Immediate aftermath of Babe Ruth's retirement: Bitter teammates, double-crossings and a French cruise ship (SN Archive — 1935)

June 2 marks the anniversary of Babe Ruth's official retirement from MLB. This excerpt from the article, 'Fuchs ready to follow Bambino out of Boston Braves' pictures' by Paul Shannon, originally appeared in the June 6, 1935 issue of The Sporting News.

BOSTON, Mass. — Though the retirement of Babe Ruth is generally regretted here because of the rather inglorious end to a wonderful career, the players in the tribal outfit are really relieved.

And this is true especially with regard to the pitchers, two of whom were on the point of mutiny when told to work while Babe was in left field. They feel that more than one game has been lost so far this yea through his failure to cover ground.

As a matter of fact, the players, some of them stars who lost their individuality completely through the publicity given to Ruth and the realization that the Boston team had become a one-man show, feel that with Babe out of the way, they will no longer be compelled to suffer from any inferiority complex.

Nobody but an imbecile would act as Ruth did.

— Boston Braves President Emil Fuchs

Ruth's exit came suddenly, June 2. He told Manager McKechnie and teammates during the game with the Giants that day that he planned to go on the voluntarily retired list or at least 60 days. At the time he was on the sideline with a knee injury. Then he notified newspapermen to meet him after the game.

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The veteran home run king made it plain that he was angry because President Fuchs would not permit him to go to New York as a representative of baseball at a reception to be given on the occasion of the landing of the French liner Normandie June 3.

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"I'm sorry to tell you this, boys," he said to the writers, "but I can't get along with Fuchs and have decided to go on the voluntarily retired list. I like the Boston players and have the biggest respect for Manager McKechnie, but I'll never play another game as long as Fuchs is the head of the club. He double-crossed me."

SN Archives (1974): The day Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth, as told by his teammates

A few hours after Ruth had made his decision, Fuchs made public the veteran's unconditional release, commenting: "Nobody but an imbecile would act as Ruth did."

While Babe did not make it clear how Fuchs allegedly double-crossed him, it was surmised that he was disappointed at not being named manager of the team.