April 27th, 1947 – at Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler’s request, the New York Yankees hosted “Babe Ruth Day”, a national event to honor the baseball legend who was suffering the debilitating effects of nasopharyngeal cancer. He was greeted by 58,339 fans that day in the “House That Ruth Built” and the ceremony and speeches were fed into every Major and Minor League stadium. According to the New York Times, “Just before he spoke, Ruth started to cough and it appeared that he might break down because of the thunderous cheers that came his way. But once he started to talk, he was all right, still the champion. It was the many men who surrounded him on the field, players, newspaper and radio persons, who choked up.”
Babe’s throat burned from dangerous, experimental treatments and he could only bare a short speech. He shared a brief reflection on his greatest passion, “The only real game in the world, I think, is Baseball”. He concluded, “There’s been so many lovely things said about me, I’m glad I had the opportunity to thank everybody. Thank you.”
It was the second to last time Ruth would step foot in Yankee Stadium (the last being June 13th, 1948, when the Yankees retired Babe’s number). Here’s a news clip that documented Babe Ruth Day in 1947:
