July 12, 1943: Babe Ruth and Ted Williams bat in same lineup for charity game in Boston

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Babe Ruth made a public appearance at Fenway Park on July 12, 1943, where he met with Red Sox star Ted Williams. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

There once was a day – at Fenway Park in Boston – when Babe Ruth and Ted Williams played on the same baseball team and batted in the same lineup. It was not a regular-season game, rather a charity game on July 12, 1943, as part of the fifth annual Mayor Tobin Field Day at Fenway Park raising funds for food and milk for undernourished children. 

Though they were on the same team, Ruth wore a New York Yankees uniform and Williams, who was in the US Navy, a Boston Red Sox uniform.1 Neither was an active ballplayer in 1943. It was the first time the two had ever met.

Ruth, born in 1895, had played his final major-league game on May 30, 1935, at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, when he was a member of the Boston Braves. He still had some power at the time, having a three-homer game just five days earlier, on May 25. In the first inning of the May 30 game, he grounded out to first base. He played two more innings, but then left the field, and announced his retirement three days later.2

Williams, born in 1918, the year that Ruth pitched and batted the Red Sox to their fourth World Series championship in seven seasons, had won the Triple Crown in 1942, leading both leagues with 36 homers, 137 runs batted in, and an American League-leading .356 batting average. He had, however, enlisted in the Navy during the late spring of ’42 and on July 13 had begun naval aviation night classes in Boston. After the 1942 season was over, he was called into War Training Service, reporting to Amherst, Massachusetts, on November 17.3

In July 1943 Williams was an aviation cadet at the Navy Pre-Flight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Focused on his new mission, he said. “I’m in a bigger game now – one that requires my full and complete attention.”4

Still, he traveled to Boston for the Mayor Tobin Field Day game on the first day of the All-Star break. For the second season in a row, wartime benefit games featured major-league players. Williams had played in a benefit game at Cleveland Stadium on July 7, 1942, which raised more than $130,000 for the Army and Navy Relief Societies.5

Williams joined a few other major leaguers serving in the military on a team managed by Ruth, who worked out of the first-base coaching box. Their third-base coach was Rabbit Maranville, who had played 15 of his 23 major-league seasons for the Boston Braves.

Before the game, there was a home-run-hitting exhibition put on by Ruth and Williams. Pitching to them was the Braves’ Red Barrett. Williams homered three times; the aging Ruth fell short.6 The third homer hit by Williams reportedly went 15 rows high into the right-field stands, over the bullpen.  

Managing the Braves was Casey Stengel, in what turned out to be the final season of his six years at the helm in Boston. The Braves, who were sixth in the National League with a 32-40 record, played their regular team. The exception was the starting pitcher, 18-year-old Ray Martin, who was fresh out of Norwood (Massachusetts) High School. Martin’s only major-league experience was one inning of relief work on July 2, but he held Ruth’s All-Stars scoreless in the first and second innings, while the Braves scored one run off starter (and minor leaguer) Joseph Kwasniewski (US Army, brought in from Fort Devens) and two more in the second.7 Coast Guardsman Jim Hegan of the Cleveland Indians was catcher for the Service All-Stars.

The Service All-Stars took the lead with four runs in the third inning, the biggest blow a two-run triple off the center-field wall by Dom DiMaggio (US Navy), driving in Kwasniewski, Archie Horne (US Army), and Skippy Roberge (US Army), all of whom had singled. DiMaggio then scored on Williams’s groundout to first base.8 The Service All-Stars added a fifth run in the top of the fourth on doubles by Hegan and pitcher Henry L. Hansen.9

In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Braves tied it, 5-5, on a single by Connie Ryan and a two-run homer into the right-field grandstand by Chuck Workman.

Dave Odom replaced Martin in the fifth inning. In the seventh, Odom was still pitching. Roberge had drawn a base on balls and Dom DiMaggio had singled to left. On a 1-and-2 count, naval aviation cadet Williams swung and homered about 10 rows up in the bleachers in straightaway center field, a three-run homer that gave the Service All-Stars an 8-5 lead.10 As the Boston Traveler reported, it was “as dramatic as his homer in the All-Star game in Detroit a couple of years ago that won the game for the American leaguers when it looked as though the National league had the game sealed and delivered. The crowd literally went wild!”11

The Service All-Stars added one more run – the run that made the difference in the end – on a triple to right-center by right fielder Steve Czaplicki and a single off the left-field wall by George Yankowski (US Army).

The Braves, however, came back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the seventh. Facing pitcher Murphy, Workman kicked things off with a triple to right, which was followed by singles by Chet Ross, Phil Masi, Tony Cuccinello, and Ben Geraghty. Mixed in was the game’s only error, by shortstop Mohler.12

In the eighth, with his team leading by one run, 48-year-old Babe Ruth – despite injuring himself pregame by fouling a ball off his ankle – pinch-hit. He took two mighty swings, but then hit a high popup to the second baseman in shallow right field. X-rays after the game proved negative.

In the ninth inning, Williams just missed another homer, “foul by inches.” He led all batters with four RBIs. DiMaggio and Workman had two apiece.13

The losing pitcher was Odom; his big-league career was all with the 1943 Braves, working 22 games with a record of 0-3 (5.27 ERA). The win went to Hansen, whose professional pitching career was all in Class-D ball in 1940 and 1941, with a record of 23-23 (4.16).

The game drew a crowd variously estimated at 14,000 to 18,000. Mayor Maurice Tobin was apparently no slouch at baseball. Before the featured game, there was a “soft ball five-inning game” between the City and the State. The City won, 17-1, in good part thanks to four scoreless innings pitched by Tobin and a grand slam he hit in the fourth.14

Quite a number of baseball luminaries also attended the game, including Jack Barry, Jack Burns, Eddie Collins, Shano Collins, Otto “Pep” Deininger, Hugh Duffy, Joe Dugan, George “Chippy” Gaw, Bump Hadley, Shanty Hogan, Hal Janvrin, George “High Pockets” Kelly, Duffy Lewis, Tom “Bunny” Madden, Freddie Maguire, Fred Mitchell, Buck O’Brien, Freddy Parent, Cy Perkins, Red Rolfe, Jack Ryan, Fred Tenney, and Smoky Joe Wood.15

It was the last time Williams appeared in a game at Fenway Park until the Red Sox home opener in April 1946, after his discharge from the US Marine Corps.

A couple of weeks later

Another game that included both Ruth and Williams followed on July 28 at Yankee Stadium. This time, they were on opposing teams. The game followed a regularly scheduled game in which the Cleveland Indians beat the New York Yankees, 6-2. The Yankees and Indians teams combined forces in a team dubbed the “Yank-lands,” managed by Babe Ruth. The game was a fundraiser for Baseball’s War Relief and Service Fund, Inc., to be distributed to the American Red Cross.16

Twenty-two players from the combined rosters saw action in the game for the Yank-Lands. Their opponent was the Cloudbusters, 10 former major leaguers from the Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill. Ted Williams led the team and played left field.17 He had apparently received permission to play only at the very last minute and taken an overnight bus to New York.18

The Cloudbusters were:

• Harry Craft, CF
• Johnny Pesky, SS
• Buddy Hassett, 1B
• Ted Williams, LF
• Buddy Gremp, 3B
• Dusty Cooke, RF
• Ed Moriarty, 2B
• Joe Cusick, C19
• Alex Sabo, C
• Johnny Sain, P

The Yank-Lands scored first, in the bottom of the third. The Cloudbusters – all wearing Navy baseball uniforms – tied it in the top of the fourth, and then took a 4-1 lead in the top of the sixth. The Yank-Lands then scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth, going ahead 5-4. Ruth was part of the four-run rally, pinch-hitting and drawing a walk. His ankle was still bothering him from the earlier game but after he reached second base on an RBI single by Oris Hockett, he left for a pinch-runner, who subsequently scored.

The lead was short-lived. The Cloudbusters poured across seven runs in the top of the seventh. One of the runs came on an RBI single by Williams, who was 1-for-4 on the day. The final score was Cloudbusters 11, Yank-Lands 5. The Cloudbusters were a very successful team that summer; this was reportedly the 24th win in 27 games they had played.20

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Ted Williams, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information.

Notes

1 Oddly, perhaps because it was the only one available, Williams wore a Red Sox road uniform.

2 For a full account of the game, see Thomas J. Brown Jr., “May 30, 1935: Babe Ruth plays his final major-league game with Boston Braves,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/may-30-1935-babe-ruth-plays-his-last-game/. Accessed November 2024.

3 Other Navy cadets in Williams’s class at Amherst, Massachusetts, were teammate Johnny Pesky and some other ballplayers, including Jerry Coleman, Buddy Gremp, and Johnny Sain. By late spring of 1943, Williams had reported to Naval Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill. North Carolina. He was on his way to becoming a Navy pilot. For a detailed account of Ted Williams’s military service in both World War II and the Korean War (during which he flew 39 combat missions), see Bill Nowlin, Ted Williams at War (Burlington, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2007).  

4 John Drohan, “Navy Discipline Changes Williams,” Boston Traveler, July 13, 1943: 23. He said he hardly ever even looked at a box score, and said of his time in the service, “Frankly, I love it. …” and said he might remain in the Navy.

5 Gordon Cobbledick, “62,094 see A.L. All-Stars Win, 5-0,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 8, 1942: 1. The “American League All-Stars” beat the “Service All-Stars”, 5-0, despite the US Navy’s Bob Feller starting for the Service All-Stars. Williams was walked each of his first three times up, but then hit a “towering triple to left center [which] would have been an easy homer at Fenway Park.” Gerry Moore, “A.L. All-Stars Beat Service Team, 5 to 0,” Boston Globe, July 8, 1942: 1, 12. The seventh-inning triple off the Army’s Mickey Harris drove in Phil Rizzuto, who had doubled and stolen third. (Rizzuto later spent three years in the Navy, 1943-45.) Harris had been Ted Williams’s teammate in 1940 and 1941 before departing the majors for four years of military service. Williams and Harris were reunited on the Red Sox in 1946. Feller got the loss; Jim Bagby (who later served a year in the Merchant Marine) was the winning pitcher.

6 “[T]he Babe, bothered by his trick knee, his advancing years, his increasing belt line, and also by a very mean foul ball which caromed off his ankle, just couldn’t get the ball close to the boundaries.” Burt Whitman, “Williams Hits Homer, Ruth Tries Hard as Stars Beat Braves, 9-8,” Boston Herald, July 13, 1943: 1, 14. Specifically, Ruth – who it was written had not picked up a bat since the previous summer – “hit two grounders, three flies to short field, three fouls, and three lusty strikes.” Gordon Campbell, “Babe May Have Gone to Plate for Last Time,” Christian Science Monitor, July 13, 1943: 16.

7 Kwasniewski had been a pitcher in the Red Sox minor-league system in 1940.

8 Howell Stevens, “Williams Hero of Mayor’s Field Day,” Boston Post, July 13, 1943: 12.

9 Hansen (or Hanson) played in the Brooklyn Dodgers system in 1940-41, as a pitcher before the war years, and then had seven at-bats in 1946, never rising above Class C. Little was found about him, not even his date or place of birth. One newspaper assigned him the nickname Swede. The Boston Post called him Lefty Hanson. A NewYork newspaper called him Buck Hansen. It is quite possible he was one of a few who came to Boston from nearby Fort Devens to bolster the service team.  

10 “And this time, when he crossed the plate and smiled up at the cheering thousands in the stands, he tipped his cap.” Joe Cashman, “Williams Homers to Give Stars Win Over Braves, 9-8,” Boston Record, July 13, 1943: 25.

11 Drohan. Several articles declared it had been hit several rows up (four to 10 rows up, depending on the article), but all gave the distance as 425 feet.  

12 Murphy’s first name was reported as Jim by F.C. Matzek, “Bambino Pilots All-Stars to 9-8 Victory over Braves,” Providence Journal, July 13, 1943: 6, but as Eddie by the Boston Post.

13 DiMaggio “drew as many cheers as any other man on the field” and made “two smart catches in the outfield and let go with a throw that nailed the Braves’ Tommy Holmes going into third base in the second inning.” Walter Graham, “Ruth and Maranville Put on Show for Fans at Fenway Pk,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Daily News, July 13, 1943: 12.

14 Whitman. Dick Flavin suggested, “Even in those days folks must have known that it’s a good idea to let the mayor have his way.” Dick Flavin, “The Day Ted & Babe Squared off,” Red Sox Magazine, Fourth Edition 2000, 23.

15 Jack Barry, “Babe Ruth, Ted Williams Cheered at Field Day,” Boston Globe, July 13, 1943: 14. Braves owner Bob Quinn and Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey were both present as well.

Others on the Service All-Stars team appear to have been:

• Boyce, PH – unknown first name
• Cliggott, SS – perhaps minor-leaguer William Cliggott
• Joseph Crehan, 2B
• Eugene (or Steve) Czaplicki, RF
• Walt Dropo, 1B (Army)
• Gene Hermanski, RF (Coast Guard)
• Jenkins, PH – unknown first name
• Manning, RF – unknown first name
• Mohler, SS – unknown first name
• Sabot, 2B – perhaps John Sabot
• Babe Young, 1B (Coast Guard)

16 James P. Dawson, “27,281 See Cloudbusters Top Babe Ruth’s Team After Yanks Lose to Indians,” New York Times, July 29, 1943: 14.

17 For the full context of Ted Williams and his time in Navy baseball – and beyond – see Anne R. Keene, The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team that Helped Win World War II (New York: Sports Publishing, 2018).

18 “Baseball,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 29, 1943: 14; Keene, 200. Dom DiMaggio came from the Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia. Both Williams and DiMaggio reportedly properly wore their Navy uniforms when arriving at Fenway Park. As “The Kid” asked for Ruth’s autograph afterward, the Babe reportedly said, “Hiya, kid. You remind me a lot of myself. You love to hit. You’re one of the most natural ballplayers I’ve ever seen. And if ever my record is broken, I hope you’re the one to do it.” Huck Finnegan, “Babe Still Mr. Baseball,” Boston American, July 13, 1943: 29.

19 Ensign Joe Cusick was the only one who was never a major leaguer. From 1937 to 1942, he was in the Cardinals’ minor-league system. In 1946 he was with Pawtucket in the Boston Braves system. He later became a scout, signing among others Mark Belanger and Mark Fidrych.

20 Dawson.