Babe Ruth

Template:Three other uses Template:Mlbretired George Herman Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), also known as "Babe", "The Great Bambino", "The Sultan of Swat", 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 a 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. The transaction spawned the Curse of the Bambino. Over 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 hit 59 home runs in 1921 then beat his own single season home run record in 1927 with 60. It stood as the single season home run record for 34 years.

With Ruth on the team, the Yankees won seven American League Pennants and four World Series titles. He played his final Major League season with the Boston Braves in 1935. 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.

Early life

Ruth was born at 216 Emory Street in southern Baltimore, Maryland. 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., eventually owned saloons on Lombard and Camden Street in Baltimore. 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.

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Ruth (top row, far left) at St Mary's Industrial School for Boys

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) 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.

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.

Two days later, on July 9, Dunn sold the trio to Joe Lannin and the Boston Red Sox. The amount of money exchanged in the transaction is disputed.

Major League career

Ruth pitching for the Red Sox in 1914

Red Sox years

When Ruth arrived in 1914, the Red Sox had many star players. As such, 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, 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. 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.

Sold to New York

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

Early 1920s

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Ruth in 1920, the year he joined the Yankees.

Ruth hit 54 home runs and batted .376 in 1920, his first year with the Yankees. His .849 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 .847 while leading the Yankees to their first league championship. During these years, 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 or otherwise hit an additional 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.

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.

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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. He hit .378, with 46 home runs and 121 runs batted in. 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.

Mid to late 1920s

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. 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 an AL-record 110 games, 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.

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A well-dressed Ruth in 1930.

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.

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 . 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.

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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 only 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. Together, they adopted a daughter. They were reportedly separated as early as 1920 and as late as 1926. 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. They stayed married until Babe Ruth's death in 1948.

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.

• Ruth at the graveside service of his first wife Helen
  Ruth at the graveside service of his first wife Helen
• Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig at West Point, New York (1927)
  Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig at West Point, New York (1927)
• 
  Ruth golfing with former New York Governor Al Smith in Coral Gables, Florida (1930) – State Archive of Florida
• Ruth with President Hoover at a Stanford - USC football game (1933)
  Ruth with President Hoover at a Stanford - USC football game (1933)
• The Great Bambino with future U.S. President George H. W. Bush at Yale
  The Great Bambino with future U.S. President George H. W. Bush at Yale

Film career

Among his many forays into various popular media, Ruth appeared in several films. Ruth played himself in a cameo appearance 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

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.

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Nat Fein's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Ruth at Yankee Stadium, June 13, 1948. This was his last public appearance before his death.

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

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A cancer-ravaged Ruth (right) in 1948, visited by New York City Mayor William O'Dwyer.

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.

The cancer had eaten away at his body, and 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.

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."

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 immortalized in the poem "Lineup for Yesterday":

R is for Ruth.
To tell you the truth,
There's no more to be said,
Just R is for Ruth.

Ogden Nash

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

W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	HBP	BB	SO	WPct	WHIP	AVG	BB/9	K/9
94	46	2.28	163	148	107	17	4	1,221.1	974	400	309	10	29	441	488	.671	1.16	.220	3.25	3.60

See also

• 500 home run club
• 600 home run club
• 700 home run club
• 50 home run club
• All-Time leaders in Homeruns for a Pitcher
• Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame
• Babe Ruth League
• Everyone's Hero
• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• List of major league players with 2,000 hits
• List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles
• List of Major League Baseball players with 100 triples
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
• List of Major League Baseball ERA champions
• List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
• List of Major League Baseball batting champions
• List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions

External links

• baberuth.com - Official site
• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference
• [Fangraphs stats]
• Babe Ruth at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• [1]
• baberuthmuseum.com Ruth Museum
• espn.go.com - article by Larry Schwartz
• Babe Ruth at IMDb
• Find-A-Grave profile for Babe Ruth

Accomplishments