Maris May Be Passed, but No Eclipsing Ruth

Yankee greats Casey Stengel, far left, and Mickey Mantle look at a portrait of Babe Ruth in 1957. (File Photo)

By William Gildea
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 5, 1998; Page D1

One reason Robert Creamer wrote what became the definitive biography of Babe Ruth, published in 1974, was because he considered Ruth "a unique figure in the social history of the United States." Creamer wrote in "Babe: The Legend Comes to Life" that "more than any other man, Babe Ruth transcended sport... He is dead and buried for more than 25 years, and it is nearly 40 years since he played his last major league game. Yet almost every day, certainly several times a week, you read and hear about him."

That remains true. Ruth, who died 50 years ago Aug. 16, lives on, at least in legend. Certainly his fame was not eclipsed by Roger Maris because he hit 61 home runs in 1961 to break Ruth's record of 60 set in 1927. Nor will Ruth's place in baseball or the fabric of the country's history be diminished should Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa or Ken Griffey Jr. also surpass Ruth. Even as they strive for 60, 61 and beyond, it has been written in many places that they are doing things Ruthian. Ruth was Ruth.

Merely one part of the explanation for his enduring stature is contained in his early life. He overcame obscurity, hardship and lack of knowledge – which became as integral to his story as its sad ending by cancer when he was only 53. Considering how circumscribed his years as a youth were in relation to what followed, it's understandable that he continues to epitomize the possibilities in American life. He was a waif on the Baltimore waterfront at the turn of the century. The chances of his becoming world famous were "about like the odds of winning the lottery," Mike Gibbons, executive director of the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore, said recently.

Ruth's early years were spent at a number of addresses, possibly as many as eight, all in the vicinity of what is now Oriole Park at Camden Yards. His father changed jobs a lot and moved a lot. Ruth, of course, spent the better part of 1902 to 1914 – from the time he was 7 years old until he was 19 – at St. Mary's Industrial School, about four miles west of his birthplace and early homes. Placed in St. Mary's as an "incorrigible," he took up baseball. But he still could have been a saloonkeeper like his father, or made shirts as he was taught at the school. It was luck that he found a mentor there in Brother Matthias, who liked baseball, and luck that a baseball club owner and manager named Jack Dunn, always vigilant for playing talent, was nearby.

Dunn made Ruth "Baltimore's Babe." But that was only briefly, for part of the 1914 baseball season when he played for the minor league Orioles. Before, hardly anyone knew him. After that, he was gone to Boston and, in 1920, to New York. Ruth as a boy seemed headed nowhere beyond southwest Baltimore.

He came from less-than-attentive parents, took no early interest in school and roamed the streets. He hung out in bars where his father worked, when the father wasn't trying to eke out a living by selling lightning rods. Ruth told an early biographer that he "drank" as a youngster. His life seemed no more promising than that of his father, who would die trying to break up a fight outside a bar in the Camden Yards area.

Brother Matthias, a Xaverian brother, was 6 feet 6, 250 pounds or more, fortunately a mild-mannered man by all accounts. His glare and size kept the boys at St. Mary's in line. Ruth, bigger than most at St. Mary's, admired Matthias's obvious toughness and ballplaying ability. The brother honed Ruth's game. "The greatest man I ever knew," Ruth called him. The left-handed Ruth began as a catcher, but soon was pitching and was kept on the mound by Brother Matthias.

Observing the speed of his fastball, Matthias knew that he was a natural. Stories vary as to whether Dunn ever saw him play before signing him to go south for spring training with his 1914 Orioles of the International League. But Dunn was on good terms with the brothers, who, as Gibbons said, "saw that Ruth could do everything in the game better than anyone who had ever played." Dunn took their tip if, in fact, he hadn't seen Ruth play.

Babe Ruth takes a cut on Opening Day, 1932. (File Photo)

A photograph of Ruth signing his Orioles contract reveals a completely relaxed young man. Then about 6 feet 1, 170 pounds, he looked at ease with his legs crossed as he signed. Auspicious moments didn't faze Ruth. He would embrace fame.

Later that spring, he struck out a number of well-known Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia A's in exhibition games but took it nonchalantly. He said he'd never heard of those players.

Dunn, who later would win seven straight International League pennants and also would sign Lefty Grove, had signed Ruth primarily as a pitcher. But Dunn became further impressed when Ruth clouted the ball – the dead ball of the time – great distances in Fayetteville, N.C., site of spring training in 1914. Ruth also played some shortstop even though he was left-handed – he could play any position. But Dunn knew what to do with Ruth: make him a starting pitcher and put him to work early in the season. In just two months Ruth advanced from a first modest mention in the Sunpapers as an Orioles signee to the team's top prospect.

In his debut, Ruth beat Buffalo, 6-0, at Oriole Park in Baltimore's Waverly section. Only a couple of hundred people saw the game because the Orioles were competing unsuccessfully for fans with the neighboring Baltimore Terrapins of the Federal League, which was short-lived but nevertheless considered "major league." Ruth continued his exploits as a pitcher and proved he could hit, and the Orioles' crowds grew. But not by enough for Dunn to pay his bills. In July, he sold off his best players. Ruth, who had a 13-6 record, went with two others to the Boston Red Sox.

Ruth came home during the offseasons when he played for Boston, until his father's death. Then, he returned for the funeral, missing three Red Sox games. Creamer wrote that Ruth never again thought of Baltimore as home. He continued to ride through on the train with the Yankees, prompting a melancholy response to a young Baltimore reporter's question years later as to whether he "missed" his home town. "Well," Ruth said, "I always look out the window when our baseball club passes by."