Babe Ruth and the Yankees play in Cleveland 100 years ago, a breakdown
What Happened
On June 15, 1920, the New York Yankees, led by legendary slugger Babe Ruth, travel to Cleveland to take on the Indians. The game is part of a century-old rivalry between the two storied franchises. In the top of the fourth inning, Babe Ruth steps up to the plate, leading off for the Yankees. The 25-year-old superstar takes some warm-up swings, digging his cleats into the dirt as he settles in. After a few practice cuts, Ruth steps into the box, facing off against Cleveland pitcher Carl Mays. The first pitch from Mays is called a strike, eliciting a frustrated reaction from Ruth. On the next offering, the Bambino unleashes his powerful swing, the follow-through sending up a cloud of dust. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Ruth whiffs, striking out swinging. As Ruth dejectedly walks back to the dugout, his teammate Wally Pipp steps up to the plate. Pipp swings and lifts a fly ball that is caught for the out. The Yankees' players quickly clear the field, not waiting for Pipp to fully exit before the next pitch is thrown. In the bottom half of the inning, the Indians' baserunner tries to steal third base, but is caught by Yankees catcher Hannah. It's a rare pickoff play, with the catcher standing up to make the throw and nab the runner at the hot corner. Later in the game, the cameras capture Ruth coming to the plate again. This time, he rips a triple to deep left field, showing off his prodigious power. The crowd erupts, but the filmmakers likely staged a dramatized "home run" sequence, as records indicate Ruth did not actually hit a home run in this particular contest. As the game winds down, the fans are seen casually exiting the ballpark, a sight not commonly witnessed in modern times. The Yankees ultimately fall to the Indians, but the focus remains on the legendary Babe Ruth and his larger-than-life presence on the diamond, even 100 years ago.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentlet's go check out some footage from 100
years ago June 15th 1920 babe taking
some warm-up throes nice little digging
into that dirt really digging in Oh what
is that a modern water core kind of blew
me away didn't know those were around a
hundred years ago but they were here's
his teammate having a little catch done
with the catch gonna take the glove off
fold it up and just put it in my pocket
don't see that much anymore
this is Wally PIPP batting practice and
the catcher just standing up catchers
stood up a hundred years ago didn't know
that that's a ridiculous absolutely
ridiculous swing I don't know who this
is Bob Mutual or something mutual look
at his feet his men's league softball
look at look at his feet and then I hope
he was just messing around for the
camera but that's crazy
well babe demonstrates his
follow-through swing look at this [ __ ]
look at babes feet right there and the
fact that his swing was considered like
new like follow through swing Wow
because everyone just punched and around
and chopped it down no one wanted hit in
the air until babe came fouled that one
off the feet blow my mind oh here's a
little mascot I think you're supposed to
think he's cute but in reality we all
agree kind of creepy
here's the two managers Trish speaker
who's a player manager for the Indians
and Huggins Susanna yeah out there and
left there's a little little bump you
just got to go over water-cooler again
Yankee Stardust Babe Ruth right there
gala which on the face cleans it off
that guy's hot talent off his head and
then this guy's saying the battery for
today is Carl Mayse I don't know who's
speaking this is interesting so I wanted
to find out what game they filmed this
on Hannah avenges ruth trapping an
indian at third this play let me figure
out what game it was I went to baseball
reference I found it because the catcher
is Hannah truck at the bottom of the
screen there and he picks a guy off
third base a very rare play I know it's
in Cleveland look how big of a lead the
runner has this is the runner this is
the shortstop just a huge lead and the
catcher just they just stood up
look the catcher standing up anyway nice
play picks him up third base so from
that I was able to find the game June 15
19 20 so this shot is clearly the start
of an inning babe is leading off his
teammate
Hanan trucks coming off the field throws
the extra bad away this is the top of
the fourth inning babe is leading off he
actually gets a single in this at-bat
they don't have any footage of the
single because they jump to this at-bat
where you can see Wally PIPP here he had
just flown out and he's walking off and
look how they don't even really wait for
Wally to get out of the way he's walking
he's walking he's barely out of play and
boom pitches thrown called strike I
don't know if he's swung or not but it
was a strike next pitch big ol hack from
babe the follow-through swing just
really ugly and the shadows are creeping
in that's a ball good eye babe Congrats
on the fantastic eye next pitch strikes
out just a huge strikeout they throw it
around 100 years ago and we still throw
the ball I love what final what's the
exactly the same and what's different
shadows coming out to play babe
embarrassed walking out sports writers
everyone walked around is that like a
vendor at the top there here's a nice
chopper to third
then they fake the play at first and
then they say but the speed Owens camera
says safe but this is clearly staged
because there's no fans and there's no
outfielders or any other players and
then they're like but it was wrong then
here's a triple deep left field I found
this in the score log nice triple a long
came Ruth and now Ruth is up and they
make it seem like Babe Ruth hit a home
run but he did not hit a home run in
this game they just wanted to sell the
movie so there's high speed analysis of
the home run swing but this is the swing
we saw in batting practice babe didn't
hit a home run in this game and they're
probably upset about that and then they
staged that babe hit it so far it went
out of the stadium and into a yard and
the school boys were you know looking
through the cracks oh there it goes
there it goes and then ditches the bike
this one kid trying to hop the fence the
other kids are looking around like an
Easter egg hunt they can't find it and
then it was right there
and I don't understand this dude hey the
kid that dressed like a mailman like how
did you miss that you were ahead of the
pack you go for the box
other kid has it meanwhile this kids
still stuck on the fence and the little
girl ran up and stole the bike Babe Ruth
busted the game not true I think the
Yankees even lost this game and I say
babe went hit the showers but they
had to sell their movie guys and then
the fans start leaving and this is you
don't see this anymore just leave in
like casually just leaving leaving and
leaving Cleveland