How Babe Ruth Changed History

Babe Ruth changed the fortunes of a team, city, and a sport. When Ruth played for the Yankees, when the Yankees and the Giants were sharing a field, the Giants kicked them out of the field. In Babe Ruth’s first season, Babe Ruth had hit fifty four home runs. If the Yankees never had him they would’ve moved to the west coast. The Yankees had obtained a huge stadium because of Babe Ruth, because of how popular the Yankees had become with Babe Ruth. The Yankees became so popular that they had run the Giants and the Dodgers out of the city. Those teams moved to the west coast. Babe Ruth emerged as a super star and established, he was one of the best players if not the best one of the top ten. There has never been any players like Babe Ruth.

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Babe Ruth was known as a left handed pitcher and was known as “Baseball’s greatest left hand pitcher.” Then Babe Ruth was moved to the outfield and became known as its greatest hitter. Babe Ruth lead the Boston Red Sox to two world series wins, then the Boston Red Sox sold babe Ruth to the Yankees. Babe Ruth then made the Yankees to be what they are today not on the west coast. The price of Babe Ruth was $125,000 when the Red Sox sold him. Before the Red Sox, Babe Ruth had played for the Orioles in Baltimore for only 5 months. The Yankee stadium opened up in 1923, it became known as “The House that Babe Ruth Built.”

After Babe Ruth had several years of greatness, problems with his health occurred in 1925 and his run record for that year, stopped at 25 home runs. A lot of people thought Babe was past his prime during this season because of the home run record and because of his health problems. In the next two following years, 1926 and 1927, he had set a home run record of 60 home runs. That record was not beaten until 1961 when Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in a season, that was longer.

In 1930, a reporter suggested that Ruth was overpaid because his salary was $80,000, the reporter suggested that because Ruth was making more than Herbert Hoover who was the president at the time. In 1932, it was game three against the Chicago Cubs, Ruth pointed to the sky in the fifth inning and hit the next pitch 500 feet in the stand, behind the center field wall. That was the longest home run ever to be hit at Wrigley field. After Ruth was done with playing baseball, he wanted to manage a major league team but he never got the chance to. When Ruth’s retirement came, he was playing for the Boston Braves. His home run record was 714 home runs, he was hundreds ahead of his closest competitor. The 714 home run record was not exceeded until Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run in 1974. Babe Ruth’s last Batting Average was .690 and has never been approached by any players yet.

In 1936, the Baseball Hall of Fame was inaugurated and Babe Ruth was one of the first six inductees to be in the Hall of Fame. In the year of 1946, during the fall, Babe was diagnosed with a tumor in his neck, his health began to decline quickly. On the day of April 27, 1947, that day was declared Babe Ruth’s day where baseball fans honor Babe Ruth. His Jersey number 3 was retired at the Yankees stadium on the day June 13, 1948, which also landed on the 25th anniversary for the stadium. Babe Ruth died on August 16, 1948. More than 100,000 fans paid their respects at the Yankee Stadium and attended his funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in New York City. In 1919, Ruth hit 29 home runs, also more than any team hit combined in that season, and creating a number that was large, by just one person. At this time, Ruth was becoming more known as a hitter than a pitcher. Many players began to utilize his swing and more and more balls were hit out of the ballpark. If you compared some of the average stats of player in 1918 and 1921, it was clear that the game of baseball was changing because of Ruth’s stats because they were unbelievable.

In 1918, there was 1,989 stolen bases, 7,832 runs, and 235 home runs. In that same year there were 1,487 bases that were stolen, 11,928 runs scored, and 937 home runs. Many fans acknowledged Babe as being a saving grace for baseball after the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. After Babe Ruth’s death he still made an impact on people’s lives with TV commercials in 1998, when Ruth was featured in a Lipton Ice Tea commercial as a character in 2005. Ruth still made it Wfrequently on sports news and shows and people today are still making references to Babe Ruth.

 A lot of fans don’t want any players breaking his records and when Barry Bonds was playing many fans were showing negativity towards Barry Bonds when he was playing because of how amazing Bonds played.

Babe Ruth was born in the city of Baltimore on the day of February 6, 1895. His debut was in 1914, he was playing outfield and pitching. When he was 19 he signed with the Minor league team the Baltimore Orioles for $600. After his first season they finished with the record 22-9, and he pitched four games that season for the Red Sox finishing 2-1. When the Hall of Fame became inaugurated, Babe Ruth entered the Hall of Fame with Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. Cobb is the leading vote getter. Ruth still holds 4 of the 5 single home run season, he still has 171 RBI in 1921 and is fourth all time. Ruth still holds team single season runs for records, in 1921 he had 177 runs.

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Ruth holds records in runs with 1,959 runs, records in home runs with 659 home runs, total bases with 5,131, and batting average with .349. In 1924, he lead the American league in home runs with 46 home runs and a batting average of .378, and he fell short of the Triple Crown by finishing second in RBI with 121 RBI. The Yankees fell behind AL Pennant Winner Washington, who also won the World Series that year.

In 1925, in spring training, Babe Ruth fell victim to his indulgences of eating and drinking, and he was diagnosed with intestinal abscess. Ruth missed much of the 1925 season because of stomach surgery, and serving out a fine from New York manager Miller Huggins for insubordination. Ruth appeared in only 98 games and the Yankees finished the season with the record of 69-85, and Babe Ruth hit .290 that season, with 25 home runs and 66 RBI. 1927, Babe Ruth teamed up with Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, and Bob Meusel, to form Murderer’s Row. The four players drove in over a 100 runs each and cruised to the World Series Victory, that year Ruth set the new AL record for home runs by hitting 60 home runs, more than any other team in the American League. His teammate Lou Gehrig captured the AL MVP that year. In 1928, the Yankees beat out the Athletics and returned to the World Series again, the Yankees that year swept the Cardinals, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig combined to hit 7 home runs and drove 13 runs in the series. Ruth set the record for the batting average in that series with .625 and the held until Billy Hatcher hit .750 in the 1990 series. In regular season, Ruth hit 54 home runs to lead the AL and tied Gehrig for the AL lead in RBI with 142. He also leads the league in runs and walks with 163 runs, and 135 walks. Babe Ruth signed a contract and was paid $80,00, 5,000 dollars more than the president Herbert Hoover and Babe Ruth said “I had a better year than he did.” in 1930. Ruth lead the American League with 49 home runs that season. 1933, Ruth hit .301 with 34 home runs, it was the last time he lead the AL league in an offensive category. Ruth hit .301 with 34 home runs, and 84 RBI, following the season Ruth took part in a tour in Japan with his teammates it was Ruth’s last full year in the Major leagues. In 1935, Ruth’s last year in the major leagues, he was released by the Yankees to the Boston Braves, a team that finished last in the league. His career ended in 28 games into the season after he hit .181 with 6 home runs. He retired a few days after 3 home runs in a game against the Pittsburgh on May 25th. In Ruth’s last game he was out of shape and injured his knee, he had to take himself out of the first inning. Ruth ended his career with the lifetime average of .342. Ruth lead the league in runs eight times, and home runs 12 times, RBI six times, and walks 11 times. Yankees placed seventh in the year before and the year 1926 everyone had low expectations for the Yankees but the team responded by winning the team’s fourth AL Pennant. The Yankees came short to the St. Louis Cardinals in the world series that year. Ruth hit 4 home runs in the series including 3 in a single game, also a new series record, Ruth bounced back from his 1925 ailments and problems to lead the American League in home runs with 47 and 28 home runs more than anyone else. Babe ended up changing baseball and all history about baseball.

Works Cited

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• “Babe Ruth — Changed the Game of Baseball Forever.” Historicbaseball.Com, 2019, www.historicbaseball.com/players/r/ruth_babe.html. Accessed 5 May 2019.
• Stromberg, Joseph. “How Babe Ruth Changed Baseball.” Smithsonian, Smithsonian.com, 16 Aug. 2011, www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-babe-ruth-changed-baseball-51810018/.