When legendary, Series-winning New York Yankees sluggers were in their prime, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig would play postseason exhibition games. From time to time they’d even barnstorm in Canada.
One Fall afternoon in the early 1930’s Ruth and Gehrig booked a game in Ottawa, against a local team. Among the Ottawa players was Rangers ace center and Hall of Famer Frank Boucher along with Frank’s brother Buck Boucher, another NHLer, but not a Ranger.
Remarkably El Bambino was held hitless during his first three at bats but on the fourth one, he really tagged the ball. In Frank Boucher’s autobiography, “When The Rangers Were Young,” he recalls the Ruthian hit:
“He hit a long soaring fly deep to right center and when it left his bat it certainly looked gone. But the ballpark had acres of room in the outfield. My brother Buck – actually a catcher who was using my outfielder’s mitt – was playing away back in deepest center towards right. As the ball started to come down it appeared that Buck might have a shot at it.
“But while the ball was descending, Buck ran several loose little circles under it and finally in a last desperate moment, having misjudged it all the way, stabbed across his body with what was my glove, not his regular catcher’s mitt.
“Buck caught the ball in the webbing with one hand. By then Ruth was on his way to second and he just stopped and laughed and thumbed his nose at Buck who was staring at my glove in amazement!”
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