Home, at the Other House That Ruth Built (Published 2014) – The New York Times
by May 31, 2024Advertisement
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The woman pressed her eyes shut to see what only she can see. Macular degeneration has left her legally blind. Still, her vision of a bygone era, and of baseball’s most famous figure, remains focused.
“Daddy loved it here,” she said, sitting in a wheelchair in the restaurant of the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, once known as the Vinoy Park Hotel, where her father ate and drank and often stayed.
She is 97, yet she still calls that famous sports figure Daddy.
Daddy is Babe Ruth.
Julia Ruth Stevens did not need a wheelchair five years ago when she threw out the first pitch at the last game at the old Yankee Stadium, fondly referred to as the house that her daddy built. It had been her last public appearance.
But when organizers here asked her to help commemorate the city’s 100th anniversary as the birthplace of spring training in Florida, as well as Ruth’s history there — the Yankees called St. Petersburg their spring home from 1925 to 1961 — she made the trip from her Las Vegas home.
It was her first visit to St. Petersburg since 1943, but she was able to recall addresses and landmarks, all while mining anecdotes rich in detail.
St. Petersburg is where Ruth hit a legendary home run. It came on March 25, 1934, in a game between the Yankees and the Boston Braves at Waterfront Park. According to a Boston Herald report, Ruth sent a pitch from Hucks Betts “10,000 leagues to right field,” carrying “far over the canvas and almost into the West Coast Inn.”
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