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Babe Ruth's Own Book of Baseball

Babe Ruth

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, Ernie Shore, Hugh Bedient, George Foster—what an array that was! And chaps, all of them, who not only know how to pitch themselves, but fellows who could teach others as well. Joe Wood was so good as an instructor, in fact, that he’s still at it—coaching baseball up at Yale where I see him quite often. A young fellow couldn’t have been with a better outfit to learn the game. While I didn’t realize it at the time, I was learning some real baseball from two other fellows on the club, too; learning lessons that were to help me a whole lot later on. These two were Harry Hooper and Tris Speaker. I’ve always maintained, and I still believe, that Harry Hooper was one of the greatest outfielders who ever lived. As a defensive player I believe he rated even higher than Tris Speaker, and that’s going-some. It was from these two that I learned a lot about playing the outfield, and it was their coaching and their example which made it easy for me to switch to the outfield later on when I joined the New York club. In the Red Sox days I didn’t think much of becoming a slugger. I liked to hit. All fellows do. There isn’t a man in baseball today who isn’t happiest when he’s up there at the plate with a stick in his hand. But it was pitching which took my time in Boston. And one of the proudest records I hold to this day is that of having pitched the most consecutive scoreless innings in world series play. And another accomplishment of those Boston pitching days which still makes me grin every time I think of it, occurred in a game I pitched in Detroit. In that game, in the ninth inning with nobody out and