Judge, 1923-05-26 · page 10 of 36
Judge — May 26, 1923 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This article satirizes Babe Ruth's relationship with American baseball fans and the press. The sketch shows Ruth during a batting slump at the Polo Grounds, where fans vocally demanded his replacement with teammate Elmer Smith—despite Ruth's impressive 59 home runs the previous season. The satire's point: fans are fickle and forgetful, quickly abandoning heroes during performance dips. More significantly, it critiques how Ruth generates headlines regardless of success or failure. The article suggests Ruth's real power lies not in athletic consistency but in his ability to dominate newspaper coverage. Whether striking out or hitting home runs, he remains "the Headline King"—making him simultaneously celebrated and vulnerable to public derision. The piece comments on how celebrity and media attention create an unstable, often unhappy existence for sports figures, caught between worship and scorn.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BABE RUTH, THE HEADLINE KING (His Critics and His Worshipers—and Sundry Other Thoughts) by Edward Anthony « AKE HIM ovT!—the big bum! We want Smith!” We heard this cry at the Polo Grounds a dozen times one afternoon last summer when the Babe was in the throes of a bad slump. Outraged fans were yelling for his scalp. They were howling for the replac ent of their ex- hero by Elmer Smith. And while, as Longfellow said: This Smith a mighty man is he With large and sinewy hands That know the way to send the ball A-crashing in the stands, yet it seemed that the crowd was quick to’ forget Ruth's fifty-nine home runs of the previous season. And perhaps that is why the Babe’s slump grew worse and worse until it looked as though Smith might really supplant him. But Ruth 8 Sketches by Weed “The Behemoth of Swat.” was making more than strike outs and pop flies those days. He was making headlin Proving that Ruth is much of news story when he fails’ as when | succeeds; proving, also, that the bas ball hero’s lot is not a happy one. Som« times roses grow on his lot and sometimes it is littered with tin cans. Sometime both conditions prevail. The thing fo: