The Babe Bows Out

Photographer Nat Fein took this 1948 rear-view photo of an ailing Babe Ruth while on staff for the New York Herald Tribune. Ruth, terminally ill with throat cancer, appeared at home plate in his old uniform at a ceremony marking Yankee Stadium’s 25th anniversary season. The home run king would die less than two months later.

“The Babe Bows Out” would become one of the most famous images of the 20th century and won Fein a Pulitzer Prize. Fein seldom covered sports in his 33 years with the Herald Tribune, but he was assigned to the Bambino’s farewell at “The House That Ruth Built” on June 13, 1948, after a fellow photographer called in sick.

Fein would later write, ”He (Ruth) came over to home plate. Of course, the story was No. 3 bows out, the uniform being retired and all, and as they played ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ I was trying to make a picture showing No. 3, but it’s only on his back. So I walked around behind with the band still playing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and there was his figure, his thin legs compared to his bulky body, and his No. 3 showing. So I made the picture from his back.”

The photo shows Ruth leaning on a baseball bat he borrowed from star pitcher Bob Feller, whose Cleveland Indians played the Yankees that rainy day. The photo appeared on Page 1 of The Herald Tribune. In 1949, the photographer won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Babe Bows Out.” Nat Fein died in 2000.