The life of Babe Ruth

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THE LIFE OF BABE RUTH

Babe Ruth, born George Ruth, Jr., is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. Everybody knows how great a hitter Babe was and how he virtually invented the home run. Not everybody knows how great of a pitcher Babe was, even though he was one of the best left-handed pitchers of all time. Babe had a 92 and 44 record, 67.6%, and a 2.24 career earned- run average in 163 games pitched. Not many career .342 hitters that averaged a home run every 11.8 at bats can say that.

George Ruth, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 6, 1895, son of George Herman Ruth, Sr. and Kate Ruth. George took the name of Herman at his confirmation since it was his father's middle name and the name of his friend at St. Mary's Industrial School, Brother Herman. Ruth says he had a "rotten start" in life; he spent his childhood days on the streets and piers of Baltimore.

He led a rather lawless life, his parents were medium-poor and he was mainly on his own.

All this changed when Ruth entered St. Mary's Industrial School at the age of eight. Ruth, even though he didn't realize it, had come in to a good thing. Brother Matthais took young Ruth under his wing and taught him to read, write, play baseball, do needle work, and right from wrong. Ruth showed a startling natural talent with a baseball bat, so Brother Matthais tried to round young George into a complete baseball player by teaching him to pitch and field. Ruth says that, "Brother Matthais was the greatest man I ever knew." Ruth was taught to make shirts and became quite good at it, he boasted that he could sew a...