Young Owens Upstaged Babe’s Parting Shots

Maybe it was because he’d hit so many home runs--twice as many, in fact, as anyone else on the list--that he was upstaged the day he hit his last three.

In Pittsburgh 64 years ago today, Babe Ruth, 40, playing with the Boston Braves, hit the 712th, 713th and 714th home runs of his career, the 714th possibly his longest.

No one knew, of course, that Ruth would never hit another, least of all the young man who upstaged him that day, sophomore sprinter Jesse Owens of Ohio State.

Owens, 21, in the Western Conference, as the Big Ten was then called, track meet at Ann Arbor, Mich., broke three world records and tied a fourth in 45 minutes.

At 2:15 p.m. that day, Owens won the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds, tying the world record. At 2:35, on his only jump of the day, he soared 26 feet 8 1/4 inches in the long jump, breaking the world record by six inches.

He next won the 220 in 20.3, a world record. At 4 o’clock, he ran the 220 low hurdles in 22.6 for another record.

At roughly the same time, Ruth said goodbye to baseball with a home run estimated to have traveled 550 to 600 feet. It was his final major league hit.

The Associated Press account of the game said that No. 714 cleared the right field roof at Forbes Field.

The ball, according to baseball author Burt Solomon, was retrieved by Henry “Wiggy” Diorio, who later approached Ruth at the Schenley Hotel to get it autographed.

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Also on this date: In 1965, the L.A. Times headline read: “It Only Takes a Minute to Kill Boxing--Clay KO’s Liston in 1st Round . . . We Think.” In arguably the most controversial heavyweight title bout ever, at Lewiston, Maine, Cassius Clay threw a tame-looking right hand while backing up in the first round and Sonny Liston fell.