Remembering Babe Ruth’s 1924 Exhibition Game in Dunsmuir, California
The Babe. The Sultan of Swat. The Great Bambino.
The legend of Babe Ruth has grown to epic proportions as one of the great baseball players of all-time. That is well-known. But did you know that his historic major league baseball career once made a stop in the little Northern California town of Dunsmuir?
The town, known for its beautiful waterfalls and proximity to Mount Shasta, was once the stop of Babe Ruth’s west coast exhibition tour, where he and Yankee teammate Bob Meusel travelled through California playing local teams. One of those teams was the Dunsmuir baseball team, which played the Babe on October 22, 1924.
If you were to visit the Baseball Hall-of-Fame in Cooperstown, New York, you would find a poster promoting the event, with admission costing $1.10 for adults (plus a war tax) and 25 cents for children. Dunsmuir Mayor Cornish declared a half holiday on that day for the town to attend the event.
Following the game (which no scores or details could be found online), Ruth took photos with the men and women’s teams, with the latter showing The Great Bambino under the mighty Mount Shasta.
Today, the field and stands still sit in downtown Dunsmuir, commemorating the memorable visit from the baseball icon. A plaque can be found in the park memorializing the event:
From gold rushers to Native American legends, Northern California is chock full of interesting history. And oddly enough, that history includes a New York Yankee baseball game in a small, NorCal mountain town. For that, we are proud.
