Join the Malvern Public Library on March 16, 2027 for “Barnstorming Babe,” a Speakers Bureau presentation by Timothy Grover about a little-known chapter in Iowa’s baseball history.

After defying newly-installed baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis over a ridiculous rule in 1921, Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel had their $5200 World Series bonus revoked and were suspended for the first six weeks of 1922. That turbulent season ended in a World Series loss, with Babe only getting two hits in five games.

Ruth and Meusel then headed west on a Great Plains barnstorming tour. Traveling on “jerkwater railroads,” they played eighteen games in seventeen days across eight different states–with no days off. Stops included Omaha, Kansas City, and Denver. Also Tarkio, Pratt and Drumright. They faced some great small town pitching, hit monster home runs, and spent quality time at orphanages.

Their first stop was Perry, Iowa. And after tripling his first time up, Babe Ruth whiffed on an illegal spitball–and then got his revenge. Three days later in sleety Sleepy Eye, a young Len Youngman snagged a home run ball and lived to tell about meeting Babe Ruth in a television interview 94 years later…

Learn about Babe Ruth’s tragic early life, his time at a Catholic reform school, his brilliant pitching career with the Boston Red Sox, and his early years with the New York Yankees. Author Tim Grover also brings a century-old glove, bat and baseball for show-and-tell.

Howdy, Humanities Iowa