Babe Ruth: American Sports Icon

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Ruth loved baseball and it soon became apparent that he was good at it too a samaris he usually played on the team of boys several years older than he was and by the time he was 16 he was the school's best player he became a pitcher the player responsible for throwing the ball to opposing hitters to try and get them out and he was so talented that Jack Dunn the owner of the minor league Baltimore oracles signed him to a professional contract in January 1914 at the age of either 19 or 20 depending on which date of birth you use finally released from the walls of Saint Mary's the young Ruth wanted to see everything he wanted to do everything experience everything all at once he was naive about the world in a way that Charmed his teammates who soon gave him the next babe because he looked and acted like a big kid the nickname stuck and for the rest of his life hardly anyone ever called him George Ruth may have been a kid but he pitched like a seasoned Pro he won 14 games for the Orioles in half a season with the team before done beset by money trouble sold Roots contract the Boston Red Sox he did this alongside another pitcher Ernie Shaw Babe Ruth was already on his way to the big leagues we didn't play very much for Boston in 1914 his breakthrough came the next year when he won 18 games and helped them win the American League Championship known as a pennant before defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series in 1916 he was even better with 23 wins in another world series titled this time over the Brooklyn Dodgers in 917 they didn't win but that wasn't his fault he had 24 wins bringing his total over three full seasons to 65 an average of over 20 a year by the end of 1917 he was considered the best left-handed pitcher in baseball and if he had continued on his way he would surely have been remembered as one of the best pitchers in the history of the game but Babe Ruth was a curious Oddity in baseball a picture that could also hit well as rules pitchers and hitters are like two different species of baseball players in the big leagues each discipline is so specialized that if you're good at one you're not good at the other pitchers are generally so bad at hitting that in recent decades they've been replaced in the batting lineup with a designated hitter so that they can focus on throwing the ball but those rules didn't apply to Babe Ruth oh no he seemed to be just as good at hitting as he was a pitching so good in fact that his manager decided to try him in other positions on days when he wasn't pitching so that he could keep his Bat in the lineup in 1918 when the Red Sox won a third championship and in 1919 Ruth split his time between pitching and playing in the Outfield and defied all baseball logic by being good at both what made Ruth so unique as a hitter was how hard he could hit the ball in those days baseball was a game dominated by pitching and defense while offense oh would be hard to come by the Home Run hitting the ball out of the park for an automatic score was a rarity with most hitters only managing a couple of them a season but Babe Ruth he had home runs and he hit them in bunches in 1919 he set a new Major League record for home runs hit in a season when he cracked 29 of them and the crowd absolutely loved him for it at the end of the season something happened that changed the course of baseball history the Boston Red Sox were owned by Harry Frazier Broadway show runner that had spent gobs of money on the team since he bought them in 1916 to make one of the best in the league but at the end of the 1919 season he was in deep financial trouble deeply and dirty risked losing the ball club and financial ruin unless he could quickly raise cash the only way to do this was to sell off the best assets he had the contract of his star players Frazee was in a very public Feud with American League President Dan Johnson at this point so one of the only other owners willing to make a deal with him was Jacob Rupert a co-owner of the New York Yankees Rupert had made his fortune in the brewery business but with prohibition bearing down on the country he began to rely more and more on his baseball team for Revenue which meant he needed a star attraction to put his fans in the stands the biggest box office drawing baseball at this point was Babe Ruth so if Frazee was selling Rupert was buying Ruth was sold to the Yankees for a hundred thousand dollars in Cash Plus a 250 000 loan the news shocked the baseball world Yankee fans were delighted while Boston fans were devastated the sale of Babe Ruth marked a dramatic reversal of Fortune for both clubs the Red Sox which had won the World Series four times between 1912 and 1918 wouldn't win another until 2004 86 years later in that time the Yankees which that point had yet to appear in the series would win 26 championships and become one of the richest and most storied franchises in all of sports history as the Decades of futility piled up Red Sox fans began to believe their team had been cursed that they were all being punished for the mortal sin of sending Babe Ruth to the hated Yankees foreign there is a legitimate argument to be made that Babe Ruth Saved Baseball in the early 1920s in 1920 during Ruth's first season with the Yankees eight members of the Chicago White Sox were banned from baseball for life after they were accused of taking money from gamblers to lose the 1919 World Series on purpose the black sock Scandal as it became known threatened the future of baseball as nobody would pay to watch games if they believed the results were fixed Babe Ruth and his prodigious hitting brought people back to the stadiums and kept interest in the game going as baseball weathered the storm something else happened in 1920 that Babe Ruth would indirectly benefit from an on-field tragedy that would change the way the game was played on August 16 1920 Ruth watched from the field as his teammate Carl Mays pitched to Cleveland Indians hit her Ray Chapman the ball got away from Maze and struck Chapman in the head fracturing his skull and driving chips of bone into his brain he took a few steps toward first base and then collapsed early the next morning he died the first and only onville death of a player in major league history Witnesses said Chapman never even attempted to move out of the way of the Fatal pitch probably because he couldn't see the ball in those days players typically use the same baseball for the entire game so in the later Innings it was dirty and hard for the batter to see pictures also routinely applied foreign substances to the ball like spit or tobacco juice or Scuff the ball with their fingernails or an emery board so it moved erratically making it harder for the battle to follow after Chapman was killed baseball Executives decided something had to be done and changed the rules which persist to this day baseballs are removed at the first sign of wear and players are forbidden from altering the ball or putting anything on it the rule change had an immediate effect on the game offensive production exploded batting averages went up more runs were being scored and more home runs were being hit no one epitomized this change more than Babe Ruth when he came to the Yankees he transitioned full time into an outfielder he would only pitch in five more games the remainder of his career 1920 marked the start of the Babe Ruth era as he began to dominate baseball in a way few other athletes ever have he absolutely destroyed his own record hitting 54 home runs next closest player at only 19. in 1921 he was even better he set a new record 59 and after only three full offensive Seasons he already had the most career home runs in major league history that year he led the Yankees their first Penance losing to the New York Giants in the World Series [Music] people packed the stands to watch Ruth hit wherever he went smashing attendance records over and over again after the 1921 season Ruth signed a new contract that paid him 52 000 a year an unheard of some for a baseball player it was more than some teams paid their entire roster despite this he made even more money from endorsement deals and exhibition and Vaudeville appearances than he did from his player contracts the first athlete in history known to have done so crowds followed him wherever he went clamoring for an autograph or to shake his hand Ruth reveled in the attention whether it be from a Schoolboy or a newspaper reporter Ruth was great copy for the papers answering every question even silly ones and always willing to have his picture taken they competed with each other to bestow the most outlandish nicknames on him he was the Bambino the Sultan of Swat the Colossus clouds the Maharaja of mash and a dozen others by this point Ruth was becoming as well known for his off the field exploits as on-field production his appetite for food was legendary he loved to eat and in massive portions his weight would seize or up and down a lot over the years Alco was banned in the United States by this point but those with money had no problem getting it if they wanted it and Ruth put the good stuff away by the barrel well let's just say that his stamina in that department as well as the sheer number of women he disappeared into hotel rooms with over the years was legendary among his teammates even if it tended to be overlooked by the newspapers in 1922 Ruth was suspended five times throughout the season for various offenses after drawing the eye of everyone from his manager Miller Huggins to the newly anointed commissioner of baseball judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis he had thrown dirt in the face of an Umpire leapt into the stairs try beat up a Heckler almost gotten himself killed in a car accident and threatened to beat up another umpire losing for the second year in a row to the Giants in the World Series was just the icing on the cake of a disappointing season Ruth was lambasted by everyone accused of setting a bad example to the children that looked up to him and he promised reform 1923 was the start of a new era in New York the Yankees have been playing their home games in the Giant home park the Polo Grounds once the Babe arrived Yankee started drawing more fans to the park than the Giants did which was embarrassing to the Giants management they told the Yankees that police wouldn't be renewed and they were to play elsewhere Rupert brought lands in the Bronx and started construction on a new ballpark Yankee Stadium that opened during the 1923 season the dimensions of the new ballpark were specially designed with Babe Ruth's swing in mind and it was only fitting that he christened it with a home run during the first game played there Yankee Stadium would become known as the house that Ruth built then zero would serve as the Yankees home stadium up till the end of the 2008 season when it was demolished to make way for its replacement the Yankees stormed to the pennant in 1923 again Facing the Giants and the third time proved to be the charm as they finally defeated their Crosstown Rivals to win the first championship it was Ruth's fourth as a player his popularity was as strong as ever but his poor impulse control would rear its head again soon enough foreign 1925 was the low point for the Babe both personally and professionally during spring training he became dangerously sick and had to have surgery to repair what his doctors called an intestinal abscess the exact nature of his illness remains a mystery but it seems likely it had something to do with his hard partying lifestyle Sports writers jokingly claimed that Ruth had overindulged on hot dogs and soda pop and nicknamed the illness the bellyache heard around the world around this time Roots marriage to his first wife Helen effectively came to an end the two had buried in 1914 during Babe's first season with the Red Sox and like many Teenage romances it was destined for heartbreak Helen grew increasingly distressed at her husband's inability to be faithful to her it is believed that Dorothy their daughter was adopted the child of one of Ruth's many Mistresses finally Helen had a nervous breakdown and spent much of the next few years in and out of the hospital the two never lived together as husband or wife again though because they were both Catholic divorce was never considered Ruth's erratic Behavior finally wore out the patience of Miller Huggins who suspended him for over a week and fight him five thousand dollars initially defied Ruth eventually apologized and practically begged to be allowed to play again it was all part of a disastrous season for the Yankees who finish next to last in the league standings people began to say that the glory years were over that the Yankees and Ruth were done both would set out to prove the critics wrong [Music] the 1927 Yankees are considered to be one of the best teams in the history of baseball their lineup was known as murderous row with Babe Ruth the centerpiece of a truly fearsome offense the Yankees won 110 games winning the pennant by 19 games of a second place and barreled through the Pittsburgh Pirates in four straight to win the World Series Ruth was in vintage form breaking the single season home run record for the fourth and final time with an even 60 home runs and he was complimented by first baseman Lou Gehrig one of the new generation of power hitters that had come to the big leagues inspired by The Babe 1927 would prove to be the Apex of Babe Ruth's legendary career the summit of the mountain from then on it would be a slow descent back to sea level Murderers Row won again in 1928 getting revenge on the St Louis Cardinals who had beaten them in the World Series in 1926 but then things started to go wrong the Philadelphia Athletics rattled off three pennants in a row resigning the Yankees to Second Place the 1929 Miller Huggins Babe Ruth's only manager while he was with the Yankees died suddenly leaving the Yankees leaders Ruth would spend the rest of his career campaigning to be named manager himself to the growing frustration of Yankee Executives the Great Depression set in hitting ticket sales and player salaries both meanwhile Ruth was pulling down 80 grand a year more than the president of the United States when asked if he thought it was right to make more money than the president Ruth joked that I had a better year than he did this meant that every time he got involved in controversy he started drawing the r of the fans ah he was unable to dispel with good play anymore Ruth had fallen victim to the universal enemy of the athlete father time as he got older he physically declined his offensive production nose diving Ruth had one more moment in the sun in 1932 the Yankees won the pennant again facing off against the Chicago Cubs in the World Series in the third game in front of a hostile Chicago crowd Ruth is said to have pointed to a spot in the center field and then hit a towering home run there helping the Yankees to win the game and the series his seventh championship between the Red Sox and the Yankees whether or not Ruth actually called his shot as a matter of debate among Baseball fans and historians but like many baseball stories it almost doesn't matter if it's true or not what matters is that sounds good after two more disappointing Seasons it became obvious to everyone that Babe Ruth was done as a player he probably should have retired at the end of 1934 but he still wanted to manage he accepted an offer from the owner of the Boston Braves judge Emma Fuchs agreeing to an assistant manager player position with a verbal agreement that he would be considered for a managerial job in the future it didn't take long into the 1935 season for babe to realize that had been tricked the only reason Fuchs had signed him was as a publicity stunt to draw fans to his ailing ball Club he had no intention of ever making Babe Ruth a manager what was worse is performance in the field was embarrassing he was a complete liability as a player now up 28 games Babe Ruth called it quits he retired with 714 home runs so many that he had twice as many as the next man on the career list his former teammate Garrick Ruth went into retirement still hoping to become a manager but except for a half season as a coach with Brooklyn nobody was interested he ended up doing what a lot of guys end up doing when they retire he played a lot of golf he had toned down his freewheeling ways in recent years due in large part to his second wife Claire Phelan died in 1929. Claire kept a tight Reign on his finances traveled with him during the season to help keep him in line Ruth's retirement was described as being like an ex-president he was famous but useless one of the most significant things he did was appear as himself in the 1942 movie The Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig who had been forced to retire in 1939 after being diagnosed with ALS which claimed his life in 1941. Ruth made a number of public appearances designed to fundraise for the War epic or entertain the troops he was so associated with America that Japanese soldiers were shouting what they perceived to be the ultimate insult to their enemies to hell with Babe Ruth in 1947 Ruth began to feel sick it was a terrific pain in his head and neck doctors found cancer growing in his nasal cavity and his larynx probably caused by his near-constant cigar smoking throughout most of his adult life surgery couldn't get all of the tumor out and it damaged his voice box to boot then experimental treatments of radiation therapy and chemotherapy were tried but with only limited success and it soon became clear that he was dying in June 1948 he appeared at Yankee Stadium for the last time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 1923 season he looked noticeably frail using a baseball bat as a cane as he came out onto the field two months later he died age 53. [Music] the entire country mourned when Babe Ruth died for two days Ruth's body Laden stayed in the Rotunda of Yankee Stadium while a line of mourners far past the casket his funeral at Saint Patrick's Cathedral was attended by 75 000 people and another 100 000 lined the procession route to his final resting place at Gate of Heaven Cemetery most of Babe Ruth's records have been broken as the decades have passed most notably his single season home run record in 1961 and his career home on record in 1974. today he ranks third on the all-time list the fact that he still ranks so highly on most of these lists a century after he played is a testament to how good he was as a player the impact that Babe Ruth had on baseball could be seen in the way the game is still being played everson's owners discovered that fans love to watch home runs they went out of their way to give the people what they wanted more and more players came in that had home run swings new ballparks were built to encourage more home runs and in most modern stadiums hitting a home run is cause for celebration with fireworks and sirens and exciting Graphics popping up on the scoreboard Babe Ruth changed the way that we think about things too someone who is a dominant chess player might be referred to as the Babe Ruth of Chess and most people will understand what you're talking about Ruth appears almost cartoonish today with his goofy smile and grainy footage often sped up of him batting it's hard to overstate how big he was in his day though he became the most famous man in America in an age when if you wanted to see a baseball game you had to go there in person unless you wanted to read about it the next day in the newspaper there was no television radio and movies were in their infancy and more messages were being passed by Telegram and telephone and yet still everyone knew who he was and they loved him for who it was in spite of his faults that kind of adulation seems silly in their cynical Society we live in today but that's just how it was back then perhaps the reason they loved him was because it was uncomplicated with no ulterior motives or secret agenda he was just a man who loved playing baseball sure he loved other things too but at his core that's who he was just another baseball fan the only difference was Babe Ruth was one of the few people all the baseball loved back just as fiercely and probably always will [Music]

Channel: Biographics

Views: 111,651

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, american icons, babe ruth icon, babe ruth beloved, american, baberuth. baseball, babe ruth, baseball records, sports, baseball hall of fame, baseball history, breaking records, icon, baseball star, new york, baseball

Id: iKvA7zB2suk

Length: 21min 56sec (1316 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022