Babe Ruth – The Sports Fan Project

Fan Teaser: Week 181 Solution

April 12, 2026April 2, 2026DouglasTHillLeave a comment

^{Another no-crop Fan Teaser Friday! Pictured above is the answer to one of the best trivia questions ever. Who’s the only man to win a MLB World Series and play in The Masters? Bonus points for naming the other three men he’s pictured with above.}

Meet Sammy Byrd aka “Babe Ruth’s Legs” aka the only man to both win a MLB World Series and play in The Masters.

A native of Georgia, Byrd grew up in Birmingham, AL, where the family home was next to Roebuck Golf Course. That’s where he learned the game of golf. A product of Simpson High School, he was a 2-sport star there, playing both baseball and basketball. It was baseball that afforded Byrd his first taste of professional sport.

He signed with the Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association as a 20-year-old in 1926. A scant year later the New York Yankees and purchased his contract and assigned him to the Albany Senators. By 1929 he was playing for the Yankees alongside Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. It was with the Yankees in 1932 that he appeared in one World Series Game during the pinstripers’ sweep of the Chicago Cubs.

Speedy and solid defensively in the outfield, near the end of his time with Yankees, Byrd’s role became primarily that of a defensive replacement and/or pinch-runner for the aging Ruth, thus earning the nickname “Babe Ruth’s Legs.” Released by the Yankees following the 1934 season, Byrd signed with the Cincinnati Reds for a pair of seasons before a knee injury following a wall collision in an early night baseball game led to the end of his professional baseball career. His pursuits on the PGA Tour began in 1936 even though he’d turned pro in 1933.

Even while a baseball player, Byrd earned the reputation as the best golfer among the Major Leaguers. He would often play with Ruth and, of course, there was money involved. Later in life, Byrd paraphrased Lee Trevino when he said, “I had to win. Babe could afford to lose $50; I couldn’t.”

Golf legend, Bobby Jones, played with Byrd in 1930 and said of him, “The best man off the tee I’ve ever seen.” In January of 1937 Byrd won a baseball players’ tournament by a whopping 14 shots in Sarasota, FL.

Ultimately, Byrd became the head pro at Pennysylvania’s famed Merion Golf Club (host of the 2026 U.S. Amateur) before moving to Michigan to succeed Jimmy Demaret as the pro Plum Hollow Country Club. All along, he was stacking experience on the Tour, winning the Greater Greensboro Open in 1942 over the likes of Ben Hogan. A year prior, he finished in third place at The Masters behin only winner Craig Wood and Byron Nelson. He and Nelson tangled again in the 1945 PGA Championship, when Nelson bested Byrd 4-and-3 in the match play championship.

All totaled, Byrd won 11 professional golf tournaments including six on the PGA Tour and had the top three finishes at both The Masters and PGA Championship. His best finish in the U.S. Open came in 1939 when he tied for 16th.

After his playing career ended, Byrd became a noted golf instructor and one of his proteges, Jimmy Ballard, became a wildly successful instructor and coach, earning the honor of “PGA Coach of the 1980s.” You’re able to read more about this at this link.

Extra Credit Answer: For those wondering who the additional fellas are above, on the left that’s Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. In the photo at right is Byrd and Ben Hogan during a tournament in Portland, OR.

^{Enjoy this wonderful video about Byrd’s life on and off the golf course.}

dJust to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.

The Fan Teaser: Week 144 Solution

July 27, 2025July 24, 2025DouglasTHillLeave a comment

^{One of the original Fab Fives for this week’s #FanTeaser. Who comprises this quintet and what’s significant about them?}

Nearly 90 years ago, the Baseball Writers Association of America conducted its first vote to select an innaugural class for the nascent National Baseball Hall of Fame. The structure in Cooperstown, NY, was still three years away from being open for business, but on February 2, 1936, the first Hall of Fame Class was announced. It included five players who really – even then – needed no introduction:

Ty Cobb – Upon his retirement, Cobb had amassed a then-record 4,191 hits and a career batting average of .366. See his HoF bio here and his career stats here.
Walter Johnson – The hard-throwing righthanded pitcher still owns the career record with 110 shutouts among his 417 career wins. See his HoF bio here and his career stats here.
Christy Mathewson – The rightie won 20 or more games in 13 of his 17 big league seasons. He won 33 during the 1904 season and finished third! (Jack Chesbro collected 41 and Joe McGinnity 35) See his HoF bio here and his career stats here.
Babe Ruth – One of the original dual threat players, not only did Ruth club a then-record 714 career home runs, but he also won 94 games as a pitcher, and still holds the career Slugging Percentage record with a .690 mark. See his HoF bio here and his career stats here.
Honus Wagner – A native Pennsylvanian, Wagner spent the majority of his career with his homestate Pirates. Known these days more for his ultra-rare T206 baseball card than his statistics, it’s worth noting that Wagner played every position but catcher during his 21 seasons and finished with 643 career doubles, still 10th best in the game’s history. See his HoF bio here and his career stats here.

^{The plaques from the original National Baseball Hall of Fame class.}

It would not be until June 12, 1939, that the first induction ceremony in the quaint upstate New York village.

This Sunday the Class of 2025 will receive their bronze plaques in Cooperstown. The class is comprised of Dick Allen, Dave Parker, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki, and Billy Wagner (no relation to Honus;-).

My Babe Ruth Number is 4!

July 25, 2023DouglasTHillLeave a comment

Imagine my surprise when my father – whom, it turns out, I’ve known my entire life! – dropped this nugget of information on me earlier this week:

He once met former New York Yankee infielder, Everett Scott, at one of the bowling alleys Scott owned and operated following his playing days in and around Fort Wayne, IN.

Me: Wait a minute!?! Everett Scott, the Major League Baseball player who was teammates with Babe Ruth in both Boston and New York. You met him?
My Dad: Yes
Me: So, you mean to tell me I have a Babe Ruth Number of 3?
My Dad: A what?

Let me back this story up a moment.

A month or so ago, I happened to mention something to my dad about the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon parlor game and how, the legend has it, anyone who’s ever worked in Hollywood can be connected back to actor Kevin Bacon in six moves or fewer. It’s based on the concept that all humans are connected to everyone else in six connections or fewer.

I noted to my father that both he and I have a Bacon Number of 3 and explained how Bacon starred with Timothy Robbins in 2003’s Mystic River. Robbins (Bacon Number of 1) once had architectural work done by my cousin’s former husband, Joe (Bacon Number of 2), and we both have met Joe. Ergo, our Bacon Number of 3.

So, if the same concept applies to my dad, Scott, and Ruth, my dad has a Babe Ruth Number of 2 and me one of 3.

I was stoked!

And then I read Scott’s Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) bio. He died in November 1960 which means my father, then only a teenager, would not have been working where he thought he was near the bowling alley. But then I read that Scott had a son, Everett Jr., so I called my dad to probe further.

Me: When did you think you met Scott? 
My Dad: Sometime in mid-1960s.
Me: Um, I've got some bad news. Everett Scott died in 1960.
My Dad: Hmmm, I was told I was meeting Everett Scott when a friend introduced us.
Me: Could it have been his son? He was a junior. 
My Dad: Certainly might have been.

I’m going with it!

So my dad’s Babe Ruth Number is 3 and mine is a 4.

It’s not quite a 3, but I’ll take the 4. I’ve shaken the hand of a person who shook the hand of the son of Everett Scott who played with Babe Ruth for nine seasons. And I had no idea for over 55 years!

Ruth and Scott Baseball Card — **^{Ruth and Scott appeared on a 1926 baseball card together.}**

P.S. I also discovered in Scott’s SABR bio that he owned the consecutive games played streak (1,307) before his 1-time teammate Lou Gehrig broke it and set the number at 2,130 before Cal Ripken broke it and owns the current record of 2,362.