Potus Geeks Photo: Bush 41 Meets the Babe

George H. W. Bush is the only President of the United States who ever played in a World Series. It was a college world series, but it's still pretty impressive. On June 5, 1948, the captain and first baseman of the Yale Baseball Team, a 24 year old World War Two veteran named George Bush, met a dying Base Ruth at Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut. By then, Ruth was cancer-stricken and in the final months of his life. The Babe donated an original manuscript of his autobiography to Yale University. He presented the gift in an on-field ceremony at Yale Field, where he was greeted by the Yale Bulldogs’ baseball team captain, young George H.W. Bush. Ruth spent much of 1948 in and out of the hospital before passing away in August. Bush would later describe the meeting as “tragic.” He said:

I was the captain of the ball club, so I got to receive him there. He was dying. He was hoarse and could hardly talk. He kind of croaked when they set up the mike by the pitcher’s mound. It was tragic. He was hollow. His whole great shape was gaunt and hollowed out.



According to Yale’s alumni magazine, Ruth was healthy enough to call Yale Field “the finest playing surface he had ever seen.” Yale won the ball game that day, walloping Princeton by a score of 14-2. Babe Ruth died on August 16, 1948 at the age of 53. President Bush celebrated his 89th birthday yesterday.