On April 22, 1931 — Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees collides with Charlie Berry, Boston Red Sox catcher and former pro football player, while trying to score on a sacrifice fly. Ruth is carried off the field at Fenway Park and taken to a hospital after the collision.
Ruth was working left field that day.
“They still have the picture of that collision up in Fenway Park,” Charlie Berry remarked at a 1965 dinner of the Baseball Writers Association. “The Babe went flying into the air. According to the picture it looks as though he was standing on his head. I held the ball, but was much too busy to tag him. He carne crashing down at the plate, so dazed that he could not have known what he was doing.
“But there was so much baseball instinct in him that he landed with his hand six inches from the plate., He reached over and touched it. In spite of all I’d done to him, he’d scored the run.”
Babe returned to the outfield for the next inning but collapsed in pain shortly thereafter when he tried to chase down a fly ball. Nerves in his thigh were paralyzed. His injuries were serious enough that he had to be hospitalized and missed 10 days.
