Babe Ruth - Biography, Achievements and Interesting Facts

George Herman Ruth, Jr. best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American baseball player who spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) playing for three teams (1914–1935). Known for his hitting brilliance, Ruth set career records in his time for home runs (714 since broken), slugging percentage (.690), runs batted in (RBI) (2,213 since broken), and on-base plus slugging (OPS) (1.164). Ruth originally entered the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox as a starting pitcher, but after he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, he converted to a full-time right fielder. He subsequently became one of the league's most prolific hitters and with his home run hitting prowess, he helped the Yankees win seven pennants and four World Series titles.

Ruth retired in 1935 after a short stint with the Boston Braves, and the following year, he became one of the first five players to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Ruth was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927), a mark first eclipsed by Roger Maris in 1961 with 61. Ruth's lifetime record of 714 home runs stood until 1974 when it was surpassed by Hank Aaron. Unlike many power hitters, Ruth also hit for a high batting average: his .342 lifetime average is the tenth highest in baseball history, and in one season (1923) he batted .393, a Yankee record.

Ruth dominated the era in which he played. He led the league in home runs during a season twelve times, slugging percentage and OPS thirteen times each, runs scored eight times, and RBIs six times. Each of those totals represents a modern record. Ruth is credited with changing baseball itself. The popularity of the game exploded in the 1920s, largely due to his influence. Ruth ushered in the "live-ball era", as his big swing led to escalating home run totals that not only excited fans, but helped baseball evolve from a low-scoring, speed-dominated game to a high-scoring power game.

Facts , Achievements and Brief Introduction of Babe Ruth

• Mathias, along with several other monks of the order, introduced Ruth to baseball, a game at which the boy excelled. By the time he was 15, Ruth showed exceptional skill both as a strong hitter and pitcher. 
• It was his pitching that initially caught the attention of Jack Dunn, the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles. At the time, the Orioles groomed players for the major league team known as the Boston Red Sox, and Dunn saw promise in Ruth's athletic performance. 
• Only 19, the law at the time stated that Ruth had to have a legal guardian sign his baseball contract in order for him to play professionally. As a result, Dunn became Ruth's legal guardian, leading teammates to jokingly call Ruth "Dunn's new babe." The joke stuck, and Ruth quickly earned the nickname "Babe" Ruth.
• The Bambino, of course, was known for his slugging and he retired in 1935 with a career home run record of 714, a figure that remained unbroken until Henry Aaron logged in his 715th homer in Atlanta in 1974. Less well-known is that at the time of his retirement Ruth also held the record for career strikeouts at 1,330.
• Part of the reason for that record is that in order to get his 714 homers, Ruth took more risks than many of his compatriots. Some statisticians have looked at Ruth's strikeouts as a percentage of his total outs and determined that he struck out about twice as often as most of his fellow players at a whopping 24 percent of the time. He became the Sultan of Swat by being at the same time the Sultan of Squat.
• His record for career strikeouts was broken by Mickey Mantle on August 31, 1964. Of course Mantle was only in his 14th season.
• Ruth was only with the club for a short time before he was called up to the majors in Boston. The left-handed pitcher proved immediately to be a valuable member of the team. Over the next five years, Ruth led the Red Sox to three championships, including the 1916 title which saw him pitch a still-record 13 scoreless innings in one game.
• With its titles and the Babe, Boston was clearly the class act of the major leagues. All that would change in 1919, however, with a single stroke of a pen. Faced with financial hardships, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee needed cash to pay off his debts. 
• He found help in the New York Yankees, which agreed in December of 1919 to buy the Babe's rights for the then-impressive sum of $100,000.
• Over and over again they attempted to associate their candy bar with Babe Ruth. The cover story told by the company was simply a way to get around having to pay Babe Ruth royalties for the use of his nickname and last name in their marketing efforts. 
• The Curtiss Candy Company even had to use this story in actual legal proceedings when the manufacturer of the Babe Ruth Home Run Bar challenged the Baby Ruth name in court, claiming the Curtiss Candy Company were using the name without Babe Ruth’s permission, something the makers of the Babe Ruth Home Run Bar had managed to get from Ruth. 
• The Curtiss Candy Company then successfully defended their candy bar’s name using the above “granddaughter of Grover Cleveland” story, which is full of inaccuracies and strains credibility.
• The Babe loved cars, and he liked to drive fast in them. More than once he got pulled over by a cop for speeding or some other violation. But on June 8, 1921, he was caught speeding on Riverside Drive in Manhattan and the cop hauled him into traffic court. It had been Ruth's second violation in a month.
• The judge fined him $100, which Ruth easily paid, but he also required Ruth to spend a day in jail. True, it was only until 4 p.m., but Ruth was put behind bars. As news of the arrest spread, it quickly devolved into a media circus.
• There was a Yankees game that day, starting at 3:15, and Ruth sent for his uniform which he put on under his suit, and he bragged that he would have to speed to get to the game. A crowd quickly formed outside the jail, and a photographer even perched on the fire escape of a building across the street in the hopes of getting a shot of Ruth in his cell. 
• Ruth was released as scheduled at 4 o'clock and left with a police escort. The Yankees won 4-3 that day, but would have done so even if Ruth had never made it to the park.
• Babe Ruth married a waitress named Helen Woofwood in October of 1919 and had two daughters, Dorthy and Julia. They divorced in 1929 and Ruth married Claire Hodgson later that same year.
• Early career. Ruth was first signed to the Boston Red Sox in 1914. He remained with the Red Sox until 1920, when he was traded to the New York Yankees. Ruth played first base and was an outfielder. He was added to the pitching rotation as well.
• Later career. His last year of baseball was spent playing for the Boston Braves. He retired in 1935.
• Records. Babe Ruth held more than 60 official records during his career. These included home runs and strike outs.
• His film career was even less lucrative. He did appear in a silent film called Headin' Home in 1920 and in another film with Harold Lloyd later that decade. He also played himself in the 1942 biopic Pride of the Yankees, which was about teammate Lou Gehrig. 
• But Hollywood wasn't really his thing either. He spent most of his retirement golfing and vacationing in Florida. His life ended sadly at age 53 as a result of contracting pneumonia after having undergone treatment for cancer for about two years.
• The deal came to shape both franchises in unforeseen ways. For Boston, the departure of the Babe spelled the end of the team's winning streak. It wouldn't be until 2004 that the club would win another World Series, a championship drought that later sports writers dubbed "The Curse of the Bambino."
• He has since become regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture. Ruth's legendary power and charismatic personality made him a larger than life figure in the "Roaring Twenties", and according to ESPN, he was the first true American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended baseball. 
• Off the field he was famous for his charity, but also was noted for his often reckless lifestyle. He has been repeatedly voted onto teams made up of the sport's greats, and is considered by many the greatest baseball player of all time.

Superb Quotes by Babe Ruth

• The only real game, I think, in the world is baseball.
• I hear the cheers when they roared and the jeers when they echoed.
• I said I'm going to hit the next one right over the flagpole. God must have been with me.
• I have just one superstition. Whenever I hit a home run, I make certain I touch all four bases.
• It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.
• Baseball changes through the years. It gets milder.
• 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 ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.
• 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.
• Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.
• 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.
• How about a little noise. How do you expect a man to putt?
• 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.
• I'll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They're too much fun.
• Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.
• If I'd tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around six hundred.
• Heroes are remembered but legends never die.
• How to hit home runs: 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.
• 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.
• Baseball is the greatest game in the world and deserves the best you can give it.