Foothill Little League: Of Interest

The Other Babe

by Bob Brigham

On June 26, 1903 there was born in Buffalo, NY a future big leaguer who was given the name Floyd Caves Herman. It was only a coincidence that his last name was the same as George Herman Ruth's middle name. But it was almost a curse that somebody had hung the nickname Babe on him by the time he got to Brooklyn 23 years later.

It's only a few hundred miles from Buffalo to Brooklyn, but Floyd Herman, AKA Babe, got there by way of Glendale, CA, where the Herman family settled after their move from Buffalo.

"The other Babe" showed his athieticism early on. He was a five-sport star at Glendale High School in 1920, and in one track meet he won nine events, went over to the baseball diamond and hit a grand slam and, oh yes, played in a basketball game that night. Jackie Robinson, who created some legends of his own in nearby Pasadena in the late 1930s, could not surpass that multi-sport performance.

Fresno State College used to conduct summer sessions at Huntington Lake, CA. In 1950 1 decided it would be a good place to pick up a few units toward my degree. I worked in the school cafeteria for meals and a little money. I chopped firewood to supplement my income and get in shape for the upcoming football season. One of the courses I took I applied toward my PE minor. It was a tuffy called "Fundamentals of Sports," and it surveyed the basics of football, basketball, track and baseball.

We had some former big leaguers who came up to tell us about what they knew best. One of them was Babe Herman, only a few seasons removed from his baseball denouement in the triple A Pacific Coast League.

I don't remember much about that course. Actually, I don't remember much about any of the courses I took in college. But I do recall wondering why Babe Herman was considered the punch line for a lot of baseball jokes. He seemed like a perfectly reasonable guy to me, one who had a lot of useful information to impart and who did not resemble any of the Marx Brothers.

So, how did he get the reputation that preceded him to Huntington Lake---and everywhere else he went following his years with the Dodgers?

Well, the "convention" that the Dodgers held at third base in his rookie season of '26 undoubtedly had a lot to do with it. The bases were loaded and Herman was at the plate. He hit a shot off the wall. Great, so far. The runner at third came home easily with what would prove to be the winning run. Dazzy Vance, coming from second, rounded third and headed for home. Chick Fewster, who had been on first, followed Vance under a full head of steam. Meanwhile, Herman was trying to stretch a double into a triple.

The third base coach yelled out to Herman, "Back, back!" Vance thought the coach was yelling at him, so he retreated to third base, alreddy occupied by Fewster. Babe, like a runaway boxcar, was about to join him. Fewster was out at third, because Vance was "entitled to it. Herman was called out for passing up Fewster.

The Dodgers held the opposition scoreless for the rest of the game, so the insurance runs that were squandered by the fiasco at third were not needed. The rookie from Glendale was immortalized the next day by John Lardner, who described the play thusly: "Babe Herman did not triple into a triple play, but he doubled into a double play, which is the next best thing."

Casey Stengel, who managed the Dodgers in the mid-'30s said Herman's image as a baseball buffoon was undeserved, that it stuck only because he played on such bad teams. His numbers bore this out. The 6-4 180 pound slugger is one of only six Dodgers to hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases in a season. He never won a batting crown but finished second twice, hitting .381 in '29 and .393 in '30. And he is one of only three men to hit for the cycle three times. He holds the Dodger record for hits in a season, 241 in 1930. He is also the top Dodger in Slugging Percentage (.678) and On Base Percentage (.455).

One of his teammates whom this writer sees each month at an old timers baseball luncheon, Cliff Dapper, says this about the Babe: "He used to tell me to wait on the ball, wait a little longer and swing quick at the end. The gangly left-handed swinger could tell in batting practice when he was ready for a good night. Dapper remembered he would say, "I think I can wait on the ball tonight." Invariably on those nights he would hit one off the wall.

PCL teammate Ed Reyes remembers, "Oh, he could hit. Sometimes you couldn't even get out of the way. You either caught it or got killed."

Babe's smooth swing got him a job in the movies, standing in for Gary Cooper in the long shots in "Pride of the Yankees." Ironically, neither man was built like Lou Gebrig, but, hey, it was Hollywood.

Babe Herman died in 1987 at age 84 after a series of strokes. Today there is a Little League field in Glendale named for the man who just missed the Hall of Fame by a few votes. Each spring his old high school hosts a baseball tournament named in his honor. Floyd Caves Herman, "the other Babe."