Billy Werber: The oldest living former Major Leaguer

Photo credit: Game Face

By Lorraine Cwelich

Special to amNewYork

The oldest living former Major League Baseball player, Billy Werber, celebrates his 100th birthday tomorrow, but you would never know it by his quick wit. As he is fond of saying about the leg he lost to diabetes, “They cut off my leg but not my head.”

Werber is the sole surviving teammate of Babe Ruth, having played third base for the Yankees in 1930 and 1933. He also played with the New York Giants in his final season, 1942, and the Boston Red Sox (1933-1936), Philadelphia Athletics (1937-1938) and Cincinnati Reds (1939-1941), which won the World Series in 1940.

The Berwyn Heights, Md., native now resides in a Charlotte, N.C., retirement facility. He recently spoke by phone to amNewYork about everything from playing cards on train rides with the Babe and Lou Gehrig to why Johnny Damon’s hair was bad for baseball:amNewYork: How does it feel to be turning 100?

Werber: It feels very fortunate because there’s not much fun in being dead.

amNewYork: What is the secret to your longevity?

Werber: Having a happy marriage, a fine family and I’ve never been much of a drinker.

amNewYork: What is your favorite story about your Yankees teammate, Babe Ruth?

Werber: Down in spring training, Babe was chasing around a Spanish girl from Ybor City, adjacent to Tampa, Fla., and he told her he found someone better and wasn’t going to see her anymore. One night when he had the other lady in a country club, they were having dinner and the Spanish girl came in and saw them having dinner together. She went into her handbag and took out a revolver. Babe took off for the golf course running and she shot and hit him in the leg, below the calf. We asked him if he ever pressed charges and he said, “No. She was a good girl.” She meant to kill him!

amNewYork: Did you ever go out on the town in New York with Babe?

Werber: No. How do you think I got to be a 100 years old?

amNewYork: What were some of your fondest memories of New York City at that time?

Werber: We ate at a good place every night, Italian, Hungarian, Irish, all kinds of restaurants. Must be a thousand restaurants in New York. My two favorites were the Dutchman, near the ballpark, and Leonardi’s downtown. But I didn’t go to nightclubs because nighttime is for sleeping.

amNewYork: What do you think made the Babe so outstanding?

Werber: He was a big fella, strong, 6-2 and about 210, awfully strong, good eyes. I don’t think he ever read a newspaper in his life. That was his secret. Me, I liked to read and write.

amNewYork: I read your memoir, Memories of a Ball Player. It was interesting that you devoted an entire chapter to the importance of hustle.

Werber: Hustle is the name of the game. If you hustle all the time you get good results. It’s key for base stealing.

amNewYork: You led the AL in stolen bases three times. What tips do you have for today’s base stealers?

Werber: A lot of players are big and strong but don’t have speed in their legs like I did. I had pretty good judgment about when to steal and not. Some pitchers, it’s easier to read their motions. I loved to steal off of Bobo Newsom.

amNewYork: Why?

Werber: Because I didn’t like him! He was a carouser. When he was pitching for Detroit he paid the clubhouse boy to hang a sign on my locker, “How are you today, my friend.” He knew I was no friend of his!

amNewYork: Because?

Werber: Because when I played him in the World Series, I led all of the hitters on both teams; I hit .370 in that Series. He was pitching the final game, which we won.

amNewYork: What was it like playing with King Carl Hubbell [Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Giants]? You had to field all those screwballs at third base!

Werber: We called him “the Meal Ticket.” Fine gentleman, a great pitcher, a great heart. He was a superb person. He was intelligent, had courage and he had good control; he could throw the ball wherever he wanted to. He kept me on my toes.

amNewYork: Can you tell me about the train rides back then?

Werber: On the train rides, the Babe had as a partner Lou Gehrig and I had as a partner Bill Dickey. We played bridge on the train rides from Chicago to St. Louis, riding the Green Diamond Express, the time is about two and a half hours. We’d spend those hours playing bridge. Dickey and I were better players than Ruth and Gehrig. Ruth would sip Seagram’s VO the whole time he was playing and after awhile he’d give Gehrig bad bids, just to irritate him. Gehrig would throw the cards in the middle of the table in disgust. Then we’d make $3.50.

amNewYork: Were Gehrig and Ruth friends as well as bridge partners?

Werber: Gehrig and Ruth were both good ball players, both good hustlers, both tried hard to win everyday but they were not very friendly. They were cut out of different pieces of cloth. Ruth was single and a womanizer. Gehrig was a mama’s boy who brought his mother to spring training and put her up at a hotel in St. Petersburg. They were entirely different, education-wise and idealistically. And there’s not a lot of conversation going on during a bridge game, because money is on the line.

amNewYork: How has baseball changed since your day?

Werber: Back then games were an hour and 45 minutes, because the pitchers didn’t go through all of these histrionics that are so prevalent today. Not all the prissing and fussing and wandering around and pulling your belt up. The pitcher stood on the mound, got the signal from the catcher and threw good, accurate pitches. And players were fined when they stepped out of line.

amNewYork: You tell a great story in your book, in the chapter on the 1927 Yankees, about fines. [Werber took spring training and traveled with the 1927 Yankees briefly after signing his first contract, but returned to Duke University and rejoined the team in his rookie year, 1930.] When Yankees skipper Miller Huggins was the inducted into the Hall of Fame, Ruth said that Huggins was only one who could handle him.

Werber: Ruth showed up very late for a game and Huggins had already turned in Ruth’s name in the starting lineup card. He was talking to Charley O’Leary. He said, ‘I’m gonna fine that son of a bitch $5,000 if it’s the last thing I do.’ Well, Ruth finally showed up and hit two home runs and two doubles and drove in seven or eight runs. Huggins walked across the field, saying, ‘Charley, what am I gonna do? I can’t fine him now because the newspapers will eat me alive!’

amNewYork: So even back then, they feared the New York sports writers?

Werber: For good reason! They were a rabid bunch! But they loved Ruth because he produced. And he was a kindly man. He didn’t know who his mother or father was. He was adopted by a saloon keeper named Ruth. That explained a lot.

amNewYork: Was he fined that day?

Werber: No. The Babe didn’t even know the names of the relief pitchers because he’d leave before the games were over.

amNewYork: Do you still follow baseball?

Werber: I stopped watching baseball on television during the 2004 World Series. I didn’t like Johnny Damon’s hair. It’s disgraceful.

amNewYork: Since you stopped watching, Damon came from the Red Sox to the Yankees like Ruth, although as a free agent, in 2006 and Steinbrenner had a clean shaven policy. Damon had to cut his hair and shave his beard. So maybe it’s safe to go back to your TV set.

Werber: Manny Ramirez is bad too.

amNewYork: Ramirez is a pretty good hitter. Maybe it’s the Samson thing, he gets his strength from his hair.

Werber: We didn’t need hair in my day! We hiked our pants up and were ready to go! And we didn’t have these big free agent contracts either.

amNewYork: When Damon played at Fenway after signing with the Yankees, the Red Sox fans threw dollar bills on the field.

Werber: I played with the Red Sox from ’33 to ’36. I found Boston fans to be intelligent. For the most part.

Photo courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY)

Billy Werber will participate in the demolition of Yankee Stadium via remote video.

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