My Book…………….LILAGCS (12)

October 29, 2010

Clay County Fair

 

There were many exciting things that I remember about my life in Spencer and the fire station. One very memorable thing is the Clay County Fair grounds. My dad told me that the Clay County was the biggest county fair in the world. He added that it was as good as the Iowa state fair but you didn’t have to walk as far to see things.

I remember that my dad would take me with him when he had to go with the fire truck and park in the infield of the Grandstand whenever there was an auto race, Joey Chitwood daredevil show and a show where they need the fire truck to be present in case of fire. When I was old enough, I got to work at the fairgrounds prior to the opening of the

fair to earn some money by painting the tractor tires with black rubber paint and highlight the inscription on the tires to make it stand out.

Babe Ruth at the 1948 Fair

One time when I was about 6 years old my dad took me to the fairgrounds for a special event. Babe Ruth was going to be there. I remember that baseball was played there at the fairgrounds before the Spencer Cardinal Baseball Stadium was built south of town. I remember I waved as Babe Ruth road past waving his hands to everyone. Below I found a Historical story about that very event that I had the privilege to witness.

 

Babe Ruth’s 1948 Visit to Iowa

 

Babe Ruth was a controversial and flamboyant figure throughout his lifetime. Even today, nearly 60 years after his death, the famed baseball player remains one of the most recognizable names in American history.

                                  

Two short months before his death Aug. 16, 1948, at the age of 53, Ruth made a visit to Iowa to help promote boys’ baseball for the Junior Legion Program. The account in the Des Moines Register of June 4, 1948, reads: “The famous Bambino of baseball will arrive in Des Moines by plane on the afternoon of June 20 from St. Louis. He will be met by a delegation from Spencer who will take him by motor to the Okoboji section where he will meet a group of American Junior Legion baseball players. Ruth will make two appearances at Spencer June 21 under the combined auspices of the American Legion, Spencer Baseball, Inc., Chamber of Commerce.

The account, however, is incorrect. Ruth flew directly into Sioux City from St. Louis on June 20, and was greeted by John Hart, president of Spencer Baseball, Inc., and presumably the owner of the local Ford dealership. Ruth was on tour working for the Ford Motor Company to promote youth baseball.

On the day Ruth flew to Iowa, he’d been suffering from throat cancer for two years. By this point, he’d undergone two delicate neck operations that left his voice a coarse whisper. The site of an ailing Babe came as a surprise to those who saw him.

“It was a shock, seeing the gaunt, shrunken giant shamble into the hotel room which had been set aside for the Babe’s brief chat with newspapermen,” wrote Bill Bryson in the Aug. 17, 1948 Spencer Daily Reporter. “Weary and weak though he was, the Babe was still a commanding personality and, as his tortured vocal chords warmed up, he grated out quick, witty answers to questions about baseball’s most famous career.”

Royse “Crash” Parr was 12 years old when he traveled from Tulsa, Okla., to Des Moines to spend the summer of 1948 with an aunt and uncle, Margaret and Ross McClintock. He remembers Ruth’s visit.

“I knew about the planned visit and have a copy of the June 4, 1948 Des Moines Register sports page which tells about plans for him to arrive in Des Moines by airplane from St. Louis, and then on to Spencer,” Parr recalled. “With my uncle, who was a huge Des Moines Bruin/Chicago Cub fan, I attended many of the Bruin home games and fished almost every day near the ballpark.”

Parr recently contacted the State Historical Society of Iowa seeking more information about Ruth’s visit. As a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), Parr will present a paper on the topic at a conference in Tucson, Ariz., next March.

During his visit, Ruth stayed at the Warrior Hotel in downtown Sioux City, a building that has had its share of hard times. After sitting vacant for 25 years and being placed on the Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance’s Most Endangered Properties, the hotel underwent a renovation in 1998 and now serves as housing for low income seniors. It has also been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985 and was, more recently, included in Sioux City’s Iowa Great Places proposal.