Babe Ruth: Legends in Sports (5 page)

Around that time, George Herman “Babe” Ruth got a new nickname. Many of the fans living around Yankee Stadium were Italian.
They christened Ruth “Bambino,” which is Italian for “baby” or “babe.” New York sportswriters also used nicknames when describing
him, such as the “Colossus of Clout,” the “Mauling Monarch,” the “Prince of Pounders,” and the “Sultan of Swat.” They wrote
about him every day throughout the season. Every home run he hit was news, and so was every strikeout.

However, despite Ruth’s prodigious hitting, 1920 simply wasn’t the Yankees’ year. In August, Yankees
pitcher Carl Mays accidentally hit Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch. Chapman died, and after
the tragedy the Indians bounced back to take the pennant.

Ruth finished the season with a batting average of .376 with a record fifty-four home runs, a total that was higher than that
hit by all but two teams in baseball. There seemed to be no limit to what he could accomplish. Fans wondered if he would one
day hit sixty or even seventy home runs in a season.

His performance changed the game forever. After seeing what Ruth could accomplish, other players changed their approach at
the plate. Instead of just trying to make contact, more hitters began to swing from their heels like Babe Ruth. Before Ruth,
most batters hit home runs by accident. Now they tried to imitate Ruth. In a few years the home run would become more common.

Ruth soon cashed in on his fame. He starred in a movie called
Headin’ Home,
endorsed all sorts of products, and had a sports column written under his name by sportswriter Christy Walsh. He also went
on a long “barnstorming” trip, playing a series of exhibition games after the season and hitting home
runs against local teams before thousands of fans. Although organized baseball considered such tours illegal, Ruth didn’t
care. He was the most famous man in America, and he was making more money off the field than on it.

Of course, having lots of cash made it even more difficult for Ruth to stay out of trouble. Even though a new law known as
Prohibition, which banned the sale of alcohol, went into effect, that didn’t slow down Ruth, who spent much of his time in
what were known as “speakeasies,” illegal taverns that served alcohol. Life in the off season was one big party, and he turned
up for spring training covered in a thick layer of fat.

Ruth managed to get in shape in the spring and rapidly resumed his record hitting in 1921. Pitchers were afraid of him and
rarely gave him a pitch to hit. When they did, he knocked it out of the park.

Ruth and the Yankees took the American League by storm. At the end of the season Ruth had increased his home run record to
an incredible fifty-nine, and the Yankees won the pennant and the right to play the New York Giants in the World Series.

The Giants, led by feisty manager John McGraw,
were a terrific team. Unlike the Yankees, who waited for Ruth to hit home runs, the Giants still played baseball the old-fashioned
way, scratching and clawing for runs with bunts, base hits, and stolen bases. McGraw, considered the best manager in baseball,
promised everyone that his pitchers would shut down Ruth and the Yankees — a promise he made good on.

In a sense, the Yankees lost the series in the second game. After winning game one, the Yankees also took game two. But in
the middle of the game, Ruth, who had already walked three times, slid roughly into third base. As he twisted away from the
tag, he scraped his elbow.

Ruth shrugged off the injury, but in game three, a 13–5 Giant win, he scraped it again. By game four the elbow was infected
and badly swollen. By the next game, he could barely see the bat, and struck out three times, collecting his only hit on a
bunt. By then it was obvious he couldn’t continue to play because of the pain. For the rest of the series he made only one
appearance, as a pinch hitter.

Without Ruth, the Yankees were an average team.
The Giants stormed back to win the best-of-nine series five games to three. Despite his record 59 regular season home runs,
1921 ended in disappointment for Ruth.

After the season, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis warned Ruth not to go on another barnstorming tour. Ruth ignored
him and went anyway. He felt as if he were bigger than the game.

He wasn’t. In December Landis suspended him for the first six weeks of the 1922 season.

Fortunately, the Yankees had earned so much money the previous season that they were able to acquire a number of other valuable
players, many from the Red Sox. Although they missed Ruth at the start of the season and sometimes struggled after his return,
the Yankees still had enough firepower and pitching to win the pennant.

However, Ruth was in a slump, at least for him. His batting average dropped to .315 and he hit “only” thirty-five home runs,
not enough to beat the new league leader, Ken Williams (of the St. Louis Browns), who hit thirty-nine.

Meanwhile, his behavior was once again a cause
for concern. When he returned to the team after the suspension, he was out of shape and never really got going. As the season
progressed, he spent night after night out on the town and often showed up at the ballpark bleary-eyed. One of his Yankee
roommates later said he didn’t really room with Ruth, he roomed “with his suitcase,” because Ruth was always out. On the field,
Ruth argued with umpires and was suspended several times for using bad language. Manager Huggins was powerless to change him.
Everybody was.

The Yankees met the Giants in the World Series for the second season in a row. This time, it wasn’t even close. The Giants
won in five games and Ruth was terrible, collecting only two hits.

At a banquet Ruth attended shortly after the end of the series, speaker after speaker lectured him about his behavior and
the way in which he had disappointed not only his teammates but the fans. New York Mayor Jimmy Walker said, “You have let
down the kids of America … they have seen their idol shattered and their dream broken.” Babe Ruth was humiliated and told
everyone, “I’m going back to my farm to get in shape.”

His career was at a crossroads and he knew it. If he didn’t do something fast, he wouldn’t be Babe Ruth anymore. This time,
he didn’t have anyone like Brother Matthias to bail him out. Ruth would have to help himself. It was time for him to grow
up, at least a little.

CHAPTER FIVE

Babe Ruth kept his promise that winter. He returned to his Massachusetts farm, reuniting with Helen after a long separation,
and rarely ventured into the city. He stopped drinking, watched what he ate, and spent the winter doing farm work, skating,
chopping wood, and going for long hikes. He knew he had messed up in 1922 and was determined to prove that he was still the
best player in the game.

New York fans were looking forward to the 1923 season. At the cost of $2.5 million dollars, the Yankees had finally built
their own ballpark, Yankee Stadium. The new park in the Bronx was huge, capable of holding more than 70,000 fans, most of
whom were looking forward to seeing the Babe hit some home runs. The park designers had done what they could to satisfy them
by making sure the fence in
right field was short enough for Ruth to hit home runs with the same frequency he had at the Polo Grounds.

This year, the Bambino didn’t let them down. He showed up at spring training in tremendous shape, weighing 209 pounds. And
on opening day at Yankee Stadium he announced his return in dramatic fashion.

With the score 1–0 in favor of the Yankees in the fourth inning, Ruth came to bat. Boston pitcher Howard Ehmke let a ball
over the plate and Ruth gave it everything he had.

The ball soared deep and high to right field as everyone in the stadium stood and craned their necks to watch the flight of
the ball. When it finally came down it was ten rows deep in the right-field stands. Babe Ruth had hit the first home run in
Yankee Stadium! After the Yankee victory that day, a sports-writer referred to the stadium as “the House that Ruth Built,”
a nickname that has stayed with it ever since.

For the rest of the season there was no stopping New York. Although Ruth didn’t hit home runs quite as frequently as before,
ending the season with only
forty-one, he hit better than ever, staying above .400 for most of the year before finishing at .393. The Yankees won the
pennant by sixteen games over Detroit. Once again, they played the New York Giants in the World Series.

Thus far, Ruth had done everything in New York but help the Yankees win a championship. For all his accomplishments he knew
he wouldn’t really be considered a success until the Yankees won the series. Giants’ manager John McGraw entered the series
confident. After all, his pitchers had shut down Ruth in both 1921 and 1922 by throwing him outside curve balls. “The same
system,” he said, “will suffice.”

This time, however, Ruth was ready. He tripled in the first game, a Yankee loss, but in game two he broke loose with two long
home runs and narrowly missed a third. Although the Giants won game three 1–0, the Giants chose to walk Ruth twice rather
than let him hit. Then, in game four, Ruth and the Yankees took command and won the next two games to finally take the series
away from their crosstown rivals.

Yankee owner Jake Ruppert was ecstatic. “Now I have the greatest ballpark and the greatest team,” he said. Everyone already knew he had the greatest player — Babe Ruth.

Before he was a Boston Red Sox pitcher and a New York Yankees slugger, Babe Ruth played for Baltimore in the International
League in 1914. This is his baseball card for that year.

An undated photo shows pitcher Babe Ruth in his Red Sox uniform. His ability to slug home runs had not yet been discovered
by the ball club.