10 Babe Ruth Facts Every Baseball Fan Should Know

An interesting article about the Sultan of Swat sent to me by a reader at the website Collegecrunch.org. I was not aware of a couple of the tidbits of information and I thought I was a pretty good student of the game. Collgecrunch.org is a site that has information from some of thee online college course providers around the country, but they also have some interesting sports articles listed on their site. Check them out.

From the mailbox:

Hi Charles,

We at Collegecrunch.org recently came across your blog and were excited to share with you an article “10 Babe Ruth Facts Every Baseball Fan Should Know” was recently published on our blog at (http://www.collegecrunch.org/feature/10-babe-ruth-facts-every-baseball-fan-should-know/), and we hoped that you would be interested in featuring or mentioning it in one of your posts.

Either way, I hope you continue putting out great content through your blog. It has been a sincere pleasure to read.


Sincerely ,
Florine Church

10 Babe Ruth Facts Every Baseball Fan Should Know:
"These are just a few of the indelible marks he left on America's pastime.

1. Ruth was bestowed the nickname 'Babe' once he joined the Orioles: Nineteen years old and fresh out of St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, George Herman Ruth, Jr. signed with the then-minor league Baltimore Orioles, his hometown team, for $250 in 1914. In order for the contract to be valid, Jack Dunn, owner and manager of the team, became Ruth's legal guardian — 25 was the age of majority at the time. When Orioles players first encountered Ruth, they referred to him as 'Jack's newest babe,' which thereafter stuck as 'Babe' publicly. Interestingly, as his career progressed, his teammates refused to call him by 'Babe,' instead calling him 'Bam,' 'Jidge' and 'The Big Fellow.'

2. Ruth could've been a Philadelphia Athletic: Before the Red Sox jumped at the opportunity to acquire Ruth for cash, Dunn dangled him in front of Connie Mack, then the Athletics manager and part owner, who elected not to send $10,000 in exchange for Ruth, Ernie Shore and Ben Egan. Although the Athletics were the defending World Series champs and were in the process of winning their second consecutive AL championship, the organization was undergoing financial problems, and the team was dispersed after the season, resulting in eight straight last-place finishes starting in 1915. New York Giants manager John McGraw was angered that he wasn't offered Ruth, and chose to never do business with the Orioles again. That decision eventually cost him Lefty Grove.

--