Babe Ruth Like You’ve Never Seen Him Before

Joe Porciello, right, a producer at MLB Network film archives and Frank Caputo, the video library manager, looking at archival baseball footage.


The latest Babe Ruth film, unseen publicly until now, is part of a 90-second clip shot from the first-base stands at Yankee Stadium. There is no sound. But there are sweeping views of the park. And there is Ruth, obvious by his shape and waddle.

He is shown in right field, hands on his knees, glove on his right hand. To a casual fan, it appears unremarkable. But it represents the archive’s only game action of Ruth playing in the outfield — where he spent more than 2,200 games — other than a between-innings game of catch.

Nick Trotta, baseball’s manager of library licensing, took a look at the newly arrived Ruth clip first. He realized it was something he had not seen before. When others saw it, it was “wow, wow, wow,” Mr. Trotta said.

LINK, with video at that link.