STL All Sports

Babe Ruth's sly humor was at times as potent as was his mighty home run bat. In 1927, when he was making his fantastic home run record of sixty in only 151 major-league games, many rival batters needled him along the way to his imperishable glory. One of them was the brash Boston Red Sox third baseman, Fred Haney, a mediocre hitter.

One afternoon, in a game against the New York Yankees, Haney surprisingly hit his only home run of that season. It was a weak blow that barely sailed into the right field bleachers. Nevertheless, because of his feat, Haney preened like a pouter pigeon. At the inning's end, when he passed the greatest home run slugger of all time, he couldn't resist giving famous Babe Ruth the well-known needle.

"How d'ja like my homer, you big bum!" chirped Fred Haney. "Now you're only a lousy fifty homers ahead of me for this season."

Ruth said nothing. But when he came to bat in the same inning, he belted a tremendous homer that went clear over the center field fence. He jogged around the bases, and when he passed third base, he paused a second and said to Fred Haney:

"How do we stand now in homers, kid?"