Babe Ruth Research Paper

The Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout, the King of Crash. These are all common nicknames for who you probably know as “Babe” Ruth. Many people know Babe Ruth as the all-star slugger from the New York Yankees, but do not know any more background on him other than his long-lasting homerun records set early in the 20th century. Ruth lived an interesting life, and probably not the one you would imagine for his high-level of fame and glory. George Herman Ruth Jr. was born on the 6th day of February in 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland. George Ruth Jr. was one of the eight children to Kate and George Sr. Ruth. Although his parents had eight children, George Jr. and his sister Mamie Ruth were the only two children to surpass infancy.

In his first Major League season Ruth appeared in 5 games, going 2-1 with a 3.91 ERA (Earned Run Average) and only 2-10 batting with two RBI (Runs Batted In). Ruth spent most of his first season playing on the Red Sox minor league team, the Providence Grays. The next year in 1915 Babe earned himself a spot in the Boston Red Sox pitching rotation. In his first full major league season he had a 50% win rate and a 2.44 ERA in 28 starts. Ruth continued to improve and began to become a stand out player for the Boston Red Sox. Ruth had a .322 batting average, hit 29 homeruns, and had 114 RBI in what became his last season with the Boston Red Sox in 1919. The Babe wanted an increase in his salary after the 1919 season, but Red Sox owner Henry Frazee refused. The Red Sox were offered $60,000 cash and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson for Ruth by the Chicago White Sox, but were also offered $100,000 cash for Ruth by the New York Yankees. On December 26, 1919 Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees for $25,000 cash up front, and three promissory notes that were $25,000 each at 6% interest. In Ruth's time with the Red Sox, they won 3 World Series Titles, but after the selling of Ruth would not win another until 2004, this became known as the "Curse of the

Ruth only pitched in 36 games in his whopping 15 seasons with the Yankees. In Ruth's first season with the Yankees he nearly doubled his old homerun record, hitting 54 in one season, The Philadelphia Phillies were the only team to have more homeruns than just Babe Ruth as an individual. Ruth's second season with the Yankees he broke his old homerun record, hitting 59 in a single season. This was arguably the best season of his career when he broke Major League records for total bases, extra base hits, times on base, single season homeruns, and surpassed the previous record for homeruns in a career. In 1923 the freshly built Yankee Stadium was nicknamed "The House That Ruth Built" because his outstanding performance had helped the Yankees win massive amounts of games, and everyone wanted to see "The Babe" play baseball. Ruth hit the first homerun in this stadium against his fellow Boston Red Sox. In the same year, Ruth won the honors of American League Most Valuable Player, and led the Yankees to their first world series title with his career-high .393 batting