A couple days ago, I saw about 15 minutes of the movie in which John Goodman plays Babe Ruth. At the end of his career, Babe was playing for the Boston Braves. In one game he hit 3 home runs. On each of the first two, he ran only to first base, where a pinch runner came in for him to run from first to home. Is this historically accurate? Did pinch runners trot out Babe’s home runs for him? And was he allowed to return to the game after they did?
Okay, keep in mind that I know nothing about baseball. This answer comes from Mr. Jeannie and he’s not positive if he’s completely accurate. He says that in order for a pinch runner to be used, play would have to stop. In other words, if the Babe had hit a single, he’d run to first base. Then a pinch runner would come in. In the case of a home run, play does not stop until the HR hitter gets to home. Also, my husband says that, once a pinch runner is used, Babe would not be allowed back into the game.
He says the movie probably used dramatic license.
I never hate myself in the morning. I sleep till noon.
–Sig line courtesy of Wally 
Running the bases after hitting the ball out of the park is really just a technicality. Perhaps the umpires and managers agreed to such an arrangement so everybody wouldn’t have to wait for Babe to drag his fat ass around all the bases.
I haven’t seen the movie, but it seems strange that a glory hog like Babe Ruth would forego running the bases. It’s baseball’s equivalent to a victory lap.
If a batter hurts himself when he hits a home run, a pinch runner can be called in to finish running around the bases. That doesn’t happen very often as most players would just as soon crawl around the bases as deprive themselves of that moment in the spotlight.
However, in Ruth’s day there was an unwritten practice called “courtesy runners”. Normally you would see this if someone like Ruth (or any other fat or old player) got a single, the two teams would agree to let the batting team send in a player (usually the starting pitcher) to run for the batter. Instead of being a pinch runner and removing the batter from the game, the batter would get to go back in the game.
I don’t recall “courtesy runners” being used for home runs in any source I’ve read, but there use wouldn’t surprise me.
However, the bigger problem is that the movie is “The Babe” which has numerous other historical flaws and some atrocious performances.
Ruth’s 3-HR game is covered in some detail in Robert W. Creamer’s ‘Babe’. Ruth hit 2-run HR’s in the first and and 3rd, a RBI single in the 5th, and a solo shot in the 7th that was the 1st ball hit out of Forbes Field. It travelled an estimated 600 feet. Guy Bush, who was pitching, said ‘I never saw a ball hit so hard before or since. He was fat and old but he still had that great swing’.
That was Ruth’s 714th and last HR. It was also his last base hit. Friends urged him to retire after that game but he said ‘I can’t. I promised that SOB [owner Emil Fuchs] I’d play in all the towns.’
He next played in Cincinnati for Babe Ruth Day and was forced to leave the line-up in the 5th with his knee ‘sore and aching’. Four days later on Thursday, May 30, 1936, in Philadelphia Ruth struck out in the 1st. In the bottom of the 1st he hurt his knee going after a fly ball and had to leave the game. He never played again.
HIJACK ALERT
The Babe was filmed in my hometown, so I know a bit about it. We were offered either The Babe, or A League of Their Own (stupid us). It was filmed at an old baseball stadium (obviously) that was renovated for the movie. Anyway, one particular blooper that I recall is that during one of his homeruns, the camera moves up and you can see the playground on the other side of the fence.
Hey, I told 'ya it was a hijack.
Well, either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge or you are not aware of the power of the presence of a pool table in your community. Ya’ got trouble my friends! -
Prof. Harold Hill
Gary Conservatory
Gold Medal Class
'05