George Herman Ruth, Jr.
(February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935.
Ruth originally broke into the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox as a starting pitcher, but after he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, he converted to a full-time right fielder and subsequently became one of the league's most prolific hitters.
Ruth was a mainstay in the Yankees' lineup that won seven pennants and four World Series titles during his tenure with the team.
After a short stint with the Boston Braves in 1935, Ruth retired.
In 1936, Ruth became one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ruth has since become regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture.
He has been named the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings, and his home run hitting prowess and charismatic personality made him a larger than life figure in the "Roaring Twenties".
Off the field he was famous for his charity, but also was noted for his often reckless lifestyle.
Ruth is credited with changing baseball itself.
The popularity of the game exploded in the 1920s, largely due to his influence.
Ruth ushered in the "live-ball era", as his big swing led to escalating home run totals that not only excited fans, but helped baseball evolve from a low-scoring, speed-dominated game to a high-scoring power game.
In 1998, The Sporting News ranked Ruth number one on the list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players".
In 1999, baseball fans named Ruth to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
In 1969, he was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball.
In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Muhammad Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athletes, out of over 800 dead or alive athletes, in America.
The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth.
According to ESPN, he was the first true American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended baseball.
In a 1999 ESPN poll, he was ranked as the third-greatest US athlete of the century, behind Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.
Ruth was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927), setting the season record which stood until broken by Roger Maris in 1961.
Ruth's lifetime total of 714 home runs at his retirement in 1935 was a record, until first surpassed by Hank Aaron in 1974.
Unlike many power hitters, Ruth also hit for average: his .
342 lifetime batting is tenth highest in baseball history, and in one season (1923) he hit .
393, a Yankee record.
His .
690 career slugging percentage and 1.
164 career on-base plus slugging (OPS) remain the Major League records.
Ruth dominated the era in which he played.
He led the league in home runs during a season twelve times, slugging percentage and OPS thirteen times each, runs scored eight times, and runs batted in (RBIs) six times.
Each of those totals represents a modern record (as well as the all-time record, except for RBIs).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Babe Ruth, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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As its title implies, this video attempts to go beyond the public persona of one of major league baseball's greatest stars. Accepting Ruth as a larger-than-life figure, this 59-minute video doesn't attempt to rationalize, apologize, or analyze his behavior. Rather, it endeavors to present an unbiased account of the life of George Herman Ruth, contradictions and all.
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Made in 1990, this compilation video highlights the "Best of the Best" in Baseball.
Mel Allen hosts this look at Babe Ruth's life and career, focusing primarily on Ruth's years with the New York Yankees.
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
Feature-length compilation of 1920s newsreel footage, with commentary about news, sports, lifestyles, and historical figures.
Speedy loses his job as a soda jerk, then spends the day with his girl at Coney Island. He then becomes a cab driver and delivers Babe Ruth to Yankee Stadium, where he stays to see the game. When the railroad tries to run the last horse-drawn trolley (operated by his girl's grandfather) out of business, Speedy organizes the neighborhood old-timers to thwart their scheme.
The perfect body as an object of cult worship. Based on the mass sports and body worship movement of the 1920s, the film propagates physical training and shows in stylized documentary scenes aspects of physical hygiene, gymnastics, sports and dancing as well as scenes in which supposed sportsmen of antiquity pose naked.
The mighty swing of Babe Ruth is shown in all its grace, power and swatness through the use of slow motion. The batting skills of Cleveland Indians star Tris Speaker and New York Yankees Wallie Pipp, Yankee Robert William Meusel, the underhand pitching style of Yankee Carl Mays and the overhand pitching delivery of the Yankee Jack Quinn are also displayed through slow motion. 1920 season.