Babe Ruth: Legends in Sports (2 page)

In 1908, when George was thirteen, he left St. Mary’s again. This time, he managed to stay out of serious trouble for almost
two years. Then his mother died. His father returned him to St. Mary’s. This time, he was not scheduled to be released until
he was twenty-one years old, and an adult.

Apart from a few scrapes with other boys, George rarely got into trouble at St. Mary’s. While he wasn’t much of a student,
he had beautiful handwriting and was one of the best shirtmakers at the school. Years later, he would brag to his major league
teammates that he could make a shirt in fifteen minutes, and they’d smile when they saw him carefully ironing his shirts.
Sometimes George’s teammates would even bring him their own laundry to iron!

The other boys at St. Mary’s were always thrilled when he came back. With George Ruth on their team, St. Mary’s was difficult
to beat. Not only was he the best pitcher at the school, he was also the best hitter. In one season he hit more than sixty
home runs!

Soon he was too good for the competition provided by St. Mary’s opponents. Brother Matthias arranged for George to play ball
on the weekends
for local amateur and semipro teams made up of other teenagers and young adults. Stories about the young ballplayer named
Ruth began to appear in Baltimore newspapers. By 1913 he was one of the best-known amateur players in the Baltimore area.

The best team in Baltimore was the professional Baltimore Orioles of the International League. Owner Jack Dunn, known as a
shrewd judge of talent, scoured the area for ballplayers.

During the summer of 1913, former major league pitcher Joe Engel saw eighteen-year-old George pitch a game against Mount St.
Mary’s, a college team. George struck out eighteen of the first twenty men he faced. Engel immediately knew that George, who
now stood six feet two inches tall and weighed 170 pounds, was something special.

The next day, Engel bumped into Dunn. He told him about the left-handed pitcher named Ruth and said, “He’s got real stuff.”

Dunn respected Engel’s opinion. Several other youngsters from St. Mary’s had done well in professional baseball. So in February
of 1914, Dunn paid a visit to St. Mary’s.

The Orioles were about to start spring training
and Dunn needed to stock his team with prospects. He met with Brother Paul, the school superintendent, and told him he was
interested in signing the young left-handed pitcher with “stuff.” Brother Paul wasn’t surprised. For several months there
had been rumors that Dunn was interested in George. With Brother Pauls permission, George worked out for Dunn. The club owner
was impressed and wanted to sign him.

There was just one problem. George was only nineteen years old. St. Mary’s was George’s legal guardian and he was supposed
to stay at the school until age twenty-one.

But Brother Paul was a baseball fan, too, and he knew that a chance to play professional baseball was a wonderful opportunity
for George. He made arrangements to make Jack Dunn George’s legal guardian.

Dunn offered George a contract of six hundred dollars for the season. When George heard that, he couldn’t believe it. He had
never imagined that it was possible to be
paid
to play baseball. George had never had more than a dollar or two in his pocket. Six hundred dollars seemed like all the money
in the
world. He eagerly agreed to become a professional baseball player.

George gathered up his few belongings in a cheap suitcase and walked out of St. Mary’s, leaving with Dunn for spring training
in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Then he paused outside the large iron gate and said good-bye to Brother Matthias, thanking
him for all his help. George was excited but Matthias also saw that he was a little scared, just as he had been when he first
arrived at St. Mary’s years earlier. Matthias told him not to worry. “You’ll make it, George,” he said. Then George walked
off with Dunn.

On February 27, 1914, the last entry under the name George Ruth in St. Mary’s records reads simply, “He is going to join Bait.
Baseball team.”

CHAPTER TWO

When Ruth left St. Mary’s, he knew little of the outside world. He had never been away from Baltimore before. He had never
lived alone, bought his own clothes, or cooked his own meals. All he knew how to do was play baseball and make shirts.

On the train ride south, Ruth spent most of his time gazing out the window. When it was time to go to bed, one of the Oriole
players had to explain to him how to fold down the sleeping berth. He also played a trick on the raw rookie.

In the berth was a small mesh clothes hammock. The veteran player told Ruth, “That’s for your pitching arm.” When Ruth went
to bed, he dutifully placed his left arm in the hammock. When he awoke the next morning his arm was stiff and sore from hanging
in
a hammock all night. When the veterans saw him rubbing his arm, they all got a good laugh.

After the team checked into their hotel in Fayetteville, they went to the dining room for breakfast. George looked at the
menu and wasn’t quite sure what to do next. He didn’t have much money and had never ordered from a menu.

Another veteran saw the puzzled look on his face and explained that the team paid for their meals during spring training.
“Order anything you want,” he told him.

Ruth couldn’t believe it. He ordered pancakes and ham, wolfed them down, and then ordered another helping. He made quick work
of the second order, and then asked for a third stack of pancakes and more ham. His teammates had long since finished eating
and just stared at him in wonder. They had never seen anyone eat so much.

Everything was brand new to Ruth. He had never seen an elevator and was fascinated, spending hours riding up and down. He
had never ridden a bicycle either. Every time he saw one he jumped on for a teetering ride. The other players couldn’t help
laughing at him. They had never seen anyone have so much fun.

Once he was out on the ball field, however, no one laughed. Ruth was impressive both on the mound and at the plate. In one
scrimmage on March 7, Ruth walloped a home run into the cornfield beyond right field. Local fans recalled only one other ball
hit so far, by former Olympian and major leaguer Jim Thorpe, when he had played minor league baseball in Fayetteville. But
Ruth’s blast traveled some sixty feet farther than Thorpe’s. A headline in one Baltimore newspaper announced: “Ruth Makes
Mighty Clout.” In a few more seasons, such headlines would become familiar.

All spring Ruth was the big story for the Orioles. After only two weeks in camp Dunn told a newspaper, “Babe Ruth will definitely
be staying with the team.”

The story of how Ruth got the nickname is uncertain, but according to most accounts Ruth’s Baltimore teammates dubbed him
“Babe” because he was so young and inexperienced, like a baby They would call him “Dunn’s babe.” Ruth wasn’t bothered by the
nickname, and although for a number of years the newspapers would still call him “George,” everyone who knew him called him
“Babe.”

Dunn considered Babe Ruth a pitcher. Just three weeks after Ruth joined the Orioles, Dunn tapped him to pitch an exhibition
game against the Philadelphia Athletics, the defending world champions of the major leagues.

Most rookie pitchers would have been nervous, but not Ruth. He barely followed major league baseball at St. Mary’s and didn’t
even know the names of the players. Although the Athletics peppered him with thirteen hits, Ruth stayed cool and held them
to only two runs, beating the champs 6–2!

The regular season began in late April. The Orioles returned to Baltimore and Ruth received his first paycheck of fifty dollars.
He immediately went out and bought a motorcycle. Although Dunn was scared Ruth would crash and get hurt, he couldn’t keep
Ruth off the bike. The sight of Babe Ruth tearing around the city on the bike soon became familiar.

Ruth pitched his first regular season game on April 22 against Buffalo. After a shaky start, he settled down and spun a six-hit
shutout. The Orioles won 6–0, with Babe knocking two singles.

Unfortunately, hardly anyone saw him. One year earlier, a new major league, the Federal League,
had placed a team in Baltimore called the Terrapins. Local baseball fans all but ignored the Orioles. Dunn knew that unless
the Orioles started drawing some fans he would soon go broke.

Dunn hoped Ruth, as a Baltimore native, would bring people back to the park. Although Babe didn’t win every game he pitched,
he was clearly one of the best rookies in the league. In fact, by mid-May, Dunn became concerned that the Terrapins would
try to lure him away with a big salary. He tripled Ruth’s pay to $1,800 for the season.

Keyed by the performances of Ruth and another rookie pitcher, Ernie Shore, in June, the Orioles won thirteen in a row. Yet
Baltimore fans continued to ignore the Orioles — and Dunn was losing money fast. Even though the Federal League was also having
financial trouble, Dunn was afraid he would run out of cash before the season was over. In early July, despite the fact that
Baltimore was in first place, Dunn decided to sell players to raise some money. Within a few days, Ruth, pitcher Ernie Shore,
and catcher Ben Egan’s contracts were purchased by the Boston Red Sox for a total of $25,000.

The Red Sox were one of the most successful
franchises in baseball, world champions in both 1903 and 1912. But in 1914, the Red Sox were rebuilding for the future. Owner
Joseph Lannin and manager Bill Carrigan hoped that Ruth and Shore would anchor the pitching staff.

Ruth left for Boston by train and arrived at Back Bay Station on July 11. In the past six months he had gone from being a
student at St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys to a professional ball player with one of the strongest teams in the major
leagues. But despite this huge change, Ruth himself stayed much the same.

As soon as he arrived in Boston, he checked into a hotel and then sought out a place to eat. He found Lander’s Coffee Shop
and ordered a big meal. As he ate he told his waitress, a pretty young woman named Helen Woodford, all about his trip to Boston.
Ruth would return to Landers many times in the next months and become very close to Helen. But on July 11, he couldn’t stay
long to chat. Fenway Park was calling.

CHAPTER THREE