Babe Ruth

The Babe"

Babe Ruth (George Herman Ruth) has always been known as one of the greatest baseball players this world has ever seen. When he started his career as a Major League Baseball player everyone could tell that he was going to be an original. What he is most remembered for is his incredible ability to smash a ball out of the park or hit the wall every time he came up to bat. Ruth is considered to be one of the greatest baseball legends ever to step to the plate, breaking and keeping many records and establishing him as one of the many top baseball legends to live.

On February 6, 1895, George Herman Ruth, son of Kate and George Ruth, was the first of eight children to be born. Young Ruth was never paid much attention or given much love by his parents because his father and mother built and ran a tavern and worked very long hours. Since they started to notice Ruth's grief of loneliness, his parents decided to send him to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys. Since Babes parents did not care much for him they also decided to hand over full custody of Ruth to the Brother Xavier's that ran the church. So overtime Ruth got used to never seeing his parents, even on holidays or the one Sunday that they were allowed to visit per month. Ruth was usually always getting in trouble with the nearly all-800 children that lived at the school that was safeguarded like a prison. After these events the Xavier's usually sent Ruth home to his parents for his misbehavior, but he was almost immediately sent back. So to fill young Ruth's time the Brother Xavier's decided to get him on the St. Mary's baseball team and start as a catcher. Overtime Ruth played other positions, such as pitching and infield, and started to really see the young boy's talent. The most outspoken thing about Ruth was his batting ability and the way he could hit the ball like no other on his team.

After a couple of years building his talent a recruiter by the name of Jack Dunn was sent out to look for recruits and he found Ruth and had him almost immediately brought to the team, after he saw his skills. After Ruth had tryouts and was recruited to the Brooklyn Orioles he was teased about being "Jacks Newest Babe", and hence the name "Babe Ruth", which he is commonly referred to. Only five months into Ruth's career with the Brooklyn Orioles, Ruth was traded to the Boston Red Sox. On his opening game against the Cleveland Braves, he started by pitching the game, but there was only one problem Ruth was not in the batting lineup. So this little problem was revised and Babe was put into right field and Babe got right into the lineup and sure enough he dominated the batting averages. Later in his career with Boston, Babe Ruth led the Boston Red Sox to a World Series and led the team to victory. This World Series win would mark the last World Series won by the Boston Red Sox until 2004. In 1919, Babe was traded to the New York Yankees, where they had yet to win one pennant and were not known to well as a tremendous team, but Babe began to step his game up and encouraged the whole team and led them to win 7 pennants and 4 world championships.

While Babe was playing with the Red Sox he often went to a coffee shop, and on one occasion he met a young seventeen year old named Helen Woodford and he went on to marry her that year, and adopt a daughter by the name of Dorothy. Tragically in years to come Helen Woodford died of suffocation by smoke in a house fire. Shortly after Helen died Babe met a young model and actress, Claire Hodgson, and was married in months to follow. After Babe married Claire he took in Claire's daughter, Julia, and Claire likewise took in Babes daughter, Dorothy, and went on to be a happy family until the last of their days. On opening day, which was soon after he married Claire, Babe went up to the plate and on his first up to bat he drilled a long shot to center field just for his new wife.

Perhaps one of Babes most famous moments while playing with the Yankees what is today called Babe's "Called Shot". This was a spectacular event because Babe went up to the plate tapped his shoes with his bat and raised his bat to the center field as if calling a home run. The first pitch thrown to him, he hit the ball as far as he could and is known to be the longest homerun ever to be hit out of the Fenway Park. Babe Ruth's last year playing for the Yankees was in 1934, where he announced his playing days were about to end. When all of the fans that came to see him during his career and all of the money Ruth brought to baseball the New York Yankees were able to build a brand new stadium for themselves which is today named Fenway Park, but is also known as "The House That Ruth Built". After Ruth had finished with the Yankees he was taken to the Cleveland Braves, where he figured out what he wanted