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George Herman "Babe" Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was a famous baseball player during the 1910s and 1930s in Major League Baseball. He played with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and the Boston Braves, and hit 714 home runs in his career. Only two players, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds, have hit more. At the beginning of his career, he was a pitcher. He is widely considered the greatest baseball player of all time.

Nicknames

Babe Ruth has been called by many nicknames. Some of the most common are: "The Great Bambino", "The Sultan of Swat", "The Colossus of Clout", "The Titan of Terror", and "The King Of Crash" .

Early life

George Herman Ruth Jr. was born in 1895 at 216 Emory Street in the Pigtown section of Baltimore, Maryland. Ruth's parents, Katherine (née Schamberger) and George Herman Ruth Sr., were both of German ancestry.

As a child, Ruth spoke German.

By the time he was six years old, his father owned a saloon and wasn't able to watch his son very carefully so he used to get into trouble. Ruth was sent at the age of seven to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage where he was mentored by Brother Matthias Boutlier of the Xaverian Brothers, the school's disciplinarian and a capable baseball player.

Early career

His first Major League Baseball (MLB) team was the Boston Red Sox. Ruth began playing as a pitcher. He had some of the best pitching statistics in baseball. The Red Sox won the World Series in 1915, 1916, and 1918.

At that time, there was no designated hitter rule in the American League, where the Red Sox played, so Ruth got chances to hit as a pitcher. The team realized that he was also good at hitting. In 1918, Ruth began hitting more and pitching less. Later in his career, he became an outstanding outfielder.

Ruth was becoming a star player. However, by 1919, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee was having problems with money. In 1920, the Red Sox sold Ruth to the New York Yankees for cash. Even though the Red Sox had won several World Series in the years before this, they would not win another one until 2004. Many baseball fans believed that the Red Sox had become "cursed" by trading Ruth, and called this the "Curse of the Bambino". (When the Red Sox finally did win a World Series in 2004, they beat the Yankees in the American League Championship to get there.)

After the trade

Ruth spent most of the rest of his career with the Yankees, where he became one of the most famous players in baseball history. Ruth helped the Yankees win World Series championships in 1923, 1927, 1928, and 1932. He left the Yankees after the 1934 season and played one last season with the Boston Braves in 1935.

In 1927, Ruth hit 60 home runs, which was then a record for the most home runs in one season. The record was broken by Roger Maris in 1961 with 61 home runs.

Retirement

Once retired, Ruth played much golf and in a few exhibition baseball games, where he demonstrated a continuing ability to draw large crowds. This appeal contributed to the Dodgers hiring him as first base coach in 1938. Ruth sought an opportunity to return as an active player in a pinch hitting role, however, he was denied the request due to his poor vision in his right eye, his inability to run the bases, and the risk of an injury. That same year Ruth left his job as a first base coach and would never again work in any capacity in the game of baseball. As radio broadcasts of baseball games became popular, Ruth sought a job in that field, arguing that his celebrity and knowledge of baseball would assure large audiences, but he received no offers.

During World War II, he made many personal appearances to advance the war effort, including his last appearance as a player at Yankee Stadium, in a 1943 exhibition for the Army-Navy Relief Fund. He hit a long fly ball off Walter Johnson; the blast left the field, curving foul, but Ruth circled the bases anyway. In 1946, he made a final effort to gain a job in baseball when he contacted new Yankees boss MacPhail, but he was sent a rejection letter.

Ruth started playing golf when he was 20 and continued playing the game throughout his life. His appearance at many New York courses drew spectators and headlines. Rye Golf Club was among the courses he played with teammate Lyn Lary in June 1933. With birdies on 3 holes, Ruth posted the best score. In retirement, he became one of the first celebrity golfers participating in charity tournaments, including one where he was pitted against Ty Cobb.

Death

In 1946, Ruth began experiencing severe pain over his left eye and had difficulty swallowing. In November 1946, he entered French Hospital in New York for tests, which revealed that he had an inoperable malignant tumor at the base of his skull and in his neck. His name and fame gave him access to experimental treatments, and he was one of the first cancer patients to receive both drugs and radiation treatment simultaneously.

Developments in chemotherapy offered some hope for Ruth. He showed dramatic improvement during the summer of 1947, and was able to travel around the country, doing promotional work for the Ford Motor Company on American Legion Baseball. Howeveer, the improvement was only a temporary remission. On June 13, 1948 Ruth visited Yankee Stadium for the final time in his life, appearing at the 25th-anniversary celebrations of "The House that Ruth Built". By this time he had lost much weight and had difficulty walking. Introduced along with his surviving teammates from 1923, Ruth used a bat as a cane. Nat Fein's photo of Ruth taken from behind, standing near home plate and facing "Ruthville" (right field) became one of baseball's most famous and widely circulated photographs, and won the Pulitzer Prize.

Ruth's condition gradually grew worse, and thousands of New Yorkers, including many children, stood vigil outside the hospital during Ruth's final days. On August 16, 1948, at 8:01 p.m., Ruth died in his sleep at the age of 53. His funeral service took place over three days. His open casket was placed on display in the rotunda of Yankee Stadium, where it remained for two days; 77,000 people filed past to pay him tribute. His Requiem Mass was celebrated by Francis Cardinal Spellman at St. Patrick's Cathedral; a crowd estimated at 75,000 waited outside. Ruth is buried with his second wife, Claire, on a hillside in Section 25 at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

Memorial and museum

On April 19, 1949, the Yankees unveiled a granite monument in Ruth's honor in center field of Yankee Stadium. The monument was located in the field of play next to a flagpole and similar tributes to Huggins and Gehrig until the stadium was remodeled from 1974 to 1975, which resulted in the outfield fences moving inward and enclosing the monuments from the playing field. This area was known thereafter as Monument Park. Yankee Stadium, "the House that Ruth Built", was replaced after the 2008 season with a new Yankee Stadium across the street from the old one; Monument Park was subsequently moved to the new venue behind the center field fence. Ruth's uniform number 3 has been retired by the Yankees, and he is one of five Yankees players or managers to have a granite monument within the stadium.

The Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum is located at 216 Emory Street, a Baltimore row house where Ruth was born, and three blocks west of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, where the AL's Baltimore Orioles play. The property was restored and opened to the public in 1973 by the non-profit Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation, Inc. Ruth's widow, Claire, his two daughters, Dorothy and Julia, and his sister, Mamie, helped select and install exhibits for the museum.

Contemporary impact

Ruth was the first baseball star to be the subject of overwhelming adulation by the public.

Ruth's liking for hitting home runs altered how baseball is played. Prior to 1920, home runs were unusual, and managers tried to win games by getting a runner on base and bringing him around to score through such means as the stolen base, the bunt, and the hit and run. Bill James noted, "When the owners discovered that the fans liked to see home runs"

Ruth dominated a relatively small sports world, while Americans of the present era have many sports available to watch.

Legacy

Ruth has been named the greatest baseball player of all time in various surveys and rankings.

In 1983, the United States Postal Service honored Ruth with the issuance of a twenty-cent stamp.

Several of the most expensive items of sports memorabilia and baseball memorabilia ever sold at auction are associated with Ruth. The bat with which he hit the first home run at Yankee Stadium is in The Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive baseball bat sold at auction, having fetched $1,265,000 on December 2, 2004.

One long-term survivor of the craze over Ruth may be the Baby Ruth candy bar. The Ruth estate licensed his likeness for use in an advertising campaign for Baby Ruth in 1995. Due to a marketing arrangement, in 2005, the Baby Ruth bar became the official candy bar of Major League Baseball.

Interesting Facts about Babe Ruth

• Ruth learned how to become a shirtmaker and a carpenter at school. He would adjust his own shirt collars, rather than having a tailor do so, even during his well-paid baseball career.
• Ruth always thought his birth date was February 7, 1894 until he saw his birth certificate before a trip to Japan in 1934 where it said he was born on February 6, 1895.
• When he played baseball at school he started playing as a catcher.
• He was one of the best left-handed pitchers ever.
• He was known as a home run hitter and was one of only two people to ever hit 3 home runs in a World Series game.
• He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.
• He's the only baseball player with the last name "Ruth" to play in a major league game.
• As of November 2016, the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold is Ruth's 1920 Yankees jersey, which sold for $4,415,658 in 2012!
• In December 2023, Babe Ruth 1914 rookie card was sold for $ 7.2 million.

Career batting statistics

He also had a .474 career on-base percentage, which is second all-time to Ted Williams' .482.

Images for kids

• Ruth's birthplace in Baltimore, Maryland, is now a museum.

• George Herman Ruth Sr. family in the 1900 US Census

• Baseball card showing Ruth as a Baltimore Oriole, 1914

• Ruth pitching for the Boston Red Sox

• Providence Grays with Babe Ruth (top row, center), 1914

• Ruth during batting practice in 1916.

• Ruth in 1918, his penultimate year with the Red Sox

• Ruth in his first year with the New York Yankees, 1920

• "How Does He Do It?" In this Clifford Berryman cartoon, presidential candidates Warren G. Harding and James M. Cox wonder at Ruth's record home run pace.

• Ruth and Shoeless Joe Jackson looking at one of Babe's home run bats, 1920

• Ruth in the stands on Opening Day, April 12, 1922, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C.

• Ruth after losing consciousness from running into the wall at Griffith Stadium during a game against the Washington Senators on July 5, 1924. Ruth insisted on staying in the game, despite evident pain and a bruised pelvic bone, and hit a double in his next at-bat. Note the absence of a warning track along the outfield wall.

• Ruth took time off in 1927 to star with Anna Q. Nilsson in this First National silent production Babe Comes Home. This film is now lost.

• 1933 Goudey Sport Kings baseball card

• Gary Cooper and Ruth in the 1942 film The Pride of the Yankees

• Ruth and his first wife, Helen Woodford, 1915

• The Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Ruth by Nat Fein

See also

In Spanish: Babe Ruth para niños