Catholics From The United States

"1) Gehrig hits flat-footed. Ruth stands with feet together, poised, before stepping into the ball. 2) Gehrig doesn't start his swing until the ball is almost on top of him. Ruth starts his swing almost with the wind-up. 3) Gehrig, taking a shorter swing, is more consistent and harder to outguess. Ruth, with his longer swing, hits a harder, longer ball and is more likely to connect with a fast one."

"God, we liked that big son of a bitch. He was a constant source of joy."

"I could hardly wait for the next morning's news stories. Despite the defeat, I thought some praiseworthy mention would be made of my ten perfect innings. Then I had my first lesson in the cost of playing with the world's greatest ball player. Quite properly the headlines screamed the news of Babe's cracking the home run record. Vivid descriptions of his 28th homer clearing the grandstand roof. But no mention of me. Down at the end of the piece one line was given to the Boston pitcher. It said, "Hoyt pitched for Boston." I was to know another version of that incident in after years, again Ruth's teammate. As our Yankee ball club pulled into tour cities, the sports pages would say, "Ruth and twenty-four other ball players arrived in town today." This was the price we paid playing with the big fellow—but it was worth it. Babe returned it to us ten times over, and none of us who played with him would ever trade that experience for all the headlines in the country."

"The first game was tied when the ninth inning came up. Williams retired the first two Red Sox batters. Ruth strode to the plate. The fans were calling for a home run. It was one of the first occasions on which fans exhibited a real belief in the potentiality of their hero. Fans had always called for home runs but most of the time their demands had been born of desperation rather than hope. Ruth justified their faith that day by walloping a long home run over the LEFT FIELD FENCE off Williams, a LEFTHANDED PITCHER. The magnitude of that feat will be lost on the newer fans today, but back in 1919 it was nothing short of colossal. Left-handed batters just did not hit home runs off lefthanded pitchers over the left field wall. After the game, the Chicago White Sox players, who had not yet been touched by the taint of crookedness, crowded the Boston clubhouse shaking hands with Ruth, yelling congratulations, shouting, "Where'd you get that drive?" Even the losing pitcher, Lefty Williams, came in to express his horrified disbelief to the Babe."

"They may have written more about the Babe than about George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. All I can say new about Ruth is that he hit for power--not average--and had a lifetime batting average of .342. Dead ball or lively ball, he'd hit 60 home runs if they were pitching him softballs."

"You may want to do a little autograph trading and I understand it takes five Hoovers to get one Babe Ruth.✱"

"Sakes alive. If someone hit a ball out to me, I'd hear those footsteps comin' from both sides and I began to fear for my life! Both of them were gallopin' around without regard for life or limb, hollerin' all the time. I said, holy cripes, I'm gonna get myself out of here before I get killed! So I shifted Babe to center and moved myself to right, just to keep clear of those two. Sheer self-preservation on my part. But the Babe learned fast. He had a fine throwing arm and did things instinctively."

"Some twenty years ago I stopped talking about the Babe for the simple reason that I realized that those who had never seen him didn't believe me."

"In the season of 1920, and the current one, the great American sport has undergone a complete metamorphosis and, except in its essentials, is radically different from the game which obtained for a great many years. The pitching is different—perhaps not so good; but the great change, the change which appeals to the fans and most of the players, is that each and every game has become a slugging contest, with home-run hits a-plenty and extra-base hits galore. Who is responsible for this metamorphosis in baseball? Babe Ruth. Yes, Ruth and his home-run hitting have done more to change the style of the modern game than all the other agencies combined. Others have seen him just bang away and smash the ball to all corners of the lot and over the fence, and have said to themselves: "If he can do it, so can I," and they have gone out, one and all, to try to make good. Hence the new game of baseball."

"We need just two players to be a contender. Just Babe Ruth and Sandy Koufax."

"He wasn’t a baseball player. He was a worldwide celebrity, an international star, the likes of which baseball has never seen since."

"Yes, and the greatest I've ever heard of. Far and away. These other home run hitters are neck and neck. When the Babe was doing his stuff, he was miles ahead of his field. A great fielder and thrower, too. A good base runner. Made the right play instinctively. And don't forget he was one of the great left-hand pitchers of his time. When was there ever another ball player like that?"

"Well, Al Simmons is a great hitter. No doubt of that. I think he's a better hitter than young Jimmy Foxx right now; at least I consider him more dangerous up there. But the fellow I'd name for the best hitter in the league is Babe Ruth. The big fellow looked like a million dollars against us in Detroit. Say, he nearly killed Marty McManus with a line drive down the third base line. And a left-hand hitter, too. There never was anybody could hit with him. He tops 'em all."

"So we went to see Babe Ruth pitch the last game of the 1933 season. The Senators had already clinched the pennant, the Giants had clinched in the other league, so this was just a nothing game. I thought maybe he’d make an appearance, pitch an inning or two or three – he pitched a complete game. He hadn’t pitched a complete game since 1930, and then he pitched a complete game. And before that he had pitched two four-inning stints for the Yankees, so he pitched four times. So he pitched a complete game, he gave up twelve hits, it was not a great pitching performance, but the Yankees won, 7-5. He didn’t strike out a soul. Years later I saw him on Broadway. I went up to him and said, “Hi, Babe.” He said, “Hi, kid.” That’s the way he treated everybody. I said, “You know, I saw you pitch your last game at the Stadium.” This was maybe eight years later or so. I said, “How come you didn’t strike out anybody?” And he said, “I wanted those other eight guys to earn their money!” And that was Ruth."

"He always threw to the right base. We say that about most outfielders. Ruth always threw to the right base. DiMaggio always threw to the right base. The others maybe did, maybe didn’t. Mays most of the time threw to the right base, but Ruth always threw to the right base."

"Ping Bodie and Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees have become fast friends. The pair usually room together when on the road. Bodie touts Babe as the greatest hitter the game ever knew, while Babe tells friends Ping is some clouter. Sort of a mutual admiration society."

"I remember him pointing with his bat in his right hand to right field, not center field. But he definitely called his shot."

"Seventy-two thousand of the flock stand prepared to break the Sabbath this coming Sunday. Break it? Nay, destroy, shatter utterly with screams of pleasure as they observe a large vulgar person, himself a confessed glutton, propel a sphere an unholy distance. Old Nick rides on Ruth's bat, else how could he smite the ball so far beyond the power of ordinary man? He is in league. Forbid the games. Cast this Ruth out into utter darkness. He creates joy annually for millions."

"As for the booze-begotten yarn about Babe Ruth's 'called-shot,' I was there that day—at the elbow of Damon Runyon, no less, assigned to provide Runyon with any information he wanted about the Cubs or anyone else. No one in the press box or emergency press box that day, nobody at the press party that evening, and no one the next day even mentioned the incident except to emphasize the bitter exchange between the Cubs and Yankees. Charlie Root first laughed and, in his later years, grew angry when asked about it. One of the last letters I had from Dorothy Root before she died thanked me as a prophet of truth and the Babe himself, in Boston in 1935, said to me pretty much the same as your quote from Hal Totten.✱"

"He still had that marvelous swing, and what a follow-through, just beautiful, like a great golfer. But he was forty years old. He couldn’t run, he could hardly bend down for a ball, and of course he couldn’t hit the way he used to. One of the saddest things of all is when an athlete begins to lose it … and to see it happening to Babe Ruth, to see Babe Ruth struggling on a ball field, well, then you realize we’re all mortal and nothing lasts forever."

"So the Babe's through, eh? He doesn't have to run if he hits 'em like that. Too bad the Braves aren't here today, or the fans would be fighting to get into the park."

"And in 1932, I saw that Babe Ruth home run against the Cubs in the World Series, and I definitely know he pointed to center field. There was no doubt about it. He did call his shot."

"He is not only a drawing card on the field, but off of it as well. While in Pittsburgh last week, he paid a visit to The Press office, and the busy wheels of the newspaper plant almost stopped as employees gathered about just to look at him. And when Ruth overheard one of them say: "He's not the ugliest man I ever saw," a broad grin overspread his features, and he called: "Thanks for those kind words.""

"Willie made his bid for fame by "hitting them where they ain't." Babe Ruth hits 'em where they never were."

"It's remarkable. When I wrote the book, Ruth had been dead 25 years. He had not played ball in almost 40. And yet every day I would see his name in the newspaper or in various references, somewhere. Now it's 18 years later, and the same thing is still going on."

"Words fail me. When he stood up there at the bat before 50,000 persons, calling the balls and the strikes with gestures for the benefit of the Cubs in their dugout, and then with two strikes on him, pointed out where he was going to hit the next one and hit it there, I gave up. That fellow is not human."

"He was a superman and yet his legs were spindly. He was a big florid man, yet all his movements were dainty as a squirrel's. He was gentle to children and could be blasphemous to adults. He was Hercules with bat in hand, but he was Hercules done by Disney. And this unfailing whimsicality, of gesture and mood, tempered by the inhumanity of his skill, made him at one with his audience, made it possible, in the subtle Chaplin way, for the lame and fumbling and the mousy to see in him the embodiment of their delusions of power and fame."

"In the nineteen-twenties, visiting Britons took in a visit to the Yankee Stadium to see the Babe in action as dutifully as they went to Niagara, Washington, Mt. Vernon. They inferred an approximate tribute in regarding Ruth as the American Jack Hobbs. However, it is no slight to any cricketer, living or dead, or even to the redoubtable Ty Cobb, the master of the baseball ancients, to say that Ruth was the W.G. Grace of baseball. He was not only a player of unapproachable skill but he transformed the game from an affair of sacrifices, stealing bases, agile lobs that had the batters hopping traditionally from one base to the next, to constant strain after the one huge hit that had the men at base rolling home like trotting ponies, while the scoreboard clocked runs with a one-two-three alacrity. The fluid pattern of the modern game, and its continuous suspense through "the one big inning," is wholly his creation."

"Ruth studied opposing hitters, and he studied his own pitchers. He knew how and where every batter could be expected to hit any particular pitch. Consequently, he did a great job of playing the hitter. Many a time on the Detroit or St. Louis bench, I've seen Ruth pull down a hard-hit ball and hear the batter come back to the dugout muttering: "What was that big slob doing playing me there?" The Babe had just played him smart, that's all—moved over a couple of steps according to the pitch, and according to his judgment as to how far, how hard, and whence that batter could be expected to hit that pitch. Ruth never made mistakes in the field. He always threw to the right base, and he had a fine arm—not like Speaker or Meusel, but you couldn't take chances against him."

"I can't honestly say that I appreciate the way in which he changed baseball — from a game of science to an extension of his powerful slugging — but he was the most natural and unaffected man I ever knew. No one ever loved life more. No one ever inspired more youngsters. I have reverence for his marvelous ability . I look forward to meeting him again some day."

"None of these kids today can hit like he could. He could really hit a ball a long way. I remember I was in St. Pete in 1928 playing second base, or trying to, and he hit a fly ball that must have been nine miles high. I missed it by 25 feet."

"In the early days of Babe Ruth's stardom with the Yankees, he gave manager Miller Huggins many a headache with his antics off the field. You could chastise an ordinary player for breaking training rules, but what could you do about the greatest star in baseball? One day, relates Robert Smith Huggins really lost his temper. He told a reporter, "I'm going to speak to Ruth this time! You just wait and see!" At this precise moment the Babe swaggered into the hotel lobby. "There's your man," needled the reporter. "Are you really going to speak to him?" "I certainly am," insisted Huggins. "Hello, Babe!""

"No one ever requires more than one glance to identify Babe Ruth. Even a wholly ignorant person who had never heard of him would probably stop in wonder at the sight of Babe waddling by. It must be clear to all beholders that here is some great, primitive force harking back to the dim days of the race. William Jennings Bryan might well look upon the Babe and recant. To be sure, a certain ingenuity was required to fit just the proper name upon this personality. As George Herman Ruth he might have gone far but he could hardly have reached the heights. The man who made him by the gift of "Babe" ought to draw a substantial royalty from Ruth's mighty income. But probably no single individual hit upon the happy thought. Undoubtably a mass movement was required. Babe Ruth has all the vigor and vitality of a piece of folk literature."

"We picked up "Who"s Who in America" yesterday to get some vital statistics about Babe Ruth, and found to our surprise that he was not in the book. Even as George Herman Ruth there is no mention of him. The nearest name we could find was: "Roth, Filibert, forestry expert; b. Wurttemberg, Germany, April 20, 1858 [...] There is in our heart not an atom of malice against Prof. Roth (since September 1903, he has been "prof. forestry, U. Mich."), and yet we question the justice of his admission to a list of national celebrities while Ruth stands without. We know, of course, that Prof. Roth is the author of "'Forest Conditions in Wisconsin" and "The Uses of Wood," but we wonder whether he has been able to describe in words uses of wood more sensational and vital than those which Ruth has shown in deeds. Hereby we challenge the editor of "Who"s Who in America" to debate the affirmative side of the question: Resolved, That Prof. Roth's volume called "Timber Physics" has exerted a more profound influence in the life of America than Babe Ruth's 1921 home run record."

"There is no error of fact in the complaint which I present. The pages have been scanned for George Herman Ruth as well as Babe Ruth, but neither name is mentioned. [...] In the spot where one fully expected to come upon Babe Ruth, I found "Roth, Filibert, forestry expert [...]" To be sure, there are striking points of similarity in the career of the two men but they remain something less than synonyms. As far back as 1896, Professor Roth published a volume entitled "The Uses of Wood." No one dreamed at the time that it could be put to any uses as sensational as those introduced by Ruth.[...] It may be that some very plausible hypotheses are outlined in "Timber Physics" as to the best way to secure the greatest possible impact between bat and ball, but after all Roth is not under the strain of making good his beliefs before the eyes of thousands. He can be wrong, even three times in succession, and not one of his students will immediately shout "You're out!" There will be no massed ranks in the bleachers to razz him with contempt. Roth can take his time and go about his problems slowly, calmly and deliberately. No one is seeking to fool him with speed or with spitballs."

"Having broken many world's series [sic] records in one championship series, Babe Ruth, wielder of the Big Bat, demands $150,000 a year salary hereafter. Do not exclaim or "stand and gaze." One hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year isn't much, but such a baseball player as Babe Ruth is a great deal. Babe Ruth would be paid twice what we pay the President of the United States. But the fact that we pay our president too little is no reason for not paying a good baseball player what he is worth."

"Ruth, as I remember him, had a great personality. He was a perennial big kid. I guess he never really grew up. But that's one of the reasons we all loved him. He had an overpowering amount of energy, both on and off the field, and was always on the go. During one period, the Babe was hustling around so much after dark that when a reporter in Wichita Falls, Texas, asked me how I liked rooming with the Babe, I replied, "I'm rooming with a suitcase." I thought that was the best way I could describe the Babe's continual battle with manager Miller Huggins' curfew."

"I roomed with a suitcase. About the only time I saw him was at the ballpark or on a train. He couldn't come through a hotel lobby without being mobbed by fans. If he ate at the hotel, diners pestered him for autographs and his food got cold. I got to know him best on sleeper jumps. He loved to play poker. First thing he'd do on boarding the train would be to peel off his jacket and shirt and holler for a deck of cards."

"He roomed with Babe Ruth for a couple of years-according to the records. “But I never saw much of him," he said later. “I roomed with a suitcase. About the only time I saw him was when we were on train trips. Then we played cards and drank beer for hour upon hour.""

"Rooming with him. Why, I room with the big monkey's baggage."

"Ansara was sprinting up the tunnel, increasing the gap, but Moore was beginning to slow as he heard the thundering boots of men coming down the staircase behind them. He stopped, spun around, and dropped onto his belly as, lit by the flickering light from the tunnel entrance, a figure rushed forward, arm extended. For just a heartbeat Moore glimpsed his assailant's face: the cartel truck's driver. Propped up on his elbows now, Moore fired once into the figure's chest, the round booting him sideways into the panels before he fell onto his back. From behind him came two more men, the rest of the weapons-transfer crew, their Belgian-made cop-killer pistols flashing, the shots booming through the tunnel as one 5.7x28-millimeter round struck the pipe near Moore's elbow."

"If all you want is plot, go and read a Tom Clancy novels."

"Tom Clancy Treated Like He's Some Kind Of Terrorism Expert"

"Clancy's got a very simple view of the world. Good versus evil. Evil seems to get the upper hand. Good triumphs with vastly superior automatic weapons!"

"I don't discuss works in progress..."

"To truly feel like we're fighting terrorism, we need as much intelligence and infiltration as possible into known rivals of democracy. Once that information is collected, a sincere commitment must be made to thwart their effects through unified/joint military resolve."

"When the first mission of Rainbow Six was actually coming together we really started to realize that we might have a hit on our hands, but hadn't really expected the runaway success."

"I wanted a different way in which to tell my stories. Coming up with concepts for computer games gives me another avenue of creative expression. It's not just me telling the story, it's me designing the idea for a story and letting the players write their own ending."

"I've been telling people for 12 years that if you want to get a nuclear device into the United States, just bring it through the port of Miami disguised as cocaine."

"What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else."