Babe Ruth's Role In Professional Sports

Baseball. A word Americans have known for almost 200 years. All throughout the years, the sport has produced numerous famous heros for little kids like me. One of those heros, probably one of the most famous athletes ever, Babe Ruth. Babe made baseball, baseball, he put a twist on the game that nobody has ever seen, and probably will never be seen again. Before baseball players broke records from cheating and steroids, there was a man so special he did it on “beer and hotdogs”, which is now the two most popular bought foods at at a baseball game. Babe could do almost anything on the field, weather that's pitching, or fielding or hitting. Babe’s strugle’s at an early age are believed to have helped him perform better, as he let all his anger

out swinging the bat. All of his stress off the field, went away when he was playing baseball.. As much of a role model Babe became in his major league days, he never had a good one when he needed it the most.
Babe was born on February 6th, 1895 in Baltimore Maryland, right above his father's tavern. His birth name is not Babe, that was just his nickname. His real name was George Herman Ruth Jr., and he did not get his nickname until teenage years. He was one of eight children, and yet he and one of his sisters were the only ones to survive, as all of his other siblings passed away as young children. Babe was a troublemaker growing up. He stole money and whiskey from his father's tavern, stole chewing tobacco from his customers, and taunted and pushed police officers in the water at the harbor near his house. Babe started these thing at the young age of six, and was caught many times, when his parents decided he was making too much trouble, they sent him off to the Saint Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. This was a school for trouble making kids to go and be in a strict environment to be a better, law abiding person (Cocdran). Babe’s parents decided to send him there because with so many children, they could not focus on just him, and were not strict enough to stop his bad habits. Babe’s parents were heavily Catholic, so they wanted their son to go down the same path. The Saint Mary's School was a very Catholic school, teaching their students about their religion, and to make sure it was shown as important as they could, each boy had a monk, which was like their adviser. Babe’s monk was Brother Matthias, and “he taught him right from wrong” said Ruth (Wood). Matthias acted like a father figure for Ruth, and when he was 19 years old, Matthias became Ruth’s legal guardian. Babe was discovered for his talents in the great game of baseball when the school decided to start a program in 1904. at the age of 9, he was a natural star. The older boys asked Babe for lessons, and he suddenly became the coolest kid in school. This is the first reason why babe knew he wanted to do this for the rest of his life. (Babe Ruth)
Babe first sparked pro ball scouts for his pitching skills. Of course Babe is most known for his hitting, and maybe even fielding, but he started as a pitcher. While playing a game at Saint Mary’s, the monks at the school invited the Baltimore Orioles owner to watch Babe play. The scout, Jack Dunn, immediately loved Babe and wanted him on his team. Because Babe was only 19 years old, he needed a legal guardian to sign his contract. Dunn thought Babe could be a superstar, so he decided to sign it himself (Cocdran). All of the players on the Baltimore Orioles team could tell that Dunn loved Ruth and favored him, so they would say “hey Dunn, you're gonna make Ruth your Babe”. After that, the nickname stuck, and that is the story of how George became Babe (Babe Ruth B).
In February Of 1914, his baseball career began. He was an instant star on the Orioles, and only lasted a few months in the Minors, which is the league when players go to improve their game before they play in the majors. The Orioles scheduled a few games against the following major league teams: Philadelphia Athletics, Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Stockings. Babe pitched all three of these games, and his team won them all. Now, major league scouts saw how good of a player Babe was, and he was ready for the big leagues (Wood). Only a short five months after signing with the Baltimore Orioles, Jack Dunn needed some extra money for the summer, and he knew he could get it by selling Babe. In July of 1914 he was sold to The Boston Red Sox. Babe would call Boston home for the next five years, and he made his first major league start on July 11th, 1914. In that first major league game against the Cleveland Naps, he pitched all but two innings, and the Red Sox left the game with with a 4-3 win. This made the left handed young star happy (Babe Ruth). Some say Ruth got ahead of himself, as the next game they played the Detroit Tigers, was throwing them easy hits almost every other at bat (Cocdran) Ruth’s bad performance led him from being a left handed pitching star, to being a left bench rider. He was sent back down to the minors to a team called the Providence Grays (Babe Ruth). He also only spent a little time there, and was called back up the the Sox right before the world series. Babe pitched his first full game victory on October 2nd, 1914 against the yankees. It is very rare for a baseball player to pitch a full game, and Babe did it as a rookie in the world series, against the legendary yankees. Babe also hit a double, to get his first major league hit (Wood).
During that offseason, Babe got married to a local Boston waitress, from his favorite restaurant. During the first game of the the 1915, Babe was not doing so well pitching, so he kicked a bench after he gave up a home run. This was not the smartest idea, he broke his toe and he was put on injured return for 2 weeks (Crocdran). After his injury, he went 13-1 in two months of pitching, and by the end of the season, he was 18-8, which is a great record. The longer Babe’s career went on, the hotter he got and more boundaries he broke out. In the 1916 season, he pitched 23 games, and he threw nine shutouts. This was Ruth’s first out of many set records, and it is still yet to be broken. Babe pitched an outstanding world series against the Dodgers that year, totalling four wins and only one loss. This was Babe’s second world series, and people all across the baseball community were starting to think he was the real deal (Wood).
Nearing the end of the 1917 season, Babe really showed how good of a hitter he was. Pitchers are usually focused on their pitching, not as much hitting. The story was different for Babe, he was nearing the end of the season with 11 home runs as a pitcher. This was a rare thing for baseball fans to see, and babe and his coach knew his position needed to change. By the end of the 1918 World Series, he had 29 home runs that season. Babe was a busy player, and teams knew how much of a threat he could be. Babe signed a five year contract at the beginning of his Red Sox career and now it was 1919, and his time was up. The New York Yankees were the best team over the years, with many legends on it, and were trying add some to their lineup. Also, the Red Sox owner was in some debt, so he needed as much money as he could get and he sold Babe to the Yankees for $100,000 dollars. Babe was about to start the most famous years a baseball player could possibly have.
In Babe’s first year as a Yankee, he already set records. He hit 54 home runs in his first season, and crushed the previous record. No other player on Babe’s team hit more than 19. He also switched positions to right fielder. All of his 21 seasons were a success, but possibly one of his best was the 1921 season. Babe acted like a “beast” that season, and earned of his nicknames, “sultan of swat”. He had 59 home runs, a single season record that lasted 1927 when he beat his own record. His high RBI, or Runs Batted In, count was a whopping 171, a .376 batting average and a out of this world .846 slugging percentage. A slugging percentage means how powerful of a hitter the player is., your base count and all of the good fundamentals in hitting put together. To top off this legendary season he led the Yankees to the 1921 world series victory. The Yankees needed a bigger stadium to seat all of their fans to see The Sultan of Swat himself. So, a new stadium was built in 1923. The stadium was huge, and a great success. The fans did not know this at the time, but this stadium would last until 2008 (I was at the last game ever played in old Yankees stadium) (Babe Ruth).
Babe was a “magician” on the field. At a game in 1924, he ran face first into the home run wall and was unconscious for five minutes. When he woke up, he played the rest of the game, and went 3-3 at bat! (Cochdran) It was 1925, and the Yankees, for the first time, played soon to be legend Lou Gehrig. Lou was a first baseman, and was yet another star added to the Yankees roster. Lou and Babe were best friends, and were clearly one of the best baseball dou’s in history. They both were amazing hitters, athletes and friends (Baba Ruth B). By the 1926 World Series, the yankees were now almost unbeatable. They were winning series after series, and Babe was hitting home run after home run. In that series, the day before one of the games, Babe’s good friend knew a fellow whose son fell off a horse and was severely injured. The father of the boy told Babe’s friend to hit a home run, and keep the ball to give to the boy. The boy said this would heal him up. Babe hit four home runs in this game, brought the balls to the hospital after the game, and gave him all four in person. The boy was not expected to make a recovery that fast, and it only took three days, after babe homered for him (Crocdran). In the 1927 season, Babe also had another breakout year. This time he broke his own record of 59 home runs, and set the new one to 60. This record lasted until it was broken in 1961. The Yanks’ ended another outstanding season on a high note with yet another World Series. This was Babe’s 7th career series win (Babe Ruth). Ruth went to his final world Series in 1932, as they swept the chicago Cubs four games to none. His last legendary play, “the called shot home run”. The Yankees led the series three games to none, and that game was tied at four. Babe was at bat with a full count, 3 balls and 2 strikes. Before the pitch, Babe pointed his bat into center field, and he crushed the ball right there. It was such bad weather that day. Babe called his homer is because he was not supposed to hit, He was supposed to make the other team think he was going to. When the pitch came it was driving Babe crazy, so he swung at it, and crushed the ball into center field. This is one of the most famous baseball mysteries ever. The only film that ever surfaced was in 1999 and a bad quality camera took it, so nobody could prove whether or not he called it (Babe Ruth B).
Babe had no more seasons like the 21’ and 27’ but he still had some exquisite ones.

He was selected to the first ever Major League Baseball All Star Game in 1933. Babe’s career was not going so well at this time: he was overweight, had depression and struggling to hit the ball. His paycheck went from $35,000 a year, to $17,000 (Babe Ruth). In 1935, Babe was sold to the Boston Braves, where he would spend his last year in action. After that season, he announced his retirement, and baseball was never the same. When he announced his retirement after 21 MLB seasons, the Yankees Stadium got its most famous nickname, “The House That Ruth Built”. He also got the great nickname, and his most famous one, “The Great Bambino”. He tried taking up coaching for a few years as first base coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers (Wood). He only lasted from 1938 to the end of that year. Babe had a rough life after baseball and was diagnosed with a tumor in 1946 that killed him later.

Babe left a legacy behind him when he was all done with ball. When the sad day came, on August 19th, 1948, George Herman Ruth Jr. died in his Manhattan estate. Babe did more for the sport than just play baseball, he made himself a hero, he grew the game, he made it America’s sport. Babe is a meaning of Baseball, because he truly loved pleasing people with what has done in his Career. Babe truly made Baseball Baseball. Thank you number

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