Posted 14 years ago
stepback_a…
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This is an original, small snapshot of Babe Ruth at bat. The shot was taken at Yankee Stadium by someone sitting down the right field line.The back of the photo reads in faded pencil, Yankees vs Chicago, Ruth at bat. Under a magnifying glass there is no doubt that it is Babe Ruth at the plate. The distance painted on the wall down the left field line is 301 feet. I checked Yankee Stadium stats and found that the dimentions were changed in 1928 to 301 feet. It stayed at 301 feet until 1976. Now I checked the Hall of Fame uniform database and found that the Chicago White Sox wore dark uniforms as the opposing team does in the photo, in 1926, 1930, and 1931. In 1926 the left field wall was 280 feet, so that eliminated 1926. So the best I could do was to guess the picture of Babe Ruth at bat was taken in either 1930 or 1931 while playing against the White Sox at Yankee Stadium. See the new information in the comment section.
If you want to get more specific: baseball-reference.com. If you can make out the numbers of the Chicago players....by looking at the schedules and results and comparing when the known players from this photo played, you may be able to pinpoint when it was to the month, week, or day. I have found that the White Sox played at Yankee Stadium in May, June and August in 1930, and June, July and September in 1931.
Thanks VikingFan 82 for checking out the schedules, when I have some spare time I just might follow up on this.
Mike
I did a little research today and have some new information on the photo. There are no numbers on the White sox uniforms, so this means the photo was taken in 1930. The White Sox started using numbers on their uniforms in 1931.
In the picture Ruth is at bat, and there is a man on first base, and a man on second base. I checked Ruth's batting records for his games against the White Sox at Yankee Stadium. I thought it would be easier first, to see if he hit any home runs with two men on base. I went through all of the batting stats for these dates and found there were no three run homers against the Sox. I then noticed a date I missed at the bottom of the page for the month of June. Bam! it all fell into place.
On Monday June 30th, 1930, Babe Ruth hit a three run home run off White Sox pitcher Tommy Thomas in the 7th inning. It was HR # 30 of the season for Ruth. This photo had to have been taken just before Ruth launched this ball for a home run. During this game Ruth came to bat 4 times. He scored 3 runs, got 3 hits, and was credited with 3 RBIs, all with this home run. The Yankees defeated the White sox 15 to 4.
After adding up Ruth's home runs through the previous seasons, this home run against the White Sox, would bring his career total to 546 on this date. Ruth would hit an additional 168 home runs after this, in the final years of his career. His career total was 714 home runs.
Awesome! I actually looked at that game!