CHAPTER ONE

The Promise

I had time to think on the drive. I guess it was closure for me. I just needed to go there alone and take some time to reflect. The large house was so empty, lacking the robust life that used to permeate throughout. Standing outside the front door before entering, I heard my Grandpa on the other side telling Holly, his rambunctious Golden Retriever, to settle down before opening the door—of course this was just my imagination. There would be no more stories. The final out had been called—my Grandpa had died two weeks previously on a September afternoon, alone with his clouded thoughts in his chair.

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"Baseball, like life, can sometimes be a cruel and vicious business. The game is wonderful. Some of the people in it from time to time are not worthy of the game. This is the fascintaing story of how a false rumor of drug use ruined a fine player's career. I loved the book." ...Fay Vincent, former Major League Baseball Commissioner

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Joe Cronin, United Press, April 19, 1935
"He's the greatest fielding first baseman I ever saw."
John Lardner, New York World-Telegram, June 13, 1940
"You have to see the Babe everyday to appreciate the full range of his stuff, because as I say, he is always improvising. But half a dozen glimpses in a season will convince you of the truth of my argument, if your mind and eyes are open. As for Dahlgren's eyes, he can close them and play a better first base than any other you'll see today. If an old-timer were to swear to me on a stack of testaments that there was ever a greater defensive first baseman than Ellsworth "Babe" Dahlgren of the Yankess I wouldn't belive him."
Jack Smith, New York Daily News, July 21, 1940
"But this year, baseball men and experts who have watched the game for years, have suddenly flocked in support of Dahlgren. And no wonder! A year ago it was hard to imagine how anybody could greatly approve on his deft work around the bag. Yet that's just what he has done. Through all those collapsing weeks, Dahlgren not only refused to decline with his mates but maintained an amazing heighth of brilliance. It was not just one "super" play every few days or even every day. Babe was pulling three and four spectacular saves in every game."
Shirley Povich, The Washington Post, August 4, 1940
"Charley Gehringer declared the other day that if he were the playing manager of a ball club the first man he would buy would be Babe Dahlgren, Yankee first baseman...Asked why, Gehringer answered "because he robs me of 30 hits every year with his fancy fielding around first base."
James M. Kahn, The New York Sun, August 17, 1940
"Rarely a day goes by that he does not come up with some breathtaking play around first base. The clients gasp, shake their heads and say: "Did you ever see anything like that?" In most cases the correct answer would be "No," because few first basemen ever could make some of the plays that Dahlgren does."
Joe DiMaggio, Brooklyn Eagle, October 27, 1940
"Babe's job is safe. He batted only .235 in 1939 and this year he went up to .260, but that's not half the story. He saved more games for the Yanks with his fielding than some of our pitchers won. He makes impossible plays at first. He's so good our infielders have become lazy."
Shirley Povich, The Washington Post, February 28, 1941
"There are elements of mystery in the release of Dahlgren by the Yankees. He may have been no great shucks at bat, but the Babe was just about the cleverest fielding baseman in the league, with all due deference to such fancy dans as Joe Kuhel of the White Sox and George McQuinn of the Browns. When you saw Dahlgren out there scooping up wild throws with trifling ease, or spearing fierece line drives as if he were plucking bean bags, you saw the pinnacle of the art of first base play."
Dan Daniel, The Sporting News, March 6, 1941
"At the risk of controverting the manager of the Yankees, the writer reiterates that in his opinion, Dahlgren in 1940 was the grandest fielding first baseman since Chase. No matter who plays first for the Yankees in 1941, the fielding defense at that position cannot possibly match that furnished by Dahlgren."
Casey Stengel, The Boston Globe, March 4, 1941
"Gee, I never knew they allowed players to use magnets in the American League."
J.G.T. Spink, The Sporting News, June 18, 1942
"The rangy, 30-year-old Californian, who is generally conceded to be one of the finest first base stylists of our time and a dangerous, long-driving, if not particularly consistent, hitter, has been batted back and forth like a table tennis ball for so long that his travels have become a matter of national curiosity."
Joe Williams, New York World-Telegram, January 3, 1944
"Dahlgren is something of a mystery man. One season he led the Cubs in driving in runs; the next year he was gone. This season he led the Phillies in hitting; now he's traded."
Fitchburg Sentinel, September 29, 1944
"The case of Ellsworth "Babe" Dahlgren is one of the greatest mysteries of present day baseball. To make mention of the name alone arouses the interest of the average fan, but to mention his exploits and his constant wanderings around the baseball universe, well that just leaves us scratching our noggins."
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