Babe Ruth’s First MLB Inning: A Rundown at Fenway Park

Babe Ruth made his major-league debut for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on July 11, 1914. Cleveland put two men on base in the first inning, but neither scored. The sequence included a relay to home plate and a third out that the recording and game record describe differently.

The first inning

Jack Graney led off with a single. Terry Turner grounded out from second to first, moving Graney to second. Joe Jackson then singled. Retrosheet records Graney being retired at home on a relay from center fielder Tris Speaker through Ruth and first baseman Hal Janvrin to catcher Bill Carrigan.

The narrated reconstruction follows a longer exchange of throws and changes of direction. Graney heads toward home, retreats to third and tries for the plate again. Jackson turns toward second before retreating to first. Ruth cuts off Speaker’s throw and redirects the play. Those intermediate movements follow the recording’s account; Retrosheet’s shorter entry establishes the relay that retires Graney without detailing every turn.

The third out needs a separate distinction. The recording describes Ruth picking Jackson off first. Retrosheet lists Jackson caught stealing second.

Graney scores in the fourth

Boston scored in the first, and Cleveland tied the game in the fourth. Graney reached second on Speaker’s error, advanced to third on Turner’s sacrifice and scored on Jackson’s single. The recording places Graney at second when Jackson singles; Retrosheet places him at third.

After Cleveland tied the game in the seventh, Boston scored the deciding run in the bottom half and won 4-3. Ruth pitched seven innings and earned the victory, with Dutch Leonard working the final two. Cleveland was known as the Naps in 1914. The recording uses the later Indians name.

Graney beyond the debut

Graney’s career also connects the game to two later developments. The National Baseball Hall of Fame identifies him as the first 20th-century major-league player to bat with a uniform number, in 1916. That qualification matters: the milestone is not an unrestricted claim about every era of baseball.

In 1932, Cleveland station WHK hired Graney to broadcast games. He continued calling Cleveland baseball through 1953, apart from 1945. His years behind the microphone followed the playing career that had put him first in the batter’s box against Ruth.