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the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had decided on pulling a publicity stunt on opening day of spring training at Daytona Beach. It was a tradition at the time for a dignitary to throw the opening ball from the grandstand onto the field. Robinson, always the showman, convinced pioneer aviator Ruth Law to toss a ball from a plane flying at 525 feet to him on the field below in lieu of the traditional toss. It was March 13, 1915.
According to newspaper accounts, Law took two baseballs up with her. She threw both, each of which Robinson missed. Spotting a bag of grapefruit, Law then tossed one to Robinson on her third approach. "Uncle Bobbie," assuming it was a baseball, got a bead on the falling orb and positioned his mitt. According to the Sporting News, "It smacked into the mitt and literally exploded." The force of the dropping projectile was so great that it knocked Robinson to the ground and "all he knew was that he had all this liquid and stuff all over him," continued the News. According to another source, Robinson thought he had lost an eye because of the stinging citric acid and the bloodlike spatter that covered him. It was then that he screamed for help. When his team ran to help and burst into laughter, Robinson realized the joke was on him. Another version of the story is that Dodgers outfielder Casey Stengel convinced Law to make the switch. From then on, Robinson referred to airplanes as "fruit flies." Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. In 1917, Ruth Law would become the first woman to wear an Army Air Corps uniform, although she was denied permission to fly in combat.
WILBERT "UNCLE BOBBIE" ROBINSON lay prone on the ground, moaning and shouting, "Help, help. I'm bleeding to death!" Robinson, the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had decided on pull-ing
Ruth Law
Eleven years later, New York Yankee great Babe Ruth would be talked into a similar stunt by military air pioneer Benjamin Foulois. Foulois was then commander of Mitchel Air Base on Long Island. The usually staid Foulois admitted "the requirement to assist in publicity stunts was a little difficult to shuck." Foulois was the first military pilot and rose to be chief of the Air Corps after World War 1. Capt. Harold McClelland piloted the aircraft to 250 feet. The Babe donned an Army uniform for the event designed to promote Citizen Military Training Camps. A total of seven balls were dropped before the Sultan of Swat finally caught one.
July 22, 1926, was a hot, sultry day, and Ruth was described as "darting about the field under the blistering sun, getting hotter and hotter." Straight Dope Classics reports, "As the cowhide hit the leather of Ruth's glove, the Bambino said, `Eeeeeeoooooooww-A~wwcccchhh!"' Foulois remembers Ruth "was slowly flexing his burning hand and trying to smile about it as he left in a big limousine." Ruth was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Harold McClelland is now remembered as the father of Air Force communications.
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