The Day in Sports : COUNTDOWN TO 2000 / A day-by-day recap of some of the most important sports moments of the 20th Century: SEPT. 24, 1919 and 1934 : Known for His Homers, Here’s a Ruth Double

This date was a double-landmark day for Babe Ruth. Sept. 24 was the day he officially became baseball’s single-season home run record holder and also his last game at Yankee Stadium.

The two events came 15 years apart.

In 1919, Ruth, 24, was a pitcher and outfielder for the Boston Red Sox. He was 9-5 and had a 2.97 earned-run average in the 17 games he pitched.

He played in 130 games, batted .322 and drove in 114 runs. And on this date, he hit his 28th home run, breaking Ned Williamson’s single- season record. Ruth finished the season with 29 homers.

The next year, he would be in a Yankee uniform, a full- time outfielder and would hit an astonishing 54 home runs.

Fifteen years later, Ruth, 39, played in his final game in Yankee Stadium, although no one knew it at the time. He was dealt to the Boston Braves in the off-season.

Only 4,000 were on hand for his undistinguished finale at Yankee Stadium. Against the Red Sox, he walked in the first inning, and was replaced by pinch-runner Myril Hoag.

Ruth’s home run onslaught in the 1920s--he hit 50 or more homers four times--has been well chronicled, but relatively little attention has been focused on his bases on balls.

Ruth was walked more than any batter in history, 2,056 times. In 1923, he was walked 170 times, another record. After his 54- and 59-homer seasons of 1920 and ‘21, his intentional walks skyrocketed. In 13 seasons he was passed more than 100 times.

In the 1920s, many argued the intentional walk should be abolished, including Harry A. Williams, sports editor of The Times.

Also on this date: In 1980, Jack Murphy, sports editor of the San Diego Union for 29 years and a leader in the drive to bring the Chargers from Los Angeles to San Diego and later to have a stadium built for them, died of cancer at 57. . . . In 1998, Hurricane Georges forced the cancellation of the UCLA’s football game at Miami. . . . In 1988, former Oklahoma football hero Joe Don Looney, 45, was killed in a motorcycle accident near Study Butte, Texas. . . . In 1978, Yankee Ron Guidry tied an American League record set in 1916 by Ruth--the pitcher--for most shutouts by a left-hander in a season. When he blanked Cleveland on two singles, 4-0, it was his ninth shutout of the season. Guidry and Ruth still hold the record. The National League record is 11, in 1963, by Dodger Sandy Koufax.