The bedraggled Boston Braves were already in their familiar abode—the National League cellar—at 8-19 and 11 games out when they played their 28th game of the 1935 season. The venue was Pittsburgh’s bucolic Forbes Field; the opponents were the home-standing Pirates.
But the Braves had Babe Ruth, a free agent newcomer to the National League, acquired at a high-mileage age 40 by Boston’s owner and erstwhile manager1 Judge Emil E. Fuchs2 when the Yankees cast the legend adrift on February 26. Although the Braves already had a “new Babe Ruth,” as writers tabbed popular slugger Wally Berger3, “the Judge liked to take on long-shot comeback players,”4 and Ruth became “a very big frog in a very small pond” when Fuchs signed him.5 He’d departed Boston 15 years earlier, when Red Sox owner-theater impresario Harry Frazee sold him to the Yankees.
The Yankees had scorned Ruth in spring training by re-assigning his uniform number and using his locker for firewood as prelude to release.6 Fuchs brought him to Boston in the announced triple capacities of player, second vice president, and assistant manager,7 but the VP and assistant managerial posts were public relations fluff. Ruth’s playing days were essentially over, but after banishment by the Yankees, taking his celebrity to Boston seemed a better option than retirement.
