Personal Narrative Essay: Do I Love Babe Ruth?

Thus is the nature of baseball, a fickle game wrought with tradition, the foremost of which is the iron clad law mandating that the game is cruel and will take away as freely as it gives. My father always told me, “Baseball is a game of errors - the best hitters fail seven out of ten times - the key to success is knowing how to deal with the failure.” It is this aspect of the game, its want to frustrate and demoralize the player, that I think has driven most of my

Ever since I could remember, I have always had a great interest and love for the game of baseball. As a kid, I would spend countless hours in the backyard with my grandfather, or even by myself, tossing, hitting and fielding a baseball. When I wasn't in the yard pretending to be Nomar Garciaparra I would watch the Boston Red Sox games on TV with my Grandfather.  Even in my early adolescence, as impatient as most are, I had the patience to sit there and watch the Sox.With my eyes glued to the screen with a look of anticipation fixed on my face ready to mimic my grandfather with the excitement of a home run hit or the frustration of Mo-Vaughn striking out. Call me crazy, but I was addicted, even as a young boy, to Boston Red Sox baseball.

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

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.

He walked onto the field with dust blinding his eyes. Half the crowd was screaming and hollering, and the other half was booing. Jackie closed his eyes calmly, and felt no anger toward the racist insults that were shot at him. Jackie was determined, and full of hope.

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

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

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.

For as long as I have known the game of baseball and learned of our country’s history, there is one man that has always stood out to me. This man was very unique, he contained guts, courage, and a whole lot of drive. Who knew that with so called, “America’s Pastime”, he would play such a huge role and make such an outstanding impact on this great nation. The man’s name is legendary Jackie Robinson. Jackie grew up in unfortunate circumstances that many families dealt with at the time with his dad being a sharecropper. Born in Cairo, Georgia, Jackie was the youngest of five and moved to California with his mother after their husband/father left them. Despite their struggles, Jackie’s main focus was on sports and really pushed him through high school and colleges (Kenny, 34). Although I have also found to make that claim that Jackie Robinson was a good example of someone who grew up, not just with unequal opportunity because of the color of his skin, but also due to his financial situation. Jackie Robinson played a huge role in American History and after my doing my research, I found much that I didn’t know. Not only was Jackie impactful in the game of baseball, but he was a Jewish icon, in the U.S. Military, and played a huge role in Civil Rights Movements. It was quite some journey for Jackie and he managed to live quite the impactful life (Purvis 366).

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,

On February 6, 1895, Kate Schamberger Ruth gave birth to her first child. George Herman Ruth, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the first of eight children born to Kate and George Herman Ruth. Ruth's father worked as a bartender and ultimately opened his own tavern. Many believe that George was an orphan all his life, but for the first seven years of his life he was with his parents, but he survived without guidance on the dirty, crowded streets of the Baltimore riverfront.

Finally the game started and we played well and so did they. The game was close the whole way threw and we came to the final inning tying them. We were the home team so we got to bat last. Two of the three outs

There wasn’t much to do while I waited for the game or sometimes games to end. Usually it was really hot or cold. When it as hot I mostly stayed in the shade and if it was cold I just stayed at the bleachers in a blanket. But the weather was ok occasionally. Sometimes there was a playground for me to distract myself with. That was ok.

I always consider myself to play Major League baseball; as I grew up; I realized that I would need a backup plan. By the seventh grade I noticed that I liked to do hands on activities and problem solve difficult tasks. I displayed all the interests of an electrical engineer. I believe that the interest really may have started at an even younger age. My father has been a maintenance technician for almost 25 years. In say that, I enjoyed watching my dad fix things which sparked my interest in fixing things, or at least look into the engineering field.

“Even if you really want the position, overworking yourself is going to get you nowhere. It’s been more than two hours since practice ended. Go home.” With that, Zoe turned on her heel and strode out.