Bobby Purcell, N.C. State's senior associate athletics director and
executive director of the Wolfpack Club, talks with Lefty Freeman before
the Wolfpack's game with Georiga Tech at the RBC Center Wednesday
January 23, 2008.
Babe Ruth was nearing the end of his career in 1935 when the
Boston Braves played an exhibition baseball game against N.C. State
College at Highland Park in Fayetteville.
The game was eventually called when the town of Fayetteville ran out of baseballs, and the Braves continued to travel north after a 6-2 exhibition win in what was to be Babe Ruth’s final season as a player.
The Braves left behind more than 120 souvenir baseballs and the memory that sophomore left-handed pitcher Olney Ray “Lefty” Freeman struck out Babe Ruth.
Freeman, 98, died on Saturday. His funeral was Monday at the Rolesville Baptist Church.
In recent years, Freeman of Rolesville attended N.C. State baseball games, and coach Elliott Avent called upon Freeman to throw out the first pitch to open the season.
In an interview in 1977, Freeman recalled the day he played against the aging Ruth.
“We were all excited, of course, by the chance to play against Babe Ruth,” Freeman said.
“He was slowed down a lot by then. He was overweight, and you could tell he didn’t have many more years in the big leagues ahead of him.
“But he was Babe Ruth. There was only one. And still had the most perfect swing I’ve ever seen. When he got hold of a baseball the way he wanted to, it looked like an aspirin when it went out of the park.”
Striking out Ruth was the highlight of his athletic career, Freeman said. He recounted the story often.
Ruth, in his final game in North Carolina, walked twice, hit into a double play and was struck out by Freeman, who recently had begun experimenting with what he called his “underhand delivery.”
His first pitch in the sixth inning almost struck Ruth in the head, and the aging star dove to avoid being hit.
The next two pitches were wide, and the fans booed Freeman for not throwing a strike. Ruth missed a 3-0 sidearm curveball, fouled off another sidearm curve and swung so hard at the third strike, an overhand curveball, that he fell down.
The game was called soon after when the teams ran out of baseballs.
Fayetteville Mayor Q.K. Nimocks had proclaimed April 5, 1935 as “Babe Ruth Day” in Fayetteville. It was a business holiday, and a crowd estimated at between 7,000 and 10,000 crowded into Highland Park, which had a seating capacity of 3,000.
The Braves were headed north from spring training, and Fayetteville arranged the game to honor Ruth, who made his first professional appearance there in 1914 in an intrasquad game played at Fair Grounds Park.
Maurice Fleishman, who was then a 12-year-old bat boy for the Baltimore Orioles, said in 1977 that the first time he ever heard the nickname Babe was when one of his teammates saw Ruth taking the field and said, “Well, it looks like we’ve got a babe along this time.”
Fleishman remembered Ruth being thrilled to ride up and down the Lafayette Hotel’s freight elevator and paying the operator $5 to operate it. The 20-year-old Ruth was making $600 a year and bought a bicycle with his first paycheck.
Ruth’s return to the city was a huge event. Organizers encouraged spectators at the game to keep any ball they could get a hand on. Fans packed the foul lines and eventually moved into the outfield. One fan stopped the game when she walked on the field and got Ruth, who was playing first base, to autograph her souvenir ball.
The players joined the souvenir hunt. State reserve Mason Bugg went into the stands and got a couple of souvenir balls for himself.
When the initial supply of 48 baseballs (a dozen from State and three dozen from the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce) was down to four, the owner of a local store was summoned from the stands and sent to get more balls.
Later, it was announced that every new baseball in town, 120, was at the park.
“People were crowding in from the outfield and would grab up any ball, fair or foul, that was within reach,” Fleishman recalled. “It was a mess.”
Bugg was pinch hitting in the seventh inning with two men on base when he fouled off the last baseball. Bugg volunteered to give up his two souvenir balls, but umpire Robert Dunn declared the game over.
Anthony J. McKevlin, The News & Observer sports editor at the time, wrote:
“The game ended at the right time. Everyone went away happy – and whole. Had it continued, someone probably would have been seriously hurt by a line smash ... the fans were getting closer and closer.”
Ruth hit six home runs that season, including one estimated to have traveled 600 feet. He was hitting .181 when he took himself out of the lineup in June.
Freeman was born on Jan. 4, 1914 as one of 13 children of LeCausey Peterson Freeman and Lula Elizabeth Harmon Freeman. He was a retired farmer and a World War II veteran.
Freeman’s wife, Anna Eloise Averette Freeman, preceded him in death. He is survived by his three children, Betty Freeman, Nell Sligh, and Sally Long and their families; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
The game was eventually called when the town of Fayetteville ran out of baseballs, and the Braves continued to travel north after a 6-2 exhibition win in what was to be Babe Ruth’s final season as a player.
The Braves left behind more than 120 souvenir baseballs and the memory that sophomore left-handed pitcher Olney Ray “Lefty” Freeman struck out Babe Ruth.
Freeman, 98, died on Saturday. His funeral was Monday at the Rolesville Baptist Church.
In recent years, Freeman of Rolesville attended N.C. State baseball games, and coach Elliott Avent called upon Freeman to throw out the first pitch to open the season.
In an interview in 1977, Freeman recalled the day he played against the aging Ruth.
“We were all excited, of course, by the chance to play against Babe Ruth,” Freeman said.
“He was slowed down a lot by then. He was overweight, and you could tell he didn’t have many more years in the big leagues ahead of him.
“But he was Babe Ruth. There was only one. And still had the most perfect swing I’ve ever seen. When he got hold of a baseball the way he wanted to, it looked like an aspirin when it went out of the park.”
Striking out Ruth was the highlight of his athletic career, Freeman said. He recounted the story often.
Ruth, in his final game in North Carolina, walked twice, hit into a double play and was struck out by Freeman, who recently had begun experimenting with what he called his “underhand delivery.”
His first pitch in the sixth inning almost struck Ruth in the head, and the aging star dove to avoid being hit.
The next two pitches were wide, and the fans booed Freeman for not throwing a strike. Ruth missed a 3-0 sidearm curveball, fouled off another sidearm curve and swung so hard at the third strike, an overhand curveball, that he fell down.
The game was called soon after when the teams ran out of baseballs.
Fayetteville Mayor Q.K. Nimocks had proclaimed April 5, 1935 as “Babe Ruth Day” in Fayetteville. It was a business holiday, and a crowd estimated at between 7,000 and 10,000 crowded into Highland Park, which had a seating capacity of 3,000.
The Braves were headed north from spring training, and Fayetteville arranged the game to honor Ruth, who made his first professional appearance there in 1914 in an intrasquad game played at Fair Grounds Park.
Maurice Fleishman, who was then a 12-year-old bat boy for the Baltimore Orioles, said in 1977 that the first time he ever heard the nickname Babe was when one of his teammates saw Ruth taking the field and said, “Well, it looks like we’ve got a babe along this time.”
Fleishman remembered Ruth being thrilled to ride up and down the Lafayette Hotel’s freight elevator and paying the operator $5 to operate it. The 20-year-old Ruth was making $600 a year and bought a bicycle with his first paycheck.
Ruth’s return to the city was a huge event. Organizers encouraged spectators at the game to keep any ball they could get a hand on. Fans packed the foul lines and eventually moved into the outfield. One fan stopped the game when she walked on the field and got Ruth, who was playing first base, to autograph her souvenir ball.
The players joined the souvenir hunt. State reserve Mason Bugg went into the stands and got a couple of souvenir balls for himself.
When the initial supply of 48 baseballs (a dozen from State and three dozen from the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce) was down to four, the owner of a local store was summoned from the stands and sent to get more balls.
Later, it was announced that every new baseball in town, 120, was at the park.
“People were crowding in from the outfield and would grab up any ball, fair or foul, that was within reach,” Fleishman recalled. “It was a mess.”
Bugg was pinch hitting in the seventh inning with two men on base when he fouled off the last baseball. Bugg volunteered to give up his two souvenir balls, but umpire Robert Dunn declared the game over.
Anthony J. McKevlin, The News & Observer sports editor at the time, wrote:
“The game ended at the right time. Everyone went away happy – and whole. Had it continued, someone probably would have been seriously hurt by a line smash ... the fans were getting closer and closer.”
Ruth hit six home runs that season, including one estimated to have traveled 600 feet. He was hitting .181 when he took himself out of the lineup in June.
Freeman was born on Jan. 4, 1914 as one of 13 children of LeCausey Peterson Freeman and Lula Elizabeth Harmon Freeman. He was a retired farmer and a World War II veteran.
Freeman’s wife, Anna Eloise Averette Freeman, preceded him in death. He is survived by his three children, Betty Freeman, Nell Sligh, and Sally Long and their families; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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