ESPN+ has found a format that works for series that dive into the history of our favorite sports. We’ve seen it with Peyton’s Places covering the NFL, we’ve seen it with Abby’s Places covering soccer, Rowdy’s Places covering combat sports and even Eli’s Places which took a look at the world of College Football. Now, Hall of Fame designated hitter David Ortiz, better known as Big Papi, takes on a tour of some baseball history in Big Papi’s Places.
The second episode, titled “Babe’s Biplane Stunt,” Ortiz heads to Connecticut to recreate a little-known stunt pulled off by the great Babe Ruth. To do so, he enlists the help of a couple of unlikely partners: former Gold Glove-winning outfielder Vernon Wells and ESPN baseball analyst Buster Olney.
Ortiz heads to the Goodspeed Airport in East Haddam, Connecticut, where he meets with Olney to discuss a pretty wild stunt executed by Babe Ruth. The inspiration apparently comes from Peyton’s stunt from his show, where he threw a football off of the Radiator Building and it was caught by former wide receiver Chris Carter. Because of that, Papi wants to up the ante by catching a baseball dropped out of a plane.
Olney tells Ortiz all about Ruth’s stunt he pulled on July 22nd, 1926, when he caught a ball dropped from a biplane that was flying somewhere between 200-300 feet above him. To this day, he is the only person to ever pull this off, adding to the legend of the Babe. Of course, Ortiz wants to be the next one to do it.
And to take things further, Ortiz wants Olney to be the one to drop the ball from the biplane. After some convincing, and some more conversation about the legendary career of Ruth, Olney eventually agrees to get up in the plane. Meanwhile, Ortiz talks about some other similar stunts, including Gabby Hartnett catching a ball dropped 800 feet from a blimp.
The longtime designated hitter, admits he wasn’t exactly the slickest fielder in the game so he enlists the help of three-time Gold Glove Award-winner and longtime Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Vernon Wells. We see some highlights of incredible catches by Wells, showing us that he is a great candidate for this kind of stunt, even if he’s been retired from the game for a number of years.
Olney gears up and takes to the skies as the two former Major Leaguers take the field. The plane passed by 250 feet above the two players and the ball was dropped… all the way to the ground. The players dropped another one, then another one and many, many more. They did a really good job of showing just how hard it was to actually pull this off. Ortiz explains that it took Ruth seven attempts to catch a ball from the plane. It took Wells and Ortiz a lot more than that.
Well talks about the ball “knuckling” as it comes down, resembling a knuckleball. Ortiz explains that by the time the ball would get to them, it’s moving at about 100 miles per hour. Imagine trying to catch a 100 mph knuckleball. On top of that. Olney’s tosses weren’t exactly the most accurate, as is evident when we see a ball go through Wells’ windshield. Of course, that was actually just an almost cringey joke as the ball was clearly one of those decals you use to make it look like there’s a ball sticking out of your window.
Eventually, Wells manages to make the catch after a whole lot more than seven attempts. Ortiz admits that Ruth was “the man” for pulling this off, despite the fact that he doesn’t like to talk about the Yankees. As the episode comes to a close, Wells drops this week’s best joke by pointing out that he is hanging out with Dave and Buster.
I’ll admit, when looking at the premise of this show and considering all of the history surrounding the game of baseball, an airport in Connecticut was not one of the locations I expected Ortiz to visit. Still, you can’t do a show about baseball history and not mention Babe Ruth and this was a great way to shed light on a story that most people haven’t heard. It was also fun watching these two retired players try to make that catch.
You can watch Big Papi’s Places on ESPN+ now. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $6.99 a month and can cancel at any time.