Out of character for him, though as irishgit noted Ruth was more mobile than people think- he may not have been Maury Wills, but he wasn't Cecil Fielder either. My guess is that Ruth was trying to pull off a surprising maneuver. If memory serves, and I could be wrong, Bob O' Farrell was behind the plate, and he was an above average defensive catcher.

Not as big a surprise as one might think.

Today, the image persists of a big, overweight Babe, swinging from his heels and lumbering around the basepaths.

In fact, for much of his career he was reasonably quick, and was considered one of the most aggressive baserunners of his day. Perhaps too much so, as he was successful on steal attempts only about half the time.

This play ended the game in which a probably hung over Grover Alexander ambled in from the bull pen to strike out Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh.

Well at least The Babe made up for it when he had a monster year in 1927.

It certainly won't be remembered, but it was stupid.