Catch of a lifetime

When Babe Ruth played in Sleepy Eye, 11-year-old walked away with HR ball

By Scott Thoma

Despite a cold and windy fall day that included a few flurries, over 700 fans turned out at the Sleepy Eye baseball park on Oct. 16, 1922, to watch the legendary “Sultan of Swat” belt a pair of home runs.

In this 2015 photo, Len Youngman, 104, held up the baseball that Babe Ruth hit for a home run in Sleepy Eye in 1922. Youngman was 11 when he retrieved the ball. He passed away in 2018 age 107. Contributed photo

That was the day when Babe Ruth came to Sleepy Eye, Minn., with his New York Yankees teammate Bob Meusel to play a game at 3 p.m. against some of the best baseball players in southern Minnesota as a part of a barnstorming tour.

Players in the game were all-stars from Sleepy Eye, New Ulm, Mountain Lake, Seaforth, Lucan, Wabasso, Tracy, Fairfax, St. James, Comfrey, Russell, Walnut Grove, Woodstock, Windom, Springfield, Madelia, Slayton, and Lake Crystal.

Team Ruth defeated Team Meusel 9-7 in Sleepy Eye. Ruth, normally an outfielder/pitcher for the Yankees, played second base and pitched the final inning, striking out two. Meusel played left field, but feeling uncomfortable playing in the cold weather, exited the game early.

Sleepy Eye, one of train stops among Ruth and Meusel’s 14-game, 19-day barnstorming tour, was the only Minnesota city the two Yankees played a game. Ruth and Meusel had played in Omaha the game prior to Sleepy Eye and then played in Sioux Falls following the Sleepy Eye appearance.

When Ruth and Meusel got off the train in Sleepy Eye, hundreds of adoring fans were on hand to greet them. The local high school band led them to the ballpark in parade-like fashion.

Ruth and Meusel had been banned for six weeks at the beginning of the 1922 season for barnstorming in 1921 despite warnings against it by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the commissioner who was made famous for banning “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and seven other Chicago White Sox players for life in 1919 for game-fixing the World Series. The barnstorming ban was overturned after that.

Ruth loved barnstorming because it gave him a chance to promote the game, while also allowing him the opportunity to make some extra money. It also allowed him to get away from Yankee fans who were unhappy that the Yankees had just been swept by the Giants in the World Series and that Ruth had only batted .118 with no homers and one RBI.

“It’s not exactly clear how the businessmen or whoever it was in Sleepy Eye were able to get Ruth to come there and play,” said Randy Krzmarzick, who researched that eventful day and other local baseball stories for many years along with friends and baseball enthusiasts Scott Surprenant and the late Dean Brinkman.

Ruth and Meusel were each paid $1,000 for their appearance, which is equal to $19,134.82 today.

Bob Meusel, left, and Babe Ruth pose on the baseball field in Sleepy Eye in this Oct. 16, 1922 photo.

One of the interesting side stories of the Ruth appearance uncovered by the three researchers regarded one of Ruth’s home run balls that was retrieved by an 11-year-old boy at the game.

“The young boys were running and playing behind the outfield during the game,” said Krzmarzick. “One of the boys was able to get one of the home run balls hit by Ruth.”

A photo of Ruth and Meusel was taken after the game and peeking his head between them was a young boy. When that iconic photo appeared in a newspaper article many years later, the grandson of the young boy in the photo came forward and identified him.

“The grandson, Joel Youngman, contacted me by email and said that was his grandpa, Len Youngman, in the photo,” Krzmarzick said. “I figured everyone in that photo had passed away, but Joel said his grandpa was still alive and living in Virginia.”

Boyd Huppert, a television journalist/producer, was then informed about Youngman and the KARE-11 station decided to do a segment on it.

So, Huppert, his cameraman, Krzmarzick, Surprenant and Brinkman all traveled to Virginia in northern Minnesota in 2015 to visit with Len Youngman.

“He was 104 years old and in good health and spry,” said Krzmarzick. “He was also that 11-year-old boy running in the outfield that got one of the baseballs Ruth hit for a home run.”

“And here comes this baseball flying way over the centerfielder’s head, he didn’t even chase it. I picked it up and ran with it,” Youngman was quoted as saying in the television segment in 2015.

Len Youngman said he didn’t think to ask Ruth to sign the ball, likely not realizing the value it would eventually hold.

Youngman passed away at age 107 in October of 2018. Joel Youngman, who lives in Cloquet, is now in possession of the baseball.

“We invited (Len) to attend the 100th anniversary of Ruth’s appearance in Sleepy Eye in 2022, but Len jokingly said we would have to dig him up to get him to the game,” Krzmarzick said.

Sleepy did commemorate Ruth’s game played in Sleepy Eye on the 100th anniversary in October of 2022. Fans from all over the area came to the event. One fan came from as far as Detroit, Mich.

“There was no baseball game played that day,” said Krzmarzick. “Just a lot of reminiscing and enjoying some time at the ball park.”

Dana Kiecker, who was born in Sleepy Eye and was a 1979 graduate of nearby Fairfax High School who pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1990-91, was on hand to pitch more than two hours of batting practice to adults and children.

In this 2015 photo, the late Len Youngman re-enacts how he peeked between New York Yankees Bob Meusel and Babe Ruth in an iconic photo nearly 100 years earlier at the ballpark in Sleepy Eye. Left to right: The late Randy Brinkman, Youngman, Scott Surprenant and Randy Krzmarzick. Photo courtesy Boyd Huppert, KARE-11

A plaque with the photo taken of Ruth and Meusel was dedicated at 3 p.m., the starting time of the game that Ruth played. There was also a tribute to Brinkman, who passed away at age 59 shortly before the 100th anniversary event.

Krzmarzick, Surprenant and a few others head to the Sleepy Eye ballpark on the anniversary of Babe Ruth’s appearance every Oct. 16 to toast arguably the best baseball player of all time and to share a few stories and laughs.

Only three ball fields in the country where Ruth hit a home run are still standing — Wrigley Field in Chicago, Fenway Park in Boston, and the ballpark in Sleepy Eye.