jack Barry scoops up the easy grounder and tosses it to first in plenty of time to get Crosetti at first. And the game is underway.
In the Yankee dugout Lefty Gomez quietly muses. "Well I'll be damned..."
Top of the fifth. No score. Rookie Ruth winds and fires a fastball. "Stee-rike!" bellows Bill Klem. Rookie DiMaggio, in the righty batters' box, doesn't move. Ruth takes the ball back, wheels, and fires again... a dandy of a curve ball, breaking sharply down and in. Until rookie DiMaggio swings and connects. The ball sails like a rocket, far past the centerfielder Tris Speaker. He gives chase as DiMaggio lopes around the Fenway basepaths, gliding into third standing up before the ball is finally retrieved from the deepest caverns of centerfield. Rookie George Ruth, backing up behind third base, takes the ball from Larry Gardner. As he passes rookie DiMaggio, he says "Nice hit, Kid!" DiMaggio, a bit surprised, stammers. "Thanks..."
Ruth toes the rubber and faces another challenge. No rookire this time, but instead the great Lou Gehrig. Like DiMaggio, Gehrig squares himself in the batters' box with little fanfare or fuss. Only Lou, of course, swings from the left side. And he swings at rookie Ruth's first offering, a shoulder high fastball thAt might be a strike... might be a ball. Gehrig connects, and there is no doubt about the fate of Ruth's pitch -KER-RACK! The ball rockets toward deepest right-center. Speaker and right-fielder Harry Hooper give chase. But they quickly see the futility in doing so. It's well over 400 to the right-center field fence, but the ball quickly sails far over it and into the crowded bleachers. Gehrig circles the bases as Ruth kicks at the ground with his spikes. He calls for a new ball from umpire Bill Klem, just as Gehrig dents the plate with spikes of his own. New York draws first blood, 2-0.
Bottom of the fifth. One on. No one out. Lefty Gomez is in control. Up to the plate comes rookie George 'Babe' Ruth. The Babe has already struck out. With batterymate Forrset Cady on first, Ruth might bunt him over and let the top of the order try to bring him in.
"You buntin', kid?" Gomez yells from the mound. Ruth, standing in the lefty batters' box, flashes a slightly startled grin. Lefty stretches, and fires. Ruth squares, but doesn't offer. "BALL ONE!" bellows Bill Klem. Gomez retrieves the ball from catcher Bill Dickey. He stretches and fires again. The ball is high and away... tough to bunt. But Ruth isn't bunting.
KER-RACK! The ball soars far past rookie Yankee centerfielder Joe DiMaggio, who like his counterpart Tris Speaker, gives chase. Ruth rounds first and heads for second. DiMaggio picks up the ball in deepest center and fires a strong strike to Crosetti at deep short. Ruth cruises into second as Cady crosses the plate. Yankees 2, Sox 1. Two outs later, Tris Speaker himself comes to the plate. He picks out a pitch from Gomez and lines a single past Gehrig into right field. Rookie Ruth round third and scores easily. And just like that, he is back even, 2-2.
Seventh inning. The game is still knotted 2-2. Larry Gardner is on first. Two out. And up comes the rookie Ruth again. This time the question isn't whether Ruth is bunting, but whether he is hitting at all. Eyes look to the Boston dugout. But Bill "Rough" Carrigan is poker faced. He makes no move of any sort. And the kid from Baltimore digs in.
"You buntin' kid?" Gomez again hollers from the mound. Ruth grins again. From the Yankee dugout booms manager Marsh Joe McCarthy. "Quit kiddin' Lefty, dammit!" Lefty yells back. "Who's kidding? Don't you want him to bunt, too?" McCarthy shakes his head. Gomez goes into his stretch and fires a fastball. STEEE-RRRIIIKE!" Lefty gets the ball back. Now he quips with the umpire, Bill Klem. "You sure about that, Bill?" Even Klem finds it hard to suppress a grin. Catcher Dickey shakes his head. "No, Bill!" Yells Gomez. "YOU give the signs! I shake 'em off!" Dickey shrugs and puts down a sign. Gomez nods and fires. A dandy of a slow curve. Rookie Ruth hitches, waits, and swings. KERR-ACKK! "Dammit!" snaps Gomez. DiMaggio takes a couple steps toward right-center field, but slows quickly and puts his hands on his hips. Right fielder George Selkirk takes a few more steps, but he also quickly sizes things up. The ball flies over the fence, over the fans, and over the bleachers. Gardner and Ruth trot around the bases and homeward, giving Boston a 4-2 lead.
And it's a lead the lefty from Baltimore does not relinquish. The young kid, nicknamed 'Dunnie's Babe' as a protege of Baltimore Oriole skipper Jack Dunn in 1914, singles in the eighth and scores ahead of Tris Speaker for the second time. The final score: Boston 6, New York 2. Dunnie's Babe wins his first game of the season, goes three-for-four with a double, a homer, and three RBI. Not a bad opener against a powerful New York line-up.
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