George Herman Ruth, Junior was born to play baseball. Find out more about this man and his achievements in the world of baseball by reading this article about the immortal
George Herman Ruth, Junior, was born on February 6, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the oldest child of George Senior and his wife. His parents had seven other children, but only George Junior and a sister lived.
The Senior Ruth owned a bar, and his wife worked there with him. With his parents working, George Junior was left to roam the streets of Baltimore, and he was stealing from local businesses before he even reached school age. George was also chewing tobacco, stealing whiskey from his father's bar, and learning a colorful vocabulary from customers at the bar.
By the time he was seven, and old enough to attend school, George Junior refused to go. In turn, he was deemed as being incorrigible, and George's parents turned him over to Saint Mary's Industrial School. This school was filled with orphans and delinquents, and unfortunately, George Herman Ruth Junior fit right in.
Fortunately for little George, a man at the school by the name of Brother Matthias took Ruth under his wing and he taught him the sport of baseball. Brother Matthias was a large man who stood well over six feet tall, but he was known for his kindness and love towards children. Matthias was very surprised to find out that Ruth was a natural at baseball, and that he could successfully play every position. Ruth continued to play the sport he loved so well, and his superior abilities became known throughout the city.
The following year, George Ruth Junior was snagged by the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. A man named Jack Dunn managed the team, and he not only signed Ruth on, but he also became his legal guardian because Ruth was only nineteen and was underage. The other team players referred to Ruth as being Dunn's "baby" and, after it was shortened to "Babe", the name stuck.
Babe Ruth only played for the Baltimore Orioles for a short time, as he was sold to the Red Sox his first year. He started his career as a pitcher, and he pitched in his first Major League game against Cleveland, and the Red Sox prevailed. It was soon apparent that Ruth had superior hitting skills, and this talent ended up making "Babe Ruth" a household name.
In his personal life, around the same time, he met a lady by the name of Helen. They married a short time later.
In 1919, Ruth played for the New York Yankees, and he used his talent to hit over one hundred home runs in his first two seasons with the club. It was at this time that he earned another nickname which was, "The Sultan of Swing." During his career, he was also called "The Bambino", as well as a number of other pet names.
During his dozen years with the Yankees, "The Sultan" helped the club win seven pennants and four World Championships. The New York Yankees wn their first title in 1921, and two more followed right in a row. Babe Ruth smashed out fifty-nine home runs during this year, and this achievement made him the newest "Homerun King."
At home, The Ruth's adopted a girl named Dorothy in 1921. While Helen stayed at home and raised Dorothy, Babe's time was spent drinking, smoking, carousing with women, and playing baseball.
Two years later, in 1923, a new stadium was built in New York. The stadium was built to hold all of the fans that wanted to see Babe Ruth play. On Opening Day, attendance topped seventy-four thousand fans, and the stadium was known as, "The Park That Ruth Built." Ruth shined as always when he made a three run homer that allowed the Yankees to beat the New York Giants in the very first game.
By 1925, Babe Ruth was thirty years old, and when he showed up for Spring Training, he was in terrible shape, and he collapsed. He ended up having surgery and he was hospitalized for two months. The cause of his exact illness was unknown.
After he recovered from his illness, Babe Ruth bought a farm in Massachusetts, and he moved his wife Helen and their daughter Dorothy there shortly afterwards. Ruth, on the other hand, moved himself to an apartment in New York's Upper West Side. Babe and Helen divorced soon after that.
The following year, the Yankees signed on Lou Gehrig as their new first baseman. With Babe Ruth and the talented Lou Gehrig both playing on the same team, the club walked away with four titles.
In the spring of 1929, Helen Ruth perished in a fire. Babe Ruth got married again, and the bride this time was his girlfriend Claire Hodgson.
As Babe Ruth's career moved on, and he aged, naturally he slowed down. He was still a good player, but he was not as valuable as he had been in his younger days. Lou Gehrig stepped up as New York's new golden boy, and The Yankees let Ruth go after the 1934 season. Babe Ruth was forty years old, and he knew his career was over. Afew years later, in 1938, Babe Ruth did help coach the Brooklyn Dodgers.
In 1946, Babe Ruth was given the grim news that he had throat cancer. The following year, on April 27, "Babe Ruth Day" was held in every baseball stadium in the United States. The audience at the Yankee Stadium was thrilled when Ruth made an appearance, but it was obvious that he was a very sick man. Babe Ruth made his final appearance at the stadium in 1948. The occasion was to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary. Ruth's uniform with its number three on it was officially retired at this time too.
A couple months later, Babe Ruth died. He was fifty-three years old. The date was August 16, 1948, and his body was laid in state at the Yankee Stadium so his thousands and thousands of fans could see the slugger one last time. He was finally buried in New York.
Babe Ruth's career was an amazing one though, and he chalked up a record-breaking 714 home runs in his twenty seasons of playing baseball. His lifetime average was .342. Twenty-nine of those runs were hit with a special bat that Babe Ruth had had specially made. His bat had a knob on the end of the handle, and the bat remains in use today. He was also the only other player, besides Reggie Jackson, to ever hit three home runs in a World Series Game, and when he hit sixty runs in 1927, he hit a whopping fourteen percent of all of the home runs in the league that year!
Babe Ruth- The man who was born to play baseball.
