Babe Ruth
- For the band named 'Babe Ruth', see Babe Ruth (band).
- For the Major League Baseball World Series award named the 'Babe Ruth Award', see Babe Ruth Award.
| George Herman "Babe" Ruth | |
|---|---|
| debut | |
| July 11, 1914, Boston Red Sox | |
| Teams | |
| Boston Red Sox (1914-1919) New York Yankees (1920-1934) Boston Braves (1935) |
George Herman Ruth (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), better known as "butch machenzi", also known by the nicknames "The Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat", was an American baseball player and a national icon. Consistently referred as the greatest baseball player in history, his home run hitting exploits and titanic appetite for living made him one of the representative figures of the Roaring Twenties. He was one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he was the first player to hit over 30, 40 and 50 home runs in one season. His record of 60 home runs in the 1927 season stood for 34 years until it was broken by Roger Maris in 1961. He was a member of the original American League All-Star team in 1933. 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 No. 1 in its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players." In 1999, Ruth was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team by fans.
As Lawrence Ritter and Mark Rucker discuss in their book The Babe: A Life in gizz, it is more than mere statistical records that make Babe Ruth unequivocally the greatest baseball player of all time. In several ways, he changed the nature of the game itself. His use of the "power game" (hitting home runs and extra base hits) compelled other teams to follow suit, breaking the monopoly of the "inside game" that had been the primary strategy for decades. Ruth was the focal point of the start of arguably the greatest sports dynasty in history, the New York Yankees. His international fame helped to fuel the rising interest in sports in the 1920s and 30s. He significantly expanded the fan base of baseball and triggered the major expansion of nearly all of the ballparks in the major leagues. Yankee Stadium is often called "The House That Ruth Built."
Early life
Ruth was born at 216 Emory Street in southern Baltimore, Maryland. The house, only a block from where Oriole Park at Camden Yards now stands, was rented by his maternal grandfather, Pius Schamberger, a German immigrant who was an upholsterer. Ruth's parents, Kate and George, Sr., lived above the saloon they owned and operated on Camden Street, coincidentally located where center field of the Oriole Park is today. Kate would walk to her father's home each time she gave birth to a child, eight in all. Only Babe and his sister, Mary (some sources give her name as Marnie), survived infancy. Young George was known for mischievous behavior. He skipped school, ran the streets, and committed petty crimes. By age seven, he was drinking, chewing tobacco, and had become difficult for his parents to control. Mary recalled how their father would beat Babe in a desperate attempt to bring the boy into line, but to no avail. He was finally sent to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a school run by Catholic brothers. Brother Matthias, a Roman Catholic brother and the school's disciplinarian, became a major influence in his life, the one man Babe respected above all others. It was Brother Matthias who taught him baseball, working with him for countless hours on hitting, fielding and, later, pitching.
Because of his "toughness," George became the team's catcher. He liked the position because he was involved in every play. One day, as his team was losing, George started mocking his own pitcher. Brother Matthias promptly switched him from catcher to pitcher to teach him a lesson, but instead of getting his comeuppance, George shut the other team down.
Brother Gilbert brought George to the attention of Jack Dunn, owner and manager of the minor-league Baltimore Orioles, and the man often credited with discovering him. In 1914 Dunn signed 19-year-old Ruth to pitch for his club, and took him to spring training in Florida, where a strong performance with both bat and ball saw him make the club, while his precocious talent and childlike personality saw him nicknamed "Dunn's Babe." On April 22, 1914, "The Babe" pitched his first professional game, a 6-0 victory over the Buffalo Bisons, also of the International League.
On July 4 the Orioles had a record of 47-22, but their finances were in poor condition. In 1914 the breakaway Federal League, a rebel major league which would last only two years, placed a team in Baltimore, across the street from the minor league Orioles, and the competition hurt Orioles' attendance significantly. To make ends meet, Dunn was obliged to dispose of his stars for cash, and he sold Ruth's contract with two other players to Joseph Lannin, owner of the Boston Red Sox, for a sum rumored to be between $20,000 and $35,000.
The Red Sox years
Ruth the pitcher
Ruth was a skillful pitcher, but the Red Sox's starting rotation was already stacked with lefties, so they initially made little use of him. With a 1 - 1 record, he sat on the bench for several weeks before being sent down to the minor league Providence Grays of Providence, Rhode Island. Pitching in combination with the young Carl Mays, Ruth helped the Grays win the pennant. At the end of the season, the Red Sox called him back to the majors, and Ruth would stay in the majors permanently. Shortly after the season, Ruth proposed to Helen Woodford, a waitress he met in Boston, and they were married in Baltimore on October 14, 1914.
During spring training in 1915, Ruth secured a spot as a starter. He joined a fine pitching staff that included Rube Foster, Dutch Leonard, and a rejuvenated Smokey Joe Wood, and their pitching carried the Red Sox to the pennant. Ruth won 18 games and lost 8, and helped himself with the bat by hitting .315 and hitting his first four major league home runs. The Red Sox won the 1915 World Series, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 4 games to 1, but because manager Bill Carrigan preferred right-handers, Ruth did not pitch and grounded out in his only at bat.
Ruth continued to improve in 1916. After a slightly shaky spring, he would make a case as the best pitcher in the American League. He went 23 - 12, with a 1.75 ERA and 9 shutouts; the shutout mark is still tied for the best mark for an A.L. left hander, Ron Guidry having accomplished the feat in 1978. The Red Sox offense had been weakened by the sale of Tris Speaker to the Cleveland Indians, but their strong pitching again took them to the World Series, where they met the Brooklyn Robins. In game 2 of the series, Ruth pitched a 14-inning complete game victory, helping the Red Sox to another World Series title, 4 games to 1 over the Robins. He repeated his strong performance in 1917, going 24 - 13, but the Red Sox could not keep pace with the Chicago White Sox and their 100 wins, and they missed out on a postseason appearance.
Emergence as a hitter
After the 1917 season, in which he hit .325, albeit with limited at bats, teammate Harry Hooper suggested that Ruth might be more valuable in the lineup as an everyday player. In 1918, he began playing in the outfield more and pitching less. His contemporaries thought this was ridiculous; former teammate Tris Speaker speculated that the move would shorten Ruth's career, but Ruth himself wanted to hit more and pitch less. In 1918, Ruth batted .300 and led the A.L. in home runs with 11 despite having only 317 at bats, well above the total for an everyday player. He also pitched well, going 13 - 7 with a 2.22 ERA. Ruth's quality as hitter and pitcher made a strong case for him being the best player in baseball that season. He also led the Red Sox to another World Series, where they met the Chicago Cubs.
1918 is noted as the only time a war directly shortened the season. WWI dominated the news, and baseball, which escaped any sacrifice in 1917, was not as fortunate in the next year. A number of ballplayers were drafted into the armed forces in 1918, and some players left their teams to work in war production facilities to escape the draft. Since he was a married man, Ruth was exempt from the draft. After U.S. Provost Marshal General Enoch Crowder carried out the government's official "work or fight" order in June of 1918, baseball, qualified by the government as "nonessential", was forced to end the season in the middle of August. A 2-week grace period allowed the World Series to be played, but it was done in the heat of early September, the earliest ever. The 1918 World Series was marred not only by the specter of World War I, but by abysmal attendance, with such little revenue sharing that the players threatened to strike before Game 5. The Red Sox winning share of $1102 per player would be the lowest winning share in World Series history.
In the series, Ruth as a pitcher went 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA, helping the Red Sox to a 4-2 series victory over the Cubs. Ruth extended his World Series consecutive scoreless inning streak to 29⅔ innings (a record that lasted until Whitey Ford broke it in 1961). Since the Cubs top left-handers Hippo Vaughn and Lefty Tyler pitched nearly all the innings, Ruth's left-hand batting kept him from the regular lineup, and he batted just five times. The Red Sox had won their fourth World Series in seven years and fifth overall, and Ruth had played a major part in three of them.
By 1919, Ruth was basically a full-time outfielder, pitching in only 17 of the 130 games in which he appeared. He set his first single-season home run record that year, hitting 29 home runs, breaking the previous record of 27 set by Ned Williamson in 1884, as well as batting .322 and driving in 114 runs. News of his batting feats spread rapidly, and wherever he played, large crowds turned out to see him. As his fame spread, so did his waistline. Since his time as an Oriole, teammates had marveled at Ruth's capacity for food, and by 1919 his physique had changed from a tall athletic frame to more of a rotund shape, although Ruth's weight would have wide fluctuations until the mid-1920s. Beneath his barrel-shaped body, his powerful muscular legs seemed strangely thin, but he was still a capable baserunner and outfielder. His contemporary Ty Cobb, noted for his cruel bench jockeying of Ruth, would later remark that Ruth "ran okay for a fat man."
Growing problems
Despite his success on the field, Ruth had started to become a problem for the Red Sox. In July 1918, Ruth ignored a sign from manager Ed Barrow during an at bat that led to a heated verbal spat when Ruth reached the dugout. Barrow fined Ruth $500 when Ruth threatened to punch him in the nose. Ruth threw a tantrum and quit the team for a few days, and it was reported he had signed a new contract with the Chester Shipyards, a Pennsylvania-based pro team. It was also during the 1918 season that he started to refuse his pitching turns in the starting rotation, often citing injuries that Barrow would question. By this time, Ruth considered himself an everyday outfielder and had no more desire to pitch. "I'll win more games playing everyday in the outfield than I will pitching every fourth day," Ruth remarked. Ruth had the leverage of knowing he had become baseball's biggest star, and before the 1919 season, he was blunt with the Red Sox—he wanted to play every day and not pitch at all. Initially, Barrow and the Red Sox acquiesced, but injuries to the pitching staff forced a balking Ruth back into the rotation for spot starts.
There were also Ruth's off-the-field indiscretions. His late nights of partying and boozing were further sources of irritation to the franchise, and he had numerous fights with Barrow over curfew violations. Eventually Ruth was forced to write Barrow notes on what time he came in each night (notes Barrow never verified). He signed a 3-year contract in 1919 for $10,000 a year, but at the end of the season, he demanded $20,000 a year and threatened to sit out the 1920 season if he did not receive a new contract. Ruth was certainly worth the price, but he also needed more money to finance what he spent on fast automobiles, fine clothes, and entertaining his many women "friends." Red Sox owner Harry Frazee commented, "If Ruth doesn't want to work for the Red Sox, we can work out an advantageous trade." To some people, Ruth had become an enfant terrible, although after his 1919 season, it seemed almost inconceivable that anyone would seriously recommend trading him.
Sold to New York
Despite Ruth's box office appeal, the Red Sox were in a perilous financial position. After he took over the club in 1916, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee paid large salaries to attract the best players (some even accused him of trying to buy the pennant). But because of World War I, Red Sox attendance, as with every other major league team, fell off badly. Revenue was down, and the financial failure of the 1918 World Series did not help either. Frazee, whose true passion was the theater, owned several theaters and financed his own shows, but at that time his shows were also losing money. Having overextended himself financially, Frazee was desperate for cash, and his players were his only way to raise money. The Red Sox championship run from 1912 to 1918 ended in 1919 when the 1919 team finished 66–71, and over the next few years, Frazee began selling off his best players. He sold many of them to the New York Yankees who until then were a perennial losing club. The Yankees had improved in 1919 with a 80-59 record, but thanks in large part to Frazee, they reached championship level (the 1923 Yankees World Series winning team had 11 former Red Sox players.) Knowing he could never meet Ruth's salary demands and coupled with the other problems Frazee believed Ruth caused, Frazee worked out a deal with Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert. For $125,000 and a loan of more than $300,000 (secured by Fenway Park), Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees on January 3, completing what was at the time the largest sum ever paid for a baseball player.
There was uneasiness in the Boston sports world just after the sale was announced, although a number of sportswriters supported the move. On January 5, 1920, Frazee faced the press and answered his critics with calmness and assurance. He justified his actions with these comments:
- "It would be impossible to start next season with Ruth and have a smooth-working machine. Ruth had become simply impossible, and the Boston club could no longer put up with his eccentricities. I think the Yankees are taking a gamble. While Ruth is undoubtedly the greatest hitter the game has ever seen, he is likewise one of the most selfish and inconsiderate men ever to put on a baseball uniform."
The trading of Ruth sent the Red Sox franchise into a downward spiral. While the Red Sox were the most successful team in baseball since the 1903 inception of the World Series (with 5 World Series titles), from 1920 to 1934, during Ruth's tenure as a Yankee, the Boston Red Sox were by far the worst team in the American League. During this span, they finished last 10 times, never finished above 5th place, and did not have a single winning season. Boston's failure to win even a single World Series for the next 86 years (until 2004), in contrast to the Yankees' overwhelming success, led to a superstition that was dubbed the "Curse of the Bambino."
Ruth the Yankee
Almost immediately, the Yankees' investment in Ruth began to pay off. He trained extensively over the winter, and in 1920, turned up at spring training physically fit. It soon became clear that the more hitter-friendly Polo Grounds suited him, and Ruth's 1920 season turned into one that no one had ever seen before. He hit 54 home runs, smashing his year-old record of 29, batted .376, and led the league in runs (158), RBIs (137), bases on balls (148); and his slugging average of .847 was a major league record for over 80 years, until Barry Bonds eclipsed it with a .863 mark in 2001 (this record and all of Bonds' others are currently held in question due to nagging allegations of steroid-use). Ruth's season was so dominant that it led to one of the most amazing statistics in baseball history: In 1920, Ruth out-homered all but one team in baseball (the Philadelphia Phillies managed to hit 64).
His remarkable season had the Yankees in a serious pennant chase for the first time since 1904 (the year a famous wild pitch by Jack Chesbro cost them the pennant). The Yankees battled the entire season with the Cleveland Indians, led by player-manager Tris Speaker, Ruth's old Red Sox teammate, and the Chicago White Sox, the team well known for the infamous "Black Sox scandal". In the end, the Cleveland Indians and Brooklyn Robins won the pennant and the Indians eventually took the World Series.
Ruth was a natural fit in New York City—the biggest star in the game needed the largest stage, the largest crowds, the largest media coverage. His flamboyance, vitality, and obvious flaws symbolized New York. His persona transcended baseball, and he was one of the enduring emblems of the carefree spirit of the roaring '20s. The large immigrant communities of New York City were drawn to him, and the Italian enclave of New York gave him the nickname bambino ("babe", "baby"). Even the black community adopted him as one of their own; Ruth was falsely reported as having a "secret" black heritage, a story propagated with pride among players in the Negro Leagues. To many people, Ruth was more than a baseball player, he was a national icon. He became the dominant name in the storied New York Yankees franchise, whose winning tradition he inaugurated. Ruth and New York in 1920 were a perfect fit.
Although Ruth is seen as an iconic figure of New York City, he enjoyed frequent trips to the Carolinas to hunt game and fish, most notably Beaufort, North Carolina, where he resided on Gordon Street during his numerous stays.
Impact on Baseball
Ruth's impact on baseball went beyond his statistics. Attendance, which had stagnated in the 1910s, greatly increased because of the attention Ruth brought to the game, and he was at the forefront of the new live ball era that revolutionized how the game was played. Some people even gave Ruth credit for "saving" baseball after the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
Increased Attendance
Ruth was not the only reason more fans were coming to the ballpark; some people wished to escape the post–World War I angst and wanted a "Return to Normalcy", as a 1920 Presidential campaign slogan of Warren G. Harding put it. The dramatic increase in home runs and scoring was also getting fans' attention. However, it is no coincidence that the Ruth-led 1920 Yankees shattered the league attendance mark. The Yankees drew nearly 1.3 million fans, breaking the old mark of the 1908 New York Giants by nearly 400,000 fans. Attendance dramatically increased in every major league city in 1920, and seven teams set their own attendance records. The attention Ruth generated for the game with all his home runs, playing in New York, his personality, and even his off-the-field activities (positive or not), were bringing an unprecedented spotlight to baseball. One reporter wrote, "This new fan didn't know where first base was, but he had heard of Babe Ruth and wanted to see him hit a home run. When the Babe hit one, the fan went back the next day and knew not only where first base was, but second base as well." Baseball still had problems - a segregated game, competitive imbalance, and owners with complete control over the players - but the popularity of the game increased so much that the 1920s has often been called baseball's first Golden Age, and Babe Ruth can justifiably be given a large share of the credit.
Beginning of the live ball era
Ruth's home runs were also at the center of an offensive explosion in baseball. In 1918, the major league batting average was .254; in 1921 it was .291. The league ERA went from 2.77 to 4.02, runs increased 25% and home runs increased 300% over the same time span. In just a few years, baseball had gone from the most anemic hitting era in baseball history (the dead-ball era) to one of the greatest hitting eras—the 1920s.
A few factors have been cited for the dramatic increase in offense. One major reason was that baseball in 1920 outlawed the spitball, emery ball, and all unorthodox pitching deliveries. Another factor for increased scoring was the league mandate to regularly replace the baseball during a game. Previously, the same discolored, tobacco-stained ball was used over and over until it was falling apart. The overused ball would lose its resiliency, making it much more difficult to hit it for distance. The impetus for this change was the death of Ray Chapman in 1920, who was killed when he was hit in the head with a dirty, darkened ball thrown by Carl Mays. The darkened ball may have contributed to Chapman losing it in the hitting background.
Another reason given for the increase in home runs was that more players were emulating Ruth's full, free swing. Before Ruth and the Live Ball Era, the emphasis was for batters to choke up on the bat and hit for direction, not distance (similarly to cricket case). With his swing, Ruth showed it was possible to hit a prodigious amount of home runs, and more players started to swing for the fences. With the home run now a weapon, more managers lessened their previous absolute control of the offense, and started to play for more runs by giving their players freedom to swing away. By 1921, stolen bases were half the total from just a few years earlier, and the use of the sacrifice and hit and run, other overused dead-ball strategies, also decreased.
Skeptical of the new offense in the game, some writers of the time claimed the ball was livened (usually done by winding it tighter, or changing the cork center, or both). This assertion even became accepted as a fact over time, even without scientific evidence that the ball had changed. A 1920 study confirmed the ball was the same as in previous years, and early in 1921, also hearing rumors about the "juiced" ball, National League President John Heydler launched his own investigation and also concluded the ball was no different. Heydler's findings stated the outlawing of the spitball was the predominant factor for the increased scoring. Those who claimed the ball was livened may not have had hard evidence, but they may have had history and statistics on their side, as only one other time (in 1890's, when the pitching mound was moved back, which led to a dramatic increase in scoring) in baseball history had (and has) there been such a quantum leap in offense over such a short time.
The greatest season ever
As historic as Ruth's 1920 season was, his 1921 season was even better. In fact, it is statistically the greatest season by any batter in major league history. In 152 games, Ruth batted .378, had 204 hits, 44 doubles, 16 triples, 59 home runs (8th all-time), scored 177 runs (2nd all-time), had 171 RBIs (7th all-time), 144 bases on balls, with 119 extra base hits (1st all-time), an .846 slugging average (3rd all-time), and amassed 457 total bases (1st all-time). Using advanced statistical methods to measure a player's value, present-day baseball statistical researchers have shown that Ruth's season is unmatched. The Stats Major League Baseball Handbook, a massive, encyclopedic work compiled by noted baseball researchers Bill James, Neil Munro, Don Zminda, and John Dewan, developed a runs created formula to value how many runs a player produces. Using their formula, the 233 runs created by Ruth in 1921 is the highest total for any player in any season.
Ruth's season was monumental on its own, but the Yankees had many quality players who helped lead the team to its first-ever pennant. Bob Meusel, Frank Baker, and Wally Pipp were part of a lineup that batted .300 and scored 948 runs. The pitching was led by Carl Mays, who won 27 games, with fine seasons by Waite Hoyt and Bob Shawkey.
The Yankees met the New York Giants in the World Series, managed by John McGraw. The Giants excelled at McGraw's time-tested strategy, using hit-and-run, stolen base, and bunt, and despite hitting only 75 home runs, they led the N.L. in runs scored. Their star was slick-fielding Frankie Frisch, who batted .341 and led the league with 49 stolen bases. The Giants lineup also included future Hall of Fame players George Kelly, Ross Youngs, and Dave Bancroft.
The Yankees were up 3–2 in the series, but Ruth had badly scraped his elbow in Game 2 sliding into third. He continued to play, but his arm eventually became swollen and infected, and he was told by the team physician not to play the rest of the series (although he would pinch hit in game 8). Without him, the Yankees seemed mentally beaten, and they lost the last 3 games. Ruth had a respectable series, going 5 for 16 for a .316 average, driving in 5 runs and hitting his first World Series home run, but he also struck out 8 times. The Giants had a measure of revenge on the Yankees, who were also using the Polo Grounds as their home and had been embarrassed by being outdrawn in attendance by the Yankees.
During the year, Ruth was invited to Columbia University for a battery of tests. Doctors discovered that the pitch he could hit hardest was just above the knees, on the outside corner of the plate. And when he hit perfectly, in still air, the ball would carry 450 to 500 feet. In a test of steadiness, Ruth's eyes responded to flashing electric bulbs in a darkened chamber 2/100th of a second quicker than the average person's. Science corroborated what fans already knew: Babe Ruth possessed preternatural gifts. Perhaps Jumping Joe Dugan put it best: "Born? Hell, Babe Ruth wasn't born! The son of a bitch fell from a tree!" [1]
Fall from grace
The 1921 World Series appearance would indirectly lead to problems for Ruth. Seeking to avoid diminishing the meaning of the fall classic, organized baseball instituted a rule in 1911 that prohibited World Series players from playing in exhibition games during the off-season. Ruth, typically, decided this rule did not apply to him, and even though Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis had warned Ruth about the trip, Ruth went ahead and embarked on his usual lucrative barnstorming tour with two teammates. Landis came down hard on the recalcitrant players, and he suspended Ruth and teammate Bob Meusel for the first six weeks of what was to be a turbulent 1922 season for Ruth. When he returned to the Yankees on May 20, Yankee management named Ruth their first on-field captain, but just five days after his return, he was ejected for arguing an umpire's call at third, and exacerbated the situation by climbing into the seats to confront a heckling fan. The captaincy was stripped, and Ruth's temper would see him suspended three more times in 1922 for arguing with umpires.
While Ruth suffered his first professional setback, his personal life was worse. Helen disliked the celebrity lifestyle to which the Babe was drawn. With his wife on their farm near Boston with their adopted daughter, Dorothy, Ruth indulged his hedonism as never before. His love of fine food was matched only by his appetite for alcohol, the nightlife, and casual sex. Helen and Babe's marital problems compromised her delicate health. She was frequently ill, and reportedly had several nervous breakdowns.
The suspension at the beginning of the season affected Ruth at the plate. He struggled all year, and his batting, on-base and slugging averages fell dramatically (.315/.434/.672). He hit 35 home runs with 99 runs batted in, but suspensions and some injuries limited his playing time to just 110 games. All the time he missed on the field hurt the Yankees, but they had barely enough to get past the .420-hitting George Sisler and the rest of the heavy-hitting St. Louis Browns for the pennant.
Ruth's struggles continued into the World Series against the Giants. John McGraw instructed his pitchers to throw Ruth nothing but curve balls, and Ruth never adjusted. He went just 2 for 17 - .118 average - and the Yankees were defeated by the Giants for the second straight year, 4–0, with one tie. Compared to his first two incredible seasons as a Yankee, the 1922 season was a major disappointment.
"The House That Ruth Built"
Ruth regrouped from his troubled 1922 season. He worked out hard in the off-season and he came into the 1923 season in good physical shape, and it would show in his play all season. He batted .393, which would be the highest of his career (although he lost the batting title to Harry Heilmann, who hit .403), and his home run total of 41, a modest total for him, led the majors. Ruth also led the A.L. in walks (170) (a single-season record not broken until Barry Bonds walked 177 times in 2001); runs (131), RBIs (151), extra-base hits (99), and slugging average (.764). He also missed only two games, compared to over 40 games the previous season. Ruth had returned to his dominant form, and the Yankees easily returned to the World Series.
The 1923 season also saw the opening of Yankee Stadium. The Yankees had been sharing the Polo Grounds with the Giants since 1913, but since Ruth's arrival, the Yankees had been significantly outdrawing the Giants. With the increased revenue and team success, as well as a threat of eviction by the Giants, the Yankees needed a new home. In 1921, Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert bought a small piece of land in the Bronx for $600,000 from the Astor estate. After a year of construction and a cost of $2.5 million (a huge sum at the time), the 62,000-seat Yankee Stadium opened on April 18, 1923. In the first game played there, Ruth fittingly hit the stadium's first home run, and sportswriter Fred Lieb soon nicknamed Yankee Stadium "The House That Ruth Built."
Detractors of the stadium would call it "The House Built for Ruth", and "Ruthville", as the short 295-foot distance to right field seemed tailor-made for some "cheap" home runs for the left-handed, pull-hitting Ruth. The stadium's short distance to right was not built to accommodate Ruth, contrary to urban legend. Undoubtedly the short distance to right helped Ruth (and all other Yankees left-handed power hitters since), but from 1923 to 1932, in his prime home-run-hitting years at Yankee Stadium, Ruth hit more home runs on the road, and in his 60 home run season of 1927, he hit 32 of those on the road. Ruth even said he had preferred hitting at the Polo Grounds more than the "house that Ruth built," saying the former had a better hitting background.
For the third straight year the Yankees faced the Giants in the World Series. Injured during the 1921 World Series, and completely ineffective in the 1922 series, Ruth was the best player on the field in the 1923 World Series. He went 7 for 19, a .368 average, slugged 1.000, walked 8 times, scored 8 runs, hit 3 home runs, and led the Yankees to a 4–2 series victory. The legacy of Harry Frazee unloading his Red Sox players had came to fruition for the Yankees. In addition to Ruth as a former Red Sox, the Yankees four best pitchers of 1923 were all former Red Sox. Herb Pennock (19-6), Sad Sam Jones (21-8), Bullet Joe Bush (19-15), and Waite Hoyt(17-9) went a combined 76-38 in 1923. The Yankees had their first World Series title, and the start of what became the most successful major sports team in North America. From 1923 to the present, the Yankees have appeared in 37 World Series, winning 26 of those series.
"The Bellyache Heard Around the World"
During spring training in 1925, Ruth began suffering severe stomach cramps and a fever. His condition gradually became worse, and on April 7 while the Yankees were staying in Asheville, North Carolina, a weakened Ruth collapsed in a bathroom. It was agreed Ruth needed to return to New York to recover, and he was accompanied by Paul Krichell, a noted Yankees scout. Ruth's collapse was not newsworthy until a London newspaper ran a headline that Ruth was dead, a story Krichell quickly quelled when Ruth's train reached Washington, D.C. By the time the train reached Pennsylvania Station in New York, Ruth was wrapped in blankets and unconscious, and his body had to be lifted out of a train window. During the wait for an ambulance, Ruth briefly opened his eyes and saw his wife Helen and Ed Barrow, his former Red Sox manager and now the Yankees general manager. Shortly thereafter, Ruth became delirious and flailed his arms and legs uncontrollably, and needed to be held down by those around him. On the ambulance ride to St. Vincent's hospital, Ruth again suffered more convulsive attacks that were so violent it took six assistants to hold him down. He was given a sedative, and by the time the ambulance reached the hospital he was calm.
Examined by Dr. Edward King, Ruth's personal physician, Dr. King diagnosed him as having a touch of the flu as well as an intestinal attack. Dr. King agreed to let Ruth rejoin the team, but after another week, Ruth's fever became worse, and after another examination, Dr. King now diagnosed him as having an "intestinal abscess," and he would need surgery. The surgery, performed on April 17, took only 20 minutes and was called a complete success.
Dr. King stated Ruth's diet was the problem, as Ruth had not watched how much he ate and drank. Ruth's weight was high at this time, up to about 256 pounds. It was writer W.O. McGeehan who invented the story that Ruth's collapse was caused by overindulging on hot dogs and soda pop before a game, a fanciful story which led to Ruth's illness being dubbed "the bellyache heard around the world." Ruth, noted for episodes of gluttony, frequently did eat hot dogs before games, and he would wash them down with bicarbonate of soda to keep from feeling bloated.
Some newspaper reporters whispered that Ruth actually had gonorrhea, but no one put this assertion in print. An old teammate of Ruth's vouched for the venereal disease story, saying it was the entire reason for Ruth's problems. A case of gonorrhea would not have been out of the question for the promiscuous Ruth, and some of his symptoms of chills, fever, and general pain are associated with some more complicated symptoms of gonorrhea. Still, abdominal surgery is a very unusual treatment for venereal disease, even during this medical age, and Ruth did have a clear visible scar running from just under his rib cage to his left lower abdomen. Evidence suggested Ruth's illness was what physicians had stated, but it is possible Ruth may have had both problems, with physicians intentionally not mentioning venereal problems.
In the book Yankees Century it is speculated Ruth's 1925 health problems may have been related to his drinking, and the authors state that Ruth's intestinal abscess was actually surgery to repair a hernia which Ruth incurred during a spring training game. Certainly dangerous health problems from binge drinking were a more likely occurrence during Prohibition, where thousands of bootleggers were making and selling their own cheap and often dangerous alcohol that could be laced with methanol and other toxins that could cause blindness, the "jake leg", and even death from an accidental poisoning. Ruth, who usually reserved his heavy drinking to the off-season, may have drunk some tainted alcohol, which compromised his health.
Treatment of alcoholism and its ill effects during this age could be as bad or even worse than the illness itself. Ruth may have been subjected to a "therapy" of forced stomach pumping, heavy use of sedatives, hot baths, and the ingestion of substances such as ‘double chloride of gold' (used in the popular "Keeley Cure" at the time). These treatments could last weeks and leave the patient weakened and dazed. During his 6-week stay at St. Vincent's, Ruth was allowed supervised workouts at the stadium for a week, where he then returned to the hospital and the end of each workout. This perhaps suggested he was undergoing some regular treatments at the hospital. Whatever the real reason for Ruth's 1925 health problems, it remains to the present day as one of the most guarded mysteries of his life.
After his recovery, Ruth rejoined the Yankees on May 26. He had lost 30 pounds (14 kg), was weak and out of condition, but he was insistent on being back in the lineup. He clearly came back too soon. In July, he was hitting about .250 as he struggled miserably trying to find his swing. Eventually he regained some strength and managed to get somewhat on track, but finished with a .290 average and 25 home runs in 98 games. Except for the last couple of years at the end of his career, the 1925 season was easily Ruth's worst season in the majors.
The Yankees 1925 season went as badly as Ruth's. Injuries, age, and poor play had them at the bottom of the standings all year, and they finished next to last in the A.L. with a 69–85 mark. Later in the season, Ruth had a well-publicized fight with manager Miller Huggins, who fined Ruth $5,000 and suspended him nine days for numerous curfew violations. Only after an apology to Huggins and the team he was allowed to play again, and he would never again question Huggins's authority. One bright spot of the season was on June 2 when first baseman Wally Pipp was benched to put a young Lou Gehrig in the lineup, a lineup Gehrig stayed in for the next 2,130 consecutive games.
Coming off his worst season, Ruth even realized he needed to get in condition, and he went to fitness expert Artie McGovern, whose gym on Madison Avenue in New York City was noted for getting the rich and famous into shape. McGovern said that when Ruth came to him in December of 1925, his physical condition was as bad as about any person he had seen come to his gym. He said Ruth was noticeably overweight at 254 pounds, with a high pulse, a bulging stomach, and flabby muscles. Bad eating and drinking habits had also affected Ruth’s digestive system. McGovern also noted that even the slightest exertion left Ruth short of breath. McGovern put Ruth on a vigorous workout schedule. The exercise regimen included an early wake-up, then leg lifts and crunches, followed by a fast walk, then a massage-all before breakfast. Other exercises included the stationary bike, rowing machines, and boxing. Ruth’s diet also changed radically, eliminating the beef, sweets, and snacks, now replaced with more eggs, salads, vegetables, chicken or lamb.
In six weeks, McGovern’s program had transformed Ruth. He was physically stronger, his pulse dropped from 92 to 78, and he had lost 44 pounds. He seemed invigorated when he arrived for spring training in 1926, and he hit .372 with 47 home runs and 146 RBI during the season, silencing many critics who thought his career was in decline. Ruth would then spend each off-season working with McGovern, and although his weight increased again over the years (since being older, the weight became harder to lose), his play remained at a high level for several more years.
Return to the top
The 1925 season proved to be an aberration, as in 1926 he rebounded to being the best player in baseball. Ruth led the league in home runs, RBIs, runs scored, bases on balls, and slugging average. He finished second in batting average with a .372 average, .006 short of the Triple Crown (a feat Ruth would never accomplish). The Yankees also bounced back, going from 7th place in 1925 all the way back to the World Series, where they met the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cardinals were led by star player-manager Rogers Hornsby, who, for him, had experienced a bad year at the plate, hitting .317, down from his average of .401 for the previous five seasons. The Cardinals had other good players, including Jesse Haines, Jim Bottomley, Chick Hafey, and Grover Alexander.
The Yankees had been favorites in the series, but the Cardinals pushed the series to a 7th game. The highlights of the series up to this point had been Ruth's three home runs in game 4 (the first time a player hit 3 home runs in a World Series game), and Alexander's clutch pitching that won games 2 and 6.
In game 7, the Cardinals clung to a 3–2 lead in the 7th inning, until the Yankees loaded the bases with two outs. The stage was now set for one of the classic moments in baseball history. Hornsby removed starting pitcher Haines, and summoned Alexander from the bullpen. Alexander was napping in the bullpen at the time and, according to some accounts, may have been suffering a hangover from the previous night's celebration of his game 6 win. He faced Tony Lazzeri, who almost assured himself baseball immortality when he hit a line to left field that just went foul, missing a home run by a couple of feet. With the count 2–2, Alexander struck out Lazzeri, ending the Yankees rally.
Alexander retired the side in the 8th and the first two men in the 9th, when Ruth came up to bat. Pitching carefully, Alexander walked Ruth. With Bob Meusel at bat, and Lou Gehrig in the on-deck circle, Ruth pulled the most notable on-the-field gaffe of his career. He inexplicably took off trying to steal second base, and was easily thrown out by catcher Bob O'Farrell, ending the game and giving the Cardinals the World Series. Alexander's strikeout of Lazzeri would go down in baseball lore, and Ruth, despite an outstanding series, was perceived as a goat by some. Ruth did not dwell on the play much, as his baseball mentality throughout his entire career was such that he was never afraid of looking bad or failing.
Ruth's superb 1926 season ended on a bittersweet note, but he had silenced many of his critics from after the 1925 season. Nevertheless, while Ruth had generated amazing statistics in his first seven years as a Yankee, he was able to lead the Yankees to just one World Series title, and they had lost three others. From this point, though, he would enjoy greater World Series success; in fact, Ruth played in three more series and never again lost even a single World Series game.
1927: A Team for the Ages
In 1927, Ruth's Yankees reached a peak that few teams in baseball history have ever equaled, and many baseball historians cite the 1927 Yankees as the greatest baseball team of all-time. They went 110–44, winning the A.L. pennant by 19 games, and then sweeped the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. Only four teams have won more games: the 1906 Chicago Cubs, who won 116; the 1954 Cleveland Indians, who won 111; the 1998 Yankees, who won 114; and the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who won 116 games (although the latter two played in 162-game seasons). The Cubs and Indians, however, both lost in the World Series, and the Mariners did not even reach the World Series (they were defeated by the Yankees in the 2001 ALCS).
The 1927 Yankees batted .307, slugged .489, scored 975 runs, and outscored their opponents by a record 376 runs. They did not just beat other teams, they demoralized them, and their powerful lineup was again being called "The Murderers' Row" (a term first used by a sportswriter to describe the 1919 pre-Ruth Yankee lineup). Center fielder Earle Combs had a career year, batting .356 with 231 hits, Bob Meusel batted .337 with 103 RBIs, and Tony Lazzeri hit 18 home runs and drove in 102 runs. The pitching staff led the league in ERA at 3.20, and included Waite Hoyt, who went 22-7, and Herb Pennock, who went 19-8. It was Lou Gehrig, though, who broke through and established himself as a great player. Gehrig had one of the greatest seasons of any hitter. He batted .373, slugged .765, had 218 hits, 52 doubles, 18 triples, 47 home runs, drove in a then-record 175 runs, and was voted A.L. MVP. In time, Ruth, Gehrig, Pennock, Lazzeri, Combs and Hoyt would all be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
As late as August 10, Gehrig had the home run lead over Ruth, 38-35. Gehrig hit only 9 the rest of the season, but Ruth went on a home run tear, with 25 homers in the final 42 games. By the next to last game of the season, he was at 59 homers. On September 30, he lined a shot down the line into the right-field stands for number 60 off Washington Senators pitcher Tom Zachary. Zachary argued to umpire Bill Dinneen the ball was foul, but Dinneen upheld the home run. Ruth had set his home run record of 59 in 1921, but had been unable to even approach it until this season. After his 60th, an elated Ruth shouted in the clubhouse, "Sixty, count 'em sixty! Let's see some son of a bitch top that!"[citation needed] In addition to the home runs, Ruth batted .356, drove in 164 runs and had a slugging percentage of .772.
The Yankees met the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series, a team that was just two years removed from a World Series title. Since their last title the Pirates had added brothers Paul and Lloyd Waner to a good-hitting lineup that included Pie Traynor and Glenn Wright. Before game 1, it was said the Yankees smashing balls over the walls in spacious Forbes Field during batting practice had the Pirate players awestruck and beaten before the series even started. The series, however, was not a Yankee offensive onslaught. Two of the games were decided by one run, the Yankees batting just .279 with 2 home runs (both by Ruth), and averaging fewer runs per game than during regular season. It would be the Yankees pitching that actually dominated the series. Their team ERA was 2.00, and the Pirates batted just .223 and scored only 10 runs in the 4 games.
1928: Repeat
The Yankees' domination in 1927 carried over into the first half of the 1928 season, where they built a 13-game lead in July. But the Yankees were soon plagued by some key injuries, erratic pitching and inconsistent play, and a talented Philadelphia Athletics club quickly closed the gap. 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, had 42 home runs, well ahead of the pace of his record 60 home run season set 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 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 at second base, who was traded for Frankie Frisch after the 1926 season.
The series was no contest. The Yankees swept the Cardinals 4-0 with no game close as Ruth and Gehrig completely demolished Cardinal pitching. Ruth went 10–16 for a .625 average (the second highest average in a World Series), and for the second time he hit 3 home runs in a World Series game (in game 4). Gehrig was just as great, even better overall, as he batted 6–11 for a .545 average, with 4 home runs and 9 RBIs and slugged at 1.727. The Yankees also extracted some revenge on Grover Alexander, who went 0–1, with an ERA of 19.80 in 5 innings pitched. The Yankees had their second straight title, and the 4 game sweeps in back-to-back World Series has been accomplished only two other times, by the 1938 and 1939 Yankees, and the 1998 and 1999 Yankees.
Personal life
Personality
For someone who performed larger-than-life heroics on the field, Ruth was very often less than the ideal role model in his behavior and personality. He drank too much, his speech was splattered with profanities, he chased women while being a married man, he drove cars recklessly, was frequently childishly rebellious with a disregard for rules and authority figures, and sometimes had a quick temper with players, umpires, and even fans. He even had fights with his own teammates in the clubhouse and on the bench, and some teammates resented the fame and money bestowed on the flamboyant and often showboating Ruth.
Yet despite all of his well-publicized faults, millions of people adored him. He was generous with his time and money, and set up numerous charities, many directed toward children. On a number of occasions after games, Ruth, not wanting to disappoint any fans, would stand for hours signing autographs. Even the bad feelings he incurred among his teammates were only temporary. Bob Shawkey, Ruth’s Yankees teammate and later his Yankees manager for one season (1930), said, “People sometimes got mad at him, but I never heard of anyone who did not like Babe Ruth.” Ernie Shore, Ruth's teammate when they both played for the Red Sox, would say of Ruth, "He was the best-hearted fellow who ever lived. He gave you the shirt off of his back."
Marital separation and the death of first wife
Ruth's womanizing eventually led to a separation with his wife Helen. Indeed, for Ruth women were always available and he frequently took advantage of the opportunity. He seldom talked about his sexual exploits but never shied away when asked, and once claimed he bedded every woman in a St. Louis brothel in one night. The promiscuous lifestyle came with consequences, as it may have led to his 1925 health problems (q.v.), and he also had a couple of paternity suits filed against him, although neither of these accusations were sustained. His wife Helen undoubtedly heard about her husband's sexual escapades over the years, and seemingly managed to ignore much of it. In 1925, however, with their marriage well beyond repair, both agreed to a separation, but neither sought a divorce, as they were Catholic.
Unfortunately, Helen did not live long after her separation from Ruth. On January 11, 1929, she died in a house fire in Watertown, Massachusetts. She had been living there with a dentist, Dr. Edward Kinder, who was away at the time and upon returning was questioned for three hours before released from suspicion. Fire examiners later determined that the house had been improperly electrically wired. As a result, the house's fuses were too large and did not cut off the power when the circuits became overloaded. Helen had taken Kinder's last name, and after her death, he was shocked to learn that his common law wife was the legal wife of Babe Ruth. Despite their separation, Ruth cried when he heard the news, and he and a number of Yankees attended her funeral. Afterwards, he visited the site of the burned house, staring at it silently before leaving. Helen was just 31.
New marriage
By the time of Helen's death, Ruth was involved with a widowed socialite named Claire Merritt Hodgson, a woman he first met in 1923. Claire was educated, socially sophisticated, and a somewhat strong-minded woman. Babe was instantly attracted to her, and they began regularly seeing each other after his separation from his wife Helen. Helen's death cleared the way for Ruth to marry Claire, and they took their wedding vows on April 17, 1929.
Upon marriage, Claire took complete control of their finances, and managed Babe's often free-wheeling spending, although he never had any financial problems. She frequently traveled with the team on road trips, and curtailed some of his late-night social activities. She also helped manage his diet, even though she did little cooking herself. Claire cut down his food portions, reduced his starchy foods and desserts, and forced him to eat more meat and vegetables. Ruth loved to drink, and even though he could usually control it, Claire put a limit on it. Claire proved to be an ideal companion for Babe, and they remained together until his death.
1929–31
In 1929, the Yankees World Series run ended, and the three-year period from 1929 to 1931 would be the longest stretch (excluding his ending years of 1933–35) that a Ruth team did not win a pennant. The offense was still highly productive, and in fact the 1930 and 1931 teams outscored the great 1927 team, but the pitching fell off badly. The Philadelphia Athletics overtook the Yankees, and for the next three years won the A.L. pennant. Manager Connie Mack had rebuilt the A's into one of the best teams ever, and they won the World Series in 1929 and 1930 but were upset in the 1931 series in seven games. The powerful lineup was led by Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane, and the pitching was anchored by Lefty Grove, who undoubtedly was the best pitcher of his era (not to mention one of the greatest pitchers of all-time). Although the Yankees slipped, Ruth continued to put up stellar numbers, and led or tied for the league lead in home runs all three of these years.
During the 1929 season another tragedy struck close to Ruth. Yankee manager Miller Huggins developed an ugly looking carbuncle on his face that turned out to be a symptom of erysipelas, a streptococcal infection of the skin. The bacterial infection had been left untreated for too long, and sepsis developed, which proved fatal for Huggins in September. Huggins had been the only manager Ruth had as a Yankee, and despite many run-ins with the feisty Huggins, Ruth had great admiration and respect for him. After hearing of his death, Ruth and several Yankee players cried, and the league paid its respect by canceling all games the day after his death.
Last glory: the called shot
The Yankees were back on top in 1932. The team went 107–47, and easily won the pennant under manager Joe McCarthy, who had taken over in 1931 (a job Ruth had eagerly wanted). The Philadelphia Athletics run ended, and soon the team was broken up as difficult economic times made it impossible for the A's to meet their stars' salary demands. Since their last pennant four years earlier, the Yankees had rebuilt their team by adding pitchers Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez, infielder Joe Sewell, and catcher Bill Dickey, all future Hall of Fame players.
For Ruth, it was the last year where he produced at a high level. He hit .341, with 41 home runs and 137 RBIs, but it was the first time since 1917 that Ruth did not lead the league in home runs when he had played nearly a full season of games. Jimmie Foxx nearly equaled Ruth's 60 mark with 58 home runs in 1932, and it was apparent that Ruth was no longer the home run king. Ruth also missed 21 games, and at the end of the year had missed a couple of weeks due to severe abdominal pains that left him weakened before the start of the World Series. His knees by then also had gone bad, often keeping him from running as well in the outfield or getting extra base hits.
The Yankees opponents in the 1932 World Series were the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs were playing just a little better than mediocre ball much of the season, but in a weak year in the National League, they were still in first place with a 53–46 record under manager Rogers Hornsby. After a heated argument with Cubs president William Veeck, Hornsby was fired and replaced by Charlie Grimm, the Cubs first baseman. Grimm led the Cubs to a 37–18 record the rest the season, and they edged out the Pittsburgh Pirates for the pennant. The Cubs built their team on pitching and, led by Lon Warneke, Guy Bush, and Charlie Root, led the league in ERA. The everyday lineup also had fine players, such as Billy Herman, Kiki Cuyler, and Gabby Hartnett.
The Yankees dispatched the Cubs in 4 games with one of the greatest offensive displays in a World Series, certainly the best in a 4-game series. The Yankees batted .313 and averaged over 9 runs a game. Lou Gehrig did much of the damage. Gehrig went 9–17, a .529 average, scored 9 runs, drove in 8, and hit 3 home runs. The series, however, is remembered for one memorable play that occurred in game 3 of the series. It would be Babe Ruth's last great moment on the baseball stage, when he hit a famous home run that became known as Babe Ruth's Called Shot.
Decline and end with Yankees
Despite his heroics in the 1932 World Series, Ruth was informed in 1933 by Ed Barrow that his salary would be cut 33%, from $75,000 to $50,000 a year. Ruth's salary had been cut before the 1932 season, but it was only a $5,000 cut. It was the Great Depression, and teams were losing money, although the Yankees themselves were still making a profit. Cutting Ruth's pay was also part of Barrow and Ruppert's plan to phase Ruth out from the Yankees. With baseball's reserve clause firmly in place, Ruth, even with all his stature, had little negotiating power at this stage in his career. Ruth eventually settled to play for $52,000, although he was still the highest paid player in the game. Ruth was unhappy with the pay cut, but in these bad economic times, few people felt sorry for him.
Ruth remained productive in 1933, batting .301, with 34 home runs, 103 RBIs, and led the league in walks with 114. Although most major league players could only dream about these types of numbers, they were well below Ruth's previous standards. His batting average and slugging average were down over 40 points and nearly 100 points, respectively, from his career averages, and he was also slow in the field. It was clear age was eroding Ruth's skills. The Yankees did finish second to the Washington Senators, but they never seriously threatened to win the pennant. At least to Barrow and Ruppert, Ruth and the Yankees' season justified his pay cut, and the next year, Ruth took another big pay cut down to $25,000 a year.
One highlight for Ruth during the season was when he hit the very first home run in the very first All-Star game, held July 6, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois. His 2-run shot off Bill Hallahan helped the A.L. to a 4–2 win over the N.L., and he also made a fine defensive catch in the game.
After the season Ruth continued to press Barrow for a chance to manage the Yankees, but Barrow had no intentions of getting rid of manager Joe McCarthy. Ruth never liked the disciplinarian style of McCarthy, and had even stated he could do a better job managing the team. The Yankees never gave him the chance. The closest they came was offering him a chance to manage the Yankees farm team in Newark, New Jersey, an offer Ruth scoffed at with justification. Players such as Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and 26-year-old Joe Cronin had been given big league managerial jobs with no previous managing experience. At one point Frank Navin, owner of the Detroit Tigers, seemed serious about hiring Ruth to player-manage the Tigers. Ruth, however, put off a meeting with Navin to take a trip to Hawaii, and Navin, never a particularly congenial man, essentially retracted any meeting with Ruth. Cynical about Ruth's managerial ambitions, Barrow remarked, "How can he manage other men when he can't even manage himself?"
Ruth's play continued downward in 1934, and he finished the year with a .288 average and 22 home runs. It was understood during the season that it would be Ruth's last season in a Yankee uniform, and Ruth himself stated it might be the last year he played. He made the 1934 All-Star team, but certainly this was more an honorary selection than for his play on the field. Nevertheless, for all Ruth had done for baseball, he deserved an invitation even if his skills were at the end. During the game, he was the first of the five consecutive strikeout victims (with Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin) of Carl Hubbell, one of the most famous moments in All-Star game history. His last appearances around various cities were understood as his farewell tour, and although sportwriters were all but certain it was Ruth's last season as a Yankee, the Yankees fans were either not as informed or not as convinced. Only about 2,000 fans showed up in what would be Ruth's last game at Yankee Stadium.
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. Seventeen of the games were played in Japan, and the reception there was completely enthusiastic. Ruth was by far the most popular American player in Japan, and over a half a million Japanese greeted him on his arrival. Baseball had been big in Japan for decades, so many Japanese baseball fans were well aware of Ruth. Riding in a car in Tokyo, Ruth waved the American and Japanese flags, and a crowd of Japanese waved American flags back at him. The games were played in two different stadiums: Tokyo's Meiji-Jingu Stadium which held over 60,000 fans and Koshien Stadium near Kobe which held over 80,000. Both sites had been sold out for weeks, and Ruth would excite the huge crowds with 13 home runs in the 17 games. The tour in Japan was a complete success, and in just a couple of years, Japan organized its first professional baseball league, the Japan Professional Baseball Association.
Return to Boston
In 1935, Boston Braves owner Emil Fuchs was looking to jumpstart the Braves franchise. A perennial cellar-dweller, the Braves had improved somewhat, but the Depression had killed off attendance and Fuchs was desperate to revive fan interest and revenue. Fuchs was very interested in Ruth and worked out a complex deal with Barrow and Ruppert to get Ruth in February, 1935. Fuchs promised Ruth a share in the team's profits, a managerial job as assistant to Braves manager Bill Mckechnie (with a good chance to succeed him next year), and Ruth could play whenever he wanted. All parties seemed happy with the deal, and with much media hoopla, Ruth returned to the city that gave him his major league start.
On opening day before a home capacity crowd of over 25,000, Ruth was responsible for all the Braves' runs in a 4–2 win over Carl Hubbell and the New York Giants. It was just one game, but fan excitement for the Braves was as high as it had ever been. The euphoria quickly died away. Ruth completely stopped hitting, was clumsy in the field, and soon missed a dozen or so games. The Braves were as bad as they had ever been, and the few fans that showed up booed the team. Ruth was also miffed that Mckechnie ignored any of his managerial advice. Seeing a franchise in disarray, Ruth soon realized that Fuch's promise of a stake in the Braves' profits was a lot of hot air, as there would be few profits for a losing team that had little fan support.
On May 25, 1935, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Ruth gave one last glimpse of how great a player he was. He went 4-4, drove in 6 runs and hit 3 home runs in an 11-7 loss to the Pirates. The last home run was said to be the longest ball ever hit at Forbes Field. It was his 714th and last home run, and last hit. He hung on for another few days, and on May 30 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 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. Ruth would never play another big league game.
Fuchs and Ruth's relationship soured badly. Fuchs blamed Ruth for the Braves' failures, and Ruth believed Fuchs had lied to him about the Braves franchise. On June 1, after having another argument with Fuchs, Ruth stated to reporters, "I'm quitting." The experiment with Fuchs, Ruth and the Braves was a complete failure for all parties. Fuchs, who was deeply in debt, saw revenue and attendance continue to fall, and soon lost ownership control of the team. Ruth played in only 28 games and batted a dismal .181 in 72 at-bats while striking out 24 times in his last season as a player. The season for the Braves was a complete disaster, as they finished 38–115, a .248 winning percentage, the third worst percentage in major league history.
Retirement and later years
When Ruth retired in 1935, many of his major batting records seemed almost untouchable. He held the records for career bases on balls (2,062), bases on balls in a season (170), on-base percentage (.474, although a statistic not yet created during Ruth's era), career RBIs (2,213), career slugging average (.690), slugging average in a season (.847), home runs in a season (60), home run ratio (1 every 11.76 at bats), and career home runs (714). His career home run total at his retirement was twice that of the next nearest player, Lou Gehrig. It took many decades, but, except for his career slugging average, all of these major records have fallen, including the fabled 60 and 714 home run marks. Over the years, Ruth's image, and even his 60 and 714 numbers, grew into an almost sacred status among some fans, so much so that when Roger Maris and Hank Aaron both approached, and eventually surpassed both these records, respectively, both men were deluged with hate mail.
Although many of his batting records have been surpassed, a strong case can be made that Ruth still owns the greatest career batting numbers of any player in baseball history, and a major reason why Ruth's name grew into an almost legendary and iconic figure. Critics have noted, however, that Ruth only hit against white pitchers, as MLB was segregated until 1947.
In 1936, Ruth was one of the first five players elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Retirement was often unsettling for Ruth. He had more than enough money, but he missed the game. He spent much time on the golf course, dabbled in a few other things, but his heart was set on managing a big league club. He would never be given the chance. The closest Ruth ever came to managing was when Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Larry MacPhail offered him a first base coaching job in June 1938. The Dodgers attendance was lagging, and MacPhail hired Ruth for the sole purpose of getting people to the ballpark. Ruth took the job, perhaps thinking he would have a chance to manage the Dodgers in the future, but MacPhail had clearly stated to Ruth that Leo Durocher was being groomed to take over the managerial reigns of the Dodgers for next season. Ruth never got along with Durocher, and he quit at the end of the season. The coaching position was the last time Ruth would have a job in major league baseball.
In 1939, all the years of fast living began to show signs of catching up with Ruth. During a round of golf with his playing partner Ben Curry, Ruth said to him, "I feel terrible." He was taken to the clubhouse where a doctor observed his condition. It was not diagnosed then, but Ruth had probably suffered a mild heart attack, and about a year later, he suffered another similar attack. By this time Ruth's weight had ballooned to over 270 pounds (122 kg).
In 1942, Ruth was asked to play a part (as himself, in his athletic prime) in the film The Pride of the Yankees, a film biography of Lou Gehrig, who had died from ALS in June 1941. Ruth needed to lose a great deal of weight to play the role, and with a vigorous workout schedule he had lost 40 pounds (18 kg). He did a respectable job of acting in a bit part, but the strict hours of filming did not suit his night life. He caught a bad cold (he had caught frequent colds his whole life), which developed into pneumonia. At one point, a report circulated that he was near death, but he recovered in a couple of weeks and finished the film part.
During World War II, Ruth did some charity work for the Red Cross, and bought over $100,000 in war bonds himself. He even organized a charity golf game with his old rival Ty Cobb (the two had despised each other in their playing days). Ruth appeared at many benefits during the war, and a few times donned his old baseball uniform. During one benefit at Yankee Stadium, he batted against the former great pitcher Walter Johnson, and another time, pinch hit in a game made up of teams from the armed forces. Later in 1943 in another charity game at Yankee Stadium, he pinch hit and drew a walk, but tore cartilage in his knee while running the bases. This would be the last time he would play in a formal game.
Illness
After the war, Ruth continued to look for a chance to manage in the big leagues. While in the past he had essentially been blackballed by owners who, for various reasons, did not trust him, this time it was his health that would prevent the opportunity. In 1946, he began experiencing severe pain over his left eye. He was not concerned, thinking it was sinus problems, but this situation was much more grave than his health problems of the past. 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, and physicians told him he would need surgery to have the cancerous growth removed. During the surgery, part of the nerves that led to the larynx had to be cut, and as a result his voice was reduced to a whisper. He would be unable to swallow foods and had to be fed with feeding tubes. Since physicians could not remove all the cancer, Ruth was given radiation therapy to treat the cancer that remained.
Released from the hospital in February 1947, Ruth was now 80 pounds (36 kg) lighter. Although he regained enough of his strength to play golf, hunt, and do other activities he had enjoyed, it was obvious to all who saw him that his health was not good. The tumor continued to grow, and he was in so much pain that he required morphine. He did manage to attend Babe Ruth Day, an appreciation of what Ruth had done for the game, held April 27, 1947 at Yankee Stadium. It was on this occasion where Ruth spoke in a disheartening croaking voice to a capacity crowd of more than 60,000. He made a speech which included the line, "The only real game I think in the world, is baseball."
In June 1947, Ruth was in so much pain physicians tried an experimental new drug on him, a drug that was a synthetic form of folate. The ongoing treatments seemingly improved Ruth so much that his case was cited at an International Cancer Congress held in St. Louis. He seemed to have recovered some of his health and, with renewed energy, started the Babe Ruth Foundation, a charity for disadvantaged children. Another Babe Ruth Day held at Yankee Stadium in September helped raise money for his newest charity.
Unfortunately, the apparent recovery was only a brief remission of the cancer. His health gradually declined, and he became sick and in as much pain as he had ever been. On June 13, 1948, a weak Ruth was barely able to attend the Yankees 25th anniversary celebration of the opening of Yankee Stadium. He met old teammates from the 1923 Yankee team and later stood for photographs. The highlight of the day was when his name was announced over the loudspeaker, and the crowd erupted into a loud roar. Ruth walked slowly to the microphone using a baseball bat as a cane, and his old Yankees uniform he wore appeared several sizes too large on his now frail body. Ruth spoke a few words at the microphone, saying how much he enjoyed seeing his old teammates and being a Yankee. After a 2-inning game played by the old players, Ruth left Yankee Stadium for the last time. Shortly before, he had a conversation with former teammate Joe Dugan. Ruth told Dugan, "Joe, I'm gone. I'm done Joe," a confession which had Ruth breaking down and crying, and Dugan crying with him.
There can be little doubt that the cause of Ruth's throat cancer was a lifelong habit of tobacco use. He began chewing tobacco at the age of seven, and in his teens began smoking cigarettes and cigars regularly, sometimes smoking up to a dozen cigars a day. He also used snuff in such large amounts that the dust would clog his nasal passages. Ruth's lifelong problems with colds and other respiratory problems can also likely be tied to this habit. Medical evidence of a link between smoking and cancer seemed conclusive by the 1920's (evidence even goes back to the 18th century) [2] [3] but for various reasons, the public was largely unaware of the risks of smoking until decades later. Even if this information had been common knowledge during Ruth's lifetime, it is not likely that this would have changed the behavior of his or most other ballplayers of the time, as the baseball culture of tobacco use had been ingrained since baseball's beginnings [4] and continues to the present day (although tobacco use among current baseball players has significantly decreased). [5]
Death
Shortly after he had attended the Yankee Stadium anniversary event, Ruth was again back in the hospital. By now he knew it was cancer even if no one had told him, which apparently no one ever had since his condition was first diagnosed in 1946. He received hundreds of well-wishing letters and messages daily (including a phone call from President Harry Truman) many requesting autographs and photos, and with his wife Claire's help, he made sure he answered every one.
Ruth was still able to walk and get out even near his end, and on July 26, 1948, he attended the premiere of the film about his life, The Babe Ruth Story, which starred William Bendix as Ruth. Ironically, Bendix knew Ruth in the early 1920's when he worked as a bat boy for the New York Giants and Yankees at the Polo Grounds, the then Yankees home. Feeling very ill while watching the film, Ruth left well before the film was finished, and although he was said to have stated he liked the film, by a large consensus the film was considered poorly made.
Ruth returned to the hospital, and this time he would never leave. The cancer had eaten away at his body (cachexia) leaving him with an emaciated appearance, 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, almost anticipating the end. Only a few visitors were allowed to see him, one of whom was the then National League President and future Commissioner of Baseball, Ford Frick. Frick had been a good friend of Ruth's since Ruth's early days as a Yankee and the ghostwriter for various articles supposedly written by Ruth. Frick was shocked and saddened by Ruth’s condition. “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 8:01 p.m. at the age of 53. His body lay in repose in Yankee Stadium for two days; more than 200,000 people filed past the casket. Three days later 9,500 mourners crammed into the area around St. Patrick's Cathedral for his funeral. Tens of thousands more lined the streets as his funeral cortege drove by. The outpouring of grief from so many thousands of Americans was in marked contrast to the few dozen people who would later attend the services for his great rival Ty Cobb in 1961. Ruth was buried in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York, about 25 miles (40 km) north of New York City. The following epitaph by Cardinal Spellman appears on Babe Ruth's headstone: "May The Divine Spirit That Animated Babe Ruth To Win The Crucial Game Of Life Inspire The Youth Of America!" His wife Claire was buried next to him upon her death in 1976. Babe Ruth and Billy Martin are buried about 150 feet apart in the same section of the cemetery. Lou Gehrig, Ed Barrow, and Harry Frazee are interred in Kensico Cemetery, which is located next door to Gate of Heaven Cemetery.
Ruth's birthplace has been preserved as a combination Babe Ruth and Baltimore Orioles museum, and is just a short walk from Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Statistics
| G | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | R | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,503 | 8,399 | 2,873 | 506 | 136 | 714 | 2,174 | 2,213 | 2,062 | 1,330 | .342 | .469 | .690 | 1.159 |
| W | L | WP | GP | GS | CG | Sh | SV | IP | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 94 | 46 | .671 | 163 | 148 | 107 | 17 | 4 | 1,221.1 | 441 | 488 | 2.28 | 1.16 |
Trivia
- For the first 40 years of his life, Ruth believed his birthday to have been February 7, 1894. Most contemporary accounts, therefore, will contain inaccurate accounts of Ruth's age. Ruth continued to use the 1894 date when asked his age, because he was used to it.
- The statue of Babe Ruth at the Eutaw Street entrance of Camden Yards has him holding a catcher's mitt for a right handed player. Despite popular belief, this is not a mistake. The statue portrays Ruth during his days at St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys. In his autobiography Ruth states that lefty gloves were not available.
- Ruth threw and batted left-handed, and was also a left-handed golfer and bowler, but wrote right-handed.
- Ruth was a member of the Knights of Columbus.
- In the combined stat of home runs and pitching victories, Babe Ruth is first with 808. The only other player to hit 500 home runs and win a game as a pitcher was Jimmie Foxx who went 1-0 in 1945. He fell 93 short of the Babe in the win column, however.
- Ruth spoke German fluently, having learned from his parents, who were the children of German immigrants.
- On June 23, 1917, Ruth was involved in one of the most unusual games in baseball history. Ruth, the starting pitcher against the Washington Senators, walked the first batter Ray Morgan. Arguing over the strike zone, Ruth was ejected by umpire Brick Owens. Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore relieved Ruth. On Shore's first pitch, Morgan was thrown out stealing second. Shore went on to retire the next 26 batters for a perfect no-hit, no-run game. Although record books give Shore credit for a perfect game, some have an asterisk by it and say it should not be counted as perfect game since a batter reached first base, even though not through Shore.
- In 1918, Babe's father George, Sr., was killed when intervening in a dispute at his tavern. Angry at all the noise some people were making, George, Sr., got into a fight outside his tavern with one of the family members. During the scuffle, he fell and suffered a fatal head injury.
- In her book My Dad, The Babe, his adopted daughter Dorothy Ruth Pirone claimed she was his biological child, the product of an affair between Ruth and a longtime family friend.
- Ruth played himself in a cameo appearance in the Harold Lloyd film Speedy (1928).
- In 1929, the Yankees became the first team to regularly use uniform numbers (the Cleveland Indians used them briefly in 1916). Since Ruth batted third in the order, he was assigned number 3. Eventually, uniform numbers were associated with players without regard to the batting order. The Yankees retired Ruth's number on June 13, 1948. The first number the Yankees had retired was Lou Gehrig's number.
- Ruth's wife Claire was a cousin of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize.
- Some speculate as to how Ruth's home run total would be different if he played under current rules. For example, in 1918 Ruth had a game-ending hit over the fence that was only scored as a triple because rules in effect until 1920 stated that in that situation, only the minimum hit needed to score the winning run would be credited, and there was a runner on first. Today that hit would be scored as a home run. Also during Ruth's era, if a ball went over the fence in fair territory and landed in foul territory it counted as a foul ball whereas today it would be a home run. On the other hand, until 1931, a ball that hit the playing surface in fair territory and bounced over the fence was credited as a home run, whereas today such a hit would be scored as a ground-rule double.
- It is a myth the Yankees wore pinstripes because owner Jacob Ruppert wanted to minimize Ruth's girth. The Yankees, then the Highlanders, began wearing pinstripes in 1912. They discontinued them for two years, but they brought back the pinstripes in 1915 and have worn them since.
- During World War II, American GI's on Guadalcanal reported that Japanese soldiers would shout at them "To hell with Babe Ruth!"
- The Yankees dedicated a monument to Ruth on April 19, 1949. It calls him "A great ball player, a great man, a great American." It now rests in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.
- In the early 1990s, biographical films were released about Ruth in consecutive years:
- Babe Ruth was a 1991 made-for-TV movie, starring Stephen Lang. It featured Pete Rose as Ty Cobb. It also won an Emmy for costuming. Donald Moffat played Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert, and would later play Baseball Commissioner and Ruth confidant Ford Frick in the 2001 film 61*.
- The Babe was a 1992 theatrical film, starring John Goodman, which garnered rather more publicity in part due to the fact he was starring in Roseanne, a popular television sitcom at the time. Goodman, 39 years old at the time of filming, played Ruth between the ages of 19 and 40.
- Ruth's 1918 contract that sent him from Boston to New York was auctioned off for $996,000 at Sotheby's on June 10, 2005. Most of the money went to an organization that fights world hunger. However, the most valuable memorabilia 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 Southeby's auction in December of 2004. The sold price was just below the mark of the famous 1909 baseball card of Honus Wagner, which last sold for $1.265 million and is currently the most valuable baseball memorabilia item.
- During an exhibition game on April 2, 1931, Ruth and Lou Gehrig were both struck out by a 17-year-old female pitcher, Jackie Mitchell, while playing the Chattanooga Lookouts in Engel Stadium. According to behind the plate Umpire J.B. Vick, and after striking out, Ruth said "that dame threw me a pitch I've never seen". When asked to describe the pitch, Mitchell called it her "palm ball" a pitch more commonly known today as the Knuckle Ball.
- It is reported that during Ruth's funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral on a hot afternoon in August 1948, former teammate Joe Dugan commented, “I'd give a hundred dollars for a cold beer right now.” Waite Hoyt responded, “So would the Babe.”
See also
- 500 home run club; 50 home run club; Top 500 home run hitters of all time
- All-Time leaders in Homeruns for a Pitcher
- Curse of the Bambino
- Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame
- Babe Ruth has been featured in several video games including Baseball Stars (1988)
- Baby Ruth (candy bar)
References
- Allen, Maury. Baseball's 100. A & W Publishers, 1981, 316 pages.
- The Baseball Biographical Encyclopedia. Total/Sports Illustrated, 2000, 1298 pages.
- The Baseball Encyclopedia, 10th Edition. Macmillan, a Simon and Schuster Macmillan Company, 1996, 3027 pages.
- Cohen, Richard M, David Neft and Jordan Deutsch. The World Series. The Dial Press, 1979, 416 pages.
- Creamer, Robert W. Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. Simon and Schuster, 1974, 440 pages.
- Graham Jr., Frank. Great Hitters of the Major Leagues. Random House, 1969, 171 pages.
- James, Bill. The New Bill James Baseball Abstract. The Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, 2001, 998 pages.
- Levinson, David, and Karen Christensen, editors. The Encyclopedia of World Sport. Oxford University Press, 1996, 488 pages.
- Montville, Leigh. The Big Bam. Doubleday, 2006.
- Pietrusza, David, Matthew Silverman & Michael Gershman, ed. (2000). Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia. Total/Sports Illustrated.
- Reidenbach, Lowell. Cooperstown: Where the Legends Live Forever. The Sporting News Publishing, 1993, 344 pages.
- Ritter, Lawrence, and Mark Rucker. The Babe: A Life in Pictures. Ticknor and Fields, 1988, 282 pages.
- Ritter, Lawrence. The Glory of Their Times. The Macmillan Company, 1966, 300 pages.
- Schlossberg, Dan. The Baseball Catalog. Jonathan David Publishers, 1980, 310 pages.
- The STATS All-Time Major League Baseball Handbook. STATS Publishing, 1998, 2696 pages.
- Stout, Glenn. Yankees Century. Houghton Mifflin, 2002, 478 pages.
External links
- baberuth.com - Official site
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference
- baseballhalloffame.org Baseball HoF
- baberuthmuseum.com Ruth Museum
- espn.go.com - article by Larry Schwartz on Ruth
- quotes-famous.comRuth Quotes
- thedeadballera.com Ruth Obituary
- Baseball Hall of Fame
- Major league right fielders
- Major league pitchers
- Major league left fielders
- New York Yankees players
- Boston Braves players
- Boston Red Sox players
- American League batting champions
- 1915 Boston Red Sox World Series Championship Team
- 1916 Boston Red Sox World Series Championship Team
- 1918 Boston Red Sox World Series Championship Team
- 1923 New York Yankees World Series Championship Team
- 1927 New York Yankees World Series Championship Team
- 1928 New York Yankees World Series Championship Team
- 1932 New York Yankees World Series Championship Team
- 1933 American League All-Stars
- 1934 American League All-Stars
- German-Americans
- People from Baltimore
- Major league players from Maryland
- Knights of Columbus
- 500 home run club
- Throat cancer deaths
- 1895 births
- 1948 deaths
- People with dyslexia
- American cultural icons