The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-03-12
BATHING KELLY TO MEET YOUNG STRBLG AT BA C. MONDAl
TANK OWNERS ARE PROUD OF MIGHTY SWAT KING, BABE
Ruppert and Huston Think Ruth Will Better Home
 Run Mark
By GEORGE CHADWICK ,ecinI Correspondent of The Age Herald Copyright, 1922, byE The Age-HeraldD


 Copyright, 1922, byR The Age-Herald)
 New York, February 11.-Col. Ja- cob Ruppert and Col T. L. Huston, the principal owners of the New York American league club, are as proud of Babe Ruth as the old-time village banker of his gold-headed cane or the chief of a volunteer fire department of his badge. They may think he asked lot when it came to talking salary, but they have a con scious air of satisfaction when he hits the ball over the fence. Each looks around with a bland smile as if to say, That's our boy. Some mur-> derer of the ball, isn't her Colonel Ruppert glows and Colonel Huston wiggles.
 Colonel Ruppert thinks Ruth may break the home run record again this year, even If Commissionsr Ian die does prove obdur1te- Can't Tell AboSt Babe
 You can't tell about Ruth,- said Colonel Ruppert today. He makes records when you least expect 1t He may break that home run record Hes big and strong. How can you tell what he will do2 What would he have to do to break that reeord'
 Sixty homers. wouldn't her We'll, he made 59 last year.
 "He hasn't got so many games in which to make them,' was inter posed.
 That don't affect his grit and pluck" answered the colonel, full of courage, that batter of ours. He said he would break the record in 1921 and he did, even though it looked for a time as if he wouldn't He never quit trying. Try is his partner in Ruth and company. But of course,
 we must realize that if he does not
 play all season he will have a harder task in 1s22r
 Half . Homer . Geme As matter of fact, if the suzpen- sion goes it's limit, Ruth might play in 120 games, or perhaps two or three | more. The schedule calls for 154 games. If a player can make 5s home | runs in 154 games it IS evident that his home run average for the season per game is .sS5. That sounds like | a big average and it is, too. If he is to beat that record in a 12o-game sea 1 son, his home run average would have to jump to 500 or half a home run a game. 1 Can Ruth do it, or any other human being? It isn't a chance worth in vesting very heavily on. Half a homs l run a game sounds like trying to bale out the Mississippi river with a tin 1 dipper. It Is the same as a home run every other day. Do that for 130 days and you would have SC home runs | and a reputation that would last as long as Methuselah lived and then some
 At Rat $40 Times l In 1921 Ruth had exactly $40 times at bat in which to make home runs t9le is not going to bat $40 times in 1922 if he cannot play until along in May. The pitchers would not care if | he never came to bat Many of them
 boast they don't think any more of ! Ruth than they do of Judge Landis, but they have a great deal of regard | comes to cases.
 nine thousandths, of home run every time he went to bat in 1921. but if he was out of sixth of his games this year he would have to average one hundred and thirty-t thr ee thou | sandths of a home run every tims he went to bat in 1922, jump of 24 points Some jump whether in Wall stree or on the diamond If Ruth could make yet another home run record under normal conditions in
 1922 it would be the greatest feat in baseball history. Don't forget that, 1 the very greatest feat in baseball his | tory. If he does it over the possible handicaps. Colonel Ruppert would be
 entitled to beam as he never beamed 1 before and Colonel Huston might l WigCle himself unioipted