In March 1920, soon after being purchased by the Yankees, Babe Ruth sought a disability insurance policy from what was then called the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company.

On the one-page application, he most likely shaded the truth on a question that began, “Are your habits temperate?” His answer, improbably, was, “Yes.”

By then, he was familiar with multiple vices. “He was a wild man with the Red Sox,” said Leigh Montville, a biographer who wrote “The Big Bam.” He added: “Part of the reason, I think, that Harry Frazee got rid of him, in his public relations, was that he was an unmanageable guy.” Yet, said Montville, Ruth was not so wild that he would ignore advice from someone more grounded that he buy insurance.