The Great Bambino. George Herman Ruth would retire a legend to the sport of baseball, so much so that one could argue that he was the most important player to ever play the game.

Before he was a New York Yankee, he was a member of the Boston Red Sox. Before he was the most iconic slugger in the history of Major League Baseball, he was a pitcher.

And on June 23, 1917 he brought new meaning to the Sultan of Swat.

It was the 22-year old southpaw’s 17th start of the season. Babe Ruth was slated to take on the Washington Senators. As usual, Ruth took the mound, just like any other outing.

This, however, would turn out to be no usual outing. Ruth would last all of four pitches. He would walk Senators’ second baseman Ray Morgan on four straight pitches. Problem was, Ruth didn’t think they were all balls.

Ruth — the notorious loud mouth that he was — had some few choice words for the umpire. When the ump didn’t seem to care for what Ruth had to say, Ruth charged at the ump and swung at him.

The fracas cleared — Ruth was literally dragged from the field — and in came Ernie Shore.

Shore was no slouch himself at the time, being one of the Sox top pitchers during their World Series run. Shore would come in to the game and as he faced his first batter, Morgan would be thrown out trying to steal second.

Shore would retire the next 26 straight batters for one of the most peculiar “perfect games” of all-time.

Decades later, MLB would change the “perfect game” to the first recorded combined no-hitter in the history of the game (10 more have followed). This gave Babe Ruth posthumously about the only accolade he didn’t achieve while he was alive.

He and Shore would share a bond that lasted well beyond that season. Interested in finding out why? Want to know how their combined no-hitter matches up to the others in MLB history?Then head on over to this month’s Baseball Magazine and read the full article (with actual quotes from the no-hitter) by clicking on the link below (and going to page 7).

THAT TIME BABE RUTH THREW A NO-NO