Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth has been called by many nicknames. Some of the most common are: "The Great Bambino", "The Sultan of Swat", "The Colossus of Clout", "The Titan of Terror", and "The King of Crash". While attending St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, he was sometimes referred to by the racial epitaph "Niggerlips" as he had large facial features and was darker than most boys at the all-white reformatory.^[2]

Ruth learned to play baseball while growing up in Baltimore, Maryland.His first Major League Baseball (MLB) team was the Boston Red Sox. Ruth began playing as a pitcher. He had some of the best pitching statistics in baseball. The Red Sox won the World Series in 1915, 1916, and 1918.

At that time, there was no designated hitter rule in the American League, where the Red Sox played, so Ruth got chances to hit as a pitcher. The team realized that he was also good at hitting. In 1918, Ruth began hitting more and pitching less. Later in his career, he became an outfielder.

Ruth was becoming a star player. However, by 1919, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee was having problems with money.^[3] In 1920, the Red Sox sold Ruth to the New York Yankees for cash. Even though the Red Sox had won several World Series in the years before this, they would not win another one until 2004. Many baseball fans believed that the Red Sox had become "cursed" by trading Ruth, and called this the "Curse of the Bambino".^[4] (When the Red Sox finally did win a World Series in 2004, they beat the Yankees in the American League Championship to get there.)

Ruth spent most of the rest of his career with the Yankees, where he became one of the most famous players in baseball history. Ruth helped the Yankees win World Series championships in 1923, 1927, 1928, and 1932. He left the Yankees after the 1934 season and played one last season with the Boston Braves in 1935.

In 1927, Ruth hit 60 home runs, which was then a record for the most home runs in one season. The record was broken by Roger Maris in 1961 with 61 home runs.

Ruth died of a brain tumor on August 16, 1948.^[5]

In November 2018, Ruth posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump.^[6]

He also had a .474 career on-base percentage, which is second all-time to Ted Williams' .482.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Babe Ruth.

• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• baberuth.com - Official site
• baberuthmuseum.com Archived 2009-03-28 at the Wayback Machine Ruth Museum
• Photo of Babe Ruth as a member of the 1916 Red Sox Archived 2008-05-11 at the Wayback Machine