1935: Ruth Hits Final Three Homers

On This Day in Sports: May 25, 1935

On May 25, 1935, Babe Ruth hit three home runs for the Boston Braves against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the final three of his career. At age forty and nearing retirement, Ruth briefly revived the power that had transformed baseball. He homered off Red Lucas in the first inning, struck again against Guy Bush in the third and delivered one last enormous drive in the seventh at Forbes Field. The public record fixes the central details with unusual clarity: Ruth hit three home runs in the game. The blasts were the final three of his career. Together, those facts explain why May 25, 1935 stands apart from the ordinary flow of a season and deserves to be remembered as a distinct historical moment.

The final homer was career No. 714. Ruth drove Bush’s pitch beyond the right-field roof, becoming the first player known to clear that distant structure. The shot was so imposing that the Pittsburgh crowd saluted an opposing player. Ruth also singled and drove in six runs, but Boston still lost 11-7, a reminder that the Braves roster around him could not turn his last great performance into a victory. Two further details help reconstruct how the achievement unfolded: His last homer cleared Forbes Field’s right-field roof. Ruth drove in six runs. They move the story beyond a headline by showing the pressure, setting and competitive choices that shaped the decisive action in real time.

Ruth’s season had become painful. Years of physical strain limited his mobility, and his role with the Braves did not include the meaningful management responsibilities he had hoped to receive. He had considered leaving earlier in May. The three-homer game gave him one final afternoon in which every swing seemed connected to the player who had once made unprecedented power the center of the sport. The wider context is equally important. Boston lost to Pittsburgh 11-7. He retired with 714 career home runs. Those points connect one day’s performance to a longer career, institution or rivalry and clarify why the event continued to matter after the immediate celebration had ended.

Five days later Ruth played his last game, and he formally retired in June. His 714 home runs stood as the career record until Hank Aaron passed it in 1974. The final total is famous, but the manner of arrival adds resonance: not a fading solo milestone, but three home runs in one day, ending with a ball launched completely out of one of baseball’s largest parks. Seen from today, the milestone remains compelling because it joins a measurable result with the uncertainty of live competition. Nothing about the outcome was guaranteed beforehand. That combination of preparation, opportunity and execution is what transformed the date from another entry on the schedule into lasting sports history.