The Life Of Babe Ruth Essay Research

The Life Of Babe Ruth Essay, Research Paper The Life Of Babe Ruth Babe Ruth, born George Ruth, Jr., is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. Everybody knows how great a hitter Babe was and how he virtually invented the home run. Not everybody knows how great of a pitcher Babe was, even though he was one of the best left-handed pitchers of all time. Babe had a 92 and 44 record, 67.6%, and a 2.24 career earned- run average in 163 games pitched. Not many career .342 hitters that averaged a home run every 11.8 at bats can say that. George Ruth, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 6, 1895, son of George Herman Ruth, Sr. and Kate Ruth. George took the name of Herman at his confirmation since it was his father’s middle name and the name of

his friend at St.Mary’s Industrial School, Brother Herman. Ruth says he had a ? rotten start? in life; he spent his childhood days on the streets and piers of Baltimore. He led a rather lawless life, his parents were medium-poor and he was mainly on his own. All this changed when Ruth entered St.Mary’s Industrial School at the age of eight. Ruth, even though he didn’t realize it, had come in to a good thing. Brother Matthais took young Ruth under his wing and taught him to read, write, play baseball, do needle work, and right from wrong. Ruth showed a startling natural talent with a baseball bat, so Brother Matthais tried to round young George into a complete baseball player by teaching him to pitch and field. Ruth says that, ?Brother Matthais was the greatest man I ever

knew.? Ruth was taught to make shirts and became quite good at it, he boasted that he could sew a shirt in less than 15 minutes. Ruth never had to use this skill because he was discharged from St.Mary’s School on February 27, 1914 to join the Baltimore Orioles baseball team of the American League. Ruth was paid a salary of $600 to play in the International League, one step below the major league, on an Orioles affiliate team. The team went to Fayettville for spring training and Ruth showed raw talent and didn’t need much formal training but needed lots of controlled practice. Coach Sam Steinman warned the veterans to go easy with the rookie Ruth, he said, ?He’s one of Jack Dunn’s babes.? Journalist Roger Pippen asked Steinman to explain, Steinman said out of all the

players in camp Ruth was the biggest and most promising babe of the lot. The players heard this and the name stuck. Babe Ruth. At first George thought the name, Babe, was a joke, but after a while it became like a proper name, and everybody called him Babe. After an impressive showing in the International League, Babe and the rest of the Oriole team were put up for sale. The Boston Red Sox bought Babe and he saw his first major league action on July 11,1914, as he took the mound against the Cleveland Naps. Babe ended up winning the game 4-3 after pitching seven innings and letting up only three runs on five hits. The Red Sox sent Ruth to the International League to play on the Providence team, to get some more experience. At Providence, Ruth had a record of 11 wins and 2 loses.

On September 5, Ruth won a game 9-0, only letting up one hit, but more significantly he hit his first and only minor league home run. The Red Sox brought Ruth back up after the Providence team won the pennant and Ruth pitched in one game without decision. While in Boston, Ruth almost always went to Landers coffee shop and his usual waitress was a girl named Helen Woodford. During breakfast one morning Ruth looked up at Helen and said, ?How about you and me getting married, hon?? After thinking it over for a couple of minutes, Helen accepted his proposal. After the baseball season, Babe and Helen got married in St. Paul’s Church, Ellicott City, Maryland, on October 17,1914. Helen Woodford Ruth stayed out of the public eye and was known as the only person in Boston to still call