Ruth, George Herman, “Babe” b. February 6, 1895; Baltimore, Maryland d.August 16, 1948, New York City
Professional baseball player (1914-1938) of German descent. Babe’s mother was the daughter of German immigrants named Schamberger. She died when her son was only fifteen. Babe’s father, after whom he was named, was a saloon keeper in Baltimore, and also of German descent.
It was probably in his family that the Babe picked up some German, which he still spoke in later years. Babe Ruth had a rough childhood. At the age of seven he was sent to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, a Catholic reform school led by Xaverian brothers. During recreation time the boys were required to participate in some kind of team sport. It was here that the Babe was introduced to baseball. Until the age of nineteen he attended this schooloff and on. Later the myth arose that he was an orphan.
At the World Series, October 4, 1924: George Sisler, Babe Ruth, and Ty Cobb (left to right). (Library of Congress)
Ruth started his baseball career with the Baltimore Orioles, then a minor league team, when he was 19 years old. By the end of the season he had joined the Boston Red Sox. Six years later that team sold him to the New York Yankees. Following this transaction, the Red Sox did not win a World Series title again until 2004. This monumental losing streak was attributed by superstitious fans to the alleged “Curse of the Bambino.” The Babe is known for his outstanding achievements in baseball, such as hitting 714 home runs (a record that stood from 1935 to 1974) and hitting 60 homers in one season (1927, a record that stood until 1961). He was the highest- paid player of his time. Except for 1925, Ruth led the league in batting from 1918 through 1931.
After his career as an active player was over, Babe Ruth unsuccessfully tried to get into coaching or managing positions in baseball.
Besides his athletic achievements, the Babe was also known for his undisciplined lifestyle, which included parties, gambling, uncountable affairs with women, drinking, and consuming huge amounts of food, which accounted for weight problems. Before each season he habitually went on a diet. Babe Ruth was married twice. After the death of his first wife, Helen Woodford, whom he had married at the age of nineteen but had lived separately from for many years, he married Claire Hodgson in 1929. She had a positive influence on his lifestyle. The Babe also adopted two children, one together with Helen and later, Claire’s daughter. Babe Ruth died of throat cancer. According to his biographer Kal Wagenheim, he became a legend that the press elevated to “sterile sainthood” (Wa- genheim 2001, 271).Annette Hofmann
References and Further Reading
Chronik des Sport. Berlin: Sportverlag, 2000.
Kirsch, George B., Othello Harris, and Claire
E. Nolte, eds. Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sport in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000, pp. 397—398.
Wagenheim, Kal. Babe Ruth: His Life and Legend. Chicago: Olmstead, 2001.