'George Herman Ruth, Jr.' (
February 6,
1895 –
August 16,
1948), also known as "'Babe'", "'The Bambino'", "'The Sultan of Swat'", "'The King of Crash'", "'The Titan of Terror'" and "'The Colossus of Clout'", was an
American Major League baseball player from
1914-
1935. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball players in history. Many polls place him as the number one player of all time.
Although he spent most of his career as an
outfielder with the
New York Yankees, Ruth began his career as a successful
starting pitcher for the
Boston Red Sox. He compiled an 89-46
win-
loss record during his time with the Red Sox and set several
World Series pitching records. In 1918, Ruth started to play in the
outfield and at
first base so he could help the team on a day-to-day basis as a hitter. In
1919, he appeared in 111 games as an outfielder. He also hit 29
home runs to break
Ned Williamson's record for most home runs in a single season.
In
1920, Red Sox owner
Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the New York Yankees. In his next 15 seasons in New York, Ruth led the league or placed in the top ten in
batting average,
slugging percentage,
runs,
total bases, home runs,
RBI, and
walks several times. Ruth's 60 home runs in 1927 was the single season home run record for 34 years until it was broken by
Roger Maris. Ruth's lifetime total of 714 home runs was once considered one of
Major League Baseball's "unbreakable" records, but
Hank Aaron broke it in 1974 (
Barry Bonds broke Aaron's record in
2007). In contrast, after he was sold from the Red Sox, the Red Sox franchise floundered for decades after having been previously the most successful Major League team prior to the trade. This great disparity of success between the Yankees and Red Sox eventually led to a superstition that was dubbed the "
Curse of the Bambino", a "curse" that effectively ended when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, their first World Series title in 86 years.
More than his statistics, Ruth completely changed baseball itself, and the popularity of the game exploded in the 1920s largely due to him. He ushered in the "
live-ball era" as his big swing led to gargantuan home run totals that not only excited fans, but helped change baseball from a low-scoring, speed dominated game to a high scoring, power game. He became the first true American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended baseball. Off the field he was famous for his charity, but also was noted for his often reckless lifestyle that epitomized the hedonistic
1920s. Ruth became an American icon, and even though he died nearly 60 years ago his name is still one of the most famous names in all of American sports.
In
1936, Ruth became one of the first five players elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame.
In
1969, he was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball. In
1998, ''
The Sporting News'' ranked Ruth Number 1 on the list of "
Baseball's 100 Greatest Players." The next year, baseball fans named Ruth to the
Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In a 1999
ESPN poll, he was ranked as the third greatest US athlete of the century, behind
Michael Jordan and
Muhammad Ali.
Early life
Ruth was born at 216 Emory Street in southern
Baltimore, Maryland.
[1] His maternal grandfather,
German immigrant, Pius Schamberger was an
upholsterer; he rented a house located only a block from where
Oriole Park at Camden Yards now stands.
Ruth's parents, Kate Schamberger-Ruth and George Herman Ruth, Sr.,
[2] eventually owned
saloons on Lombard and Camden Street in Baltimore.
[3] Only one of Ruth's seven siblings, his sister Mamie, survived past infancy.
George Ruth Sr. sent the seven-year-old Ruth to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a
reformatory and
orphanage, and signed custody of his son over to the
Catholic missionaries who ran the school.
While Ruth was there, a man by the name of Brother Matthias became a father figure in his life. Brother Matthias taught Ruth the game of baseball. He worked with Ruth on hitting, fielding and, later, pitching.
In early 1914, a teacher at St. Mary's brought George to the attention of
Jack Dunn, owner and manager of the
Baltimore Orioles. After watching Ruth pitch, Dunn signed Ruth to a contract. Since Ruth was only 19 years old, Dunn had to become Ruth's
legal guardian as well (at that time, the
age of majority was 25)
[4] When the other players on the Orioles caught sight of Ruth, they nicknamed him "Jack's newest babe." The reference stayed with Ruth the rest of his life, and he was most commonly referred to as Babe Ruth from then on.
[ Ruth biography ]
On
July 7,
1914, Dunn offered Ruth, along with
Ernie Shore and Ben Egan, to
Connie Mack of the
Philadelphia Athletics. Dunn asked $10,000 for the trio, but Mack refused the offer. The
Cincinnati Reds, who had an agreement with the Orioles, also passed on Ruth. Instead, the team elected to take George Twombley and Claud Derrick.
[5]
Two days later, on
July 9, Dunn sold the trio to Joe Lannin and the
Boston Red Sox.
[6] The amount of money exchanged in the transaction is disputed.
Major League career
Ruth pitching for the Red Sox in 1914, at
Comiskey Park in Chicago
Red Sox years
The Red Sox had many star players in 1914, so when Ruth arrived he was optioned to the minor league
Providence Grays of
Providence, Rhode Island for part of the season. Behind Ruth and
Carl Mays, the Grays won the
International League pennant. Ruth appeared in five games for the Red Sox that year, pitching in four of them. He finished the season 2-1 for the major league club. Shortly after the season, Ruth proposed to Helen Woodford, a waitress he met in
Boston, and they were married in
Ellicott City, Maryland, on
October 17,
1914.
During spring training in 1915, Ruth secured a spot in the starting rotation. He joined a pitching staff that included Rube Foster,
Dutch Leonard, and
Smokey Joe Wood. Ruth won 18 games,
[7] lost eight, and helped himself by hitting .315. He also hit his first four home runs. The Red Sox won 101 games that year on their way to a victory in the
World Series. Ruth did not appear much in the series; he did not pitch in the series, and he recorded only one at-bat.
In
1916, after a slightly shaky spring, he went 23-12, with a 1.75 ERA and 9 shutouts. Despite a weak offense and hurt by the sale of
Tris Speaker to the
Indians, the Red Sox still made it to the World Series. They defeated the
Brooklyn Robins four games to one. This time Ruth made major contributions in the series. In game 2 of the series, the Red Sox won the game, and Ruth pitched a 14-inning complete game.
Ruth batting in 1918
Ruth went 24-13 with a 2.01 ERA and 6 shutouts in
1917, and hit .325. The Sox finished nine games behind the
Chicago White Sox, good enough for second place in the
American League. Ruth had been suspended for hitting an umpire in a game that proved to be a no-hitter for
Ernie Shore in a relief role. This suspension was seen by some as being harmful enough to the Red Sox that it derailed their pennant hopes for the year. It was also an example of self-discipline problems that plagued Ruth throughout his career and is regarded as one of the reasons (other than financial) that Frazee was willing to sell him to the Yankees two years later.
In the
1918 World Series, Ruth appeared as a pitcher and went 2-0 including 1 shutout, with a 1.06 ERA. Ruth extended his World Series consecutive scoreless inning streak to 29⅔ innings.
[8] Since
Hippo Vaughn and Lefty Tyler, two left-handers, pitched nearly all the innings for the Cubs, Ruth, who batted left-handed, registered only five at-bats.
During the
1919 season, Ruth pitched in only 17 of the 130 games in which he appeared. He also set his first single-season home run record that year with 29. It was his last season with the Red Sox.
Emergence as a hitter
After the 1917 season in which he hit .325, albeit with limited at bats, teammate
Harry Hooper suggested that Ruth might be more valuable in the lineup as an everyday player. In 1918, he began playing in the outfield more and pitching less. His contemporaries thought this was ridiculous; former teammate
Tris Speaker speculated the move would shorten Ruth's career, but Ruth himself wanted to hit more and pitch less. In 1918, Ruth batted .300 and led the A.L. in home runs with 11 despite having only 317 at bats, well below the total for an everyday player. He also pitched well, going 13–7 with a 2.22 ERA. Ruth's excellence as hitter and pitcher made a strong case as the best player in baseball during the 1918 season.
Sold to New York
Ruth in 1920, the year he joined the Yankees.
On
December 26, 1919, Frazee sold Ruth to the
New York Yankees. Popular legend has it that Frazee sold Ruth and several other of his best players to finance a
Broadway play, ''
No, No, Nanette'' (which actually didn't debut until
1925). The truth is somewhat more nuanced.
After the 1919 season, Ruth demanded a raise to $20,000--double his previous salary. However, Frazee refused, and Ruth responded by letting it be known he wouldn't play until he got his raise. He'd actually jumped the team several times, including the last game of the 1919 season.
Frazee finally lost patience with Ruth, and decided to trade him. However, he was effectively limited to two trading partners--the
Chicago White Sox and the then-moribund Yankees. The other five clubs rejected his deals out of hand under pressure from American League president
Ban Johnson, who never liked Frazee and was actively trying to yank the Red Sox out from under him. The White Sox offered
Shoeless Joe Jackson and $60,000, but Yankees owners
Jacob Ruppert and
Cap Huston offered an all-cash deal--$100,000.
Frazee, Ruppert and Huston quickly agreed to a deal. In exchange for Ruth, the Red Sox would get $25,000 in cash and three $25,000 notes payable every year at six percent interest. Ruppert and Huston also loaned Frazee $300,000, with the mortgage on
Fenway Park as collateral. The deal was contingent on Ruth signing a new contract, which was quickly agreed to, and Ruth officially became property of the Yankees on
December 26.
Yankee years
1920-1925
Babe Ruth in 1921, maybe his finest season.
Ruth hit 54 home runs and batted .376 in 1920, his first year with the Yankees. His .847 slugging average was a Major League record until
2001, when it was broken by
Barry Bonds. Aside from the Yankees, only the
Philadelphia Phillies managed to hit more as a team than Ruth did as an individual, slugging 64 in hitter-friendly
Baker Bowl.
In
1921, Ruth had an even better year, arguably the best of his career, hitting 59 home runs, batting .379 and slugging .846 while leading the Yankees to their first league championship. On July 18, 1921, Babe Ruth hit career home run 139, breaking
Roger Connor's record of 138 during only the 8th year of a 22 year career. That fact was not known at the time, as Connor's correct career total was not firmly established until the 1970s. If it had been celebrated, it would have been on an earlier date, as Connor's total was at one time thought to be only 131.
In the 1920's, Ruth became synonymous with the home run, in part because he led the transformation of baseball strategy from the "inside game" to the "power game", and in part because of the way he hit them. His ability not only to hit many home runs, but to hit a significant number of them in the 450–500 foot range (and farther), resulted in the lasting adjective "Ruthian" to describe any long home run hit by any player. Probably his deepest hit in official game play (and probably the longest home run by ''any'' player), occurred on July 18, at Detroit's
Navin Field, in which he hit one to straightaway center, over the wall of the then-single-deck bleachers, and in the intersection, some 575 feet from home plate.
As impressive as Ruth's 1921 numbers were, they could have been more so under modern conditions. Bill Jenkinson's 2006 book, ''The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs'', is a detailed examination of each of Ruth's 714 career home runs, plus several hundred long inside-the-park drives and "fair-foul" balls that would have been ruled fair after a 1931 rule change made balls that hit the
foul poles home runs. The title comes from the stellar 1921 season, in which the author concludes that Ruth would have been credited with 104 home runs, if modern rules and field dimensions were in place.
The Yankees had high expectations when they met the
New York Giants in the
1921 World Series, and the Yankees won the first two games with Ruth in the lineup. However, Ruth badly scraped his elbow during Game 2 sliding into third base (he had walked and stolen both second and third). After the game, he was told by the team
physician not to play the rest of the series. Although he did play in Games 3, 4 and 5, and pinch-hit in Game 8 of the best-of-9 Series, his productivity was diminished, and the Yankees lost the series. Ruth hit .316, drove in five runs and hit his first World Series home run. (Although the Yankees won the fifth game, Ruth wrenched his knee and did not return to the Series until the eighth [last] game.)
Ruth's appearance in the 1921 World Series also led to a problem and triggered another disciplinary action. After the series, Ruth played in a
barnstorming tour. At the time, there was a rule that prohibited World Series participants from playing in exhibition games during the off-season.
Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspended Ruth for the first six weeks of the
1922 season.
Ruth's off-the-field life often interfered with his performance, and sometimes he just proved to be a thorn in the side of his manager,
Miller Huggins. A policeman pulled Ruth over one night for driving up a
one-way street, and Babe protested, "Well, I was only ''going'' one way!" But Huggins saw nothing funny about it--Ruth was supposed to be in the hotel room at the time, not out carousing.
And when he was inducted into the
Baseball Hall of Fame years later, he was present for the posthumous induction of Huggins. Ruth admitted, Huggins "was the only one who could handle me." (Source: ''The Baseball Hall of Fame,'' by
Tom Meany)
Despite his suspension, Ruth was named the Yankees on-field captain. Ruth started his
1922 season on
May 20. Five days later, he was ejected from a game, and Ruth subsequently lost the captaincy. In his shortened season, Ruth appeared in 110 games, hit 35 home runs and drove in 99 runs. Even without Ruth for much of the season, the Yankees still made it to the
1922 World Series. Ruth had just two hits in seventeen at-bats, and the Yankees lost to the Giants for the second straight year.
The Sultan of Swat in 1923
In 1923, the Yankees moved from the
Polo Grounds, where they had sublet from the Giants, to their new
Yankee Stadium, which was quickly dubbed "The House That Ruth Built". Characteristically, he hit the stadium's first home run on the way to a Yankees victory. Ruth finished the 1923 season with a career-high .393 batting average and major-league leading 41 home runs. For the third straight year the Yankees faced the Giants in the
1923 World Series. Ruth batted .368, walked eight times, scored eight runs, hit three home runs and slugged 1.000 during the series. The Yankees won the series 4 games to 2, their first World Series title, and the groundwork for the Yankees dynasty had been established.
Ruth had another fine year in 1924, narrowly missing winning the Triple Crown. He hit .378 to lead the American League in batting, led the major leagues with 46 home runs, and batted in 121 runs to finish a close second. His on base percentage was .513, the 4th of 5 years in which his OBP exceeded .500. However, the Yankees finished second, 2 games behind the
Washington Senators, who went on to win their first and only World Series.
During spring training in
1925, Ruth fell ill. In order to recover, Ruth returned to
New York. Coming off the injury, Ruth finished the season with a .290 average and 25 home runs in 98 games. The team finished next to last in the American League with a 69-85 mark. But the Yankees dynasty was just getting started, and it would be 40 years before a Yankees team would again experience such a poor season.
1926-1930
Babe Ruth performed at a much higher level during
1926 season. That year, he hit .372 with 47 home runs and 146 RBI. The Yankees won the AL title and advanced to the
1926 World Series. The
St. Louis Cardinals beat the Yankees in seven games. However, Ruth had his moments. In Game 4, he hit three home runs.
[9] Despite those batting heroics, he is also remembered for a costly failed stolen base. He had a reputation as a good and (sometimes too) aggressive baserunner (he had 10 steals of home in his career, for example). With two outs in the 9th inning of the deciding 7th game, he tried to steal second base, but was caught, and the Series was over. As of 2006, it is the only time in a World Series since 1903 that the final out of a Series was a Caught Stealing.
Ruth was the leader of the famous
1927 Yankees, also known as
Murderer's Row. The team won a then AL-record 110 games (Seattle now holds the record with 116 wins set in 2001), took the AL pennant by 19 games, and swept the
Pittsburgh Pirates in the
1927 World Series. That year Ruth hit a career high 60 home runs, batted .356, drove in 164 runs and slugged .772.
The following
season started off very well for the Yankees. The team even built a 13-game lead in July. But the Yankees were soon plagued by some key injuries, erratic pitching and inconsistent play. The
Philadelphia Athletics, rebuilding after some lean years, quickly caught the Yankees lead. In early September, the A's took over first place with a 1-game lead. But in a pivotal series later that month, the Yankees took 3 out of 4 games and held on to win the pennant.
Ruth's play in 1928 mirrored his team's play. He got off to a hot start and on
August 1, he had 42 home runs. This put him on pace to hit more than the 60 home runs he hit the previous season. But Ruth's power waned, and he hit just 12 home runs in the last two months of the regular season. Still, he ended the season with an impressive 54, the fourth (and last) time he passed 50 home runs in a season.
The Yankees had a
1928 World Series rematch with the St. Louis Cardinals, who had upset them in the 1926 series. The Cardinals had the same core players as the 1926 team, except for
Rogers Hornsby, who was traded for
Frankie Frisch after the 1926 season.
Despite the Cardinals' strength and the Yankees' problems, once the Yankees got to the series they were ready, and the series proved to be no contest. The Yankees swept the Cardinals 4 games to 0, the first time a team had swept consecutive series. Ruth batted .625 and again had a three home run game, again in Game 4.
Decline and end with Yankees
In
1929, the Yankees failed to make the World Series for the first time in three years, and it was another three years before they returned. Although the Yankees had slipped, Ruth led or tied for the league lead in home runs each year during 1929–1931. At one point during the 1930 season, as a stunt, Ruth was called upon to pitch for the first time since 1921, and he pitched a complete-game victory. (He had often pitched in exhibitions in the intervening years).
Also in 1929, the Yankees became the first team to use uniform numbers regularly (the
Cleveland Indians used them briefly in 1916). Since Ruth normally batted third in the order (ahead of Gehrig), he was assigned number 3 (to Gehrig's 4). The Yankees retired Ruth's number on
June 13,
1948.
In 1930, which was not a pennant year for the Yankees, Ruth was asked by a reporter what he thought of his yearly salary of $80,000 being more than President
Hoover's $75,000. His response: "I know, but I had a better year than Hoover." Ruth had supported
Al Smith in the 1928 Presidential election. That quote has also been rendered as, "How many home runs did ''he'' hit last year?"
In the
1932 season, the Yankees went 107-47 and won the pennant under manager
Joe McCarthy. Ruth did his part by hitting .341, with 41 home runs and 137 RBIs. Ruth did miss 21 games on the schedule that year; this included the last few weeks of the season.
A well-dressed Ruth in 1930.
The Yankees faced the
Chicago Cubs in the
1932 World Series. The Yankees dispatched the Cubs in 4 games and batted .313 as a team. During Game 3 of the series, after having already homered earlier in the game, Ruth hit what has now become known as
Babe Ruth's Called Shot. During the at-bat, Ruth supposedly gestured to the deepest part of the park in center-field, predicting a home run. The ball he hit traveled past the flagpole to the right of the scoreboard and ended up in temporary bleachers just outside
Wrigley Field's outer wall. The center field corner was 440 feet away, and at age 37, Ruth had hit a straightaway center home run that was perhaps a 490 foot blow
[10]. It was Ruth's last Series homer (and his last Series hit), and it became one of the legendary moments of the game.
Ruth remained productive in 1933. He batted .301, hit 34 home runs, drove in 103 runs, and led the league in walks. As a result, Ruth was elected to play in the first
All-Star game. He hit the first home run in the game's history on
July 6,
1933, at
Comiskey Park in Chicago. The two-run home run helped the AL score a 4-2 victory. As the footage of that hit reveals, the 38-year-old Ruth had become noticeably overweight by then, as his playing career was winding down. However, he was again called upon to pitch in one game, and again pitched a complete game victory, his final appearance as a pitcher. For the most part, his Yankee pitching appearances (five in fifteen years) were widely-advertised attempts to boost attendance.
In
1934, Babe Ruth recorded a .288 average, 22 home runs, and made the All-Star team for the second consecutive year. During the game, Ruth was the first of five consecutive strikeout victims for
Carl Hubbell. In what turned out to be his last game at Yankee Stadium, only 2,000 fans attended. By this time, Ruth had reached a personal milestone of 700 home runs and was about ready to retire.
After the 1934 season, Ruth went on a baseball barnstorming tour in the
Far East. Players such as
Jimmie Foxx,
Lefty Gomez,
Earl Averill,
Charlie Gehringer, and
Lou Gehrig were among 14 players who played a series of 22 games.
Sold to the Braves
By this time, Ruth knew he didn't have many years left as a player, and made no secret that he wanted to manage the Yankees. However, Ruppert wouldn't even consider dumping McCarthy. Ruth and McCarthy had never gotten along, and Ruth's managerial ambitions only made relations between the two chillier. Just before the 1934 season, Ruppert offered to make Ruth manager of the Yankees' top minor-league team, the
Newark Bears. However, Ruth's wife,
Claire Merritt Hodgson, and his business manager both advised him to turn it down. After the 1934 season, Ruppert talked to nearly every other major-league owner, but no one was interested in making Ruth manager. By this time, McCarthy didn't want Ruth on the team, and Ruppert decided to trade Ruth.
Ruppert finally found a taker in
Boston Braves owner Emil Fuchs. Even though the Braves had fielded fairly competitive teams in the last three seasons, Fuchs was sinking in debt and couldn't afford the rent on
Braves Field. Fuchs thought Ruth was just what the Braves needed, both on and off the field.
After a series of phone calls, letters and meetings, the Yankees traded Ruth to the Braves on
February 26 1935. It was announced that in addition to remaining as a player, Ruth would become team vice president and would be consulted on all club transactions. He was also made assistant manager to Braves skipper
Bill McKechnie. In a long letter to Ruth a few days before the press conference, Fuchs promised Ruth a share in the Braves' profits, with the possibility of becoming co-owner of the team. Fuchs also raised the possibility of Ruth becoming the Braves' manager, perhaps as early as
1936.
Ruth in a Boston Braves uniform in 1935, his last year as a player.
Amid much media hoopla, Ruth played his first home game in Boston in over 16 years. Before an opening-day crowd of over 25,000, Ruth accounted for all of the Braves' runs in a 4-2 defeat of the
New York Giants. The Braves had long played second fiddle to the Red Sox in Boston, but Ruth's arrival spiked interest in the Braves to levels not seen since their stunning win in the
1914 World Series.
But this couldn't last. That win proved to be the only time the Braves were over .500 that year. By
May 20, they were 7-17, and their season was effectively over. While Ruth could still hit, he could do little else, and soon stopped hitting as well. His conditioning had deteriorated so much that he could do little more than trot around the bases. His fielding was dreadful; at one point, three of the Braves' pitchers threatened not to take the mound if Ruth was in the lineup. Ruth was also miffed that McKechnie ignored most of his advice. He soon discovered that he was vice president and assistant manager in name only, and Fuchs' promise of a share of team profits was nothing more than hot air. In fact, Fuchs expected Ruth to invest some of ''his'' money in the team.
On
May 25, at
Forbes Field in
Pittsburgh, Ruth went 4-for-4, drove in 6 runs and hit 3 home runs in an 11-7 loss to the Pirates. These were the last three home runs of his career. His last home run cleared the roof at the old Forbes Field—he became the first player to accomplish that feat. Five days later, in
Philadelphia, Ruth played in his last major league game. He struck out in the first inning and, while playing the field in the same inning, hurt his knee and left the game.
Two days after that, Ruth summoned reporters to the locker room after a game against the Giants and announced he was retiring. He'd wanted to retire as early as
May 12, but Fuchs persuaded him to stay on because the Braves hadn't played in every National League park yet. That season, he hit just .181 with six home runs in 72 at-bats. The Braves had similar results. They finished 38-115, and it was the
third-worst record in major league history, just a few percentage points fewer than the infamous 1962
New York Mets. Fuchs finally caved in under mounting debt and lost control of the Braves with just over two months left in the season.
Personal life
Ruth married Helen Woodford, his first wife, in 1914.
[11] Together, they adopted a daughter.
[12] They were reportedly separated as early as 1920
[13] and as late as 1926.
[11] After they separated, Helen perished in a house fire. Ruth and several Yankees attended her funeral.
On
April 17,
1929, Ruth married actress
Claire Hodgson.
[15] They stayed married until Babe Ruth's death in
1948.
[12]
Ruth regularly wintered in
Florida, frequently playing
golf during the off-season and while the Yankees were spring training in
St. Petersburg, Florida. After retirement, he had a winter beachfront home in
Treasure Island, Florida, near St. Petersburg.
Weight Misconception
Though Babe Ruth is usually remembered as having been very overweight, this is largely because of oft-repeated showings of newsreels taken late in his career. Ruth was a large man who did indeed battle weight gain (especially given his sometimes careless diet), but for much of his career he was not especially overweight. In fact, photographs from his early career show a trim and athletic Ruth, one unfamiliar to most.
Radio and films
Among his many forays into various popular media, Ruth was heard often on radio in the 1930s and 1940s as both a guest and on his own programs with various titles: ''The Adventures of Babe Ruth'', sponsored by Quaker Oats, was a 15-minute
Blue Network show heard three times a week from
April 16 to
July 13,
1934. Three years later, he was on CBS twice a week in ''Here's Babe Ruth'' which was sponsored by Sinclair Oil and broadcast from
April 14 to
July 9,
1937. That same year he portrayed himself in "
Alibi Ike" on ''
Lux Radio Theater''. His ''Baseball Quiz'' was first heard Saturdays on NBC
June 5 to
July 10,
1943 and then later that year from
August 28 to
November 20 on NBC, followed by another NBC run from
July 8 to
October 21,
1944.
His film roles included a cameo appearance as himself in the
Harold Lloyd film ''
Speedy'' (1928). He made numerous film appearances in the
silent era, usually either playing himself or playing a ballplayer ''like'' himself.
Ruth's voice was said by some biographers to be similar to that of film star
Clark Gable, although that was obviously not evident in the silent film era. He had an appropriate role, as himself, in ''
Pride of the Yankees'', the story of his ill-fated teammate Lou Gehrig. Ruth had three scenes in the film: One in which he appeared with a straw hat. He said "If I see anyone touch it, I'll knock his teeth in!" The teammates convinced young Gehrig (
Gary Cooper) to chew the hat up; he got away with it. In the second scene, the players go to a restaurant, where Babe sees a side of
beef cooking and jokes, "Well, I'll have one of those..." and, the dramatic scene near the end, where Gehrig makes his speech at
Yankee Stadium ending with "I consider myself the luckiest man..."
Retirement and post-playing days
Nat Fein's
Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Ruth at Yankee Stadium,
June 13,
1948. This was his last public appearance before his death.
In 1936, Ruth was one of the first five players elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Two years later,
Larry MacPhail, the
Brooklyn Dodgers general manager, offered him a first base coaching job in June. Ruth took the job but quit at the end of the season. The coaching position was his last job in Major League Baseball. His baseball career finally came to an end in
1943. In a charity game at Yankee Stadium, he pinch hit and drew a walk.
In 1947, he became director of the
American Legion's youth baseball program.
[17]
Illness
In 1946, he began experiencing severe pain over his left eye. In November 1946, a visit to French Hospital in New York revealed Ruth had a
malignant tumor in his neck that had encircled his left
carotid artery. He received post-operative radiation therapy and female hormone treatments. In total he spent 3 months in the hospital and lost approximately 80 pounds (35 kg). He was released from the hospital in February 1947.
A parallel development in the field of
chemotherapy crossed over with Ruth at this time. A new drug named teropterin, a folic acid derivative, was developed by Dr. Brian Hutchings of the Lederle Laboratories. It had been shown to cause significant remissions in children with
leukemia. Ruth was presented with this new drug in June 1947. He was suffering from headaches, hoarseness and had difficulty swallowing. He agreed to use this new medicine but did not want to know any details about it. All the while he was receiving this experimental medication, he did not know it was for cancer. On
June 29,
1947, he began receiving injections and he responded with dramatic improvement. He gained over 20 pounds (9 kg) and had resolution of his headaches. On
September 6,
1947, his case was presented anonymously at the 4th Annual Internal cancer Research Congress in
St. Louis.
Teropterin ended up being a precursor for
methotrexate, a now commonly used chemotherapeutic agent.
It is now known that Ruth suffered from
nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPCA), a relatively rare tumor located in the back of the nose near the
eustachian tube. Contemporary management for NPCA includes concurrent chemotherapy and
radiation therapy.
On
April 27,
1947, the Yankees held a ceremony at Yankee Stadium. Despite his health problems, Ruth was able to attend "Babe Ruth Day". Ruth spoke to a capacity crowd of more than 60,000, including many American Legion youth baseball players. (''
Babe Ruth speaking at Yankee Stadium'')
Later, Ruth started the Babe Ruth Foundation, a charity for disadvantaged children. Another Babe Ruth Day held at Yankee Stadium in September 1947 helped to raise money for this charity.
After the cancer returned, Ruth attended the 25th anniversary celebration of the opening of Yankee Stadium on
June 13,
1948. He was reunited with old teammates from the 1923 Yankee team and posed for photographs.
Death
Shortly after he attended the Yankee Stadium anniversary event, Ruth was back in the hospital. He received hundreds of well-wishing letters and messages. This included a phone call from President
Harry Truman. Claire helped him respond to the letters.
On
July 26,
1948, Ruth attended the premiere of the film ''
The Babe Ruth Story'', a biopic about his life.
William Bendix portrayed Ruth. Shortly thereafter, Ruth returned to the hospital for the final time. He was barely able to speak. Ruth's condition gradually became worse, and in his last days, scores of reporters and photographers hovered around the hospital. Only a few visitors were allowed to see him, one of whom was
National League president and future
Commissioner of Baseball,
Ford Frick. “Ruth was so thin it was unbelievable. He had been such a big man and his arms were just skinny little bones, and his face was so haggard,” Frick said years later.
The grave of Babe Ruth
On
August 16, the day after Frick's visit, Babe Ruth died at age 53. His body lay
in repose in Yankee Stadium. His funeral was two days later at
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Ruth was then buried in the
Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in
Hawthorne, New York.
At his death, the New York ''Times'' called Babe Ruth, "a figure unprecedented in American life. A born showman off the field and a marvelous performer on it, he had an amazing flair for doing the spectacular at the most dramatic moment."
[18]
Legacy
Six decades after his death, Ruth's impact on the game still commands attention. His name comes up anytime home runs are discussed, including Barry Bonds' passing Ruth's career number in 2006. Films have been made featuring Ruth, or a Ruth-like figure ("The Whammer" in ''
The Natural'', for example). TV commercials are still made which feature caricatures of Ruth.
In addition to the Yankees dynasty itself, the living monument to Ruth is Yankee Stadium. That part of the legacy will be revised in a few years: Groundbreaking for a new Yankee Stadium, replacing the adjacent structure known as "The House That Ruth Built", took place on
August 16,
2006, the 58th anniversary of Ruth's death.
As a sidelight to his prominent role in changing the game to the power-game, the frequency and popularity of Ruth's home runs eventually led to a rule change pertaining to those hit in sudden-death mode (bottom of the ninth or later inning). Prior to 1931, as soon as the first necessary run to win the game scored, the play was over, and the batter was credited only with the number of bases needed to drive in the winning run. Thus, if the score was 3-2 with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, and the batter smacked an "over the fence home run", the game would end at 4-3, with the batter only allowed a double, and the runners officially stopped on 2nd and 3rd (since they weren't needed to win the game). The new rule allowed the entire play to complete, justified on the grounds that the ball was dead and that all runners could freely advance, thus granting the full allotment of HR and RBI's to the batter, as we know it today. Several players lost home runs that way, including Ruth, whose career total would have been changed to 715 if historians during the 1960s had been successful in pursuing this matter. Major League Baseball elected not to retrofit the records to the modern rules, and Ruth's total stayed at 714.
Another rules change that affected Ruth was the method used by umpires to judge potential home runs when the batted ball left the field near a foul pole. Before 1931, i.e through most of Ruth's most productive years, the umpire called the play based on the ball's final resting place "when last seen". Thus, if a ball went over the fence fair, and curved behind the foul pole, it was ruled foul. Beginning in 1931 and continuing to the present day, the rule was changed to require the umpire to judge based on the point where the ball cleared the fence. Jenkinson's book (p.374-375) lists 78 foul balls near the foul pole in Ruth's career, and the research indicates at least 50 of them were likely to have been home runs under the modern rule.
Ruth's 1919 contract that sent him from Boston to New York was sold at auction for $996,000 at
Sotheby's on
June 10,
2005. The most valuable
memorabilia item relating to Ruth was his 1923 bat which he used to hit the first home run at Yankee Stadium on
April 18,
1923. Ruth's heavy
Louisville Slugger solid
ash wood bat sold for $1.26 million at a Sotheby's auction in December 2004, making it the second most valuable baseball memorabilia item to date, just behind the famous 1909
Honus Wagner baseball card.
Ruth was named the best athlete to wear the #3 by
Sports Illustrated.
Ruth was immortalized in the poem "Lineup for Yesterday":
Career batting statistics
| Season | G | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | Avg. | SLG |
|---|
| 1914 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | .200 | .300 |
| 1915 | 42 | 92 | 16 | 29 | 4 | 21 | 9 | 23 | .315 | .576 |
| 1916 | 67 | 136 | 18 | 37 | 3 | 15 | 10 | 23 | .272 | .419 |
| 1917 | 52 | 123 | 14 | 40 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 18 | .325 | .472 |
| 1918 | 95 | 317 | 50 | 95 | 11 | 66 | 58 | 58 | .300 | .555 |
| 1919 | 130 | 432 | 103 | 139 | 29 | 114 | 101 | 58 | .322 | .657 |
| 1920 | 142 | 458 | 158 | 172 | 54 | 137 | 150 | 80 | .376 | .849 |
| 1921 | 152 | 540 | 177 | 204 | 59 | 171 | 145 | 81 | .378 | .846 |
| 1922 | 110 | 406 | 94 | 128 | 35 | 99 | 84 | 80 | .315 | .672 |
| 1923 | 152 | 522 | 151 | 205 | 41 | 131 | 170 | 93 | .393 | .764 |
| 1924 | 153 | 529 | 143 | 200 | 46 | 121 | 142 | 81 | .378 | .739 |
| 1925 | 98 | 359 | 61 | 104 | 25 | 66 | 59 | 68 | .290 | .543 |
| 1926 | 152 | 495 | 139 | 184 | 47 | 150 | 144 | 76 | .372 | .737 |
| 1927 | 151 | 540 | 158 | 192 | 60 | 164 | 137 | 89 | .356 | .772 |
| 1928 | 154 | 536 | 163 | 173 | 54 | 142 | 137 | 87 | .323 | .709 |
| 1929 | 135 | 499 | 121 | 172 | 46 | 154 | 72 | 60 | .345 | .697 |
| 1930 | 145 | 518 | 150 | 186 | 49 | 153 | 136 | 61 | .359 | .732 |
| 1931 | 145 | 534 | 149 | 199 | 46 | 163 | 128 | 51 | .373 | .700 |
| 1932 | 133 | 457 | 120 | 156 | 41 | 137 | 130 | 62 | .341 | .661 |
| 1933 | 137 | 459 | 97 | 138 | 34 | 103 | 114 | 90 | .301 | .582 |
| 1934 | 125 | 365 | 78 | 105 | 22 | 84 | 104 | 63 | .288 | .537 |
| 1935 | 28 | 72 | 13 | 13 | 6 | 12 | 20 | 24 | .181 | .431 |
| Career Statistics | 2,503 | 8,398 | 2,174 | 2,874 | 714 | 2,217 | 2,062 | 1,330 | .342 | .690 |
Career pitching statistics
See also
★
Babe Ruth League
References and notes
1. History of the Birthplace
2. Biography
3. George Herman "Babe" Ruth
4. Ruth information
5. Jack Dunn bio
6. Ruth Transaction info (bottom of page)
7. 1900-1929, , Robert W., Creamer, Rare Air Media, 1999,
8. This was a record that lasted until Whitey Ford broke it in 1961
9. This was the first time a player hit 3 home runs in a World Series.
10. as per Bill Jenkinson's book
11. Ruth & his marriage
12. Ruth facts
13. Ruth & his women
14. Ruth & his marriage
15. Ruth & Clair Hodgson
16. Ruth facts
17. History Channel audio clip of Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium April 27, 1947.
18. Babe Ruth, Baseball's Great Star and Idol of Children, Had a Career Both Dramatic and Bizarre
External links
★
baberuth.com - Official site
★
★
★
baberuthmuseum.com Ruth Museum
★
espn.go.com - article by Larry Schwartz
★
★
Find-A-Grave profile for Babe Ruth
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