 Remember a Hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. The makers of Hallmark cards bring you a true story from the life of Miller Huggins, starring Joe DiMaggio on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. And here's our distinguished host, Mr. Lionel Barrymore. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Tonight we present a true story from the life of one of baseball's most respected men. And yet one of its least known, Miller Huggins. The man who managed the New York Yankees into six pennants and three World Series and touched off the spark that today makes the New York Yankees a name that builders would deed in legend. And we are especially pleased and proud to have one of the great board players of all time here to tell you the story. Joe DiMaggio. And now here's Frank Goss. When you want to remember your friends, there's one way to be sure the card you send receives an extra welcome. Look for that identifying Hallmark on the back when you select it. For words to express your feelings and designs to express your good taste. Let the Hallmark on the back be your guide. For that Hallmark tells your friends, you cared enough to send the very best. Lionel Barrymore appears by arrangement with MGM, producers of executive suite. Starring William Holden, June Allison, Barbara Stanwick, Frederick March, Walter Pigeon, Shelly Winters, Paul Douglas and Louis Kellhearn. And now Mr. Barrymore brings you transcribed tonight's exciting story narrated by Joe DiMaggio on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Miller Huggins was born March 28, 1880 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He died four days before the end of baseball season while managing the New York Yankees in 1929. During his colorful career, he became one of the most successful baseball managers in the history of the sport. But perhaps the most crucial conflict of his life started on the day he met Babe Ruth. But here to tell you all about it is one of the greatest outfielders the Yankees ever produced. Joe DiMaggio. Miller Huggins had already passed on when I came to the Yankees, but the sports writers remembered him well. Sid Mercer, Damon Runyon, those boys. They recall the Pipe Hugg shoot arm. It was too big for him, they'd say. He was a shy man, mild, a small man. But I knew another man who knew Miller Huggins. He knew Hugg well. His name was Babe Ruth and he had this to say. Miller Huggins, well, he handled Moisele and Garrick and Tony Lazare, Dogen and Goofy Gomez and he handled me. After a while, after you got to know him, you didn't look down on him because he was undersized. You looked up to him because he was great. And there came a time in the life of Miller Huggins when he had a big decision to make. One that would affect his career and all baseball. And that's the story I'd like to tell you about. The way it was told in the clubhouse. It was 1920 in the office of Colonel Rupert who was co-owner of the Yankees and Babe had just joined the ball club. Babe, I want you to shake hands with Huggins, Miller Huggins, you new manager. Hi, kid. Hi, Babe. Babe? Yeah, girl. There are some things we need to talk about, the three of us. Just tell me where to report and when. It's all the talk we need, girl, because I got a date. No, no, no. There's something else. There's something else? Okay, gentlemen, I'll listen. Hugg? Uh, reports up from Boston, Babe. You're quite a ball player. It's been said, big star. A boy with a mind of your own. Yeah, I make big money and I play ball like I want to. So? Babe, will you... No, no, there's something I want to say to the boy, Colonel. Oh, sure, sure, Hugg, go ahead. Sure, kid, go ahead. There are two kinds of clubs, son. The ones that are composed of 20-odd individuals. The kind I run. A team that has a kind of unity of its own. A club where no one buys. We threw gentlemen, because if you are like I said, I got a date. We paid Boston $150,000 for you, son. Well, the sports writers talk about it, Colonel. You've got to buy. It's a big investment we made in you. The club is counting on you for a lot. No sense saying it isn't. Don't spoil it, son. We've heard about your reputation. We know all about it. Still, Hugg and I... I have fun. That's not a lot with the Yankees. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is... Now, look at you. What? Look at you, Colonel. Too old and too fat to have any fun anymore, and it's for him, the manager, the shrimp. He's half-dead right now. Oh, you listen. No, you listen, Colonel. You haven't had a pennant in 15 years. You never had one. Maybe you just bought yourself one, which gives you a certain right to run my life in the ball pipe, but nowhere else. If that's all. Bye, Colonel. Well, you come back here. Let him go, Colonel. So long, babe. Yeah, thank you. Right from the start, small squabbles between Hugg and the babe. And it stayed that way, little blow-offs between star and manager. A couple of seasons passed, and then one day in Chicago. What do you get off? What do you think you are, anyway? Something bothering you, kid? You've got a game to play, a crucial game, and you don't show up for batting practice or for fielding practice. Drive up in a cab like you own the world. You take your bow, sign your autograph, and me and the team sweating you out. You hear that, Gordy? How many years now the kid been screaming at me like that? The kid will never learn, will he, Gordy? Always good for a column. Are you two screaming at each other? And you know something? One of these days you were him who's got to give. I got to be around that day. I want to see how it happens so I can write it for my paper. This will be the day. No, boy. Not even this big ape's going to show up late anymore. This is Chicago. Kid takes longer to get a ride here. Now, I was out on the rocks around the lake getting tan. After the game, babe, you and me, things got to be settled, like who's running this ball club. Is this a question, kid? I told you after the game. Now get out there. That's a place I remember well. One of the toughest parks in any league for batters. For home run hitters, murder. But that day, bottom half of the first inning, Yankees with one run around, babe at the bet. The babe hit a home run pushing the Yankees into a two run lead. Sixth inning, the babe and another home run. Into the game, the New Yorkers won by a score of five to three. The babe hit a two for the circuit and batted in all five of the Yankee runs. And that's the game in the Yankee dressing room. Hug. Yeah, Gordy? The babe, but what about him? He'll be dressing out of here before you and boy, I what? I remember what you said, hug. Remember how before the game you said you'd tell him off? After the game, you'd tell him he was running the ball club. Discipline, maybe. Find him, maybe, you told me. I've been waiting, hug. Like a good reporter, because I could write it up for the late sports of this and get it on the wire back to New York. You going to tell him, hug? You going to tell him? Yeah, I am. Babe! Yeah, kid? Hiya, babe. Gordy, you saw what he did out there today. What can you say to a guy like that? You want to see me about Ruth? What about him? How much trouble did he give you this trip? How come all of a sudden you're worried about how much trouble the babe's giving me? I want a winning ball club. You're getting it. Listen, Milo, I'm a man who gets easily nervous. I know we're winning, and I like it. But if this keeps up between you and Ruth, are we going to keep on winning? It's a good question. Then give me a good answer. All right? We'll keep on winning. But one thing I got to know. What? I'm the manager, right? Right? What I say goes. Even if Ruth is a national hero. What I want is a winning team. You're the manager. Thanks, Colonel. Glad you called me in. Why didn't you ask me, Miller? What's the matter? Oh, nothing. What's the matter? I said nothing, didn't I? When somebody asked me what's the matter, and I say nothing, that means that nothing's the matter. All right, go in and eat your supper. Not going to serve it to you here in the living room. Sis? What? I'm sorry, sis. What happened? The babe again? The babe again? He made a monkey out of me again. We are leading the league, so I don't... No, that's not the point. It seems to me the object of a baseball team is to lead its league, thereby getting into the World Series. It's not the point. We'll win the pennant. We'll get into the World Series, but it's not the point. What did he do today, Miller? He hit three home runs and drove in the winning run. Forgive me, but I... He got to the park late again. He missed batting practice again, then he hit three home runs. I didn't have the nerve to stand up to him. Well, I... If it had been anybody else, I'd have fined him, Myrtle. That's the point. I see. I'm not going to let it happen anymore. Rupert wants a winning team, and the winner's going to be the team, not Babe Ruth. It's going to be my way or nothing. Which was typical of Miller Huggins? Man with a principle, team play, mild man who recognized a battle when he saw one, who never ran away from one either. Even if his opponent was one of the most spectacular and famous in all of sports history, Miller Huggins versus Babe Ruth, one of them had to win. To the Hallmark Hall, have you ever gone through a trunk in which a mother has stored her keepsakes? It's a revelation of the things she really treasures, scuffed baby shoes, small mittens, and above all, little notes in childish handwriting, valentines and years of cards addressed to mother. I guess the truth is that the mother whose love we take for granted receives very few expressions of our love, and she cherishes each one. So be sure to send your mother a Hallmark card this Mother's Day. When you see the Mother's Day selection in Hallmark cards, I think you'll be impressed, as I am. By the way, Hallmark artists and writers can capture all the warmth and depth of human love and put it into a card. A card that says in a natural way, the things that are in your heart. Now you'll find all types of Hallmark Mother's Day cards, some so beautiful they warrant framing, others with a light, sweet touch, and Hallmark slim gym designs with tall slender lines for a modern-minded mother. Stop tomorrow at a fine store that features Hallmark cards and choose the one for your mother. She'll know by the familiar Hallmark and Crown on the back that you'll carry enough to send the very best. And now Lionel Barrymore brings you the second act of our true story of Miller Huggins, narrated by Joe DiMaggio. Huggins started his sports career playing cricket. Because his father said baseball was too rough. Yet eventually he became a professional ball player and played second base for the Cincinnati Red Lakes. Then in off seasons he went to law school and was admitted to the bar. He was on his way to the pinnacle of his baseball career when he met head on with a young Yankee ball player named Babe Roo. Huggins believed first and always in team play. Let Joe DiMaggio tell you what happened then. Miller Huggins was not a slave driver and Babe Roo was not a villain, neither one. But Huggins was the manager and he symbolized the team and authority and that Babe was a youngster. Wasn't he the highest paid player in the league, Ruth asked himself? And where could Huggins find anyone to equal his batting record? And once on the road in Huggins' room he asked another question. What do you mean I can't drive anymore? Look at the picture one more time, Babe. Go on, look at it. Why do I have to look at it? I was in it. You bet you were in it. Babe, Ruth drives high powered racer into Stonewall. Somebody dare you, Babe. Now look, kid. Did somebody dare you? No, nobody dared me. I was going pretty fast. I couldn't make a turn so I hit a Stonewall. And you were going fast because you... Because I didn't want to be late for the game in Philly. No more driving, Babe. You take the train with the rest of the team. Colonel Rupert said... That's right, he did. Only changed his mind. Half hour ago he said something. He said, Miller, you want the Babe to ride the train with you. He rides the train with you. And that's the way it's going to be, huh? That's just the way it's going to be. Yeah? Yeah, who is it? Oh. Oh, Mr. Huggins. Oh, Babe. Hi, rookie. How's it going? Oh, very well. Thank you. Well, here it is, Mr. Huggins. I'll just put it down right here. You'll put what right down here? The laundry. Your laundry? Now, rookie, like you told me, Babe. Like Babe told you, huh? Like he told you what? That you took care of the laundry, Mr. Huggins. That I should make a neat bundle and bring it up here to your room and you'd take care of it. Oh. Mom knitted me those socks in there, Mr. Huggins, so if you put them on stretcher, so they won't slip. Sure, sure. Good night, rookie. Good night, Mr. Huggins. Good night, Babe. Good night. You're not laughing, kid. I got a real bad sense of humor, Babe. I know. If it's not Gomez holding up a ball game so he can watch an airplane, then it's you sending rookies up with the ball. You like to pick on me, don't you, kid? When are you going to settle down, Babe? When are you going to stop being childish? When are you going to start recognizing the fact of a team? When are you going to learn that I'll get it? Hiya, rookie. Another rookie kid. He's got his laundry. When can I tell him it can be ready? Today, just before the game, the Babe held a small banquet for himself in front of a bunch of adoring kids. The bill of fare consisting of 12 hot dogs wasped down with eight bottles of soda pop, which put him on a commission a long time. The Babe was popular in a mighty big mess. Even if this season he was missing a lot of games and his batting was off, which might account for the slump the Yankees were in the terrible year they were having, the fact they were in seventh place. And believe me, I know for a ball player a slump is the worst thing that can happen, which might also account for the fact that Colonel Rupert was pretty upset and called the hug and the babe to a meeting. Sit down, hug. You too, Babe. All right, gentlemen. Let's talk it out. Thanks, Colonel. Some things on my chest, Babe. Things I got to say to you. I'm listening, kid. And right now I want to go on record. I'm glad that Colonel called this meeting so he can hear me out too. So he can correct me if I'm wrong. You'll do that for me, won't you, Colonel? That's why we're here. Go on, hug. Before you start, kid. Yeah. Maybe it plays two ways. Maybe I got some things on my chest too. Some things that you can write. All right. All right. Let's talk about it. Discuss it and explore it and bat it around. Kid. Oh, kid. You're a long way from the sandblast, Babe. You're a professional. Now that implies something, a responsibility, a kind of integrity to yourself, to the team, to the owners, to the public. You're going great, kid, cigar. You listen to me. Sure. Oh, sure. You were saying something about I owed something to the public? To them. If not to me or the team, to the kids, all over the country. Don't you know you're an inspiration to a whole generation, Babe? And what about the guys who scraped the price of a ticket out of their week's pay so Sunday they can come and see the mighty Ruth, the king of baseball, and send their wives around on ladies' day so when he gets home from work, he can hear all about how the Babe did that day from his wife and he can't get his fill of the Babe from the sports page or the radio or his own kids who play stickball in dirty slum streets and dream of growing up to be another Babe Ruth, a hero like him and rich like him and smart like him and a great... You're a heartbreaker, kid, a real heartbreaker. I'm not finished. No? No. It's one other thing I got to say to you. I'm tired. I'm tired of your horsing around. I'm tired of what you're doing to my ball club and I'm giving you a fair warning. Right here in front of Colonel Rupert. I warn you, if you don't change your ways, if you don't start playing team balls, if you don't abide by the club rules... Kid. What? Before you say something, you're going to be sorry for something I got to tell you. All right, tell me, Babe. About an impression you made on me, the first day I met you. I didn't like you, kid. I don't like you now. I never did like you. It's something else. What? If you was bigger, just that much bigger right where you stand, it's back in the jar. Ruth, get out of uniform. Stay out at the clubhouse. You're through. You're through with the Yankees. And that crack you just made, that'll cost you $5,000. All right, I made my speech. Any corrections, Colonel Rupert? No corrections. It stands what the manager has said, Babe. Indefinite suspension and the $5,000 fine. That's all, gentlemen. He shocked the baseball world how the little man told off the great man. He shocked him even more that Colonel Rupert stood behind little Noah Huggins. Any way you looked at it, Ruth meant money in a till, whether he was in the slump or not, whether he had homeruns or infield pop-ups, whether he made training or broken. Ruth the hero, the surgeon, slapped down, suspended, fined $5,000, the largest fine in baseball history, and Huggins added something else to the penalty. Ruth must apologize to him. I think I can imagine what went on in the Babe's mind. For him, it must have been a time to think about things. His pride, maybe. Or how he wouldn't give up a way of life he had. Or how he didn't need baseball. Baseball needed him, and who was Miller Huggins anyway? A little guy with a team knocking their knuckles on the cellar door. And meanwhile, the sportswriters, the kids, the subway strap hangers and their wives, and the baseball wall waited. Waited for it to break. Waited for something to give. And the very next day, during the game, it did. The Yankee dugout. And if Babe wasn't benched like he was, next turn it back with his ears. Kid, kid, you want to listen to me? What do you want, Ruth? What are you doing in uniform? I've been thinking about it, about the fine, about other things. Move over, huh, Ruth? So I can single in to lay down a bun and get the chance. Something on your mind, Ruth? Yeah, kid. What? That's fine. I paid it. Yeah, I know. There's something else. Look at me, kid, so you'll know I'm eating when I tell you. Tell me what, Ruth? The things I said about you said to you. I'm sorry. You're the manager. You're running things. Hi, Babe. I'm next up. Is it all right? Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Anything you want to tell me? No, Babe. You're on your own. I guess I finally made the team, huh? Yeah. Yeah, Babe, you did. Thanks for waiting for me. I wouldn't want to pen it that year. They finished seventh. But they wanted to flag the next year and put two years after that. Some say that the Yanks of the Seasons, 1926, 27 and 28 was the greatest team in the history of baseball. Team with one George Herman Babe root, a member, a team player, and Miller Huggins, manager. Is it any one of them that before he died, Babe root himself had this to say? Uh, Miller Huggins, well, he handled Moisele and Garrick, and Tony Lazari, Dogen, and Goofy Gomez, and he handled me. After a while, after you got to know him, you didn't look down on him because he was undersized. You looked up to him because he was great. I can agree that baseball, for that matter, are richer because of the small, great man we believed in team play, Miller Huggins. And Babe root, well, he learned his lesson, and he went on to become an even greater national hero reaching the peak of his career under Huggins' expert guidance. Joe DiMaggio will be joining me later in just a moment, but first, here's for you, Josh. Yesterday, when I was selecting the hallmark card for my mother, I noticed one that led to someone who's been like a mother to me, and I took it immediately for my Aunt Mary. Now Aunt Mary was just a neighbor, but how sweet children loved her. She could always be counted on for cookies. She somehow had extra tickets for the circus and she told stories tirelessly. Now I'm sure there is an Aunt Mary in your life, too. And when you're near a fine store and the hallmark cards are featured, stop in and see the delightful selection of cards addressed to a dear Aunt on Mother's Day. Others? To my friend's mother. And now, one more reminder, you dads won't want to forget that especially beautiful hallmark card for the mother of your youngsters. And it's a good idea to have the children pick out their own card. It teaches them the joy of expressing love in thoughtfulness. So be sure to see the complete selection of hallmark Mother's Day cards. The crown on the back of her card says you carry enough to send the very best. And now here again is Lionel Barrymore. Joe, do you mind, Joe? It was a real pleasure to have you with us tonight on the hallmark hall of fame. Thank you for coming. Well, it was a pleasure to be here, Mr. Barrymore. You know, I never thought when I was out chasing balls in the Yankee outfield I'd ever be sharing a microphone with Lionel Barrymore. I'm grateful the hallmark cards for the opportunities. No, isn't that just like Joe's mind, Joe? He talks about chasing balls rather than hitting them. Well, thank you, Joe. But you know, greatness and fame are not the prerogatives of any ruling occupation. That is something I've discovered here on the hallmark hall of fame where we tell the real stories of great men every week. We've had doctors and lawyers and baseball players and housewives and farmers. And the one thing that stands out through it all is that the measure of greatness is in the man's character, not in his job. I'm sure that's right, Mr. Barrymore. And I guess that's why your programs are always so interesting. You get to feel as if you know the man himself. Who's story are you telling next week on a hallmark hall of fame? Next week, an inspiring story from the life of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Prize winner. Dr. Schweitzer is that remarkable man who renounced wealth and fame to establish a hospital in Lamborghini, South Africa. That certainly sounds very interesting. I'll make it a point to be listening. Good night, Mr. Barrymore. Good night, Joe de Marjo. Until next week then, this is Lionel Barrymore saying good night. There are sold only in stores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service. Remember a hallmark card when you are carrying out to send the very best. Our producer directors will improve. Our transcript script tonight by David Friedkin and Mort Fyne. Dick Perron was heard as Miller Huggins. Peter Narkas for Charlotte Lawrence, Jack Cushion, John Daener, Sam Edwards and her bike. Listen to the hallmark hall of fame on television next Sunday when we present an inspiring Mother's Day story of the famous American artist James McNeil-Whistler. This is Frank Goss saying good night to you until next week at the same time when we'll present a true story from the life of Dr. Albert Schweitzer the following week, an incident in the life of Damon Runyon on the hallmark hall of fame. This is the CDF Radio Network. This is KMBC, Kansas City, Missouri.