Babe Ruth: Why I Want To Meet Throughout History

Babe Ruth was born on February 6th, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland. He played in ten World Series. Babe Ruth had a .342 batting average. Throughout his baseball career, he hit 714 homeruns. Babe Ruth played in a total of 2,503 games.

George Herman Ruth Jr. is by far one of Americas greatest sports heroes. He is known primarily for his great baseball exploits and secondary as a man who stayed out late before every game and partied until there was no one left to party with. There is more behind the story of Babe Ruth than just baseball and parties. As a boy Ruth was your average youth who got himself into a little to much trouble and paid the price. As an adult he was a husband and a father who cared more about his family than he liked to show. George Ruth was a baseball hero and an alcoholic, but nobody’s perfect. I plan on exploring Babe Ruth’s life and noting the good and bad points of Americas greatest Baseball hero. George Herman Ruth Jr. was born on February 6,

Babe Ruth was having a historic season and was seen as an icon across the

rest of the Oriole team were put up for sale. The Boston Red Sox bought Babe

Off the field Ruth reveled in his celebrity status, enjoying a wild and extravagant life. However, his high living and headstrong behavior eventually began to take a toll on his performance. He was still baseball’s premier player but fellow teammate and newcomer Lou Gehrig started to show signs of greatness

Everyone has heard of the infamous “Babe Ruth”, but few people know that his birth given name is George Herman Ruth, Jr. He lived from February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948, and was best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat". Babe was an American baseball player who spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) playing for three teams between the years of 1914–1935. The most important points of Babe’s life are his early childhood, his major league baseball career, and the legacy that Babe left behind.

With the way the author, Bryson describes George Ruth’s upbringing and the tough hand that Babe was dealt with at such an early age, it seems as if he painted a fairy tale with happily ever after at the end. To read and to try and grasp what Babe Ruth was able to achieve, it is the most unbelievable underdog story that I have ever read. While I was reading, I had the feeling that Bill Bryson believed that George Ruth was a good person and even coming from such a rough city such as Baltimore. He even disagreed with what babe said in his autobiography. In the book, Bryson says “The opening sentence of Ruth’s autobiography is, “I was a bad kid.” Which is no more than partly true” (Bryson 107). By just the second sentence in the second paragraph, it is clear that Bryson thought, even since Ruth’s childhood, he is a good kid who was stuck behind the 8-ball. Coming from an impoverished family, having almost all of his siblings die, losing both his father and mother who were “distracted” anyway. His mother slowly dying of tuberculosis and his father single-handedly running their saloon during all of his waking hours just so they could have money to survive (Bryson 107). While reading this initial background on Babe Ruth, I didn’t know just how rough he had it. I assumed like most of the athletes in today’s world, his family was able to pay for him to have baseball lessons and training with some of the best trainers that money can buy. Knowing that Babe Ruth was the epitome of an

Why is Jackie Robinson one of the most iconic people in history? Because Robinson defied segregation by playing Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1945 to 1956 (Wise 2). He bravely fought for many years to play as an African-American player without giving up; despite all the hurdles he had to jump, Robinson silently overcame the obstacles that they handed to him with quiet dignity (Henninger 7). As a result, Robinson well represented the African-American community in professional sports, and in so doing, he helped inspire others in the Civil Rights Movement. Robinson was the start to ending the color barrier.

Jackie once said: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” This quote shows that his life is not important unless it impacts other people and that Jackie cares about other people in life not just himself. Jackie changed the world positively by breaking the color barrier, being a baseball hero, a name for blacks, becoming the first black player Major League Baseball, and many more ways to come.

George Herman Ruth, better known as Babe Ruth, is an American baseball hero due to his successes that have allowed him to become a household name even after his passing. His great legacy lives on, but for those not alive during his reign over baseball, it is sometimes hard to grasp the Babe’s true life story, which is where film comes into play. In the several films about Babe Ruth, many differentiating perspectives about his life are introduced. In The Babe Ruth Story (1948) and The Babe (1992), we are shown two very different versions of the ‘Great Bambino’. With the help of Ardolino’s analysis of the deification and deconstruction of Ruth in Reel Baseball, it is easy to see the similarities and differences between the two Hollywood Babes. Ardolino states that, “In fact, these movies are dialectically related: the first is an attempt to sacralize Ruth’s checkered life, and the latter is an attempt to replace the hagiography with a Dickensian psychodrama of a bumbling Bacchus who belches, farts, indulges his appetites, is haunted by his past, explodes irrationally when he is called ‘incorrigible’ and never gains any measure of self-control” (115-16). Ardolino’s chapter thoroughly discussed the portrayals of Babe Ruth as a character, which brings to light the similarities and differences portrayed in both Hollywood films. After screening the Hollywood films, we move to screen the documentary about Ruth, a blatant deification, which treats his life story much differently.

George Herman Ruth Jr. was known to us as Babe Ruth. He was one of the most decorated athletes of all time even though he had a troubled beginning. His baseball career spanned for twenty-two seasons from 1914-1935 and playing for three different teams.

In the biography Jackie Robinson and the American Dilemma by John R. M. Wilson, it tells the story of racial injustice done after world war II and explains how Jackie Robinson was pioneer of better race relations in the United States. The obstacles Jackie Robinson overcame were amazing, he had the responsibility to convert the institutions, customs, and attitudes that had defined race relations in the United States. Seldom has history ever placed so much of a strain on one person. I am addressing the importance of Jackie Robinson’s trials and triumphs to American racial dynamics in the post war period to show how Robinson was a prominent figure in the civil rights movement and brought baseball fans together regardless of race.

In 1946 he had his first game against the Royals. Breaking the color barrier (1947) The following year, six days before the start of the 1947 season, the Dodgers called Robinson up to the major leagues. Within his first two years he showed great courage without fighting back, also in his first year he became Rookie of the Year. In the year of 1949 he became MVP. In 1957 he retired from baseball, and in 1962 he got into the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1997 he integrated baseball, and his number, 42, was retired.

Becoming the first African-American to break the racial barrier in a white supremacist sport like Major League Baseball during the 1940s when colored racism still occurred is an accomplishment like no other. Jackie Robinson faced numerous hardships and endured countless racial setbacks during his professional baseball career, but managed to set aside his frustrations and continue to emerge as a symbol of hope and unity for all. The makers of 42: The Jackie Robinson Story portray the story of his career as it demonstrates the struggle of race stereotyping during the 1940s and the interpersonal power struggles of being seen as an “equal”. “I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being” (Robinson) is a powerful message that I would like for you to keep in mind as you continue to read.