Did you know the Cincinnati Reds almost acquired Babe Ruth three times?

On December 29th, 1933 the Cincinnati Reds tried to buy the contract for Babe Ruth from the New York Yankees to have Ruth be a player/manager. Then Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, however, didn’t like the deal as much as the Reds did and put the nix on the deal. The Reds actually tweeted about this on the anniversary of the deal not being struck earlier this week. That took this particular writer down a rabbit hole of curiosity on what could have been.

Perhaps the 1934 Reds could have used what Babe Ruth was bringing to the table as a player. Then 39-years-old, Ruth played in 125 games and hit .288/.448/.537 with 17 doubles, 4 triples, and 22 home runs. Hardly a “Ruthian” effort, and while they…