The story of the great Babe Ruth is always interesting, considering he was the player who changed the history of Major League Baseball.
His childhood, youth and adulthood went on a path very different from what it meant for baseball. From the age of seven he was interned in an orphanage, rebellious as the devil and incorrigible.
The Sultan was a wasteful and parrandero. Ruth did not fit the term maturity, to such an extent that he earned more money than the president of the United States, however he died in misery (he had breakfast with a couple of pounds of potatoes, a dozen eggs and a flat of whiskey) . He loved being photographed or portrayed with two or three women sitting on his legs. He drank, smoked and fornicated looking for records, perhaps set some record.
His life is very similar, and in a sense it is related to that of Joe-Shoeless-Jackson, both with little academic instruction, excellent baseball players and their ruined lives off the field. The Babe admired Shoeless, to the point that he imitated his batting style
The nickname Babe came to him when Orioles owner Jack Dunn hired him, calling him Mr. Dunn's new baby. It was a time when the owners of the teams served as managers and managers of their teams.
He debuted in July 1914. He got off a train and met a 16-year-old girl, who served him coffee, Helen Woodford, with her he got married a few days later and that same night he threw seven innings to get his first win.
Pitcher in his first seasons, he helped Boston win the championships of 1915, 1916 and 1918, the last of the Red Sox until Manny, David and the others broke the spell in 2004. In his three full seasons as a pitcher, he won 18, 23 and 24 games, setting a record of 29.2 innings without allowing World Series races. For 1918 he shared the job of pitcher and position player.
1919 was a year that changed the world of baseball. He started the era of the live ball, Babe fired 29 homers, something unthinkable. It was believed that this amount of home runs would be unattainable even for Ruth himself (Tillie Walker and Ruth led the majors in 1918 with 11 homers). That year saw the Black Sox scandal (sale of the World Series that favored Cincinnati, with the result of seven players expelled for life from baseball, including Joe-Shoeless-Jackson) and Ruth with his hitting was vital for the fans returned to the stadiums
On December 26 of that year the owner of Boston Harry Frazee sold his best player to the Yankees for 125 thousand dollars, a group that had not gotten any laurels in the game (the original contract was sold for almost one million dollars in 2005).
In 1920 he hit 54 homers, 59 the following year, 60 in 1927, a record that lasted until 1961. Ruth's popularity was such that it gave way to the construction of Yankee Stadium in 1923, called La Casa del Babe. The Yankees won that year the first of 27 World Titles (El Bambino participated in the first four). He finished with .341 on average, 714 bambinasos, 2,213 RBIs and an impressive .690 slugging.
His batting power, popularity, especially with children, mysticism, returning affection and fanaticism to the game after the scandal of the black stockings, all that meant that big boy for baseball made him a reference of the game, even in Our times.