CINCINNATI -- There was a small dust-up prior to the exhibitiongame featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig at Dayton's North Side Park80 years ago Saturday, Oct. 25, 1928.
Ruth wanted to make certain that the baseballs used in the gamewere hard enough to hit home runs. The ball that Cincinnati attorneyDan Rosenthal said his father had signed that day by the twosluggers certainly appeared to fit the bill.
Ruth and Gehrig were on a post-World Series barnstorming tour(they had disposed of the Cardinals in four games earlier in themonth). They were playing with local amateurs, and Ruth asked then-Dayton Daily News Sports Editor Carl Finke about the baseballs to beused in the game at the field northwest of Leo Street and Troy Pike.
'Say Finke, can you find out what kind of baseballs they aregoing to use in today's game?' Ruth asked the writer.
'Over in Columbus, they had 50-cent balls that you couldn't hithard. And then the fans were disappointed because Lou and myselfdidn't hit any home runs. The fans want to see us knock them out ofthe lot, and they are disappointed when we fail. If they use cheapballs today, I just won't play.'
They must have used suitable balls. Gehrig -- with a sore wrist -- hit four homers in five at-bats, and Ruth slugged a grand slam.Gehrig's McCalls team beat Ruth's Yellow Jackets 14-7 or 14-8,depending upon which report you read. On a chilly day duringfootball season, 1,400 fans turned out for the event.
At one time, Ron Dabbelt had a ball just like Rosenthal's,although it was so worn that he isn't certain whose autograph was onit.
'My dad, Nick Dabbelt, played center field for the YellowJackets,' Ron said. 'He told me he caught the ball to end one of theinnings, and kept it. He was very proud of it.'
Ron Dabbelt said he sold it some time ago. The autograph on itmay have been of T.J. Hickey, a longtime minorleague commissioner.That autograph also is on Rosenthal's baseball, next to the logothat says Wilson Official League. It also says it has a horsehidecover and 1-ounce rubber center. Its stitching is red and black.
'My dad was only 14 at the time, and he went to the game,'Rosenthal said. 'He told me the story many times. Si Burick (who wasonly 19 and a couple of weeks from becoming the new DDN sportseditor) took him to the Van Cleve Hotel, where Gehrig and Ruth werestaying. They knocked on their doors and asked for theirautographs.'
Ruth's signature is on the 'sweet spot,' opposite the Wilsonstamp. Gehrig's is off to the side. Both are fully legible, in blackink, obviously written with a fountain pen.
Rosenthal said his father told him Ruth appeared at the doorwearing only a towel around his waist, and a woman was in the room.
The Rosenthals eventually moved to Springfield (includinggrandfather Charlie, who ran a wholesale tobacco company in Dayton),where the younger Dan was born.
He cherishes the ball -- obtained from his sister, Sue Ann -- atleast as much as the Pie Traynor ball he found in an old shoe box ofhis father's. The elder Dan Rosenthal grew up in Dayton, but wasborn in Pittsburgh.
But that's another story.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 ormkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.
