Ruth Needs Beef
To Bang Out Long Drives and Keep His Crown as King of Swat
By BILLY EVANS
April 24, 1926
WHY all the ado about Babe Ruth?
When the Bambino socked 59 home runs for a world record he was far from being a tiny person. The Babe weighed about 225 that season.
Last year Ruth weighed about the same but it wasn't a good weight. Instead of the muscles being hard and the flesh firm, they were soft and flabby.
Injuries and illness prevented Ruth from getting into condition.
This winter reams have been written about the weight that Ruth has taken off in his effort to come back, provided he ever went away.
I would be willing to wager that Ruth weighs 220 right now. He might tip the scales at 225, the weight at which he did his best batting.
Ruth hasn't wasted away to nothing because of his winter's effort to regain condition. He's the same old Babe, a good sized waistline, but the muscles once again look hard and the flesh firm.
It takes plenty of weight and real strength to sock the ball as Ruth did in the good old days.
Foreign Stars
DURING the past year the supremacy of the United States in sports has been rudely jolted.
Charlie Hoff has been showing the natives how to pole-vault and recently in competition with our best athletes easily won the indoor all-around championship.
Jake Schaefer has twice been deprived of his billiard title, once by Horemans of Belgium and, after he regained it, lost to Hagenlacher of Germany.
Then there are Nurmi, Lowe, Liddell and Abrahams, all world champs at their respective distances, hailing from the other side.
Even the great Tilden, regarded as supreme in tennis, was defeated by Borotra of France. Helen Wills also succumbed to Suzanne Lenglen.
While there is no reason to be pessimistic, it is mighty hard to be an optimist after reading the above.
Baseball Bugs
WALTER HAGEN is a baseball bug. Willie Hoppe is in the same class.
Not only do these two stars like to watch the game but they prefer playing it.
In playing baseball there is always great danger of injury to the hands. The deft putting touch of Hagen in golf and the fineness of Hoppe's billiard play depends largely on the condition of their hands.
Yet down south this spring it was not unusual to see Walter Hagen out playing ball with the big leaguers. Hoppe has the same habit.
Both Hagen and Hoppe probably would have starred at the national pastime had they taken it up with the same purpose and determination they did golf and billiards.
Source: (1926, April 24) The Washington daily news. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn82016181/1926-04-24/ed-1/.
