Evening Star Newspaper, September 29, 1935, Page 98

2 Magasine Section THIS WEEK Socko! Here are five views of the home-run king clouting out long ones September 29, 1935 Baseball's Biggest Thrill 1t comes just before the call, “Play Ball”’ in your first World’s Series, says Babe Ruth. Here he tells how stars and rookies NOTHER major league baseball cam- paign is finished. This week brings the World's Series, the season's climax, the big thrill to millions of fans. Does the big series bring the biggest thrill to ihe player? I think I have been asked that question almost as often as I have been asked to autograph a new, shiny baseball. Well, let's talk about the thrill of the World's Series. I guess I'm fairly well qualified to talk on the subject' now. I have played in ten World's Series, you know, dating from 1915 when I was a rookie with the Boston Red Sox to 1932 when the New York Yankees polished off the Chicago Cubs in four straight games, concluding a winning streak of twelve consecutive World's Series victories that in- cluded grand slams over the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1927 and over the St. Louis Car- dinals in 1928. But this week I'll be a noncombatant. I'l] be sitting up there in the press stand second- guessing the managers and the pitchers with the rest of the experts. I've been sitting up in the stands with the fans a good deal in the last few months, you know. I have learned a good deal about the fans’ viewpoint that I had not known before. I'm beginning to wonder if, perhaps, the fan doesn't get an even greater thrill than the plavers. Down on the field you're too busy planning your next move to do much thinking about the thrill. But the fan in the stands is merely waiting, in sus- pense. That suspense, I'm beginning to find out, is a big part of the thrill. Ball players differ in their reactions under fire. Some bobble, some don't. Some tighten up, others smooth out to think clearly and to perform without error in the ‘“‘clutch.” I sup- pose it is a matter of temperament, although ball players have a word for it that is shorter and more expressive. At any rate, for the pennant winning ball players, the thrill of the big series comes before the ‘series starts. There's a real kick in winning that league pennant, especially after a tight race such as the National League scrap has been this year. Your club has battled its way through 154 games. You've won and you've lost. There have been days when the pennant seemed a million miles away. That’s just as true of a club that is out in front most of the way as of the team that comes from behind. There have been hitting slumps. Sometimes the pitchers have faltered. The best pitching staffs do, you know. Ask Bill Terry. Or Frankie Frisch. But the day that pennant is clinched mathematically, without possible chance of loss — that’s a real thrill. That's an achieve- ment. You and your club have proved you have the stamina over the marathon route. There’s no accident, no, fluke, in 154 games. Then, in these last few days before the big they wait for the classic to start by BABE RUTH series comes the nerve-straining wait. Whether vou're rookie or regular, freshman or veteran, there’s a strain in this pre-series wait. If this happens to be vour vear to open in enemy territory, the train-ride that takes you there seems the longest of the season. And if you're a rookie, finishing out vour first real year in the big show — Well, I remember the night two youngsters spent before their first World's Series game. One was Ernie Shore, the other myself. We were members of the Boston Red Sox. We had come up together from Baltimore the year before. We were hotel roommates when on theroad. And I don’t mind telling you that we were companions in misery on this parti- cular night. We were playing the Phillies and the series was opening in Philadelphia. I don't know what Ernie did early in the evening. Perhaps he played billiards. Many ball players do because it's a grand game for relaxation while keeping the eye tuned up. Perhaps he just sat around. I was out of the hotel during the early part of the evening with two or three friends. There was too much excitement around the hotel for me. But I was determined I was going to get plenty of sleep and I left my friends early. As I turned into the hotel elevator at the un- seemly hour of 10 o'clock, en route to bed, who should I bump into but Roommate Thrills for thousands — a series crowd. At right, the Babe himself Ernie Shore. He also was set on getting plenty of sleep. But getting that sleep was another thing again. They crack Philadelphia up as a quiet town, but it didn’t seem so quiet to me that . night. There were more clocks striking off the hours than I had ever heard before. You could see one of those big clocks on some tower from our hotel window. The clock would boom twice, Ernie would get up, go to the window, turn around and announce: “Well, it's two o'clock, Kid.”” When the clock would strike the next hour, I'd be at the window, taking a look just to be sure that it wasn't jumping ahead on us or something. That's the way it went all night. Neither of us slept. This was in 1915, remember, and I was only getting out of my 'teens. I forget how old Ernie was but he was a youngster, too. Just about the age of this young Phil Cavaretta, who has done so well for the Cubs at first base this year. We were up early and had had breakfast by the time most of the veterans, Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, Duffy Lewis, Bill Carrigan and the others had come down. I envied them. They looked well rested. The strain apparently was off them, now that the waiting was over and there was a ball game to be played in the afternoon. When we got to the ball park, I found that are feeling now while Photo by they were right. This was just another bal| game. The crowd was big but I had seen big crowds out at Fenway Park in Boston during the season. The Phillies were a good club but we had beaten some good clubs to win the American League flag. I was sort of settling down by the time the ball game started. My only appearance in that series was (Continued on page 15)