Article:Lefty Grove and Babe and the winter of 1933..

I will start this with something of a different introduction. It was the winter of 1933 and as usual we had a lot of players over after the season. Babe showed up early that winter in November and we got to spend a lot of time together, me as a 15 year old and the unbelievable Babe Ruth hunting and sitting by the fireplace for hours that early winter, talking as he and I did about baseball from sunrise to sunset somedays. Knowing that he was always my most favorite baseball player is something very hard for some to understand in my family. But there was something about Babe that you can't hold in your hand but only in your mind and your feelings. I have always wondered what he saw in a young boy of my age, since he first came into my life at 3 or 4 he always was around during the winters after the baseball season ended for at least a couple of weeks from October to late spring. He saw me grow up and the last time I really got to talk to him seriously was in late 1939 when he first started to show signs of an illness that I all then 21 didn't really understand. Anyway,  that winter of 1933 was different than most because we had a lot of baseball players showing up after that season. Besides Ruth, we had the always present Grover Cleveland Alexander and Rodgers Hornsby,  Mel Ott and someone who I hadn't seen for awhile, more than a couple of years  Lefty Grove, who was one of my father's long time friends and hunting and fishing partners going back quite a few years. Lefty and I and Grover were always playing catch in the back of the barn and it was really fun as I got older because when finally I was almost as big as they were I could almost hold my own throwing back to them. Lefty was great with all the family, my brothers and sisters loved him dearly and my grandmother was one of his favorites because I guess of her cooking and backhome ways. She always was easy with him and sometimes just let him be himself and enjoy being on the farm without any fanfare. Well, this year like I said, was different. Babe was very early for him and left after only 4 or 5 days but told me that he would be back late that spring to get in some fishing for the early spring run and he left just after Thanksgivings and everyone was sad to see him go especially me. That week he and I hunted for 3 straight days and talked about lots of things that I never really understood until that spring. I like always had lots of questions about how he felt and what to do in situations on the field. Babe use to tell me that everything he had learned about situations during the games, he had learned under Miller Huggins. I know everyone use to say that they didn't get along, but Babe really liked Miller and the only reason he loved to put tricks on him was to watch him blowup and get crazy and that if he had thought it would have kept him around longer he wouldn't had done some of the things he did to him. He respected Miller above all and I can truly say maybe Babe missed him more than everyone thinks. Babe use to tell me of the things he and others did to him and just sit back and wait until the you know what hit the fan. God, he would laugh for a long time thinking about all those jokes and then get very serious and kind of sad, but he would come out of it real fast and continue to talk about baseball and other players. After he left my dad was asking what Babe and I talked about and I told him that it was just the same things we always talked about and he would just smile and walk out to do his chores.

It was later that winter just before the real spring thaw that Lefty and Grover and Rodgers showed up with all the others and started the fishing trips and picnics that would last until they went to spring trading weeks later. Some would be around daily and others would come and go as they had the time. This year  Lefty and Grover were really giving me lots of hell for always talking about Babe this or Babe that and then laugh. They both liked Ruth too and didn't pay much attention to the negative stuff that was written about him from time to time because when he was around they had fun and I think they enjoyed having him there and they loved to listen to his stories and all the stuff he use to do not only to Huggins but rookies and the opposing players, they included too. Lefty was the one that showed me how to throw a hard fastball and Grover was the one who showed me how to control my pitchers better and they both taught me to take charge of the plate on the mound. So it was always fun and games to be with them anytime. Grover always was more with my grandfather and father than Lefty but that was because they were really two different individuals. Not direct opposites but different now the lest. One night during the big dinners outside we heard a car coming and lots of yelling coming from the road to the farmhouse. And low and behold, guess who it was, the Babe driving with his top down and yelling whatever at all sitting at the tables around the back of the farmhouse. He pulls up to the tables and jumps out saying how great it was to be back in the woods and that he loved the smell of being here and what's for dinner. My grandmother came running out of the house with her 3 foot wooden spoon wondering who was making all the noise and then stopped in her tracks and just smiled and laughed out loud, different for my grandmother, and said to the Babe "Alright Mr. Ruth go wash your hands and take off your jacket and sit down, you are late for dinner as it is, so just go find a seat and I will get your dinner right away'"  I can hear her now, turning and laughing to herself and saying something under her breath like here we go again. Lefty and Grover motioned for Babe to come over with us and moved down the table to make room. The Babe dropped his jacket back in his car and then turned and walked over to the hose facet and grapped some homemade soap and washed his hands and then did the unspeakable as far as my grandmother was concerned, he dried his hands on the front of his shirt and then my grandmother let out a yell from the kitchen,  "George Herman Ruth, were you raised in a barn and I know you weren't taught to dry your hands that way." Babe really laughed that Ruthian laugh that we all knew well and sat down next to me at the table,  rubbed my hair, just like he had always done since as long as I can remember and waited until my grandmother brought him out his plate. "Alright Kid," his was of addressing me most of the time, "what has been going on since I left and how is the fishing." He longed to Lefty and Grover and said plainly,  "How are you gentlemen doing these days, anything interesting happening with the league or what." Babes' way of I guess breaking the ice. They talked about a number of things from the weather to their kids,  what's is happening in the leagues and some contract talks that I didn't really pay much attention to because it was something I wasn't interested in. Lefty waits for my grandmother to give Babe his plate and then says something that I will remember always until the day I die. "Well, Babe  I heard a rumor that you want to be the manager of the Yankees when you retire is that true"  Babe stops eating something he normally didn't do often and looked over to both Grover and Lefty and said,  "Why yes that is something I would like to try." Lefty and Grover just looked at each other and stopped cold in there tracks, didn't say a word and it kind of got a little strange for a minute until Babe chimmed in with  "Yes sir,  it sure would be better than running around the bases all the time." Then he laughed again and started up on his food. Both didn't know what to say and my father and grandfather were equally shocked, but I can say here and now I wasn't because he and I had talked about that same thing earlier that winter and it didn't come of any surprise to me that he was interested in managing a major league baseball team. My mother came over and told me that I had to go to bed because if I was going to get up early and go fishing with the boys than I needed some sleep. So I excused myself and left. Never knew what happened after I when to bed, but it must have been something because next morning at breakfast they were still talking about Babe's remark and didn't stop when Babe came in for breakfast and sat down next to me with the same  push my hair and morning kid remarks. Breakfast was very quiet and nobody said much of anything except is everything really for the fishing trip and remember to keep dry and warm. It is a 45 minute drive or more to the lake and we had to take 3 cars that morning and I got to ride with my grandfather and Babe and Grover and listen to them talking about the previous season, Babe had hit 341 and 41 homers and drove in a 130 or so runs a great season by todays' standard but Babe's only comment was we didn't win the series and that was just about all the talking during the drive about baseball. Lots of politics, possible of war what was happening in Europe and the economy, same thing today, seems a little strange but I am repeating lots of things I did in my childhood in regards to what is happening around the world. Economy was bad in 1933 and today in 2008 not really much better for alot of Americans.

We got to the Lake and Babe and Lefty get together  in the same boat and I got in with them. Fly on the wall is what I am thinking this minute, the fishing trip now begins to take on a real different look than all the others. Babe hardly ever talked politics in regards to non-baseball issues and neither did Lefty but running across the lake to our favorite place was somehow way out there on this particular trip. My dad and grandfather had said to me earlier to try and keep the peace in the boat. Talk about competition. Who had the biggest fish, the most fish, the smallest fish, you name it it was a contest. But between all this the underlying comments centered around the comment at the  dinner table. I can't tell you today why it was a subject but both Babe and Lefty talked about baseball situations all day and even during lunch when we came back and had lunch at the cars. What would he did in this situation and what do you think would happen if you did this or that. On and on until even I was getting tired of it. Then all of the sudden  Babe stops and looks up and over at me and says,  "Do you think I would make a good manager Kid?" Talk about being in shock, what do you say to the best baseball player in the world when he asks you that question. For myself I can say today I did answer honestly,  "I don't know, but if you manage as well and as great as you play you will be the best manager in history." And with that Lefty started laughing so loud and then Babe came in and they almost turned the boat over. Lefty hits me on the back and says,  "You sure you are only 15 and not a politician." All of us laughed but I guess I did it out of relief more than anything, because I am sure I didn't really understand what I had said made any sense except that they both laughed and I was not in trouble for something I said. Babe told me later that week that he really felt he could be a really good manager if he was given the chance. Now I know why the Yankees ownership didn't want Ruth to manage, they did offer him a minor league managership but his wife told him to turn it down because it didn't suit his rep and it really wasn't a fair offer to begin with. Even today I wonder why Babe would talk to a 15 year old about some of the things he did over the years, but my grandmother us to tell me that he liked me and that I always listened to what he had to say and never questioned his motives or answers for that matter. Lefty was very much the same as the Babe, he was private in some  matters but upon questioning him he was very open especially to me as a youngster and even later before the war and after after he started to go downhill health wise in the late fourties. In some ways Lefty was even funnier than the Babe. He use to tell me that when he pitched as he got older he would always remember players talking about Ruth on the mound. Both were left handers and both were great pitchers but Lefty wasn't in the Babes' league at bat and he was the first to mention that if you asked him. Just before the second world war after my grandfather passed away, Lefty came out to the farm to see my father and mother and when he did he always asked how I was doing, well this time he came out and as he walked up to the farmhouse he and my father said hello and just as he was about to ask about me, I walked out of the house with a bowl of hot oatmeal and almost dropped it when I saw he and my dad talking. I was home from the academy on leave and boy, was I glad to see him again it had been way to long. It was late spring warm and sunny and he came over and gave me a big bear hug and almost fell over because I had grown from a skinny kid to a man that now was much larger than he was. I weight about 215lbs then and stood 6feet 3 and worn a size 56 jacket. My mother came out about then and told him to sit down for breakfast and she brought out the familiar,  bacon, eggs, toast, ham, coffee, jam and just about everything you could think of. We got to talk for a couple of hours and one of the things we talked about was Babe and did you remember that winter. For some reason that whole scenio use to play back when both Grover and Lefty came to the farm later. Whether Lefty was a better pitcher will remain to be seen for all, he pitched longer and had a much longer pitching career than Babe but if the Babe had wanted to he could have standed around on the mound for maybe as many years as Lefty. Personally,  I would have gone with either of them when the chips were down and when you consider that Lefty won over 300 games what would have happened if he had been on a team like the Yankees. What if the story that dreams are made of. Now the other side of the coin is who would have made a better manager. Something to think about