E121 Ruth getting respect

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Steve D

Thank you Gary for the correction. I actually just saw the LF caption variation for the card a couple days ago, as one is soon going up for auction.

Sean, I don't know which variation was first, but here's the breakdown for Babe's games played in LF and RF over his career:

Year Tm Pos G GS
1918 BOS LF 47 46
1919 BOS LF 110 106
1920 NYY LF 32 31
1920 NYY RF 86 84
1921 NYY LF 132 132
1922 NYY LF 71 71
1922 NYY RF 39 39
1923 NYY LF 68 68
1923 NYY RF 73 73
1924 NYY LF 50 50
1924 NYY RF 100 98
1925 NYY LF 33 32
1925 NYY RF 66 66
1926 NYY LF 82 82
1926 NYY RF 68 67
1927 NYY LF 56 56
1927 NYY RF 95 95
1928 NYY LF 55 55
1928 NYY RF 99 99
1929 NYY LF 55 55
1929 NYY RF 78 77
1930 NYY LF 53 53
1930 NYY RF 91 91
1931 NYY LF 51 51
1931 NYY RF 91 91
1932 NYY LF 44 43
1932 NYY RF 87 85
1933 NYY LF 54 54
1933 NYY RF 78 77
1934 NYY LF 33 33
1934 NYY RF 77 76
1935 BSN LF 22 22
1935 BSN RF 4 4
15 Seasons RF 1132 1122
18 Seasons LF 1048 1040

If I were to guess, I would say the RF Babe Ruth card was probably issued first. He didn't play RF until 1920, when he played over 2 1/2 times as many games there, as in LF. He did not play RF again until 1922, and then only half the games he played in LF. So, American Caramel probably thought he was being moved to RF due to the games he played there in 1920. Then when he played only in LF in 1921, they printed the cards showing him as a LFer.

Steve

According to this:

After losing a ball in the sun in the Polo Grounds’ leftfield on July 16, 1922, Ruth refused to ever play the sun field again, and he didn't. His position thereafter was determined by the geographic orientation of the ballpark in which he was playing. For the rest of his career, Ruth played exclusively in rightfield at the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium, as well as in Washington and Cleveland but exclusively in leftfield at the other AL cities (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and St. Louis).