Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-03-10

AVA u Jaw As4tAt AASa - Ats w
get OF her chest In her book,
The Babe and l." What came
on apparently was mustard
plaster. leaving much infiain-
nation. for Mrs. Ruth still Is
sore at q lot Of baseball people
Kenesaw Mountain Lands
late baseball commissioner. be-
comes a "cruel and ruthless
Judge" Ed Barrow. who as gen.
eral manager Of the Yankees
made them what they are to-
day, gets no garlands from
Mrs. Ruth. OF him she says
Babe and his friends can al
ways be grateful to Barrow for
having the courage Of his con-
victions Tin converting Ruth
from q pitcher into an out
fielder. And. frankly. ! car
think of nothing else to be
grateful to Ed for"
Joe Mccarthy won eight pen
nants managing the Yankees
but Mrs. Ruth says. Mccarthy
exerted no discipline, Just i'm
placable loathing which was re.
ciprocated. To Babe, Mccarthy
was a 'busher.' Players on the
Yankees loathed Mccarthy. too
Mccarthy was manager Of the
Yankees, and Babe felt the jot
should be his. Babe made nc
secret Of his feelings. so Joe
was well aware Of It,"
49,
OF Leo Durocher, Mrs. Ruth
writes, 1T was Babes feeling
that def shortstop play wa,
the sum total Of Leo's civilized
conduct" In regard to the
movie, The Babe Ruth Story
her feeling is: William Bendis
got the role. 1t turned out tc
be a ridiculous choice"
Ruth didn't speak to Lou
Gehrig Of the field for six
years. According to Mrs. Ruth
the feud Stemmed from n re:
mark by Gehrig's mother sup
posedly belittling BADLY
dressed" Dorothy. the Ruth's
adopted daughter. One word
led TO several thousand others
among the women. the men
took UP the argument and Mrs
Ruth concludes. "They had just
been loused up by a flock oi
Cabling women"
/ k&&
Gehrig's strict adherence &c
thrift and Babes disregard OF
a dollar are cited. THE same
grim childhood poverty that
had turned Babe into a wild
free spending young mar
turned Lou into a diffident
youth dedicated to a personal
economy that was embarrassing
TO Babe and all the Yankees.
Who knows who was right?"
Mrs. Ruth continues. Surely
Babe was ridiculous when he
left a $40 tip where so cents
would have been generous ! But
Louis dimes were just as silly"
= =
Mrs. Ruth, who was married
for the first time at IL. Is writ
ing Of a man who was Judged
"hopelessly incorrigible" by a
Maryland court when he was Z
years old. Ruth chewed tobacco
at that age, drank whisky be-
lore ne was III.
Ruth was married for the
first time when he was 20 to a
Boston waitress. Helen Wood
ford. who was Is. She died in
Ia fire after their marriage had
gone on the rocks. Before
then, though. Babe had fallen
in love with Claire Hodgson,
the current author. His 1929
spring training telephone bill.
calling the girl who was to
become the second Mrs. Ruth,
was $1,000.
Babe had so captured the
imagination of the Nation that
he was married at 5 am. in
New York. That was a move
to avoid the inevitable crowd,
but the church was filled and
5000 fans damned the street
outside.
Ruth lived it up perhaps as
much as any man in history.
He purchased at least one
usually two or three-Cadillacs
every year from 1920 to 1929.
He played baseball in the day
and Just played at night" Mrs.
Ruth writes. He flouted train
ing and refused to live with
the team on the road or even
travel with 1t on short hops. ="
On the road Ruth lived in
$i00-a-day suites.
Mrs. Ruth is obsessed with
the idea that Babe should have
been given a major league job
as manager. In support of that
theme she says: Baseball took
OF him all he could give and
returned an absolute mini
num-"