Overview (5)

Mini Bio (1)

Most of Babe Ruth's records have been broken. In 1961, not only did Roger Maris break The Babe's 34-year-old record for most home runs in a season with 61 (2001), but Maris' teammate on the '61 Yankees, pitcher Whitey Ford broke the Babe's 43-year-old record for most scoreless innings pitched in a World Series when the Yankees dispatched the Reds that year in the postseason. (When asked how it felt to have beat the Babe's "other" record, Whitey responded, "It was a bad year for the Babe".)



Though Barry Bonds now holds the record for most home runs in a season (73), most home runs in a career (762), highest slugging percentage, most intentional walks, etc., The Babe still must be considered the greatest player who ever graced the game. In addition to his record 12 home run titles, his 13 slugging titles, his six R.B.I. titles, and his solo batting title (.378 in 1934; The Babe placed in the top five hitters in terms of batting average eight times, including a career high of .393 in 1923, when Harry Heilmann hit .403), The Babe won 18, 23 and 24 games as a left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in 1915, 1916 and 1917, and won the American League E.R.A. title in '16. He set his first home run title in 1918, another year the Sox won the World Series, as a part-time position player and part-time pitcher, notching up 11 homers and nine wins. George Herman Ruth likely will remain the sole player in major league baseball history to win batting, home run, R.B.I., slugging *and* E.R.A. titles, plus eat a dozen hot dogs and drink the better part of a keg of bootleg "needle" beer before suiting up for a game.



From 1914 to 1919, The Babe played for the Boston Red Sox, with whom he appeared on three World's Championship teams. Sold to the New York Yankees by Red Sox owner and theatrical impresario Harry Frazee, he led the then-crownless American League franchise in Gotham to seven A.L. pennants and four World Series titles from 1920-1934. He played out his string with the Boston Braves in 1935; even a washed-up Babe was still able to pole three circuit clouts in one game before calling it quits after 28 games and six dingers in that last season. The following year, he was one of the inaugural inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Yes, the Babe was mighty, and he did prevail more often than naught except over one opponent: Father Time.



The Babe ended his 22 years in the Big Leagues with 2,873 hits good for a career batting average of .342, 714 home runs, 2,217 R.B.I.s, and 2,174 runs scored in 2,503 games. (From his debut in 1914 through the 1918 season, when he was making his transition to becoming a full time position player, Ruth only appeared in 261 ball games as he was considered the top left-handed pitcher in the American League.) In the record books, Ty Cobb scored more runs and Hank Aaron hit more homers and racked up more R.B.I.s (Interestingly, Hammerin' Hank and The Babe ended their careers with the exact same number of runs scored.), but they played in far more games than the The Babe, with 3,035 and 3,298 games, respectively. Among modern players, Rickey Henderson, who surpassed Cobb's record for runs after 25 years in The Show, played in 3,081 games, and Barry Bonds appeared in almost 3,000 games.



No player ever had the impact, both on and off the field, as did the charismatic Babe. When he died of cancer in 1948, the New York Times headline read, "Babe Ruth/Idol of Millions of Boys/Dead".

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood

Spouse (2)

Trivia (56)

Was the first Major League player to hit 60 home runs (1927). Started out his career as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He had back-to-back 20-win seasons and won a total of 94 career games. Sold to New York for $100,000. Hit his famous "Called Shot" in the 1932 World Series in Chicago, off Chicago pitcher Charlie Root. He had two strikes when he allegedly pointed to center field and, on the very next pitch, smacked the ball in center field for a home run. Led American League in home runs 12 times, runs eight times, RBIs six times and batting once. Hit 714 career home runs. His number 3 was retired by the New York Yankees. Among the original members who were first admitted to the baseball Hall of Fame. Honored with a monument in Yankee Stadium.



Played for the American League's Boston Red Sox (1914-1919) and New York Yankees (1920-1934), and for the National League's Boston Braves (1935).



Born at 1:45pm-EST



Enshrined in the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, 1995 (charter member).



Was lifted for a pinch hitter in the 1918 World Series.



Spoke German fluently. His maternal grandfather was a German immigrant.



Was once given an intentional walk with the bases loaded.



His last home run was the first to clear the right field roof in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field.



Biggest ambition was to be a major league manager.



Served as first base coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938.



Turned down an offer to manage the Yankees' AAA farm club in Newark.



Was actually separated from his first wife, Helen, during the last few years of their marriage. Did not seek a divorce because they were both Roman Catholic.



Left the Yankees when the team would not name him manager. Accepted an offer by the Boston Braves to be right fielder, vice president, and assistant manager, the latter two of which were only on paper.



Still holds the Yankee club record for the highest season batting average with his .393 effort in 1923.



Became a full-time outfielder in 1919.



Hit a total of 16 grand slam home runs during his career.





Held the record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play from 1918 until 1961, when Whitey Ford broke it.

Could never remember his teammates' names; usually called everybody "kid".



Lived at St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore, where he was introduced to baseball by Brother Matthias, until he was signed by the Baltimore Orioles of the International League in 1914. Because he was 19, Orioles' manager Jack Dunne became his guardian. Ruth was called "Dunne's babe", which is how he acquired the nickname "Babe".



Pictured on a 20¢ US commemorative postage stamp issued in his honor, on Wednesday, July 6th, 1983.



Pictured on one of fifteen 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the "Celebrate the Century" series, issued 28 May 1998, celebrating the 1920s.





His wife, Claire, was a cousin of Hall of Fame slugger Johnny Mize



Adopted Dorothy Ruth Pirone with first wife Helen in 1921. Decades later, she wrote a book, titled "My Dad, The Babe", claiming that she was Ruth's biological child by a woman named Juanita Jennings.

He was considered the best lefthander in the American League during his brief time pitching.



Named the number two athlete of the 20th century in an ESPN poll. [1999]



Claimed once that had he hit for average instead of power, he would have batted .600 for his career. Wound up with a lifetime batting average of .342.



New York Yankees All-Time Leader in Runs (1,959), Home Runs (659), Total Bases (5,131), Walks (1,852), On Base Percentage (.479), Slugging Percentage (.711), and Batting Average Leader (.349).



Throughout his life, Ruth thought he was born February 7, 1894. After he retired, when he applied for a passport and was required to show his birth certificate, he was discovered on the certificate he had actually been born February 6, 1895. While February 6 was his actual birthday, he celebrated February 7 throughout the rest of his life.



His father owned a saloon in downtown Baltimore. The saloon and the buildings around it were later torn down, and the site now occupies center field of the Baltimore Orioles' stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards. A Sports Illustrated writer, musing from Yankee Stadium's nickname "The House That Ruth Built", jokingly referred to Camden Yards as "The House That Ruth Haunts".





Though he threw, batted and ate left-handed, he wrote right-handed. He was asked about this once and said that in the Catholic school where he was raised, he originally wrote left-handed as a child but was forced by his teacher to write right-handed. This was common back then; other left-handed baseball stars, such as Lou Gehrig and Stan Musial , wrote right-handed.



Adopted Julia Ruth Stevens after he married her mother.

Wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep himself cool.





Though he was photographed shaking the hand of President Herbert Hoover at a game, the Babe was no fan of his. When asked in 1930, the first year of the Great Depression, about his salary of $80,000 a year being more than that of the President (who earned $75,000), the Babe replied, "I know, but I had a better year than he did." The Babe actively campaigned for Hoover's Democratic rival for the presidency, Al Smith, in 1928. The hard-drinking Babe called Smith, who was for the repeal of Prohibition, "His" candidate.

Stole home 10 times in his career.





After the Yankees' 1928 World Series victory, their train stopped in Indiana, where Ruth was asked to address the crowd. Ruth, who wanted to give a plug for his friend and Democratic presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith , told the crowd, "Let's give three cheers for my pal and the next president of the U.S.A., Al Smith!" The crowd was completely silent, and some accounts say that the wind could be heard rustling through apple trees. What Ruth wasn't aware of was that Indiana was staunch Herbert Hoover territory. He cursed and got back onto the train.

In 1914, his starting salary as a ballplayer with the Orioles was $600 per year.





On Saturday, January 3rd, 1920, he was formally sold by Harry Frazee to New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert for $125,000, plus a $350,000 loan secured by Fenway Park. At that time, it was the highest price paid for a player, and more money than Ruppert paid for his team. The woeful Yankees soon became a juggernaut, while the powerhouse Red Sox wouldn't win another World Series until 2004. Red Sox fans would attribute the drought to a "curse" which came to be known as "The Curse of the Bambino". Ruth himself never spoke ill of his first major league baseball team.

It was estimated that he earned a total of $850,000 in salary from playing baseball during his 14 years, which was far below the $2,000,000 he earned outside of baseball.



By 1935, the year of his retirement from baseball, his annuities supplemented his income with dividends of $17,500 per year. By 1937, he had amassed $250,000 in an irrevocable trust that generated $10,000 per year for retirement.



When he died in 1948, Monday, August 16th, 1948, to be exact, he left an estate valued of $360,811. In 1999, his heirs were earning in excess of $1 million per year from image licensing.





Major league baseball season was expanded, eight games from 154 games to 162 games in 1961. Roger Maris hit 61 home runs that year. Contrary to popular belief, it was not noted with an asterisk in the official record book, but listed as the record for the most home runs in a 162-game season while Ruth's 60 was listed as the record for the most home runs in a 154-game season.



Brother of Mamie Ruth Moberly . He and Mamie were the only two of their parents' 8 children to survive infancy.

He briefly worked as a bartender.



His teachers taught him to be a tailor. Although he graduated as a "qualified shirtmaker" he thought that he was no good at the work.



When he was seven years old, his father sent him to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage, and signed custody over to the Catholic missionaries who ran the school.



His mother died of tuberculosis when he was still a teenager.



Contrary to popular belief, when Ruth was playing for the Boston Braves, the game in which he hit three home runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field on May 25, 1935 was not his last game in the major leagues. His last major league appearance actually came on May 30, 1935 against the Phillies in Philadelphia. Ruth came to bat only once and grounded out.



Was the first player in baseball history to hit 30, 40 and 50 home runs in a season (all accomplished in the 1920 season, when he extended the major league baseball single-season homer record from the 29 he hit in 1919 to 54). In 1927, he became the first player to hit 60 home runs in a season.



Was the first player in baseball history to hit 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 and 700 home runs in a career, starting when he broke Roger Connor's major league baseball career record of 138 homers during the 1920 season. He broke the 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 and 700 homer thresholds in the years 1923, 1925, 1927, 1929, 1931 and 1934, respectively.



Inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in 2010.



A statue of Ruth is located at Oriole Park at Camden Yards at the corner of West Camden and South Eutaw Streets in Baltimore. The statue incorrectly portrays The Babe as a right-hander. When told that Ruth was actually a left-hander, the sculptor, Susan Leury, simply replied, "Oh well.".



Inducted into the Jersey Shore Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.



Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 (inaugural class). Inducted in 1939, when the Hall of Fame building was dedicated. The induction ceremony included members of the first four classes elected.



Pro Wrestling Referee.



Personal Quotes (18)

after signing a 5-year contract for $52,000 per season.

There are 52 weeks in a year. I always wanted to make a grand a week.

The only game, I think, in the world is baseball.



I didn't mean to hit the umpire with the dirt, but I did mean to hit that bastard in the stands.



Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.



It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.



When asked if he had any superstitions: "Just one. Whenever I hit a home run, I make certain I touch all four bases."



I won't be happy until we have every boy in America between the ages of six and sixteen wearing a glove and swinging a bat.



All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don't know except it looked good.



The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.



If I'd tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around .600.



I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball... The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.



Baseball changes through the years. It gets milder.



All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.



As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.



Don't ever forget two things I'm going to tell you. One, don't believe everything that's written about you. Two, don't pick up too many checks.



If it wasn't for baseball, I'd be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery.



Why not? I had a better year than he did. - when asked why he should be paid more than the President of the United States after signing an $80,000 contract in 1930



I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big.

