Ruth Law makes baseball history at Daytona Beach
First woman to pilot a plane in Florida earns claim to fame in Grapefruit League
One of America’s earliest female aviators
Born in 1891, Ruth Law purchased her first aircraft, a Wright Model B, in 1912. Wright refused to teach her to fly, believing it an activity unsuited to women, so she enrolled in the Burgess Flying School in Atwood Park, near Boston, in June of that year, becoming the sixth American woman to earn a pilot’s license.
Law’s accomplishments quickly made national headlines. She was the first woman to “loop the loop,” the first woman to fly an airplane at night, and later held the Chicago-to-New York aerial speed record in 1916. During World War I, she offered her services to the United States and became the first woman authorized to wear a military uniform, although she was not permitted to fly in combat. Instead, she supported the war effort through exhibition flights benefiting the Red Cross and Liberty Loan drives. Amelia Earhart is said to have drawn her own inspiration from Law’s early accomplishments.
Arrival in Florida
Law arrived in Daytona Beach during the winter season of 1912-1913 with her manager husband, Charles Oliver, after being hired by the Clarendon Hotel. Her first Daytona flight took place on the beach in front of the hotel on January 13, 1913. It was also the first recorded flight piloted by a woman in Florida. She quickly became a popular and well-known figure in the area and found many willing passengers as well as students for the pilot training classes she began to offer in December 1914. She spent three winter seasons in Daytona, from 1913-1916, until the outbreak of World War I.
Fun with baseball
But the Florida event with which Law is perhaps most famously associated involves baseball. Uban legend has Law tossing a grapefruit from her plane onto the diamond on the opening day of the Brooklyn Dodger’s spring training in Daytona in March 1915.
In fact, things didn’t actually happen quite that way. Here’s what did:
In early March 1915, when the Superbas/Brooklyn Dodgers were getting ready to head to Daytona, newspapers across the country began to report that the season would be opened with a series of special events. These were to include dedication of the Daytona training field in Charles H. Ebbets’ (the Dodgers president’s) name, a parade by the two competing teams (Dodgers and Stetson University), a band, and, most spectacularly of all, a flight over the field by Ebbets in a plane flown by Ruth Law, during which the first ball would be dropped onto the diamond from a height of over 1000 feet.
But opening day did not go as planned.
There was no parade, no band, and no aerial baseball drop. Speeches were delivered, a large flag was raised bearing the mottos of Florida and New York along with the words “Ebbets Field,” and the game proceeded without the promised aviation spectacle.
One Brooklyn newspaper later reported that Ruth Law telephoned the grounds shortly before the ceremony explaining that prior bookings prevented her appearance. Daytona newspapers also humorously quoted Ebbets offering another explanation for why he failed to fly:
“You see I was rushing around, when Karst got hurt, and worked up quite a perspiration, and thought that I might catch cold up there in the machine.”
After all the hype, people were left scratching their heads, feeling a little gypped.
Until March 13th. Rain had caused games to be canceled that day but the action on the field made up for it. As reported by the Brooklyn Citizen, March 14th:
“Trainer Frank Kelly decided he would go up in the machine [Ruth Law’s airplane] today while the players were indulging in some batting practice. Kelly said he would drop a ball from the airship right over the pitcher’s box. Manager Robinson agreed to make an attempt to catch the ball.
It is a half‑mile from the ballpark to the point where Miss Law goes up, and when Kelly took his seat in the biplane he found he had forgotten to bring along a baseball. Someone handed him a large grapefruit as a substitute for a ball, and the flight was started.
When the airship approached the ballpark, Manager Robinson walked out to the pitcher’s box ready to catch the ball he thought Kelly was to drop. The airship was up 500 feet and traveling at a forty‑five‑mile gait when Kelly dropped the grapefruit. Robbie got set; the grapefruit hit him on the left wrist instead of in the big mitt, caromed off, struck him on the shoulder, and knocked him down.
The fruit burst into small pieces. When the players reached Robbie, he was willing to bet he had been hit with a bomb. It was well that it was not a baseball thrown from the airship, for if it had hit Robbie on the wrist it would have broken his arm. As it was, the grapefruit struck it with enough force to numb it completely.”
The press had the proverbial field day with the incident. In fact, the Brooklyn Eagle (March 18) even published a poem about it, as follows:
This chap they call Robbie’s a bute
Fat, huggable, lovable, cute
He has but one flaw–
Don’t mention Ruth Law–
Or ask him to juggle grapefruit.
Subsequent career and early retirement
Following World War I, Law continued her career by organizing the Ruth Law Flying Circus, a three‑aircraft exhibition team that performed at state and county fairs. In 1919 she toured Asia, where she delivered the first official airmail to the Philippine Islands. At her husband Charles Oliver’s urging, she retired from flying in 1922.
