Local baseball exhibition with Babe Ruth was a big hit in 1920

In 1920, 125,000 automobiles were registered in North Carolina, a state with a population of 2.6 million.

The few from this area who had a car drove to the Old Fairgrounds on North Liberty Street in Winston-Salem on April 8 of that year. The many who didn't caught a ride, or else made it by horse, wagon, streetcar or on foot.

In all, more than 10,000 packed the grounds, spilling over into the outfield. They were there to see the show, an exhibition game between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

And what they saw was Babe Ruth, in his first spring with the Yankees, hit a baseball farther than the sportswriters along for the trip had ever seen one hit before.

It was common in the days before television for major-league clubs to barnstorm their way north from spring training, picking up extra games along the way. With the help of Fambrough Brownlee of the North Carolina Room of the Forsyth County Library, a dozen major-league exhibitions in Winston-Salem have been uncovered, most of which were played at Southside Park before Ernie Shore Field opened in 1956.

Another will be added to the list, weather permitting, when the Chicago White Sox play the Winston-Salem Dash today at 6 p.m. at BB&T Ballpark.

It's always special for major-league baseball to visit a minor-league town, but none of the 11 more recent visits uncovered and documented have come close in plot, cast and historical significance to the one played between the Yankees and the Dodgers in 1920. It was a day no one who was there could ever forget.

Brooklyn, as it turned out, had the better season, riding the arm of Burleigh Grimes, the bat of Zach Wheat and the guidance of manager Wilbert Robinson to its second National League pennant in five seasons. But the Yankees, who had yet to win their first pennant, had the two star attractions.

One was the local boy who made good, the other the budding star who would do more than anyone in baseball history to change the way the game was played.

Ernie Shore, born and raised in East Bend, was the best reason the exhibition was scheduled here. In his seventh and final major-league season, Shore had been relegated to spot duty with the Yankees but was still highly regarded from his 46 victories over three seasons with the Boston Red Sox from 1915 through 1917.

With the need for a makeshift diamond at the Old Fairgrounds — a venue for horse racing — it was Shore who had the dirt trucked over from his Yadkin County farm to build the pitcher's mound. Shore took the mound to start for the Yankees and enthralled the home folks by shutting out the Dodgers 3-0.

But for all the fame Shore would accrue in later years as the sheriff of Forsyth County from 1936 to 1970, the game might have been lost in the fog of time if not for one Ruthian blow.

Ruth, 25 at the time, had split the 1919 season with the Red Sox between the pitcher's mound and right field. He pitched well, going 9-5 with a 2.97 earned-run average. He hit better, smashing an AL-most 29 home runs in 432 at-bats.

Yankees owner Colonel Jacob Ruppert bought Ruth over the winter for $125,000, sweetening the deal with a $300,000 loan to owner Harry Frazee of the Red Sox. The acquisition paid immediate dividends; Ruth hit .378 with a record 54 home runs.

George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns was runner-up in the homer category that season, with 19.

So Ruth was only doing what he did best when he stepped to the plate at the south end of the race track in the sixth inning and hammered the ball over the infield to land on the track at the north end. Sid Mercer described the clout to his readers of the New York Globe.

"The experts finally agreed that Ruth's hit carried at least 600 feet and bounded at least 50 feet farther,'' Mercer wrote. "This gives Babe a new record as nobody else has ever batted a ball anywhere near that distance. It is certainly a record that will stand for all time in Winston-Salem.''

It might have been the longest hit, but it wasn't the longest home run. It actually wasn't a home run at all.

Because the ball landed amid the spectators, out of the sight of umpire Hank O'Day, it was ruled a ground-rule double.

dcollins@wsjournal.com

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