Werber, who was also Duke's first All-American basketball player under Eddie Cameron - for which Cameron Indoor Stadium is named - returned to New York after graduating in 1930. He quickly became friendly with the strapping Ruth.

Werber was adamant that while Ruth always carried a bottle of whiskey, he never saw his performance suffer from booze.

"Whatever he drank he absorbed well,'' Werber said. "And he was a kindly man. He didn't shove these little kids along. They crawled all over his white shoes and his tan pants. He'd go to hospitals, but he'd never take a newspaper man with him and he'd never take a photographer with him.''

Werber also was drawn to Ruth's love of practical jokes. With great detail, Werber recalled how Ruth suckered pitcher Ed Wells into going on a double date with him after a game in Detroit.

"When they knocked on the door of the lady's house, a big, ferocious guy opened the door with a gun and said, 'So you're the guy who's been chasing my wife,''' Werber said. "So Babe said, 'Run, Ed. Run for your life!' So Ed runs out the door and the gun went off, 'Bang, bang.' Babe fell down on the porch. Ed ran into a fence, then turned the other way and made it back to the hotel.

"The players were sitting around - this was all staged, too - and they said, 'Babe is upstairs. He's asking for you, but he's dying.' So he went up there and they had Babe with talcum powder all over his face and ketchup on his shirt. He thought Babe was dying.

"They pulled this stuff on a lot of ballplayers.''

After a stint in the minors in Toledo where he didn't get along with Stengel, whom he called the worst manager he played for, he returned to the Yankees in 1933. Later that season he was sold to the Red Sox.

Werber played under Cronin in Boston and was teammates with Grove and Foxx. Werber marveled at Foxx's talent, yet would get annoyed when the slugger would stop at first after hitting balls off what Werber called the "Iron Monster'' at Fenway Park.

Werber expressed sadness for how Foxx's free-spending ways forced him to play longer than he should have.

Werber remembered seeing Foxx, then catching for the Chicago Cubs, not react to a pitch. The ball bounced off the bill of his cap.

"Next time at bat I said, 'Jimmie, why don't you get the hell out of here?''' Werber said. "He said, 'Hee, hee, hee. Man got to eat, hadn't he?' Man was catching for the Cubs, but he can't see the ball.

"Nice fellow. Everybody loved Jimmie Foxx.''

Boston eventually traded Werber to the Philadelphia Athletics, where he played under the legendary Mack, who also owned the team.

At that time, players had to negotiate one-year contracts each season, but could only play for the team that held their rights. After rejecting Mack's offer in 1939, Werber sat out spring training before he was sold to the Reds.

Later that season, Werber led off in baseball's first televised game at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, with Red Barber at the mike. Werber claims he didn't realize the fascination until 40 years later when a boy reading a trivia book came up to him near his retirement home in Naples, Fla.

"He said, 'Hey Mr. Werber, you're famous. You're the first player to appear on television in organized ball,''' Werber said. "And I said, 'Big deal.' I don't understand all this fuss.''

The conversation had shifted to Werber's apartment, absent of old baseball pictures or memorabilia. Having moved himself from the wheelchair to his living room chair, Werber pointed with pride to a letter he received a day earlier from an 80-year-old Reds fan. The man raved about Werber's heroics in the 1940 World Series. In a season marred by the suicide of Cincinnati backup catcher Willard Hershberger, the Reds beat the Tigers in seven games.

Werber's career ended two years later with the New York Giants. After not making more than $13,500 in any season of his 11-year career, he earned an astonishing $100,000 selling life insurance in his first year out of baseball.

"I was wasting my time playing baseball,'' Werber declared.

Werber was silent for a moment, then corrected himself.

"No, I enjoyed playing baseball,'' he said.

Now Werber's nearly 100-year-old body was getting weary. The storytelling was over for the day.

Baseball's connection to its magical era was ready for his afternoon nap.

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