A piece of trivia concerning a Babe Ruth no-hitter

An apology and a denial. First, I apologize missing the 101^st anniversary of this historic, albeit somewhat trivial, event by two days, but I must admit I spent too much time celebrating the Mavericks draft. Second, there is absolutely no truth to the rumor I actually witnessed this event. Sure, I’m up there in years, but I’m still younger than a number of trees you could find among the giant redwoods of Northern California.

Babe Ruth (you might have heard of him) was the starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox on June 23, 1917, in a game at Fenway Park against the Washington Senators. The first batter he faced was Ray Morgan and Ruth walked Morgan on four straight pitches. At least home plate umpire Clarence "Brick" Owens thought all four pitches were out of the strike zone. Ruth, however, was convinced his second and fourth pitches should have been called strikes and when Owens called ball four on Morgan, Ruth charged off the mound and screamed at Owens: "If you’d go to bed at night, you (expletive deleted), you could keep your eyes open long enough in the daytime to see when a ball goes over the plate!"

You can imagine Owens’ reaction. He told Ruth to shut up and get back on the mound or he’d be tossed. Ruth countered: "Throw me out and I’ll punch ya right in the jaw!"

That was the breaking point. Owens threw him out and, true to his word, Ruth actually tried to punch the ump in the jaw. He missed, however, and hit Owens a glancing blow behind the umpire’s ear. Still, Owens fell to the ground.

Ruth’s punishment? He was fined $100, handed a 10-game suspension and forced to give a public apology.

But that’s not the end of the story. Not by a long shot. What makes this episode historic is that Ernie Shore was summoned from the bullpen to relieve Ruth. Sam Agnew had to replace Boston catcher Chester "Pinch" Thomas who was also ejected as part of the Ruth-umpire fracas. During the first batter Shore faced, Morgan, the batter Ruth walked to begin the whole affair, was thrown out trying to steal second. Shore then retired the next 26 batters in a row without giving up a hit or a walk and Boston won the game 4-0

For close to the next 80 years, Shore’s feat was determined to be a "perfect game" because he was on the mound for all 27 outs. It stood that way until sometime in the 1990s when it was reclassified as a "combined no-hitter."