so while finishing fourth, nine games behind New York. They finished 78-73 the next year and finished 16 games behind St. Louis for another fourth place finish. The bottom fell out in 1935, a season in which Babe Ruth returned to play in the city of Boston for the first time in 14 years, with Fuchs also giving him duties of vice president and assistant manager, although these were more ceremonial than anything. According to Allen, McKechnie claimed that Ruth's presence made it nearly impossible to enforce discipline. Ruth drew a huge salary, and lived apart from the team on the road. Additionally, years of high living had rendered him a shadow of his former self. Ruth's running problems and errors proved such a problem that three pitchers threatened to go on strike if he was in the lineup. Ruth lasted only about a month before retiring, and hit .181. Despite fielding essentially the same team that finished fourth a year earlier, the Braves crumbled to a record of 38-115, the worst record in modern National League history and the second worst in modern major league history. The team improved in the next two years, going 71-83 (with three ties) and 79-73 before McKechnie was hired to manage the Cincinnati Reds in 1938. Cincinnati Reds and later career According to one baseball reference work, McKechnie had a poor sense of direction, which did not improve when, as the Reds' manager, he began traveling by plane. He arrived in an airport when the Reds were to play the Pirates at Forbes Field. He hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the Schenley Hotel. "I never heard of it", said the driver. McKechnie gave him the names of the nearby streets. "Never heard of them either", the cabbie said. "How long have you been driving a cab here? the manager asked. "Twenty-five years and then some", said the driver, "But so help me I never heard of the Schenley Hotel! You must be in the wrong town! Where do you think you are?" "Pittsburgh", McKechnie said. "Pittsburgh, hell!" retorted the driver. "You're really lost. This is Detroit!" McKechnie was an unusual kind of manager for his era. A very religious man, he did not smoke, drink alcohol or use profanity. When he had a problem player who was likely to go out carousing, McKechnie's simple solution was to