The Washington times., 1939-01-14

ne IS, passing out baseball
York City hOspital.-I.N.P,
gone an operation. The opera
tion had been successful, but
the boy failed to improve. The
boys idol was Babe Ruth. A
newspapermar went to Ruth
and told him the story and
asked him to autograph a base
ball for the boy.
The next morning the nurse
came into the room and said.
johnny! Johnny! You mus:
open your eyes and sit up for a
moment. Someone is here to
see YOU"
The dooi opened and it was
God himself who walked into
the room. God dressed in a
camel's hair polo coat and a
flat, camels hair cap. God
with a big grin, and a fat black
cigar sticking out of the side
of it.
Promise Fulfilled
God gave His alias as Babe
Ruth and talked baseball for a
little while with the earth child
and then promised him a per-
Sonal and private miracle all for
himself. He said: "Ya know
what I'm going to do this after
noon? I'm gonna hit a home run
just for yon. You watch. Now
you hurry up and get we'll so
you can come out and see me
play"
When he left, the boy knew
that God had been there. be-
cause He left shiny white base
ball with the familiar Babe
Ruth" traced on the horsehide
as evidence of His presence.
And what is more, he performed
the miracle. He hit that home
run that afternoon. How did he
know that he would be able to
do it? Ruth always seemed to
know. The boy could not die
after that: not after he had
thus been held close to the au-
gust breasi of divinity and been
a party 70 a genuine grade-A
special Number One miracle.
The pictures and the story
covered the country. People
looked, read, gulped, and felt
an emotion and said in effect:
you gotta love a guy like that,
don't you?" And so they loved
him.
Plea for the Kids
I learned to love him because
he was all man. In his early
days he drank, he smoked, he
cursed, he INDUCED himself, he
bawled and sulked, and got the
Swelled head and got over it.
And yet it never made him
mean. He never forgot his early
days. And he always had
tremendous earneStness and sin
cerity and, above all, something
that only a great and really
simple man could have: a sense
of responsibility to the millions
of people. young and old, who
loved him and thought that he
was a hero and a fine man.
Consider for instance the plea
to Babe Ruth made by his
friend Senator Jimmy Walker at
a baseball writer's banquet at
the close of a season during
which Ruth had broken train
ing, had quarreled with Miller
Higgins, his manager, had been
fined and suspended and sent
home.
The Senator rose to speak in
a banquet hall filled with
wordly-wise baseball writer's,
baseball managers, celebrities Of
every kind; and he made a per-
sonal plea to Babe ruth to re-
form himself and behave be-
cause he owed it to the dirty.
faced kids in the streets who
worShiped him.
1t was maudlin: it was in
some ways cheap and tear-jerk-
ing. But, as have suggested.
1t was likewise brilliant. and the
cynical Senator of the State of
New York knew what he was
doing. Because Ruth robbed it
of all cheapness, of all sensa-
tionalism, or everything that
was vulgarly maudlin. but get
ting to his feet and, with tears
streaming down his big, ugly
face, promising the dirty-faced
kids of the nation to behave
for their sake, And then he
kept his promise.
Ruth's baseball record is a re-
markable one and deserves in