Abby Hildebrand

HONR 175.10
Babe Ruth essay
October 12, 2009

America has an affinity for flawed heroes. As our beloved thirty-fifth President, John F.
Kennedy was celebrated in photographs and practically worshiped by the American people. The
Kennedy “Camalot mystique”—this intangible quality that made his life so intriguing and
inspiring—combined with his talent for public speaking and politics, made him extremely
popular. Although he possessed the perfect mix of American wealth, everyday appeal, and
boyish good looks for a successful political career, he did not have the perfect personal life. Yet,
even when the flaws of his personal life were made public, the people did not stop adoring him.
Like Jack Kennedy, America made a hero out of baseball superstar George Herman “Babe”
Ruth. The Babe possessed tremendous athletic talents that changed the game of baseball, and like
John Kennedy, he changed America. Babe Ruth’s extraordinary talents make him a mythic hero,
and while he too had his faults, America still adores him.
In her essay entitled “Past (Im)Perfect,” Suzanne Grifffith Prestien outlines what defines
a hero and a myth, and how the two connect. While her essay does not touch upon Babe Ruth as
a mythic figure in baseball, there are valuable points in her essay that can be applied to the Babe.
For example, according to Prestien, the myth of the hero contains certain universal elements: a
modest upbringing, an early showing of his extraordinary talents, his quick rise to fame, his
winning battle against evil, his predisposition for hubris, and his descent (159). As will be
demonstrated, most of the elements of the hero myth can be found in the life of Babe Ruth.
George Herman Ruth was born to parents who did not give him the love or attention a
child requires, and eventually turned him over to a Baltimore reform school for boys when he
was seven years old (Rader 130). Ruth, like many ball players of his day, came from humble
beginnings. By the time he was a teenager, he had earned a name as a great ball player at the
school, and was picked up by the Baltimore Orioles shortly thereafter. Hints at his meager
boyhood, as well as his journey to the big leagues, appear in a 1915 article in the New York
American by famed sports journalist Damon Runyon when he wrote that “Ruth was discovered
by Jack Dunn in a Baltimore school a year ago when he had not attained his left-handed
majority, and was adopted, and adapted by Jack for the uses of the Orioles” (Sullivan 74). The
references to the Baltimore school before he had been “adopted and adapted by Jack” establish
that Babe’s gifts were natural and just needed perfecting. In fact, Brother Matthias, who coached
and mentored the Babe at school, said in a 1935 interview in the Boston Evening Transcript that,
“the first time he went after a ball he fielded it like a ‘leaguer’ and that was when he was eight
years old” (Sullivan 155). Babe’s early years as an unprivileged youth, as well as clear natural
talents, fit the characteristics of traditional mythic heroes.
Ruth played his first season with the Boston Red Sox in 1915 at age twenty, and although
he wouldn’t earn his nickname of the Sultan of Swat just yet, Babe hit his first major league
homerun in a 1915 game against the New York Yankees. In the same article noted above,
Runyon stated that Babe had become “quite the pitcher and a demon hitter when he connect[ed]”
(Sullivan 74). In his years with the Boston club, the Babe became known as one of the best left-
handed pitchers in the league. His talents at bat were very apparent as he had 129 hits, more of
which were extra base hits than singles, and had a batting average of .422 (Sullivan 93). In 1920,
at age 25, he was traded to the New York Yankees. Of the trade, the New York Herald Tribune
wrote, “one thing that may be said with certainty is that the price was the greatest ever paid for a
ball player” (Sullivan 92). The word price in this context does not refer to monetary cost, but
instead to the amount it would cost the Red Sox to lose such an invaluable talent like Babe Ruth.
Once a member of the Yankees franchise, the Babe’s hitting prowess became
unbelievable. His first season with the Yanks, he led the league in home runs with 54, runs with
158, RBIs with 137, walks with 150, and slugging percentage with .847 (“Babe Ruth Statistics
and History”). He continued to lead the league in hitting statistics for the majority of his career
with the Yankees. In October 1927, the Sultan of Swat beat his own single season home run
record. In an article chronicling the achievement, sportswriter W.O. McGeehan wrote, “the
performance of the Babe rather seems to dwarf the impending world series” and that as a ball
player “Babe Ruth stands alone” (Sullivan 127). He also credits Ruth with bringing baseball
back to life after the Black Sox scandal: “Babe Ruth with his bat pounded baseball back into
popularity” (Sullivan 128). Clearly Ruth had created a name for himself very quickly by
exhibiting his ability to whack the ball out of the park. Even off the field Babe Ruth became a
national sensation. He appeared in films, like “Pride of the Yankees,” and even went on a
vaudeville tour in 1921 (Rader 134). He became a spokesman of anything from clothing to
fishing gear to cars (Rader 134). While the public loved him, he was not always such a success
with the front office.
On more than one occasion, the Babe’s outlandish behavior got him into trouble. As
Rader writes, “he transcended the world of ordinary mortals and yet was the most mortal of men.
He loved to play baseball, swear, drink, eat, play practical jokes, and fornicate” (Rader 133). In
addition to living his life fast and loose, Ruth was a proud man who did not lack hubris nor did
he back down for anybody. In 1921, Commissioner Landis suspended him for taking part in
barnstorming during the off-season after being specifically told not to do so. In an article in The
Sporting News detailing the suspension, readers learn that since he would be missing games, he
stood to lose “a $20,000 bonus for failing to break his home run record” (Sullivan 112). Then in
1925 after Ruth collapsed in the locker room from intestinal abscesses, manager Miller Huggins
fined Babe $5,000 and suspended him (Rader 133). Although he seemingly had lost these battle
with the magnates, Babe still won in the big picture: he was still baseball’s most beloved player
and would have some of his best seasons ahead of him. His continued support by the public and
triumph over the Commissioner fits with a hero overcoming evil.
Prestien also writes that, “the hero functions as an inspiration to society” and that “we
look up to these individuals because they do what we cannot”(159). The Babe certainly did what
others could not, that is, no one would ever be as prolific a hitter or have such impact on the
game of baseball as the Babe did. She maintains that since they overcome tremendous odds to do
achieve such great things, heroes also act as a mechanism of hope for the public, and therefore,
the hero “has given his life up to something bigger” (160). This statement is also true for Babe
Ruth. In 1929, a stampeding crowd killed two people and injured many more; in this crisis Babe
was there, acting as any hero would. In an article describing the events in the New York Herald
Tribune, Thomas Compere reported that as the seventeen-year-old girl died, Ruth was “holding
the girl as she passed” (Sullivan 136). Babe also “ran from the Yankee’s dugout and asked what
the trouble was” and “the shouted for a physician” (Sullivan 136). Babe gave his life to two
things: baseball and helping others. He was also generous enough to bring Brother Matthias to
the World Series almost every year he played in one (Sullivan 155). His affinity for children was
also well known, as Brother Matthias stated, “And he did like the young kiddoes. They idolized
him when he was just a boy himself. He seems to have some magic touch with them” (Sullivan
154). Rader also affirms the Babe’s love for children writing, “Ruth enthusiastically welcomed
their attention. He regularly visited hospitalized children” (Rader 133). His love for children and
generosity place him squarely in the category of mythic hero.
As a mythic hero, Babe Ruth exhibited all the signs: he came from meager beginnings,
exhibited his talents early, rose in fame swiftly, exhibited pride and faults, won the battle against
evil, and became an inspiration for millions of fans on and off the field.
 Works Cited

"Babe Ruth Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com." Baseball-Reference.com - Major

League Baseball Statistics and History. Sport Reference LLC. Web. 10 Oct. 2009.
<http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ruthba01.shtml?redir>.