Peter Botte had a nice writeup in the Daily News this morning about the first World Series at the old Yankee Stadium. Apparently, coming into that World Series, Babe Ruth himself had a reputation as a postseason choker. Who knew?

Also, I love that Ruth, according to this, had no problem with Casey Stengel’s Cadillacing on home runs. Really sort of contradicts all the sanctimony that swells up whenever a player doesn’t properly “respect the game” or “play it the way it was meant to be played.”

Speaking of the bad postseason reputations, there have already been a ton of words spent about the kinder, gentler 2009 version of A-Rod and how perhaps this will be the October in which he stops choking.

It’s not that I believe A-Rod will choke again; I certainly don’t. He’s one of the best hitters in baseball and should be expected to succeed in all situations. What’s frustrating about all the hype leading up to it is it’ll cut down on the mea culpas from journalists everywhere if and when he does hit a clutch home run.

And I was really looking forward to those.

Finally, in another story with close ties to Babe Ruth, Julia Moskin of the New York Times provides one of the most important pieces of investigative journalism of our time. Enjoy.