Creators Podcast
Episode #7
07.31.2024
How did George Ruth, a kid from nowhere, become one of the biggest sports legends of all-time? He might be one of the most well known personalities in the entire world, even still to this day, 100 years since he played for the New York Yankees.
I read an amazing little book about how George Ruth turned into ‘The Babe.’ Changing professional baseball, the sports world, and an entire culture. And the book was written in Babe Ruth’s words, just before he passed away in 1948.
The Babe Ruth Story
The title of the book was, ‘The Babe Ruth Story,’ and the copy I read nearly fell apart as I was reading it. The binding was so brittle that each page detached as I turned them. With the help of a sportswriter friend of Babe’s, the book was written so Ruth could tell his story before he passed away.
Reading the book gives you a very good idea of the major turning points in Ruth’s life. As a kid, he ran into a mentor that would teach him how to handle himself in life, and on the baseball field as well.
I would strongly recommend the book. Even if you’re not a big-time baseball fan, the tiny little book written in Babe Ruth’s own words gives you a clear idea of what obstacles were overcome to survive, and then rise to the very top and beocme an icon of American culture.
Babe Ruth Humble Beginnings
In the first line of Babe Ruth’s book, he admits that he was a bad kid. He gets that out of the way from the very beginning. And he doesn’t blame anyone for that fact just because he didn’t have a stable home environment. He admits that even if he was the son of, “J. Pierpont Morgan V,” he probably would have been a handful either way.
But the reality is that young George Ruth did have a very difficult childhood. His parents owned a bar, and he sometimes learned how to behave by hanging around the bar and mimicking the sailors and longshoreman who were patrons at the establishment.
Chewing tobacco at age seven, skipping school, and getting into lots of trouble. Young George Ruth was a handful as a kid, and his parents decided the only thing to do was to bring Ruth to St. Mary’s Industrial School in Baltimore.
Some called it an orphanage, others said it was a reform school. But it was really for anyone who needed an education because their parents had no other means to provide for them.
St. Mary’s Industrial School
For almost 12 years, George Ruth was in and out of St. Mary’s Industrial School. He wasn’t even completely sure how many times he was out, and then brought straight back to the school.
It was probably the best option for Ruth at the time. And even to this day, he looks back on his time at St. Mary’s as one of the most important periods of his life.
Like he said in his book, “I’m as proud of it as any Harvard man is proud of his school, and, to get crude for a moment, I will be happy to bop anybody on the beezer who speaks ill of it.”
So Ruth was proud of his St. Mary’s school, but it was mostly because of one man that he met while attending.
Ruth called him the most influential person in his entire life. A man by the name of Brother Matthias.
Brother Matthias
And this comment is straight out of his book, “It was at St. Mary’s that I met and learned to love the greatest man I’ve ever known. His name was Matthias, Brother Matthias of the Xaverian Order.”
So Brother Matthias was not just a great teacher in the classroom, but he was also involved in the school baseball team. And now you can see why George Ruth and Brother Matthias began to spend so much time together. Ruth fell in love with playing baseball, and Brother Matthias wanted to help make him great.
Ruth commented that Matthias was not just a larger than life figure to the young boys of St. Mary’s, he was actually a very large man. He stood six foot six, and easily weighed 250 pounds. And his frame was all muscle.
While he was a large and imposing figure, he didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. He just commanded respect, but when he did speak up, everyone listened.
George Ruth was lucky to cross paths with Brother Matthias. He felt that someone cared about him, and also remembers that the few gifts he might have had as a youngster, Brother Matthias drew it out of him, and inspired him to constantly improve.
George Ruth Plays Ball
St. Mary’s was serious about baseball. The game was growing in popularity back in these days, and the school had several different teams of all ages.
Number one, baseball is a great game and lots of fun to play. But maybe most importantly, it gave all these youngsters something to focus on. An activity to occupy their minds, and take the focus away from their troubles. Baseball kept the St. Mary’s school busy, so there wouldn’t be any time for mischief.
So with the help of Brother Matthias, Ruth practiced baseball and learned valuable skills on the ballfield.
Ruth even recalls the first time he saw Brother Matthias hit a baseball. He said it was a vivid memory from the summer of 1902, his very first year at St. Mary’s.
Matthias had a ball glove on one hand, and holding a bat with the other hand. He would toss the ball up and smack it into the air for the boys to catch. He added that Matthias could have easily hit the ball over the center field fence with one hand, more than 350 from home plate.
The Dead Ball
We have to talk about the dead ball era. One of the funniest things I found about the book by Babe Ruth is that he was constantly talking about the quality of the baseball. And if it was a dead ball, or a more modern “live ball.”
Ruth was playing in the dead ball era as a youngster, all the way up to when he was traded to the New York Yankees, in fact. He was hitting a dead ball, or “mush ball,” as he would sometimes call it.
And then after 1920, he also would talk about the live ball that jumped off the bat and traveled much further. So that’s a really fun detail to read in the book. He was always prefacing his comments about hitting, himself or anyone else, first by what ball they were hitting, and then, the results.
George Ruth’s Big Break
There was a local baseball scout named Jack Dunn, and he would enter the Ruth story and offer the young Bambino his first big opportunity.
As George Ruth was tearing in up in the St. Mary’s baseball league, he caught the attention of opposing coaches, and local talent scouts. Jack Dunn was the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles, and made a visit to St. Mary’s to offer Ruth a chance to sign a professional baseball contract to play for his team.
With the blessing of Brother Matthias, and Brother Paul, they agreed to allow Ruth to sign a contract for $600 per year to play for the Baltimore Orioles in 1914. Ruth was beside himself, remarking that he felt like someone just asked him to join the U.S. Senate.
He couldn’t even believe he would get paid to play baseball. Later on, Ruth would say after all the money he made in his career, there was no thrill that was greater than the day he signed a contract with Jack Dunn to play baseball for $600 a year.
George Ruth Joins the Baltimore Orioles
The first requirement to leaving St. Mary’s school was to have Jack Dunn agree to become Ruth’s legal guardian. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to leave the school on his own. So papers were filed with the state of Maryland. Now it’s off to join the team.
George Ruth’s first time he would board a train, and his first time he would leave Baltimore. He said the entire experience seemed like a dream. He wasn’t fearful, necessary, but since he already said his goodbyes to all his friends at St. Mary’s, he did not want to go back there if he was a failure. That thought of shame was something that drove him to succeed.
The 1914 Babe Ruth Baltimore News Baseball Card
Now is the exact moment when one of the most iconic baseball cards of all-time was just hitting the printing presses. It was the 1914 Babe Ruth Baltimore News card, and we know the cards were printed early in the season because the backs of the cards featured the Baltimore Orioles game schedule for the entire year.
It’s one of the most valuable baseball cards ever made. In December of 2023, one of the only 10 cards to exist, the highest graded example, sold at auction for $7 million.
George Ruth Becomes “The Babe”
Up to this point, young George Ruth is not even “The Babe” yet. And here’s how he explains he received his nickname.
As he was getting accustomed to his teammates in Fayetteville, there were a few separate incidences that resulted in the “Babe” nickname.
The first was from Jack Dunn, and his reputation of picking very young and unexperienced players to develop for his team. A few of the older players noticed Dunn leading Ruth around the field, when an older player yelled, “Look at Dunnie and his new babe.”
Shortly after that, a few other players noticed Ruth walking around “wide-eyed” all the time. Someone said to him, “You’re just a babe in the woods.” And it stuck. From that day forward he was called, “Babe Ruth.”
Babe Ruth Can Play Ball
Now that he’s got a new nickname, it was time for him to show the world that he could also play ball. It wasn’t long after the season started that Babe launched his first professional home run.
The ball traveled a little further, his swing looked a little bit bigger, and the Babe was something that everyone noticed was just a little bit different than everyone else. Needless to say, Jack Dunn and his teammates took notice on that first home run, as it was clear that he was a special type of player.
But Babe was just a pitcher. He wasn’t even a full-time hitter yet. Babe didn’t care, his pitching stats were just as good as anyone’s. Hitter, pitcher, it didn’t matter what Babe Ruth did, he did it just a little bit better and bigger than anyone else.
Jack Dunn Sells Babe Ruth
Before the Boston Red Sox would sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000 and shock the entire sporting world, there was another deal that sent Babe Ruth to the Major Leagues.
Jack Dunn was running low on cash. He needed money. His team was playing well but attendance at the ballgames was low. Dunn sold a handful of his best players so he could stay in business.
The Boston Red Sox were the lucky team that acquired Babe Ruth from Jack Dunn. The owner of the Red Sox, Joe Lannin, had a previous relationship with Dunn, so Lannin offered $2,900 for Babe Ruth, in maybe the biggest bargain in baseball history.
Now Babe Ruth is in the Majors, and making $2,500 per year playing for the Boston Red Sox.
It wouldn’t be long before Babe Ruth is the best performing pitcher, and hitter in the big leagues. It’s 1919, and Boston is struggling to compete after winning the world series a few of the previous years.
Babe Ruth to the Yankees
In a move that shook the entire sports world in early 1920, Babe Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees for $100,000. Babe Ruth would join “Murder’s Row,” and kick off the Roaring 20s in new York City.
Just a few years later, construction began on “The House That Ruth Built,” the new Yankees Stadium, starting one of the biggest dynasties in sports history.
It’s 1920 in New York, and Babe Ruth would become larger than life.