UWECBaseball.com

George Herman Ruth, better known as “Babe Ruth”, is widely regarded as the greatest baseball player in the history of the game. Also known as “The Bambino” and “The Sultan of Swat,” a virtual home run machine whose exploits off the diamond were as colorful as the wonders he pulled off while on it. He was a national icon in every sense of the word and one of the key figures of the Roaring Twenties of American history.

Ruth was among the first five players to be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the first truly great baseball player and his excellence on the field inspired everyone to watch the game, including several generations of great baseball players who would follow after him. Ruth was the first player to hit over 30, 40 and 50 home runs in one season. In the 1927 season, he slammed 60 home runs, a record which stood for 34 years until Roger Maris broke it in 1961.

Aside from the players, Ruth’s fame and athletic exploits also inspired entire armies of fans. No one had done more to expand the fan base of baseball than Ruth. Spurred by the vast American and international popularity of Ruth, baseball’s popularity grew by leaps and bounds, prompting all major league teams to expand their home arenas to fit in more fans. It is no wonder that even today, they call Yankee Stadium as “The House That Ruth Built.”

Ruth was also a member of the original American League All-Star team in 1933. He was named baseball’s Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball in 1936. Meanwhile, in 1998, in its list of “Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players,” The Sporting News ranked Ruth as number one.

In 1999, fans elected Ruth to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Ruth’s abilities were so unique that he was able to change the way the game was played. In those days, the “inside game” had been the main strategy in baseball for decades. But Ruth hit the ball so hard and for so many home runs and extra base hits that other teams were compelled to follow suit and adopt the “power game.”

With Ruth as its centerpiece, the New York Yankees went on to become arguably the greatest sports dynasty in history.

(1926, 1928)



By: Jonathon Hardcastle

About the Author:

Some quotes that The Babe said and what some other people had to say about Babe Ruth.

“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.”

Babe Ruth

In August 1948, Ruth died of throat cancer and lay in state at Yankee Stadium, the baseball cathedral built on the fruits of his work. Ruth’s funeral took place on a day of such heat that pallbearer and former teammate Joe Dugan said, “I’d give a hundred dollars for a beer.” The old pitcher Waite Hoyt replied in Ruth’s spirit: “So would the Babe.”

by Mark Maxon

“I had a better year than he did.”

Babe Ruth, when told that President Hoover made less than the $80,000 he was demanding in 1930.

“Hotter ‘n hell, ain’t it, Prez?”

Babe Ruth, after meeting Calvin Coolidge

This next group of quotes was made by Babe Ruth

“I have only one superstition. I touch all the bases when I hit a home run.”

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

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

“Don’t let the fear of striking out hold you back.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”

The following quotes were made by teammates, a broadcaster and an opponent

“No one hit home runs the way Babe did. They were something special. They were like homing pigeons. The ball would leave the bat, pause briefly, suddenly gain its bearings then take off for the stands.”

Lefty Gomez

“To understand him you had to understand this: he wasn’t human.”

Teammate Joe Dugan

“Every big leaguer and his wife should teach their children to pray, “God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, and God bless Babe Ruth.”

Waite Hoyt

“He wasn’t a baseball player. He was a worldwide celebrity, an international star, the likes of which baseball has never seen since.”

Broadcaster Ernie Harwell

“He came up again in the ninth. I was a little mad. I told my catcher, Tommy Padden, he was not good enough to hit my fastball. I came through with a fastball for strike one. I missed with the second. The next pitch I nodded to Tommy. I was going to throw the ball past Mr. Ruth. It was on the outside corner. As he went around third, Ruth gave me the hand sign meaning ‘to hell with you.’ He was better than me. He was the best that ever lived. That big joker hit it clear out of the park for his third home run of the game. It was the longest homer I’d ever seen in baseball.”—Guy Bush of the Pittsburgh Pirates on giving up Ruth’s last home run (it was the first to clear the right field grandstand at Forbes Field and some estimated the distance at 600 feet.) Quoted in Bush’s “Sporting News” obituary after his death.

Feel free to pass this article on to baseball enthusiasts that you know.



By: Aron Wallad

About the Author: