HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE RUTH
Megacards, The Babe Ruth Collection, 1992, Card 116.
George Herman “Babe” Ruth was
born into a poor family along Baltimore’s waterfront in 1895 in what is now the
Camden Yards neighborhood. Of eight
children, only Babe and a younger sister survived infancy. “I spent most of the first 7 years of my life
living above my father’s saloon. When I
wasn’t living over it, I was in it,” Babe said.
Largely unsupervised, he began to chew tobacco, drink, and roam the
streets. His parents placed him in St.
Mary’s Industrial School for Boys until baseball rescued him from the
reformatory during his teenage years. He
died of throat cancer in 1948 at the age of 53.
Babe Ruth turned 33 years old on
Sunday, February 6, 1927. The Los
Angeles Times pictured him that day carrying a generous brace of ducks off
a dock on Sweetwater Lake near San Diego after the slugger went hunting for
some dinner.
Ruth needed the diversion. He’d been arrested three days earlier on a
charge of violating California’s child labor laws. As part of a vaudeville act, Ruth had called
a few boys on stage to receive autographed baseballs. An over-zealous state labor deputy nabbed the
home run king on the shaky grounds the boys had therefore become part of the
performance.
A court date was set for that
Monday. Ruth was not inclined to
appear. Laterally extending his nativity
on the calendar, he explained to reporters that the seventh was his birthday,
and he didn’t want to spend it in court.
He was soon acquitted of the frivolous
charge.
Megacards, The Babe Ruth Collection, 1992, Card 139.
Ruth was often described as
just a big kid himself. “The Babe never grew old,” said his wife,
Claire. “He was excited about each new
day—the way a kid is when he wakes up in the morning.” Babe never forgot the hard times of his
youth, and he visited orphanages and hospital wards during his playing career
and in later life. “Babe visited dozens
of hospitals because he loved children, not because he was looking for
publicity,” teammate Lefty Gomez said.
“I knew plenty of hospitals he went to that nobody knew about, which was
the way he wanted it.”
In early March of 1927, Ruth
signed the biggest contract to date in baseball history, agreeing to a
three-year term with the Yankees at $70,000 per year. The salary exceeded the annual contract of Baseball
Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis by $5,000 and beat Ty Cobb’s paycheck by
$10,000.
Full-time umpire and nighthawk
writer Billy Evans gave Ruth a birthday present in a story that circulated before
the signing, lauding the Babe’s all-around skills in the outfield, on the
basepaths, and at the plate.
“As a matter of fact, there are
not more than half dozen outfielders who can cover more ground than Ruth,”
Evans began. “When it comes to throwing,
Tris Speaker is the only left-hand
throwing outfielder who is more accurate.
Ruth gets greater distance. On
the bases, for a big fellow Ruth is remarkably fast. He tops his speed with a deceptive slide. At bat, Ruth is much more than a mere
slugger,” Evans concluded. “He is an
adept bunter, drags the ball well, and when he wants to, can hit to most any
field.”
But his home runs made the
biggest news that year. All spring and
summer, Ruth and Lou Gehrig hammered American League pitching. On Labor Day, both were tied with 44 home
runs in a battle to break Ruth’s then-record of 59. Baseball had never seen anything like
it. Then Gehrig somehow lost his stroke
and went 19 games without putting a ball into the seats; Ruth hit five in the
next two days and added 11 more as the season ran down.
In the midst of the race to 60, Paul Gallico considered the man with the big
swing.
“Ruth without temptation might be
a pretty ordinary fellow. Part of his
charm lies in the manner in which he succumbs to every temptation that comes
his way,” the New York Daily News columnist mused. “Ruth is either planning to cut loose, is
cutting loose, or is repenting the last time he cut loose. He is a news story on legs going about
looking for a place to happen.”
Gallico also saw virtue between
the lines. The writer buttonholed Yankee
owner Jacob Ruppert in an open letter supporting Ruth’s demand for a
raise. “There’s this too,” Gallico
began. “The Babe is honest. Certainly his name has never been linked with
ball games bought and paid for, presents to pitchers, pools and all the other
pretty things that have been uncovered recently,” the columnist warned. “Because if you want baseball to have a real jolt
from which it would take years to recover, let there be a proved story that
Ruth is crooked.”
Babe Ruth. The one
and only. Happy Birthday.
Topps Conlon Collection, 1995, Babe Ruth’s 100th Birthday.
No comments:
Post a Comment