Happy April 27th!
We can’t watch baseball right now, but we can honor one of the game’s icons today, on National Babe Ruth Day!
The Babe. The Bambino. The Sultan of Swat. People will know who you’re talking about — Yankee Stadium in New York came to be known as “The House that Ruth Built” by swatting home runs, but his legacy start in Baltimore, where he was born and played minor league baseball, and Boston, where his Major League career started as a pitcher.
He became a full-time right-fielder when the New York Yankees bought his contract in 1919. Being one of the league’s most prolific hitters, he helped the Yankees win seven pennants and four World Series titles.
Ruth set career records, in his time, for home runs, slugging percentage, runs batted in, and on-base plus slugging. In 1927, he was the very first player to hit 60 home runs in one season, hitting more than any other team.
Following a short stint with the Boston Braves, Ruth retired in 1935 with 714 home runs, a career mark that stood for four decades until Hank Aaron eclipsed it. In 1936, he became one of the first five players to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1946. On April 27, 1947, he was able to attend the first proclaimed Babe Ruth Day and spoke briefly to a crowd of 58,339 cheering fans at Yankee Stadium. Just a year later, on Aug, 16, 1948, Ruth died in his sleep.
