Baseball's all-time best baseball player and personality had a respectable film career, starring mostly as himself or a character much like himself. He reportedly made more money starring in such 'B' films as Babe Comes Home than he did in baseball, although he was the highest paid player at the time.


Was the first Major League player to hit 60 home runs (1927). Started out his career as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He had back-to-back 20 win seasons and won a total of 94 career games. Sold to New York for $100,000. Hit the famous "Called Shot" in the 1932 World Series in Chicago. Had two strikes on him when he allegedly pointed to center field and, on the next pitch, smacked the ball in center field for a home run. Led American League in home runs 12 times, runs eight times, RBIs six times and batting once. Hit 714 career home runs. His number 3 was retired by the New York Yankees. Original member of the baseball Hall of Fame. Honored with a monument in Yankee Stadium. Born at 1:45pm-EST Was lifted for a pinch hitter in the 1918 World Series. Was once given an intentional walk with the bases loaded. Biggest ambition was to be a major league manager. Turned down an offer to manage the Yankees' AAA farm club in Newark. Left the Yankees when the team would not name him manager. Accepted an offer by the Boston Braves to be right fielder, vice president, and assistant manager, the latter two of which were only on paper. Became a full-time outfielder in 1919. Held the record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play from 1918 until 1961, when Whitey Ford broke it. Lived at St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore, where he was introduced to baseball by Brother Matthias, until he was signed by the Baltimore Orioles of the International League in 1914. Because he was 19, Orioles' manager Jack Dunne became his guardian. Ruth was called "Dunne's babe", which is how he acquired the nickname "Babe". Pictured on one of fifteen 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the "Celebrate the Century" series, issued 28 May 1998, celebrating the 1920s. Adopted Dorothy Ruth Pirone with first wife Helen in 1921. Decades later, she wrote a book, My Dad, The Babe, claiming that she was Ruth's biological child by a woman named Juanita Jennings. Named the number two athlete of the 20th century in an ESPN poll. [1999] New York Yankees All-Time Leader in Runs (1,959), Home Runs (659), Total Bases (5,131), Walks (1,852), On Base Percentage (.479), Slugging Percentage (.711), and Batting Average Leader (.349). His father owned a saloon in downtown Baltimore. The saloon and the buildings around it were later torn down, and the site now occupies center field of the Baltimore Orioles' stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards. A Sports Illustrated writer, musing from Yankee Stadium's nickname "The House That Ruth Built", jokingly referred to Camden Yards as "The House That Ruth Haunts". Adopted Julia Ruth Stevens after he married her mother. Though he was photographed shaking the hand of President Herbert Hoover at a game, the Babe was no fan of his. When asked in 1930, the first year of the Great Depression, about his salary of $80,000 a year being more than that of the President (who earned $75,000), the Babe replied, "I know, but I had a better year than Hoover." The Babe actively campaigned for Hoover's Democratic rival for the presidency, Al Smith, in 1928. The hard-drinking Babe called Smith, who was for the repeal of Prohibition, "His" candidate. After the Yankees' 1928 World Series victory, their train stopped in Indiana, where Ruth was asked to address the crowd. Ruth, who wanted to give a plug for his friend and Democratic presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith, told the crowd, "Let's give three cheers for my pal and the next president of the U.S.A., Al Smith!" The crowd was completely silent, and some accounts say that the wind could be heard rustling through apple trees. What Ruth wasn't aware of was that Indiana was staunch Herbert Hoover territory. He cursed and got back onto the train. On 3 January 1920, he was formally sold by Harry Frazee to New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert for $125,000, plus a $350,000 loan secured by Fenway Park. At that time, it was the highest price paid for a player, and more money than Ruppert paid for his team. The woeful Yankees soon became a juggernaut, while the powerhouse Red Sox wouldn't win another World Series until 2004. Red Sox fans would attribute the drought to a "curse" which came to be known as "The Curse of the Bambino". Ruth himself never spoke ill of his former team. By 1935, the year of his retirement from baseball, his annuities supplemented his income with dividends of $17,500 per year. By 1937, he had amassed $250,000 in an irrevocable trust that generated $10,000 per year for retirement. The baseball season was expanded to 162 games in 1961. Roger Maris hit 61 home runs that year. Contrary to popular belief, it was not noted with an asterisk in the official record book, but listed as the record for the most home runs in an 162-game season while Ruth's 60 was listed as the record for the most home runs in an 154-game season. Brother of Mamie Ruth Moberly. He and Mamie were the only two of their parents' 8 children to survive infancy.