Hobbs: Dover Hall in coastal Georgia was Babe Ruth’s offseason retreat
From Larry Hobbs at the Brunswick News on June 23, 2019, with mention of SABR member Brian McKenna:
Next to the roar of the crowd at Yankee Stadium in New York City, there were few things the great Babe Ruth loved more than the call of the wild in western Glynn County.
Yeah, I know — crazy, huh? But the Sultan of Swat’s affinity for the backwoods of our coastal Georgia community was well-documented back in the day. During the heady 1920s, when his career and legend took flight with the New York Yankees, the Babe wiled away his offseason in the tranquil settings of a place called Dover Hall. He was not alone.
A host big league ballplayers, team managers, the chummy sports writers of the era and others affiliated with the game enjoyed spending time down here in the pursuit of hunting, fishing, outdoor shenanigans and not just a little imbibing. The 2,436-acre former plantation on the Turtle River belonged to a conglomerate of major league baseball’s movers and shakers, chiefly one Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston.
Y’all might remember Huston from the May 24 History column. He was the veteran of both the Spanish-American War and World War I, who also was co-owner of the New York Yankees from 1915 to 1922. Also in 1926, he bought the former Butler Island plantation in McIntosh County and turned it into a successful farming operation that grew iceberg lettuce and raised friesian dairy cows.
Read the full article here: https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/glynn-county-s-dover-hall-was-babe-s-offseason-retreat/article_a1481c28-ea3c-5e0b-9757-97a7d1a6a559.html
Originally published: June 24, 2019. Last Updated: June 24, 2019.