Visitors to Fayetteville may stumble across a surprising historic marker on Gillespie Street.
There are three facts on the small marker which juts about seven feet into the North Carolina sky. One of those facts is true, one is not true, and the other is misrepresented.
The true fact found on the state historical marker is a sensational sports tidbit: Babe Ruth smacked his first professional home run in Fayetteville, more than 100 years ago.
The feats that Ruth accomplished in his amazing baseball career happened so long ago that there are fans who may know little about the great home run slugger. Ironically, the 20th-century ballplayer, whom some call the first American sports superstar, is being remembered more now that Shohei Ohtani is showing off his two-way skills. Ruth was the original pitcher-turned-home run king.
What is perhaps an even deeper irony is the fact that Major League Baseball’s most recognizable name began his offensive onslaught in a state that has never had a major league team.
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But when the Babe hit his first homer as a pro in Fayetteville in a ballpark that no longer exists, no one could have known that he would become famous as a batter instead of as a pitcher. No one could have dreamed that Ruth would slug more than 700 additional home runs. And no one would have ever guessed that the skinny-legged kid with a pie-shaped face would spark the Yankee dynasty, invoke the Curse of the Boston Red Sox, become more famous than presidents, and earn what was then considered outrageous sums of money.
The marker at 563 Gillespie St., Fayetteville (Google map here) is located in front of the Highway Division 6 offices of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. There is a small cement sidewalk leading to the marker, which evidently sits approximately where home plate stood at Cape Fear Fairgrounds ballpark.
Why the Baltimore Orioles were playing in Fayetteville
The Baltimore Orioles trained in Florida in 1914, in preparation for their regular season in the International League. It was years before the Orioles earned major league status. Ruth, just 19 years old, was a new face in training camp, but it was hard not to notice him.
George Herman Ruth had first played organized baseball at a private Catholic boarding school called St. Mary’s Industrial School. Ruth grew up untamed on the streets of Baltimore: a big, loud, trouble-making youngster who gave his parents so much trouble they asked the court system to take legal responsibility for him when he was only seven years old. At St. Mary’s, “Georgie” stayed in trouble, had his hands reddened by the sharp THWACK of rulers from the priests and nuns, and grew taller and more oafish.
Periodically, Georgie Ruth would spend time with his father, who owned a seedy saloon in a tough neighborhood in Baltimore. By the time he was 16, George was the spitting image of his dad though taller, growing to more than 6’1. He learned baseball from a man named Brother Matthias, a mentor and coach to boys at St. Mary’s. In 1914, when George graduated from the school, Matthias arranged a visit from a scout who signed Ruth to play for the Orioles.
Ruth and the Orioles traveled by bus up the east coast from Florida to Maryland to start their season in the spring.
Ruth’s lofty blow in Cape Fear
On March 7, the Orioles played an inter-squad game at Cape Fear Fairgrounds, which had a large wooden grandstand overlooking a race track and baseball diamond. In the sixth inning, Ruth hit a baseball over the right field fence, in what some onlookers described as a “lofty blow” over a few trees. The right field fence may have measured as far as 380 feet.
For many years, Bill Morrisette, a righthanded pitcher from Portsmouth, Maryland, claimed he threw the pitch that Ruth blasted for his home run in Fayetteville. Like Ruth, Morrisette was a 19-year-old trying to make his way in pro baseball. The only newspaper account from the Fayetteville Observer indicates only that Ruth hit a home run.
No paper printed a box score for the game.
Did Babe Ruth earn his nickname in North Carolina?
The words on the NC historical marker read:
Babe Ruth hit his first home run in professional baseball, March 1914. 135 yards N.W. In this town George Herman Ruth acquired the nickname “Babe.”
Let’s pick that apart, shall we?
Yes, Ruth most definitely hit a home run on that date in Fayetteville, in front of a smattering of fans who didn’t know George Ruth from any other George.
Yes, the baseball was hit 135 yards away from the spot where the marker is. That’s about 4,015 feet, which aligns with eyewitness accounts and Ruth’s own recollections later.
But, it’s a stretch to call the homer in Fayetteville the first professional homer for the Babe. It was an exhibition game and didn’t come in an actual league contest. However, we can forgive that claim because Ruth was indeed wearing the uniform of a pro team that afternoon.
Then there is the claim that Ruth “acquired the nickname ‘Babe'” on March 7 during that game at Cape Fear Fairgrounds. That’s probably not true.
One of Jack’s “babies”
George Ruth signed a professional baseball contract off the campus of St. Mary’s in Baltimore. As well, he was also placed into the legal care of Jack Dunn, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles. This happened only weeks before the game in Fayetteville. Why? Because Ruth had been in and out of trouble with the legal system in Baltimore since he was knee-high to a barstool. Dunn agreed to watch out for George. Thus, when a few of the more seasoned players on the Baltimore team learned of this, they began calling Ruth one of the owner’s “babies” or “babes.”
By the time the Orioles arrived in Fayetteville, George Ruth was already being called “Babe” by some of his teammates. It’s possible (quite possible) that a reporter referred to Ruth by the moniker “Babe” in North Carolina. But we don’t have evidence of that fact. Ruth repeated the story that appears on the North Carolina historical marker for the rest of his life. However, the name had already been attached to him before the team arrived in the city.
Ruth rockets to fame after 1914
Ruth was a pitcher in 1914 who happened to be a pretty good hitter. He hit only one home run as a minor leaguer in 1914. Ironically that blast came in Toronto. So, technically the Babe’s first official professional home run came in Canada.
By July of 1914, Ruth was in the uniform of the Boston Red Sox. He won two games on the mound and had two hits. In 1915 he won 18 games and was arguably the best lefthanded pitcher in baseball. He hit four home runs (this was long before the designated hitter was invented). By 1918, he was hitting the baseball so hard and so far, that the Red Sox were playing the Babe in the outfield between his pitching assignments. Long before Ohtani, Ruth was starring with his shoulder and the lumber.
In 1918, 23-year-old Ruth won the home run title. He did so despite playing part-time as a position player and still pitching regularly. The Red Sox sold him to the Yankees following the 1919 season and the rest is history. He led the Yankees to their first four World Series titles. He won 12 home run titles, and in 1927 he blasted an unbelievable 60 home runs.
Eventually the Babe tallied 714 home runs in the big leagues. But the first time he hit a ball over a fence in an actual game wearing a pro uniform occurred here in North Carolina, on a dusty diamond paved over long ago.
Image Credit: AP Images