OPPapers.com

The Life Of Babe Ruth

The Life Of Babe Ruth


Babe Ruth, born George Ruth, Jr., is considered by many to be the
greatest baseball player of all time. Everybody knows how great a hitter Babe
was and how he virtually invented the home run. Not everybody knows how great
of a pitcher Babe was, even though he was one of the best left-handed pitchers
of all time. Babe had a 92 and 44 record, 67.6%, and a 2.24 career earned- run
average in 163 games pitched. Not many career .342 hitters that averaged a home
run every 11.8 at bats can say that.
George Ruth, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 6, 1895,
son of George Herman Ruth, Sr. and Kate Ruth. George took the name of Herman at
his confirmation since it was his father's middle name and the name of his
friend at St.Mary's Industrial School, Brother Herman. Ruth says he had a "
rotten start" in life; he spent his childhood days on the streets and piers of
Baltimore. He led a rather lawless life, his parents were medium-poor and he
was mainly on his own.
All this changed when Ruth entered St.Mary's Industrial School at the
age of eight. Ruth, even though he didn't realize it, had come in to a good
thing. Brother Matthais took young Ruth under his wing and taught him to read,
write, play baseball, do needle work, and right from wrong. Ruth showed a
startling natural talent with a baseball bat, so Brother Matthais tried to round
young George into a complete baseball player by teaching him to pitch and field.
Ruth says that, "Brother Matthais was the greatest man I ever knew." Ruth was
taught to make shirts and became quite good at it, he boasted that he could sew
a shirt in less than 15 minutes.
Ruth never had to use this skill because he was discharged from
St.Mary's School on February 27, 1914 to join the Baltimore Orioles baseball
team of the American League. Ruth was paid a salary of $600 to play in the
International League, one step below the major league, on an Orioles affiliate
team. The team went to...