Show T THE HE glamour and tame fame ot of babe ruths career began in 1914 when he reported to the boston red sox the babe ruth that almost everyone knows stepped out beneath the great white spotlight at that 30 year ago date but how many know the story ot of the babe ruth between the ages ot of 12 and 19 when he was a kid at the st marys industrial school in baltimore we happened to run across brother gilbert who knew the babe in those early and far away days 11 1 I was the baseball coach at mt st josephs around 1911 brother gilbert II 11 told me when babe ruth nth I 1 first ran into the babe he was then 16 years old a tall stringy kid well built but in no sense bulky when I 1 first saw the babe play he was a left handed catcher lie he wore his catchers mitt on the left hand and I 1 was amazed at the swift ness and the deftness he employed in tossing aside his big mitt and throwing to second with his bis left hand band it was easy to see that the bab babe e was zo no 0 c catcher a e r bu but t it was just as easy to s see e e th that a tb he e was a natural ballplayer who had the winning spirit the ne babe just thought he had to win even as a young kid he could never understand defeat 1 I watched him from that time on in one of the first important games I 1 ever saw ruth play he hit three home runs he was a fine hitter when he was only 12 there used to be three or four teams playing at st marys and everyone wanted to see the young babe swing a bat the earlier years the time came brother gilbert said when the babe was ready to get his chance so I 1 recommended him to my close friend jack dunn Balti mores famous manager in the early training season jack used the babe at short where he did all right but dunn knew that a left handed shortstop just belong so he moved ruth into the pitching spot aln in his first real professional test he shut out the 1914 athletics american league pennant winners 6 to 0 he was then 19 years old weighing around pounds later he beat the 1914 boston braves 2 to I 1 and as you remember the braves whipped chipped the athletics four straight the rhe two pennant winners that seaton season got just one run off the babe in in 18 innings and he be was then just a kid the babes curve ball was just fair but he had everything else including a cool head and a stout heart plus fine speed and control there was another time that spring where the babe started a double header he was knocked out in the first inning of the first game and then came back to win a shutout in the second brother gilbert was a close friend sf of jack dunns and connie macks I 1 asked him why it was that connie get the babe this is an odd story brother gilbert said early in 1914 the year that babe st started rt e d with baltimore he was ota ofa I 1 I 1 ered to mr mack for but it so happened at that time i that connie had too many good ball slayers ol Dl ayers his athletics had won the pennant in 1910 1911 and 1913 they won again in 1914 they had been so good that they were beginning to araw smaller and smaller crowds early in 1914 when connie could have bought babe he had such pitchers as chief bender eddie plank bullet joe bush and I 1 think tack lack coombs he had a likely looking left hander coming along by the name of herb pennock he had one of it his greatest ball clubs 1 I know this boy ruth is a great ballplayer zonnie connie told me but I 1 already have too many great players in my club why should I 1 add another 1 1 I remember one game at st marys harys when the babe was only 17 years rears old there was another ball tame game going on at another spot in the same field when ruth came to bat the other fellows stopped their game fame 11 wed better look out someone laid dor or that g guy u y wi will 11 kill s some ome 1 body ruth hit bit a low line triple bat just cleared their heads ruth was a great kid brother ilbert gilbert said he was a kid who loved kids then and has loved kids ill U his life wed get him a few jobs dut aut hed never hold them long he mily wanted to play baseball to atch to pitch to play the infield nd and the outfield to knock the ball ver some fence |