Grantland Rice, sports writer, recalls his early encounters with the young Boston Red Sox pitcher and slugger George Herman Babe Ruth. In spring 1919 at Tampa, Florida, Rice watches Ruth hit batting practice drives and hears manager Ed Barrow describe the player's value to baseball. Rice then recounts the sale of Ruth to Colonel Jake Rupert, Ruth's enormous popularity with crowds and children, and several anecdotes from their time together, including a radio broadcast mishap and a dinner party in St. Petersburg, Florida. The episode is the second chapter of the series, drawn from Rice's account of his life in sports and told in the first person.

With Grantland Rice, Jimmy Powers, Babe Ruth, Ed Barrow, Colonel Jake Rupert, Graham McNamee, Mrs. Lipman, Walter Lipman.

Listen for: Rice's first sight of Babe Ruth's batting practice in Tampa in 1919, and the St. Petersburg dinner party where Ruth describes his 1932 World Series home run

First aired in 1950.

Episode notes written with AI from the recording itself; the audio is the original broadcast.

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