'Heart is willing, but legs can’t take it': Babe Ruth turned down Reds comeback in 1936
Babe Ruth called it a career 28 games into the 1935 season with the Boston Braves, but for a few days in 1936 there was a possibility of him making a comeback with the Reds.
Ruth had retired at age 40 after playing 22 seasons and finishing with a then-record 714 career home runs.
After attending a Grapefruit League game where the Reds played the Philadelphia A’s, the vacationing Ruth met with Cincinnati General Manager Larry MacPhail and dropped hints that he’d like to suit up again and play in front of a crowd.
According to the Associated Press, MacPhail offered that the Reds were prepared to have “signed him at his own terms.” So what went wrong? Apparently, the Babe’s wife convinced him it was best to stay retired.
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Babe Ruth was in Florida on a golfing trip, decided to take in some baseball
Ruth decided to pack up his golf clubs and make the trip to Miami to see the Reds and A’s play and catch up with some former teammates.
He was staying in St. Petersburg for the winter and playing in tournaments in Miami and West Palm Beach when spring training started.
The Associated Press described the retired legend as “a somewhat portly, puzzled and disappointed citizen who leads the quiet and simple life and dreams about his glamorous baseball days.”
Ruth himself said, “It’s not so bad until the teams begin coming South… But it’s pretty tough when you can sit on your front porch and hear bats crackling all around you.”
According to Enquirer reporting from March 7, Ruth refused to sit in a box down in the front while watching the game so he wouldn’t be noticed, but he was announced as being in attendance and was soon swarmed with autograph seekers.
Why Babe Ruth never signed with the Cincinnati Reds
MacPhail said that Babe explained to him on March 9 that his wife “convinced me that with all the weight I am carrying around it would be asking too much of my legs.”
He did, according to the Associated Press, leave the impression that he would be interested in offers to be a manager.
Alas, that ended any chance of him playing in Cincinnati.
“I was up there long enough — 22 years,” Ruth said. “I’d be taking too many chances of getting hurt if I went back now.”
Could Babe Ruth have helped the 1936 Cincinnati Reds?
Ruth was coming off of his two worst seasons since becoming an everyday player.
He hit .181 with six home runs and 12 RBI before calling it quits with the Braves in 1935.
In 1934, his final year with the New York Yankees, Ruth hit .288 with 22 home runs and 84 RBI in 125 games. It was his lowest batting average since hitting .272 while mainly being used as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox in 1916. It was his lowest home run total since hitting 29 in his final year with the Red Sox in 1919 and his lowest RBI total since driving in 67 in 98 games in 1925.
The 1936 Reds finished with a 74-80 record and came in fifth place in the National League.
Their 82 home runs were fourth in the NL and their 722 runs and .386 slugging percentage were sixth in the eight-team league.
Outfielder Ival Goodman’s 17 home runs led the team and were good enough for seventh in the NL. Outfielder Kiki Cuyler led the team with 74 RBI and Goodman and fellow outfielder Babe Herman each drove in 71.
While it’s hard to compare Ruth’s abbreviated 1935 season, if he had the power numbers he put up with the Yankees in 1934, they would have been better than all three of the Reds’ regular outfielders.
But, it is also hard to imagine how a player who was described in the press as being out-of-shape at 41 years old could replicate the numbers of even two years prior.
Babe Ruth at Crosley Field: The Babe made his final appearance at Crosley in 1935
This wasn't the first chance the Reds had to get Babe Ruth
As former Enquirer writer John Erardi explained when writing about the history between the Reds and Yankees, Babe Ruth could have come to Cincinnati much earlier:
Reds totally whiff on George Herman Ruth: Straight from the pen of former sports writer Lee Allen, historian at the Baseball Hall of Fame (1959-69) comes this: In 1914, the Reds had the opportunity to choose two players from the roster of Baltimore, a minor league affiliate. To scout the talent, the Reds owners dispatched a hack named Harry Stephens, who was either a family friend or business associate, to Baltimore. Stephens chose two players: shortstop Claude Derrick and outfielder George Twombly. They didn't quite live up to the Babe.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Babe Ruth was offered a chance to play with Cincinnati Reds in 1936
