The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-12
MIGHTY BAMBINO SHOWS ALL THE WORLD HE HAS KEPT HIS
 VOW TO STAGE A COMEBACK
Ruth's Two Homers Gave The Yankees Victory Over The Giants In Second Game Of Worlds Series
By WILLIAM sLAvENs M'NUTT Geased Wire To Age-HeraldO

back. The fact that the team on which the Babe plays won the second contest of the world series to ? and put themselves back on even terms with the Giants in the race for the supreme stellar baseball honor of the world is secondary in the minds of the thrilled thousands who saw the big boy from Baltimore sock himself two home runs and almost deliver a third during the course of the eventful pastime.
 There are good reasons why the Babes return to the forefront po- sition among ball players means more than the loss or winning of any one ball game by any one ball club.
 The Yankees as team are just a ball club after all and there are many other clubs approximately the same. But the Babe is the brightest human highlight the national pas time has ever known. There are not others approximately equivalent to the Babe. In victory aud defeat. in shame and glory, the big fellow has stood alone, unique and coloFful figure, deserving and receiving vari- ously the highest commendation and the most bitter denunciation.
 For two years this outstanding figure of baseball, this man with the terrific wallop, has been a pitiable thing at the world series. Two years ago he was both sick and injured and did nothing of which even rookie could boast. Last year he was down and nearly out. It is no secret that the big fellow travelled the broad highway that is popularly supposed to be strewn with prmroses He wasted his great strength on late parties in gay cabarets believing that the supply of energy within him was inexhaustible and that he would prove to be the one man of athletic +. .ftrkA -l night under the bright lights and not slow up in the daytime under the revealing sun.
 Led Wild Life.
 It must be said that he had evil dence to support his idea. For years he went at top speed both day and night and for years his exploits af- ter dark had no apparent effect on the excelleRce of his powers of per formance in the daytime.
 But the time came when even his marvellous constitution could no longer stand the strain and when the , big boy stepped on the diamond last year he was a pathetic figure, eyes, nerves and muscles so disarranged that he became the sport of the crowd that had once adored him, a stricken thing striving vainly to do the valient things that were once so easy for him.
 The Babe was though. The ex- perts all said it. The crowd was sure of 1t. Xhe axiOn they never come back" was quoted whenever the Babe was mentioned in sporting circles.
 And then. at meeting of New York baseball writers, held after the season, the Babe arose and declared that he was going to his farm for the winter and get himself in condi- tion to play the game of his life, promisin- that for the period ci the winter and the following ball year he would not take drink nor do anything to harm himself. The boys smiled and told each other they had heard that stuff before and bade the Babe good-by.
 It was true that they had heard that stuff before from the repennant lips of many a slipping athlete, but they had not heard it previously from the Babe and as we have said be fore the Babe is different. The Babe cut out the bright lights, and went to his farm and kept his word. He showed up for training in better shape than for many previous spring and put himself through training grind stiff enough to shame the most en- thusiastic rookie.
 Played Game Of His Life. '
 Throughout the season he played the game of his life, still sticking to his promise of reform. To him the credit of the winning of the league pennant is largely due and on him the spotlight of speculation was cen tered when 1t was known that the Giants had won and that the Babe would have his chance to redeem himself In competition against the manager and the team that had so bitterly humiliated him. on two suc- cessive years.
 It was Ruth against McGraw. Two of the greatest figures of baseball pitted against each other in the struggle for the championship. True, McGraw was not out there on the field in active play, but he was sit- ting on the benC.. directing every move made on the field and when the Babe went to bat it was really Me- Graw pitching to him with the arm and body of one of his players.
 m pitch to him. said McGraw. before the series began. T don't care how many home runs he has made In the American league or what shape he's in. I'll pitch to him and I'll stop him."
 McGraw believed this. He had stopped the Babe for two years run ming and he believed that he had the Indian sign on the big star, that no matter how well Ruth might be doing the memory of his former humiliation at the hands of the Giant manager would prevent him doing his best.
 During the first game 1t looked like the McGraw dope might be right. True, the Babe hit triple but he did not perform up to the brilliant stan dard of which he Is capable. The Giants won, and the bulk of the ex- perts sighed and said that Ruth and the Yankees could not recover from fAs inferiority complex with which McGraw had infected them.
 Babe's Comeback.
 Then came the second game and the Babe came up in the first inning. His huge body tense, quivering with eagerness to hit. McQuillan, pitch ing for the Giants, walked him. In the second fram Ward for the Yankees hanged out a homer with none on and the Tanks were then retired without further action. Ruth not getting another chance. In the Giants half of the second Meusel banked homer into the left field stands within few feet of where Wards had landed. None on.
 One and one 1t was then. Two hits and both of them homers Two homers and the Babe has not yet hit. Neither the Tanks nor Giants fur nished any particular excitement in their respective halves of the third Then came the Yankee half of the fourth and Ruth the first man up. < McQuillan pitched to him and sud- denly the Babe came back. He had been coming for a long time, for & entire year as matter of fact. but not until this moment was 1t certain that he had really arrived. He leaned his mighty shoulders into one of Mo- Quillan's shoots and there was a crack like the sound of young can non. as the ball sped whistling off the hard swung bat and began climb ing.
 It was a hit of hits. The ball rose and rose and went further and furth-