Babe Ruth's final farewell... his jersey is retired...

Item # 572586

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June 14, 1948

THE DETROIT FREE PRESS, Detroit, Michigan, June 14, 1948

* Babe Ruth's final farewell - #3 jersey retired
* 25th anniversary of Yankee Stadium
* Best title to have

This 32 page newspaper has two column headlines on page 22: "Old, New Yanks Pay Tribute to Guy Called Ruth", "Occasion Is 25th Birthday of Stadium Before 46,641" with famous photo of Ruth (his back) standing, leaning on baseball bat. This tells of Babe Ruth's final farewell at Yankee Stadium on it's 25th anniversary. He would die a few months later.

Other news, sports and advertisements of the day throughout. Some small binding holes along the spine, otherwise good.

wikipedia notes: On April 27, 1947, the Yankees held a ceremony at Yankee Stadium. Despite his health problems, Ruth was able to attend "Babe Ruth Day". Ruth spoke to a capacity crowd of more than 60,000, including many American Legion youth baseball players. Although lacking a specific memorable comment like Gehrig's "Luckiest man" speech, Ruth spoke from the heart, of his enthusiasm for the game of baseball and in support of the youth playing the game. (Babe Ruth speaking at Yankee Stadium)

Later, Ruth started the Babe Ruth Foundation, a charity for disadvantaged children. Another Babe Ruth Day held at Yankee Stadium in September 1947 helped to raise money for this charity.

After the cancer returned, Ruth attended the 25th anniversary celebration of the opening of Yankee Stadium on June 13, 1948. He was reunited with old teammates from the 1923 Yankee team and posed for photographs. The photo of Ruth taken from behind, using a bat as a cane, standing apart from the other players, and facing "Ruthville" (right field) became one of baseball's most famous and widely circulated photographs. It won the Pulitzer Prize.

Category: The 20th Century