Today is a notable double birthday.
Today is a notable double birthday. Ronald Reagan was born this day in 1911 in Tampico, Ill. George Herman “Babe” Ruth was born this day in 1895 in Baltimore — just 16 years older than Reagan, although we commonly associate the Babe with the 1920s and the Gipper with the 1980s.
Unlike George H. W. Bush, who met Ruth when Ruth was dying and Bush was captain of the Yale baseball team, I don’t believe Reagan ever met Ruth, who died in 1948. But their paths did cross, in a way. From 1933-36, Reagan broadcast Chicago Cubs home games for WHO radio in Des Moines. With radio stations not yet able to project a signal strong enough for Iowans to listen directly to Chicago radio, regional stations came up with a workaround: An announcer would recreate the games in progress from telegraphed play-by-play reports from Wrigley Field. Reagan had to devise sound effects, fill in some color to the bare bones of what the telegraph sent him, and occasionally improvise — he liked to tell the story later of how he had a batter fouling off pitch after pitch when the telegraph feed went down. He covered some college football games the same way, including a Michigan game in which the national champions’ center was Gerald Ford. It was a lesson in storytelling even before he ever set foot in Hollywood, let alone Sacramento or Washington. Reagan could little then have expected the additional benefits of making himself known to an audience in Iowa.
The highlight of Reagan’s broadcasting career was in 1935. The Cubs started slowly; they were in fifth place in mid-June, escaped fourth place the day before the All-Star break, and were in third place as late as September 4. A 21-game September winning streak, however, propelled them to the National League pennant. Hall of Fame catcher Gabby Hartnett hit .344 and won the MVP award.
They also got to face Babe Ruth. The 40-year-old Bambino, playing out the string with the lowly Boston Braves, batted .181 and hung up his spikes at the end of May. But before that, on May 20 and 21, he returned to Wrigley Field, the site of his famous “called shot” home run three years earlier in the 1932 World Series. Ruth rose to the occasion in the second game, swatting his 711th career home run (his first in a month) off of Cubs pitcher Tex Carleton, helping the Braves to a 4-1 win. Reagan would have been behind the microphone back in Des Moines to recreate that home run for his Iowa radio audience. It was almost the last good day for Ruth, who exploded for three home runs against the Pirates at Forbes Field four days later but got only one hit the rest of the road trip. But Reagan was only getting started.