Ping Bodie on Babe Ruth

“He roomed with Babe Ruth for a couple of years-according to the records. “But I never saw much of him," he said later. “I roomed with a suitcase. About the only time I saw him was when we were on train trips. Then we played cards and drank beer for hour upon hour.'''"”

“I roomed with a suitcase. About the only time I saw him was at the ballpark or on a train. He couldn't come through a hotel lobby without being mobbed by fans. If he ate at the hotel, diners pestered him for autographs and his food got cold. I got to know him best on sleeper jumps. He loved to play poker. First thing he'd do on boarding the train would be to peel off his jacket and shirt and holler for a deck of cards.”

“Ruth, as I remember him, had a great personality. He was a perennial big kid. I guess he never really grew up. But that's one of the reasons we all loved him. He had an overpowering amount of energy, both on and off the field, and was always on the go. During one period, the Babe was hustling around so much after dark that when a reporter in Wichita Falls, Texas, asked me how I liked rooming with the Babe, I replied, "I'm rooming with a suitcase." I thought that was the best way I could describe the Babe's continual battle with manager Miller Huggins' curfew.”