The Babe of Brooklyn

Well, we all know about Babe Ruth. He was probably the greatest player the game ever knew. And there was Babe Dahlgren, who replaced Lou Gehrig at 1st base in New York. In 1925, while Ruth was plying his trade with the Yankees, 22-year-old Floyd Caves Herman made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He would turn 23 early in the season. Babe was born in Buffalo, New York. However, he grew up in Glendale California. At 18 he signed with a team from Alberta Canada, and he spent the next 5 years in the minors playing for 6 different teams including tours in the Boston and Detroit farm systems. In a 1922 spring training game, he was used as a pinch hitter for Ty Cobb. But Detroit had no outfield vacancy’s so they returned him to the minors where he hit .416. He was signed in 1925 for Brooklyn by a scout who said, “he looks kind of funny in the field, but when I see a guy go 6-6, I got to go for him“.

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