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The Babe stayed here

It's not exactly the House that Ruth built, but a for-sale St. Petersburg apartment has a claim to fame.

By James Thorner
Published March 31, 2007

If your apartment's previous owner had been snuffing his cigar butts in a bathroom receptacle, you'd mark the guy as a slob.

But this particular slob in this particular St. Petersburg apartment was George Herman Ruth, otherwise known as the Babe, the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat.

You'd make allowances for such sporting legends, maybe even celebrate the idiosyncrasy. Such is the tactic of real estate agent Rebecca Stewart, who's listing Apt. 702 in the Flori-de-Leon, a flapper-era edifice at 130 Fourth Ave. N in downtown St. Petersburg.

Between 1927 and 1935, Ruth, the biggest name in baseball, leased #702 during New York Yankees spring training. Stewart's firm, Coldwell Banker, lists the 1,420-square-foot penthouse for $339,000. Lou Gehrig, Ruth's renowned but less flamboyant teammate, stayed in #701 next door.

An ad touting that hardball heritage appeared in Friday's Wall Street Journal. You can tread the same hardwood floors Ruth swaggered and staggered over. And use his old bathroom.

"You could stand in the original place Babe did in the bathroom and look in the mirror and imagine you're seeing part of him," Stewart says.

Did she mean Ruth's famous belly swollen from years of ballpark hot dogs? "Maybe not that part," Stewart says.

The last owners discovered cigar butts while updating wiring and plumbing and cleaning an old razor blade receptacle in the wall.

Alas, they didn't save the stubs of celebrity tobacco.

"They could have auctioned them off. People buy all sorts of stuff," Stewart said. "Babe Ruth slobbered all over that cigar? I want it."

[Last modified March 30, 2007, 22:55:45]