The 1923 season wasn’t close. Not even close. The New York Yankees led the American League from Opening Day and never looked back. By mid-June, no team was within five games of them. They finished 16 games ahead of second-place Detroit. The Boston Red Sox sat 37 games back, seven out of seventh place. Fans across the AL got bored. The Yankees just kept winning.
Ruth’s 1923 Stats
Ruth was absurd that year. He led the AL in seven categories. On-base percentage. Slugging average. He hit 12 more home runs than the next best guy. His .393 batting average was his career high. Only Harry Heilman’s .403 beat it.
Strikers tried taking the bat away. It didn’t work. Ruth still walked 170 times. No one has ever walked more in a single season. The next closest hitter got 72 fewer free passes. He won the MVP award without a fight.
Was 1923 the best year of his career? Biographers argue. Ruth didn’t. He told a biographer it was his “peak year.”
The 1923 World Series
The Giants returned. John McGraw made a move. He called every pitch his pitchers threw to Ruth. McGraw said it made his players feel less responsible. “Ballplayers can do a more workmanlike job when they feel someone else is taking the responsibility.”
The Yankees lost Game 1, 5-4. Casey Stengel hit an inside-the-park home run in the top of the ninth. A pad in his shoe slipped loose as he rounded first. His shoe almost came off. His speed died. Damon Runyon wrote about Stengel’s gait the next day. It became a classic.
The Yankees had lost eight straight Series games to the Giants. Three in 1921 when Ruth had an elbow abscess. Four in 1922.
Game 2 changed things. Ruth hit two home runs. One went over the Polo Grounds rightfield roof. The second helped the Yankees win 4-2.
Stengel won Game 3, 1-0. He hit a home run. He thumbled his nose at the Yankees bench as he rounded third. The Yanks acted shocked. They asked Judge Landing for a ruling. Landis said, “When a guy hits two home runs to win two World Series games, he deserves a little fun.”
Stengel was the only excitement for the Giants. The Yankees exploded in the second inning of Game 4 with six runs. They scored seven in the first two frames of Game 5. They broke open Game 6 with five runs in the eighth.
The Yankees were world champions for the first time. Ruth hit three home runs and scored eight runs in 19 at-bats. McGraw’s pitch-calling walked him eight times.
Total attendance for the six games was 302,000. Gross receipts hit $1 million. The Yankees each took home $6,160.46. The Giants got $4,112.81. That record stood until 1935.
Babe the Big Kid
Ruth loved kids. A lot of them.
During his postseason barnstorming tour, 6,000 kids swarmed the field after one game. They flattened him. They piled on him until four police officers cleared them away. Ruth got up, uninjured, laughing. He wanted to throw baseballs to them. The cops said no. They feared a riot.
In spring training of 1924, Jocko Conlan, who later became a major league umpire, played for the Rochester Red Wings in an exhibition series against the Yankees. Conlan told this story:
“At Mobile there was a large crowd. After the game the teams went to their hotel and had dinner and Ruth still hadn’t come back [from the game]. He finally came in about eight o’clock without his cap; his shirt was torn, his fielding glove was tied to his belt with a cord, and his baseball suit was all muddy with Alabama clay up above his knees.”
The reporters asked where he was. Ruth said, “There were about 75 kids who stayed in the park and wanted to play ball. I spent all the time since the game hitting flies and shagging flies with the kids.”
The 1924 Season
Ruth went to Hot Springs to lose the winter weight. He was about 240 pounds. Then the spring flu hit. He burned with fever. He lost 22 pounds in a few weeks.
The biggest news of spring training wasn’t the weight. It was the money. Ruth lost a $1,000 bill between the team hotel and the bank. He started with four of them.
The 1924 season was bad for the Yankees. The team was aging. Four regulars and nearly all the bench were over 30. They still went to speakeasies. They still threw big parties. They were noisier than ever. Their performance slipped. Except for the Babe.
Ruth was 29. He had plenty of life left. Biographers first mention his use of bicarbonate of soda in 1924. He used it to settle his stomach.
He’d party all night. Before each game, he’d eat hot dogs and drink soda. Then he’d take some bicarb. He’d let out a big belch. Then he’d go play ball.
How Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth’s Brawl Changed the Season
The off-field chaos didn’t stop at the bar. It spilled onto the diamond. Ruth and Ty Cobb got into a physical fight, and the crowd lost its mind. Angry Detroit fans stormed the field. The game was forfeited to the Yankees, but the damage was done. Ejections, fines, and a team that felt untethered by manager Mitchell Huggins. He couldn’t rein them in.
Huggins made a desperate move mid-season. He shipped Carl Mays, a talented but difficult pitcher, to Cincinnati. That trade broke the Yankees. They started hot, sure, but the Washington Senators were surging. Without Mays, New York couldn’t keep pace. The Senators won 16 of their final 21 games. That late charge was enough. The Yanks finished two games back.
Which Stats Did Ruth Post in 1924?
Ruth kept his humor sharp, even when the season was messy. Remember the hot day before President Harding? Babe wiped his brow with a massive handkerchief and asked, “Hot as hell, ain’t it, Prez?”
But the stats were undeniable. He won his first and only batting title. He took the home run crown again. He led the league in runs, total bases, walks, on-base percentage, and slugging average. Goose Goslin of the Senators drove in 129 runs. Ruth had 121. That small gap meant no Triple Crown. He never won one.
Why Babe Ruth’s 1924 Barnstorming Tour Was Historic
That fall, Ruth went on his most successful barnstorming trip yet. He and Bob Meusel’s teams traveled 8,500 miles. They played in 15 cities. 125,000 fans showed up. Ruth’s team went 15-0. He hit 17 home runs in the series.
The commercial reach was absurd. Biographer Marshall Smelser noted that 10,000 balls and 2,000 bats carried Ruth’s signature in 1924. He even taught the Yankee trainer how to forge it.
What Health Issues Did Babe Ruth Face Later?
The invincibility wouldn’t last. A series of illnesses would plague the Babe in the coming years. The body that could out-hit Ty Cobb and out-run the Senators had limits.
