Revisiting Babe Ruth’s Trip to Sleepy Eye, MN
We originally shared a story with BRC fans back in 2012, about an event taking place in Sleepy Eye, MN to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Babe Ruth’s visit to their town. Sleepy Eye was one of 19 stops that Babe Ruth and fellow Yankee team mate, Bob Meusel, made on their barnstorming tour after the 1922 baseball season. Here’s a link to the original story:
http://www.baberuthcentral.com/remembering-the-babe/minnesota-town-celebrates-babes-visit-90-years/
Recently we’ve become aware of a couple new stories and connections to that day.
The first, was in the past couple weeks. A lady by the name of Ms. Erickson reached out to us asking if we could verify a possible connection between her grandfather and the Babe. Her grandfather was a gentleman by the name of Billy Born, who was a semi-pro ballplayer with the Mankato Blue Sox and had presumably caught for the Babe during the 1922 barnstorming game. Thanks to BRC fan, Randy Krzmarzick, we were able to verify that Billy Born did in fact catch for Babe that day! Per Randy’s research, Ruth had played second base for 5 innings, and then pitched 1 inning. Billy was part of “Ruth’s Team” that day and played catcher (and likely caught when Babe pitched). Billy also batted 5th, right behind Ruth in the batting order. Ms. Erickson was grateful for the info and it was great to be involved in helping Ms. Erickson connect that dot officially!
While researching Ms. Erickson’s request, Randy also informed us of a new story from last year regarding the same event. Randy had the privilege of meeting Len, who was 104 at the time and had been at the famous 1922 baseball game in Sleepy Eye. In fact, he still has one of two Babe Ruth home run balls from that day. He happened to be playing in the outfield when the ball came his way. In addition, we learned that he is actually in the picture that we originally posted back in 2012. He snuck his way into the photo!:
Bob Meusel and Babe Ruth in Sleepy Eye barnstorming game, 1922.
Here’s the news article:
http://www.keyc.com/clip/12225571/104-year-old-recalls-babe-ruths-visit-to-sleepy-eye
