Babe+Ruth

Babe Ruth** **By: Emily** Babe George Herman Ruth JR. A.K.A ‘’Babe Ruth’ was a very great man. He was on many great Baseball teams and had so many great nicknames.
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 * 20th Century **

He was born February 6, 1895, in Baltimore, Maryland. When he was young, he started skipping school and getting into trouble. Then he went to a school to teach boys with special needs. By the age of 15, he was playing both catcher and pitcher on ST. Mary’s varsity team.

Ruth had seven siblings so it was tough around that time and his parents were getting tired. His parents had given custody of the boy to the Jesuits and he was enrolled at St. Mary’s which was where he was supposed to remain until the age of 21. But at age 19, Ruth was spotted by Jack Dunn, owner of the Baltimore Orioles of the International League who signed him to his first professional contract. In order to complete the contract they had to remove him from school and Dunn was forced to adopt him. This led to Dunn’s ‘’baby’’ become Babe, a nickname, and this nickname stayed for the rest of his life.

Ruth began his career as a pitcher in Baltimore Oriels. Nicknamed Sultan Swat, Ruth started his Major League career a left-handed pitcher with the American League’s Boston Red Sox in 1914.

In 1920, he was sold to the Yankees for $100,000 which increased his popularity which is what made him a celebrity.

In 1927, the Yankees were unstoppable. In fact, the team won 110 games and lost 44. Babe Ruth set a record for 60 home runs that would only be broken by three players: Roger Maris in 1961; and Mark McGuire in 1998, Barry Bonds in 2001. In 1927, Ruth set a record for a 154 game season with a total of 714 homeruns and a .342 batting average. In 1930, he was paid $80,000 for the season. Then Ruth led seven American League Championships, and four World Series titles. In 27 seasons, Babe Ruth was considered the greatest baseball player.

In 1932, Ruth hit his famous ‘’called shot’’ in which he pointed to Center Field bleachers and hit a home run there. When he retired in 1935, he held every record. Four years later the National Baseball Hall of Fame elected Babe as its first member.

Ruth had a lifelong love for children. In 1947, American Legion’s Youth Baseball program director and Babe Ruth went to the Charity Foundation for disadvantaged children and helped them raise money.

‘’The Curse of The Bambino’’ is a legend about Babe Ruth. He was one of the stars of 1918 championship Red Sox team. Then they sold him to the New York Yankees and that’s what started the curse. The Red Sox didn’t win for eighty years after that curse. Then the Sox played the Yankees in a series and beat them in four straight games. The Curse was broken – victory! In 2004, the curse was broken, but Ruth was still baseball’s greatest hitter.

The Great Bambino and the Sultan, the Babe. These nicknames bring a sense of awe, wonder and amazement even 50 years after Babe Ruth died. His famous line was ‘’Heroes come and go, but legends never die.’’

 Works Cited __Benjamin Harlow__. 19 May 2009 . __Http://go-kids.grolier.com/splash__. McLeese, Don. __Babe Ruth (American Legends Series)__. Grand Rapids: Rourke, 2002. Shaughnessy, Dan. __The Legend of the Curse of the Bambino__. New York: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2005. 