This Day in American History: Babe Ruth's Final Bow

On this day in 1948, a dying legend put on a suit one last time and walked into a movie theater to watch a stranger play him on screen -- the final public appearance of the greatest baseball player America ever produced.

By the summer of 1948, Babe Ruth was gravely ill with throat cancer. Six weeks earlier, on June 13, he'd made what everyone assumed was his final trip to Yankee Stadium, leaning on a borrowed bat for support as the team retired his number 3 during the ballpark's 25th anniversary celebration. That day, New York Herald Tribune photographer Nat Fein broke from the pack of photographers shooting Ruth head-on and instead shot him from behind -- capturing his sagging shoulders and the number on his back in an image that became known as "Babe Ruth Bows Out." It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Photography and remains one of the most recognized sports photographs ever taken.

Then, on July 26, 1948, Ruth left his hospital bed one more time -- with his wife Claire's approval -- for the New York premiere of "The Babe Ruth Story," a biopic starring William Bendix, at the Astor Theater. Weakened and barely able to speak, Ruth still signed autographs and posed for photos with old teammates and fans in the lobby. He made it about halfway through the film before he had to be taken back to the hospital. It was the last time the public ever saw him. He died three weeks later, on August 16, 1948, at age 53, never having seen the film's wide release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH-zAWa-k4c

It's worth pausing on exactly what baseball lost that August. Over 22 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Boston Braves, George Herman "Babe" Ruth built a résumé that, decades later, still anchors the record books:

• 714 career home runs -- a record that stood for 39 years until Hank Aaron broke it in 1974.

• .342 career batting average, 2,873 hits, 2,214 RBIs, and 2,174 runs scored.

• Still the all-time career leader in slugging percentage (.690) and OPS (1.164) -- marks no one has caught in over a century of baseball.

• 60 home runs in 1927 set the single-season record, which stood for 34 years until Roger Maris broke it in 1961.

• Led his league in home runs 12 times, in slugging percentage 13 times, and in walks 11 times.

• Seven-time World Series champion (1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1927, 1928, 1932) and 1923 American League MVP.

• Started his career as a dominant left-handed pitcher for Boston, going 94-46 with a 2.28 ERA, and never posted a losing season on the mound.

• One of the first five players ever inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in the inaugural class of 1936.

Numbers alone don't explain why Ruth mattered the way he did. He didn't just hit home runs -- he made the home run baseball's signature act, filled ballparks the sport had never seen filled before, and turned himself into the first true modern American celebrity athlete, as recognizable to non-fans as to fans. The Yankees didn't retire his number and call the stadium "the House that Ruth Built" for nothing.

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Also on this day:

• 1775 -- The Continental Congress establishes a Post Office and names Benjamin Franklin the first Postmaster General.

• 1847 -- Liberia, founded by freed American slaves, declares its independence.

• 1947 -- President Truman signs the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the CIA, and the U.S. Air Force.

• 1948 -- Truman signs Executive Order 9981, ordering full racial integration of the U.S. armed forces.

• 1990 -- President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act into law.

One last night out, one last round of applause -- the Bambino, larger than life to the very end, and still the standard every slugger since has been measured against.

Source: National Baseball Hall of Fame, Society for American Baseball Research, Baseball Reference