Ruth


 * Every kid who ever picked up a baseball knows the name Babe Ruth.
 * His parents' names were George Herman Ruth Sr. and Katie Schamberger.
 * Nicknames: The Great Bambino, The Sultan of Swat, the Home-run King, the Babe, the King of Swing
 * Real name: George Herman Ruth
 * He was not an orphan, he was a bad kid from a bad neighborhood
 * His parents placed him in a Catholic reform school for delinquents and orphans (St. Mary's) when he was 7.
 * One of the Xaverian Brothers(Brother Matthias)who ran his school introduced him to baseball because he thought it'd straighten out Ruth's life.
 * Babe fell in love with the game.
 * He became the idol of every kid baseball player in America, became the standard against which all players were measured.
 * He was inspiration to every kid everywhere, and although he last played almost 75 years ago, he's still widely considered the greatest baseball player in history.
 * Born in Baltimore.
 * No one's really certain of his birthdate, but he always celebrated it on Feb. 7, 1894. When he was asked about the confusion he just said, "What difference does it make?"
 * Grew up speaking both German and English.
 * He was the first-born of eight kids, six of whom died. His sister was named Mary Margaret, called Mamie.
 * Not much is truly known about his childhood.
 * He got into a lot of trouble, fighting, stealing, and playing hooky, which led up to him being taken to the Catholic school.
 * All the boys at st. mary's played baseball.
 * Died in August 16, 1948 in New York, New York
 * Major League Baseball debut: July 11, 1914
 * Last Major League Baseball appearance: May 30, 1935
 * **Hall of Fame:** Elected in 1936 receiving 95.13% of the votes
 * 2-time All-Star selection (1933, 1934)
 * 7-time World Series champion (1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1927, 1928, 1932)
 * 1923 AL MVP
 * Had #3 retired by the New York Yankees in 1948
 * Member of Major League Baseball’s All Century Team
 * Voted Athlete of the Century by the Associated Press
 * ESPN Sports Century - #2 Athlete of the 20th Century
 * Named the Greatest baseball player of all time by The Sporting News
 * Named the Greatest baseball player of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated
 * Jack Dunn offered a contract to George Jr. in February 1914 after watching him for less than an hour.
 * Upon seeing George Jr. for the first time, the Orioles players referred to him as “Jack’s newest babe”, and thus the most famous nickname in American sports history was born.
 * Babe is most known for his prodigious power as a slugger, but he started his career as a catcher/pitcher.
 * in 1918 he tied for the major-league lead in homeruns with 11, and followed that up by setting a single season home run record of 29 dingers in 1919, but that was his last season with the Boston Red Sox.
 * On December 26, 1919, Babe was sold to the New York Yankees and the two teams would never be the same again.
 * He changed baseball from a grind it out style to one of power and high scoring games.
 * In 1920, he bested the homerun record he set in 1919 by belting a staggering 54 homeruns, a season in which no other player hit more than 19 and only one team hit more than Babe did individually.
 * his 1921 season may have been the greatest in MLB history. he blasted a new record of 59 homeruns, drove in 171 RBI, scored 177 runs, batted .376 and had an unheard of .846 slugging percentage.
 * With Babe leading the way, the Yankees became the most recognizable and dominant team in baseball, setting attendance records along the way. When the Yankees moved to a new stadium in 1923, it was appropriately dubbed “The House that Ruth Built”.
 * in 1927, as a member of “Murderer’s Row”, he set a new homerun record of 60, a record that would stand for 34 years.
 * Prior to his arrival, the Yankees had never won a title of any kind.
 * After joining the Yankees prior to the 1920 season, Babe helped the Yankees capture seven pennants and four World Series titles.
 * The 1927 team is still considered by many to be the greatest in baseball history.
 * Upon retiring from the Boston Braves in 1935, Babe held an astonishing 56 major league records at the time, including the most revered record in baseball... 714 homeruns.
 * In 1936, the Baseball Hall of Fame was inaugurated and Babe was elected as one of its first five inductees.
 * During the fall of 1946, it was discovered that Babe had a malignant tumor on his neck, and his health began to deteriorate quickly.
 * On June 13, 1948, his jersey number “3” was retired by the Yankees during his last appearance at Yankee Stadium.
 * Babe lost his battle with cancer on August 16, 1948. His body lay in repose in Yankee Stadium, with his funeral two days later at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
 * In all, over 100,000 people lined up and paid their respects to the Babe
 * Despite passing over 60 years ago, Babe still remains the greatest figure in major league baseball, and one of the true icons in American history.
 * The Babe helped save baseball from the ugly Black Sox scandal, and gave hope to millions during The Great Depression.
 * He impacted the game in a way never seen before, or since.
 * Quotes:
 * “The only real game, I think, in the world is baseball.”
 * “I have just one superstition. Whenever I hit a home run, I make certain I touch all four bases.”
 * “Baseball changes through the years. It gets milder.”
 * “I won't be happy until we have every boy in America between the ages of six and sixteen wearing a glove and swinging a bat.”
 * “All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.”
 * “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.”
 * “Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.”
 * “If I'd tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around six hundred.”
 * “How to hit home runs: I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball... The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.”
 * “As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.”
 * “Baseball is the greatest game in the world and deserves the best you can give it.”
 * “Watch my dust.”
 * “I've never heard a crowd boo a homer, but I've heard plenty of boos after a strikeout.”
 * “All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don't know except it looked good.”
 * “I thank heaven we have had baseball in this world... the kids... our national pastime.”
 * “You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth - that means the boys. And after you've been a boy, and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in our national pastime.”
 * “I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.” //- Reported reply when a reporter objected that the salary Ruth was demanding ($80,000) was more than that of President Herbert Hoover's ($75,000)//
 * “I'd give a year of my life if I could hit a homerun on opening day of this great new park.” //- April 18, 1923, about the newly built Yankee Stadium//
 * “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
 * “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from coming up to bat.”
 * “To my sick little pal. I will try to knock you another homer, maybe two today.”
 * “It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.”
 * Batting average: .342
 * Home runs: 714.
 * Hits: 2,873
 * Runs batted in: 2,217
 * Win-loss record: 94-46
 * Earned run average: 2.28
 * ~ Batting average: || .342 ||
 * ~ Home runs: || 714 ||
 * ~ Hits: || 2,873 ||
 * ~ Runs batted in: || 2,217 ||
 * ~ Win–loss record: ||  ||

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