Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times photoīob Bickel, who turns 81 in June and his lived his entire life in Brea, was born three years after the game.

The physical proof - Ruth's signature on a baseball, pictures - is on exhibit at the Brea Museum and Heritage Center.Ī baseball signed by Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson is displayed at the Brea Museum and Heritage Center. No one who attended the game is believed to be still living, so the memories now are secondhand. exhibition game, organized by the Anaheim Elks, was part of a postseason barnstorming tour. 'Somewhere in my backyard is third base,' he said.īack then his parcel patch was the infield skin of the Brea Bowl, a natural amphitheater owned by Union Oil. Two of the five players in baseball's first Hall of Fame class once laced up cleats where Ghrist was now washing his car. This is no Hollywood yarn - Shoeless Joe Jackson walking out of a cornfield.

Johnson could have blamed arm fatigue, having recently pitched the Washington Senators to the World Series championship. Johnson, a 23-game winner and the American League most valuable player in 1924, gave up eight runs in five innings and took the loss.

Not only did Ruth sock two homers, he pitched a complete-game victory. One of Ruth's blasts was estimated to have traveled 550 feet - one of his longest ever. 31, 1924, in Brea, an oil town in north Orange County, on ground now beneath Ghrist's feet, Babe Ruth swatted two home runs against Walter Johnson in a baseball game. 1 - Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times photo Leon Stevens, a docent at the Brea Museum and Heritage Center, holds a mural of photos taken during a 1924 exhibition at the old Brea Bowl, a natural amphitheater owned by Brea Oil. 'I'm guessing we're standing close to second base, right on the edge of the infield,' Ghrist said. Crispen Avenue when a reporter approached and posed the question, half expecting a 'what-the-?' response.īarry Ghrist, instead, set aside his wash rags and smiled. It's all tract homes now, the memories buried beneath cul-de-sacs just downslope from the intersection of Brea Boulevard and Lambert Road, but something special happened here a long time ago.Ī man, on a Saturday, was washing his car on St. Brea Museum and Heritage Center photo The Orange County community was a tiny oil town in 1924 when favorite son Walter Johnson and Babe Ruth played an exhibition game there on a postseason barnstorming tour.īy Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times Staff WriterĬareful examination of an old photograph and a street map determined this had to be the spot - or at least near the spot. A residential/commercial neighborhood now stands on the bowl site.

The game was part of a postseason barnstorming tour and is commemorated in an exhibit at Brea Museum and Heritage Center. 31, 1924, at the Brea Bowl, a natural amphitheater.

Leiyatel's Embrace by Clive S. Johnson