Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame placing marker where Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig played Lindenhurst game

It was billed as “Long Island’s Big Event.”

And, it was later heralded as “the greatest athletic event that the Village of Lindenhurst or the Township of Babylon has ever known.”

It was the afternoon Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and a bunch of New York Yankees farm team players came to the South Shore to face a team of Lindenhurst-based amateur baseball players in an exhibition game at a field on Montauk Highway.

The date was Oct. 18, 1930. More than 4,000 fans were in attendance. Admission was $1.

On Wednesday, 93 years to the day, the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame will erect a historic marker on the site where the game was played — the front lawn of the Verizon building on Montauk Highway between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The red, white and blue metal marker will be the fourth erected by the hall since 2019, denoting landmark events in county sports history.

The other plaques are located at the home of the Long Island Ducks in Central Islip, the site of Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame outfielder Carl Yastrzemski’s high school baseball field in Bridgehampton and the site where a barnstorming Negro League team led by future Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige once played in Riverhead.

“I would put our sports history up against any region in the country,” Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame Executive Director Chris R. Vaccaro said. “When I heard Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, two of the biggest names in baseball history, played a game right here in Suffolk, I was like, ‘I can’t believe that happened.’ But it did. And now we’ll put up a marker to remember it.”

Town of Babylon historian Mary Cascone called it a "huge moment" in the town's history.

According to Cascone and Village of Lindenhurst historian Anna Jaeger, legend has it that Ruth was friends with George Maas, owner of a local restaurant and bar called Barnacle Bill’s. So he, Gehrig and some teammates would often come to Lindenhurst to fish the waters off Fire Island Inlet and the Great South Bay.

Both historians concede it didn’t hurt that Ruth was a carouser of historic proportions — and that Lindenhurst once held the Guinness Book of World Records for most bars per capita of any village, town or city in America.

“I don’t know how many fish he caught,” Jaeger said. “But I’d guess he managed to imbibe more than a few drinks here in Lindenhurst.”

A close game until the ninth inning

According to the local newspapers, The Lindenhurst Star among them, the day was overcast and miserable, strong winds gusting, when Ruth, Gehrig and hands from the semipro Paterson Silk Sox arrived in Lindenhurst via the Long Island Rail Road and were given a parade down Wellwood Avenue to the field, an open lot known as Meridale Park.

The opponent was a local amateur team, Addie Klein’s Lindenhurst Club.

The starting pitcher for Lindenhurst was Jaeger’s uncle, Alex Jaeger — and things reportedly got off to a rough start.

“He was a very good pitcher,” Jaeger said, “but his fastball could be a little uncontrollable, and it got a little too close to Ruth once or twice — and Babe got a little agitated … He hit a ball back between my uncle’s legs — a shot that almost did him in, if you know what I mean."

Jaeger allowed four first-inning runs but by the sixth inning he’d allowed just seven hits, the score tied at 4. It stayed that way until the ninth.

It was then, according to the Star, that Ruth came up with two men on base — and smacked a Ruthian blast as only The Bambino could.

“The second pitch was shoulder-high, and that’s just where Ruth likes ‘em,” the story in the Star read. “He took a healthy swing and ‘crack’ went the bat as the ball went sailing out over the right fielder’s head.”

The park had no fences, just roped off areas to keep the crowd away from the foul lines. Anna Jaeger said legend has it the ball sailed all the way to the Old Homestead Inn, at the corner of Montauk Highway and Wellwood Avenue. The Lindenhurst movie theater once stood there and now it's home to a CVS.

Witnesses claimed it went more than 500 feet, a sure home run. Except Ruth decided to play for the crowd.

“The most famous ballplayer in the world just grinned as he trotted at a slow pace around to third base where he halted, not wishing to continue on to home plate, apparently satisfied with the triple,” the account in the Star read, adding that Gehrig, who had three hits that afternoon, then drove Ruth home with a single before the Yankees' stars broke the game open, going on to win the exhibition, 10-4.

Keeping the memory alive 

Articles and some pictures from the game remain on display in a small case at the entrance of Lindenhurst Memorial Library, which also has a small handout booklet available with notes, photos and an account of the game.

With the village this year celebrating its 100th anniversary of incorporation, there's also a re-enactment of the game planned for Nov. 4 at the softball field at Byrd and North Alleghany.

A boxscore shows the Lindenhurst second baseman — a player whose last name was Gerwin — led Addie Klein’s with four hits in the game, two of them doubles. Ruth, once a star pitcher for the Red Sox, even pitched the last two innings of the game, according to reports.

Historians note it’s hard to imagine such an exhibition-type game taking place in the modern age. But back then, Ruth and Gehrig barnstormed in the offseason to make extra money, their teams often playing each other in games billed as the Bustin’ Babes versus the Larrupin’ Lous.

In a 1980 Newsday story about the 50th anniversary of the game, Alex Jaeger recalled that Ruth was supposed to get around $2,200 for the appearance, with Gehrig getting $600. But, he said, organizers failed to get all attendees to pay the admission, so Gehrig declined to take a payment. Jaeger, who later became mayor of Lindenhurst and Suffolk County clerk, got $20.

After the game, players and fans ended up at the Plaza, a hotel, restaurant and bar located on Montauk Highway.

“I love the thought of stumbling upon those guys in some bar in Lindenhurst and talking baseball,” Vaccaro said. “Can you imagine?”

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”