When Babe Ruth Came To Williamsport

 
From left to right: Dutch Ruether, Babe Ruth, Jack Scott, Jack Tee and Harry Hesse

 (Oil City, PA 10/27/1923 - the day after the group visited Williamsport)

On the afternoon of October 26 1923, Babe Ruth had an exhibition game in Mahanoy City . After the game he took a train headed to Oil City, where he had a game scheduled for the 27th. 

But for a few hours early Friday evening, he stopped in Williamsport Pa.

While there,  he was invited to the home of attorney, and fellow  member of the Knights Of Columbus,  Frank Cummings. There he signed a bible, wrote in a letter to one of the children, and the baseball players danced with the Cummings daughters.

Ruth returned on October 31st for an exhibition game.

Babe Ruth, August 1923

Michael Cummings, grandson of Frank, tells of this visit in a 6 minute audio clip:

https://soundcloud.com/historycollective/babe-ruth-in-williamsport-1923-a-recollection-by-michael-j-cummings

The text below is  a transcription of the audio:

"Babe Ruth, the ball player, came to Williamsport in 1923, it was after the regular baseball season playing the game at the old Williamsport high school field which is now where Penn college is,  South of 3rd St.  He played there and my uncle happened to be in the crowd at the time and Babe Ruth he hit a home run during the game but he also in practice he hit a ball supposedly one of the longest people I have ever seen because in the back of the field behind the fence was a furniture factory it was several stories high and on top of the factory was a chair that was sort of a symbol of the factory furniture making and an Babe Ruth hit a home run over that chair and my uncle said I I think it was more than 400 feet out the wall was and it was still going up you know.

Chair on top of the furniture factory, beside the athletic field

But what made this interesting for me was that my grandfather who died before I was born but my father told me about this my grandfather invited Babe Ruth to come to his house which was at 705 5th Ave  and he accepted and he not only accepted he brought the whole barnstorming team with him .  Players from different Major League teams in New York  and so they went.  M grandfather was a prominent attorney in town he was city solicitor so forth and he was a member of the Knights of Columbus and I think I'm not sure but I think Babe Ruth, I think he met babe Ruth at  the Knights of Columbus or something but anyway he invited him to the house and they both came.

Babe Ruth, Connie Mack and John McGraw were all members of the Knights Of Columbus, a catholic service fraternal order.“For the Knights of Columbus, the game served as an early avenue of assimilation for Catholic immigrants and first-generation Americans.” The KOC was instrumental in organizing barnstorming tours.

In 1923 alright my father was one of the children who lived in that house and he had  brothers and sisters so one brother my uncle Charlie running around the neighborhood telling the kids come quick Babe Ruth is at  my house come quick come quick.  And they didn't believe him of course  but some checked it out and it was true there was Babe Ruth inside and pretty soon tremendous crowd of kids was gathered in front of the house and on the front porch and  one of the young people his name was Billy Nau , N-A-U.  He was actually a teenager or in his early 20s so he wanted to get an autograph but he had nothing for Babe Ruth to autograph but he did have a Bible in his pocket  I think it might have been a Sunday and he took it out and Babe Ruth  signed the Bible you know it's like God signed it.

Apparently this would not be the last bible Babe Ruth would sign.  This 1942 signature is in an Army issued New Testament.  Ruth made many personal appearances supporting the war effort during WWII until his last appearance as a player at Yankee Stadium in 1943.

But an interesting tie into that that one of the kids on the porch or one of the youngsters not sure how to categorize them not sure what age you might have been a teenager or was Carl Stotz the founder of Little League baseball oh gosh and I and I knew Carl Stotz pretty well and but I never asked him this question I never thought to ask but I I wondered how inspired he was by seeing Babe Ruth because in the  late 1930s he founded Little League.  He got the idea when  he lived on Scott street but he was there.

The St John Lutheran Sunday School League Team in 1923
13 year old Carl Stotz is second from the right, front row
These boys were possibly among the crowd at the Cummings house on 10/26/23.

When Babe Ruth was in the house the ball players danced with s some of my father's sisters you know just a nice little dance was going on.   Babe Ruth he did pretty much what he wanted and my grandmother my father's mother was out in the kitchen area or dining room  table land she was writing a letter to one of her sons who was away at college his name was John and Babe Ruth came out and  noticed what she was doing and so he asked her to get up and she did then he sat down and he took over the letter and he says hi John I'm Babe Ruth I'm visiting your house right now, and this is, you know, verified.

And while they were in the house they but I guess they were like kids they  were throwing a ball back and forth and there was a a big yeah well it was like that only it was a bookcase had glass we have it in this house now and all somebody threw broke the glass you know and then that thing is upstairs and we always remember that story of how Babe Ruth was playing catch with so and so and they broke the glass on that bookcase."

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Ruth's Stars returned to Williamsport on October 31st for an exhibition game.
The game was played at 1:30 pm, on the Williamsport High School Athletic Field  [which at the time was located where Penn College is today.  This would be the first part of the audio clip from Michael Cummings.  

On 11/4, Babe Ruth's Barn Storm team played in Shamokin Pa.

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Note - The Detroit Tigers Played the New York Yankees in both Mount Carmel and Bloomsburg, in 1925.   Ruth however, did not come to Bloomsburg - the headliners often did not play in these barnstorming tours.

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/10/when-new-york-yankees-played-detroit.html

Read more about Barnstorming Tours here, and how one tour got Ruth benched 

https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/history/barnstorming-tours

"Ruth's Stars" , the players at the Hazelton game on October 23rd 1923

These same players would travel to Mahanoy City, then through Williamsport on their way to Oil City.

Read more about the teams visit to Hazelton here:

https://www.neonrocketship.com/2020/10/babe-ruth-hazleton-1922.html

Shamokin News 1948

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Frank Patrick Cummings

Mr. Cummings was born in Lewis (now Gamble) Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, October 31, 1854, a son of Patrick F. and Elizabeth Ann (Kelley) Cummings. Both parents were born on the “ould sod”, the father in County Kildare and the mother, in County Down, Ireland. Patrick F. Cummings came to this country about 1842, settling in what was then known as Rising Sun Village, now a part of Philadelphia, where he was employed as general manager for Mrs. Smith, a very wealthy lady. He was married in the United States to Elizabeth Ann Kelley, who although born in the north of Ireland, went to England at an early age, from whence she came to this country. They were the parents of nine children, one of whom died in infancy.

Mr. Cummings obtained an excellent rudimentary education in the public schools of his native township, and later pursued advanced studies at the Muncy Normal School. He then devoted considerable time to private study, for three years as a student at law in the office of Jonathan F. Streiby, meanwhile engaged in teaching school for eight terms in Salladasburg, in Ralston, and in South Williamsport. He was admitted to the bar of this county, April 3, 1884. Shortly afterward he formed a partnership with Charles J. Reilly, and in June, 1884, they opened an office for the practice of law on Pine Street, Williamsport, which partnership continued for four years when Mr. Reilly continued at the same office, and Mr. Cummings moved to No. 32 West Fourth Street, where he continued to practice until his death, March 24, 1939.

In 1902 Mr. Cummings was appointed City Solicitor of Williamsport, and later served at various intervals until his death. At the time of his death he was the Dean of City Solicitors of Third Class Cities. He was a Past President of the Lycoming Law Association, and for seventeen years its Treasurer. During his legal career he was counsel in several murder cases, in this and adjoining counties. He was also attorney for several litigants in the Austin Dam cases.

Mr. Cummings was one of the few remaining veterans of the old Twelfth Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania, in which he enlisted as a private in Company D, in 1881. The following year he was advanced and served for six years as Regimental Adjutant under Colonel Alfred H. Stead.

In politics, he was a lifelong Democrat, but never held nor was a candidate for any elective office. He was a charter member and Past Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus; a member and Past Exalted Ruler of B.P.O.E., and a charter member of the Lycoming Historical Society.

Much of his active life centered in the affairs of his church. He was a member of the Church of the Annunciation for approximately sixty years, having joined when that congregation worshiped on Edwin Street. He was a charter member and Senior Past President of the Holy Name Society, and also a Past President of the St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Society. He aided in establishing the Catholic Total Abstinence Union, of Pennsylvania, was its Vice President in 1882, and its President for two years, 1889 and 1900. He was selected by the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America to be the Secretary of the Father Matthew Memorial Committee, which raised $50,000 to endow a Father Matthew chair in the Catholic University, Washington, D. C. While touring Europe with Mrs. Cummings, a few years before his death, they were granted an audience by the late Pope, Pius XI.

Mr. Cummings was united in marriage with Nellie M. Farrell, of Lock Haven daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Kelly) Farrell, who predeceased him, having died July 22, 1935. They were the parents of ten children, seven of whom survived him, as follows: Elizabeth Kelley; Eleanor Agnes, now Corcoran; Mary; Charles J.; John K.; Frank P., Jr.; and Agnes May Skelly.

At the memorial service held hy the Bar, March 27, 1939, one of the committee recited the following lines from the great Irish poet, Thomas Moore, whom Mr. Cummings loved:

“Oh! breath not his name, let it sleep in the shade,

Where cold and unhonored his relics are laid:

Sad, silent and dark, be the tears we shed,

As the night-dew that falls on the grass o’er his head.

But the night-dew that falls, though in silence it weeps,

All brighten with verdure the grave where he sleeps:

And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls,

Shall long keep his memory green in our souls,”

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In Shamokin