Babe Ruth: The Baseball's Modern Era
In what I would call baseball's modern era many of the key roles are now played by a single person rather than a different person on any given day. Most pitchers are now thankful to last solid six innings, players hardly make it an average of five years, and those past their prime are downgraded to the designated hitter. No wonder the Babe Ruth era continues to fascinate.
Before all of the numbers, cheating, and steroid use that are now common things found in today’s baseball, George Herman “Babe” Ruth did it all. He routinely pitched nine innings, then the following day he would be out in the field somewhere throwing out runners from every position possible on the field, and one cannot forget his slugging power. In the year 1921 Babe Ruth …show more content…
After a brief learning curve he was traded to Boston. Ruth's production at Fenway was so extraordinary, to the point of being almost superhuman, that often opposing pitchers would throw their gloves into the outfield in disgust with Babe. The Boston fans were all in awe to see Ruth's bombshells sailing over the wall, and in 1918 he led the Red Sox to the World Series. But on Dec. 26, 1919, owner, Harry Frazee, sealed a deal that sent Ruth packing up the coast to join the New York Yankees, triggering what would be known as the famous Curse of the Bambino.
Babe Ruth and New York were made for each other. The city's 18 newspapers covered him like a character in a soap opera. His incidents became bigger, flashier, and noisier under the new media glare. Appropriate nicknames were coined to exploit his new popularity, among them Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, and the Caliph of Crash. New York built a new arena to showcase Ruth's prowess, and when Yankee Stadium opened on April 18, 1923, he blessed it with a rocket shot over the right-field …show more content…
The city provided a world stage for Ruth, and he always seemed to know just what to do when the spotlight was on him.
Ruth died at the age of 53, a mere two months after his uniform was retired at Yankee Stadium, his once stern and striking body riddled with cancer. Sadly, a man who in his prime, as one sportswriter put it, "was bigger than the president," exited life with barely a whimper.
Yet even today, as Ruth's incredible home run total is about to be broken once again, we are reminded of the days when real heroes used to run the base paths, heroes who played hard, lived hard and gave us everything they had on and off the field. The names of the players who eventually broke that record have come and gone, so much of their achievement still open to debate. Babe Ruth remains the gold standard. "No man has ever lived who hit a baseball as hard as Ruth," Damon Runyon wrote. For all we know, that still holds
Before all of the numbers, cheating, and steroid use that are now common things found in today’s baseball, George Herman “Babe” Ruth did it all. He routinely pitched nine innings, then the following day he would be out in the field somewhere throwing out runners from every position possible on the field, and one cannot forget his slugging power. In the year 1921 Babe Ruth …show more content…
After a brief learning curve he was traded to Boston. Ruth's production at Fenway was so extraordinary, to the point of being almost superhuman, that often opposing pitchers would throw their gloves into the outfield in disgust with Babe. The Boston fans were all in awe to see Ruth's bombshells sailing over the wall, and in 1918 he led the Red Sox to the World Series. But on Dec. 26, 1919, owner, Harry Frazee, sealed a deal that sent Ruth packing up the coast to join the New York Yankees, triggering what would be known as the famous Curse of the Bambino.
Babe Ruth and New York were made for each other. The city's 18 newspapers covered him like a character in a soap opera. His incidents became bigger, flashier, and noisier under the new media glare. Appropriate nicknames were coined to exploit his new popularity, among them Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, and the Caliph of Crash. New York built a new arena to showcase Ruth's prowess, and when Yankee Stadium opened on April 18, 1923, he blessed it with a rocket shot over the right-field …show more content…
The city provided a world stage for Ruth, and he always seemed to know just what to do when the spotlight was on him.
Ruth died at the age of 53, a mere two months after his uniform was retired at Yankee Stadium, his once stern and striking body riddled with cancer. Sadly, a man who in his prime, as one sportswriter put it, "was bigger than the president," exited life with barely a whimper.
Yet even today, as Ruth's incredible home run total is about to be broken once again, we are reminded of the days when real heroes used to run the base paths, heroes who played hard, lived hard and gave us everything they had on and off the field. The names of the players who eventually broke that record have come and gone, so much of their achievement still open to debate. Babe Ruth remains the gold standard. "No man has ever lived who hit a baseball as hard as Ruth," Damon Runyon wrote. For all we know, that still holds