Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth on deck (http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ams22/Babe%20Ruth.jpg)

George Herman Ruth was known as Babe Ruth and "The Sultan of Swat." People gave Babe these names because of what a great baseball player he was. He led his teams to World Series and other major games. He also had great sportsmanship and the team and coach appreciated that. Babe played for two big teams, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. These teams were rivals.

Babe Ruth’s real name was George Herman Ruth and he was named after his father. He was born on February 6, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was one of seven children. His parents were George and Kate Ruth. When Babe was a child his parents were hard workers and owned a family diner. His parents almost never had time for him so his oldest sister had to make sure he went to school and he was okay. He skipped school a lot and stole things from people. Many people knew Babe as a bum.

Babe's hall of fame plate (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org)

At the age of eight he got sent to St. Mary’s Boarding school. When he was there he learned to play baseball from his teacher Brother Matthias. At St. Mary’s there are 50 teams and Brother Matthias coached them all. Babe was very good and when he made fun of the other kids Brother Matthias always stopped the game and told George “If you think you can do better then you go out there and prove it.” George always proved it because he was better than the rest of the kids at that school even the older boys. When Babe was 17 years old he went home to see his mother and father for a little while. His mother Kate wanted him to stay home from then on but George just couldn’t because he loved St. Mary’s so much. When George went back to school his mother died two years later and there was too much work for his father to do by himself.

When he got back to St. Mary’s from the funeral he got called down to the office. The Baltimore Orioles coach was there and asked Babe to sign a contract to play for their team in the major leagues. He signed the contract and was the youngest player in the majors at that time. In 1914 before the season started the coach of the Orioles surprisingly sold Babe to the Boston Red Sox. The same year Babe got traded, the Boston Red Sox won his first major league start over Cleveland. During the season Babe got his first major-league hit and it was a double. At the end of that season Babe married Helen Woodford. In 1920 the Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to New York Yankees to finance Broadway Productions of the play “No, No Nanette”. In 1921 Babe Ruth hit his first World Series homerun against Boston. His wife Helen Ruth died in a very bad fire in their house in 1929. Babe found out that he had cancer in 1934 but it didn’t affect the way he played baseball until August 16, 1948 when he died of cancer in New York. Because Babe Ruth was such a great baseball player they have Babe Ruth Day every year in New York City at Yankee Stadium.

I picked Babe Ruth because he is my hero. I started playing baseball and I always wanted to give up but when I learned about Babe Ruth I realized that he was a great baseball player and that even though he got traded to his rival team he didn’t give up. That’s why I chose Babe as my hero.