Jake Ruppert Refuses to Release Babe Ruth to Manage the Reds

On December 29, 1933, Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert refused to release Babe Ruth so he could become player-manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Reds general manager Larry MacPhail had approached the Yankees about acquiring Ruth for the dual role, but Ruppert blocked the move. Ruth would never manage a major league team.

Ruth's desire to manage was well known. He had made his feelings clear as early as 1931, when the Yankees hired Joe McCarthy instead of Ruth to replace Bob Shawkey. Ruth saw the snub as personal. He believed his knowledge of the game and his stature as its greatest player entitled him to a managerial job, and he could not understand why the opportunity never came.

Ruppert's refusal in December 1933 was partly financial and partly strategic. Ruth was still producing at an extraordinary level, hitting .301 with 34 home runs and a .442 on-base percentage that season at age 38. Ruppert did not want to lose that production, even to a last-place team.

But the deeper truth was that baseball's establishment never trusted Ruth with authority. Owners and executives viewed him as undisciplined, a man whose appetites and lifestyle made him unsuitable for leadership. Whether this judgment was fair or reflected the biases of the men making it is a question that lingered for decades.

Ruth left the Yankees after the 1934 season for a nominal role as player and assistant manager with the Boston Braves. The title was ceremonial. He retired in June 1935 after hitting three home runs in a game at Forbes Field. The managerial job he wanted never arrived.