This is part 2 of a 3 part series in an interview with Brent Stevens and Sean Gibson, great grandsons of Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson. In this part of the interview, the great grandsons share stories about their great grandfathers, their shared values, as well as the “Travelling Road Show” and associated giclee product that the two descendants have created to promote the positive legacies of these two baseball greats, who were “Legends of Their Leagues.”
The great grandsons of home run greats Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson, Brent Stevens and Sean Gibson, sat down with MLBTV recently for an interview. The 2 descendants shared stories about their great grandfathers, the "Josh and The Babe" artwork and the associated Travelling Road Show they've developed, as well as their thoughts on the closing of Yankee Stadium.
Julia Ruth Stevens was in New York for the final game at the “House That Ruth Built.” She also had the honor of throwing out the final pre-game pitch. Below is a video of the press conference shortly after the ceremonial pitch. She shares her feelings on the pitch, her “Daddy” and the final game in Yankee Stadium.
On September 21, 2008, Yankee fans experienced their last game in the “The House That Ruth Built.”
The final home game for the Yankees was on 9/21 and included a pre-game ceremony that celebrated the history of the great stadium with a focus on many of its greatest players. The ceremony gave a special acknowledgement to the 1923 Yankee team, the first to play in the “new” stadium. The Yankees then proceeded through 85 years of Yankee greats that have played in the stadium, some of which participated in the event by going out to the field to represent the position they played during their career. Some of participants included Ron Guidry, Wade Boggs, Goose Gossage, “Moose” Skowron, White Ford, Willie Randolph, Dave Winfield, Don Larsen, David Wells, Paul O’Neil, Reggie Jackson as well as the relatives of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Billy Martin, Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson, Elston Howard and of course, Babe Ruth.
In fact, the Ruth Family had the ultimate tribute. Babe’s Daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, had the opportunity to throw out the last ceremonial first pitch in Yankee Stadium. It’s only fitting that Babe’s daughter would throw out the last pitch in “his” house. Given that she’s 92, she did an excellent job! View the first pitch ceremony below:
Recently BRC found an article regarding Babe’s “Called Shot” (see the link below for the article). The New York Times interviewed the nephew of former Baseball commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, Lincoln Landis, who was 10 years old when he joined his uncle for Game 3 of the 1932 World Series between the Yankees and Cubs. Landis insists that Ruth pointed to Center Field and called his shot before hitting a home run:
“It was so vivid in my memory and, believe me, I remember very little of when I was 10,” Landis said. “But I remember this moment very clearly. It really frustrated me to read that there are those who questioned whether he called his shot. I thought, That’s horrible. To me, there was absolutely no question.”
Landis hasn’t bothered to share his thoughts on that famous event with the media, until now. At Lincoln Landis’ request, his son Tim, a baseball memorabilia collector, searched for photos of Kennesaw Mountain from Game 3 of the 1932 World Series. By chance, Tim found a picture of Kennesaw with his nephew, Lincoln. Tim purchased the photo for his father and Lincoln now had the proof he wanted in order to substantiate his claim that he was there and he did indeed see Babe amazingly and brazenly call his home run. It’s a good, fun article!
Recently, Babe’s daughter, Julia, was in Quincy, MA for the 14-year old Babe Ruth League World Series. While in Quincy she was interviewed by Fox Boston regarding her Dad. She also shared her thoughts regarding her baseball “affiliations”. To hear her stories and thoughts on “Daddy”, view the news clip before:
On June 22nd, Babe’s daughter, Julia, who is now 92, participated in a ceremony to unveil a plaque at the site of Johnny Sylvester’s home (if you don’t know the story about Babe’s visit to Johnny Sylvester when he was sick, you can read it here: http://www.baberuthcentral.com/Legends/#Sylvester). Julia’s visit to the site in Essex Fells, NJ was covered by WNBC Channel 4 in New York . You can watch an interview of Julia and John Sylvester Jr here:
Charlie Poekel, author of Babe & the Kid: The Legendary Story of Babe Ruth and Johnny Sylvester, and Julia Ruth Stevens, daughter of Babe Ruth, being interviewed by WCBS-TV New York. Julia reflects on her father in this news clip.
Watch this news clip of Sean Gibson (great grandson of Negro League Home Run King Josh Gibson) and Brent Stevens (great grandson of Babe Ruth) at the 2008 Civil Rights Game. Sean and Brent talk about their impressive great grandfathers, “what could have been” had they been able to play against each other professionally and the concept artwork they commissioned, “Josh and The Babe”.
A recent visitor to BabeRuthCentral sent us the following question: “I was discussing Barry Bonds with some friends and they mentioned that he has won 7 MVP’s. This caused me to look up the MVP winners list and I noticed that Babe Ruth only won once. How is this possible? I checked the voting for other years that he clearly was the best player and he didn’t even get a vote. To add to that other Yankee players were recieving votes in years that Ruth had monster years. (Example: In 1926 Ruth hit .372 and hit 47 homers and didnt recieve a single vote; Herb Penncock recieved the most Yankee votes) The same can be said for many of his seasons. So what’s the deal?”
Here’s the answer, as well as a follow-up question for everyone’s thoughts:
The original version of the MVP award was the Chalmers Award, presented by Hugh Chalmers of the Chalmers Automobile Company from 1911-1914. From 1915 - 1921 (during some of Babe’s most notable pitching and hitting years), the MVP award did not exist. From 1922-1929, the MVP award was reinstated and became the “League Awards”, during which time, Babe won only one award. Why? Because, according to the rules of the award at that time, a player was only allowed to receive the recognition once. This is why Babe did not come up in voting again until the rules regarding the award were changed in 1931 to what we know as the MVP today.
So, when you consider Babe’s impact and statistics throughout his career, how many years do you think he should have won the award if the MVP existed throughout his career and he was able to get it more than one year?
