Babe Ruth 3 Essay, Research Paper

Babe Ruth

On February 6, 1895, Kate Schamberger Ruth gave birth to her first child. George Herman Ruth, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the first of eight children born to Kate and George Herman Ruth. Ruth’s father worked as a bartender and ultimately opened his own tavern. Many believe that George was an orphan all his life, but for the first seven years of his life he was with his parents, but he survived without guidance on the dirty, crowded streets of the Baltimore riverfront.

On June 13, 1902, George Herman Ruth took his seven year-old to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. Not only did he place young George in the school, but he also signed over custody of the boy to the Xaverian Brothers, a Catholic Order of Jesuit Missionaries who ran St. Mary’s. At St. Mary s he met Brother Mathias, he taught George about life and Base baseball

Baseball was a popular form of recreation for the boys at St. Mary’s. Young George Ruth, Jr., displayed his potential at a very young age. He played all positions on the field, and was an excellent pitcher. He also possessed a superb ability to hit the ball. By his late teens Ruth had developed into a major league baseball prospect. On February 27, 1914, at the age of nineteen, Ruth was signed to his first professional baseball contract by Jack Dunn, manager of the Baltimore Orioles, at the time a minor league franchise in the International League. Because Ruth’s parents had signed over custody of the youngster to St. Mary’s he was supposed to remain at the school until the age of twenty-one. To get around this, Dunn became Ruth’s legal guardian.

When George Ruth, Jr., appeared with Dunn at the ballpark the other players started cracking jokes, and one of the players quipped, “Well, here’s Jack’s newest Babe.” The rest of the players also started referring to young George as “Babe” and the name stuck. Thus began the storied career of Babe Ruth.

In the mornings, Ruth would go into Landers’ Coffee Shop in Boston, and it is here that he met Helen Woodford, a seventeen-year-old waitress. They married on October 17, 1914 in Ellicott City, Maryland.

In December of 1919 Babe was sold to the New York Yankees. Prior to Ruth’s arrival in New York, the team had never won a pennant. With “The Babe” as part of their team they became a dominant force in major league baseball, winning seven pennants and four World Championships from 1920 to 1933. In 1921, the couple adopted a baby girl, Dorothy.

On January 11, 1929, at the age of 31, Helen died of suffocation in a fire. Dorothy, who was eight at the time, was away at boarding school.

Babe met and became seriously interested in a young widow, Claire Hodgson. Claire had come to New York from Georgia with her young daughter Julia in 1920 and worked as a model and actress. On April 17, 1929, the two were married in New York. In October 1930, Babe adopted Claire’s daughter Julia, while Claire did the same with Dorothy.

He had a passion for hunting and fishing, boxing, and bowling. But perhaps one of his biggest athletic passions was golf. He loved the game and played whenever he could. Babe Ruth’s last year as a Yankee was 1934. He wanted badly to manage in the major leagues. In 1935, at the age of forty, he announced that his playing days were through and that he wanted to become a manager. In late February, the Boston Braves, wanted Ruth to join the team by making him believe that the following year he may become the team’s manager. Unfortunately for the Babe, that never came to pass. Ruth played his last major league game on May 30, 1935, for the Boston Braves and announced his retirement on June 2, 1935. From that day on he kept hoping to get a chance to manage in the major leagues, but the opportunity never came.

In 1946, Babe was diagnosed with throat cancer. Even though doctors performed surgery and he received radiation treatments, the cancer couldn t be cured. With doctors being unable to do any more for him, Babe was released from the hospital. Subsequently, April 27 was declared “Babe Ruth Day” in every baseball park in the United States and Japan. Although too frail to don his old uniform at the time, Babe did make an appearance on that day at Yankee Stadium.

His final appearance at Yankee stadium actually came later, on June 13, 1948, during the 25th anniversary of “The House that Ruth Built.” During the celebration the Yankees also retired his uniform, number 3, and for that reason Babe put on the uniform for one last time.

At 8:01 p.m. on August 16, 1948, Babe Ruth lost his battle with cancer. For two days, his body lay in state at the main entrance to Yankee Stadium. Hundreds of thousands of people stood in line to pay their last respects. Babe’s funeral was on August 19 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. He is buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. He now rests along side of his wife Claire who was buried next to him after her death in 1976.