The Babe’s goodbye

Nat Fein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Babe Ruth on June 13, 1948

Today marks the 76th anniversary of Babe Ruth's final appearance at Yankee Stadium before New York’s game against Cleveland on a damp Sunday afternoon in the Bronx.

The 53-year-old Ruth, dying from throat cancer, is joined at the 25th anniversary reunion by his teammates from 1923 – the year the original Yankee Stadium opens with Ruth hitting the first home run in the new ballpark.

On this day in 1948, a crowd of 49,641 turns out to see Ruth for a final time with the latest generation of Yankees – the ones of future Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra – following with a 5-3 victory over Cleveland.

DiMaggio triples twice in the game, while Berra gives the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning with a two-run homer off Cleveland starter – and another future Hall of Famer – Bob Feller.

Ruth, seen here in the iconic Nat Fein photograph, dies just over two months later on Aug. 16, 1948.

“He looked tired, very tired,” Fein later says of photographing Ruth for a final time. “The power that had been his in his youth and manhood were slowly ebbing away.”

While every other photographer pushes for a spot in front of Ruth before he speaks to the crowd, Fein deftly moves behind Ruth to frame his low-angle, black-and-white, Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.

“The number 3 was the thing I was interested in,” Fein says. “I felt the only way to tell the story of Babe retiring was from the back.”