Randy Smith: When Baseball Was King

  • Friday, March 27, 2015
  • Randy Smith
Randy Smith
Randy Smith

I came across an interesting television program while channel surfing last night. It was a documentary about George Herman "Babe" Ruth; the man still considered to be the greatest baseball player who ever lived. Even though I already knew most of this story, I still marveled at the way Babe played the game....back when Baseball was King.

As you likely already know, Babe started out as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox. He would pitch one day, and play outfield for the next three games, because he was a great hitter.

He won 90 games pitching for the Red Sox and led them to three World Series crowns in 1914, 1915 and again in 1918. While pitching and hitting the Red Sox to the 1918  championship, he had become the best player in the game, but after the 1919 season the Red Sox sold Ruth to the New York Yankees and the rest they say is history. Ruth's appearance in New York came at a perfect time for baseball. The game was given a huge black-eye by the "Black Sox" scandal and Babe Ruth became the game's savior.

In 1920 Ruth hit a record 54 home runs, which bested his previous record of 29 set in his last season in Boston in 1919. That total of 54 dingers, was more than all but one team in baseball hit in 1920. Then in 1921, he had the greatest single season that any player in the game has ever had. He broke his home run record of 54 with 59 homers, but these other stats are absolutely amazing. He had 171 runs batted in and scored 177 runs. His batting average was .376 and his slugging percentage was an unheard of .846. He did all that with no PEDs or steroids. 

Skeptics will say things like, "Well......it was a different era and the pitching wasn't as good," or, "the fences were more hitter friendly than they are now." That may be true, but you can't deny how much Babe Ruth dominated the game of baseball, and with some of his "Ruthian" clouts, no ballpark in America today would hold them. At the peak of his great career, he made $80,000 annually, which was ten times more than the average player made at that time. 

After the "Great Depression" and the "Black Sox" scandal had died down, Ruth and the New York Yankees had started on their amazing journey to sports immortality by winning four World Series Titles. When the Babe retired from the Boston Braves after the 1935 season, he had amassed an astonishing total of 56 major league records, including the most coveted one of all; 714 career home runs. He would hold that record until the great Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit number 715 in 1974. 

While football was gaining popularity and basketball was growing as a sport, baseball was America's past time. It was the greatest game of them all. Today spring football and recruiting helps football fans hold their interest until the season starts, while many years ago baseball fans kept their interest alive in the off-season with the "hot-stove league." This was no more than news on what teams were doing during the winter meetings in terms of trades and other deals, until spring training began in late February and early March. 

When Baseball was King, people had fewer worries and problems than they have today. There was no ISIS or other terrorist groups to occupy their minds. There were no real drug cartels that threatened our daily existence as they do today, and no school shootings. Everything was good. It was Babe Ruth's world and everyone else was just passing through it. We need something like that again......back when Baseball was King. 

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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. He is currently teaching Broadcasting at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton, Ga.

His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.

He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.

In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have four grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, DellaMae and CoraLee.

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