Babe Ruth honored 78 years ago

Ruth’s speech carried on radio nationwide

Seventy-eight years ago today, April 27, 1947, the New York Yankees held Babe Ruth Day, saluting the “Sultan of Swat.” Ruth had been diagnosed with cancer one month before the event. Ruth’s speech at Yankee Stadium was carried nationwide on radio. Here is the link to his address.

In the some-things-never-change category, the commissioner of baseball, Happy Chandler, was booed lustily, according to the NY Daily News. Here is how the News treated the day.

Less than 16 months later, Ruth would die from esophageal cancer at the age of 53 on Aug. 16, 1948.

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DAN