American Baseball Legend Babe RuthWritten by Shelley Gollust
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VOICE ONE:
I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Doug Johnson with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Babe Ruth, America's greatest baseball player. Some say he was the greatest sports hero of all time.
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VOICE ONE:
George Herman Ruth was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in eighteen ninety-five. George's parents owned a bar where people came to drink alcohol. His mother died when he was very young. His father was killed in a street fight.
Young George was forced to live on the streets of Baltimore. He stole things. He fought with other children. He got into trouble. At the age of eight, he was sent to live at Saint Mary's industrial school for boys. Catholic religious workers operated the school. The religious workers helped George to act better. And they taught him how to play baseball.
VOICE TWO:
By the age of eighteen, George was an excellent baseball player. In nineteen fourteen, a teacher at the school wrote to a friend of his, Jack Dunn. Dunn was the manager of the Baltimore Orioles minor league baseball team. He was the one who decided who would play for the team. The teacher invited Dunn to see the young player.
Dunn watched George pitch the baseball. He offered the young left-handed pitcher a job playing baseball for six months. He said the Baltimore Orioles team would pay George six hundred dollars. Jack Dunn had to take responsibility for the boy or George could not leave the school. Dunn decided to become George's legal parent.
Jack Dunn and his new player arrived at the Orioles' baseball park. The older Orioles' players joked about the new young player. They called him, "Dunn's babe. " The young baseball player became known forever as Babe Ruth.
VOICE ONE:
That year, the Boston Red Sox baseball team bought the right to make Babe Ruth a player for their team. Ruth pitched for the Red Sox teams during the next two years. He became the best pitcher in the American baseball league. Then the Red Sox discovered that he could hit the ball even better than he could throw it. So Ruth became an outfielder instead of a pitcher. In nineteen nineteen, he hit the ball out of the baseball park twenty-nine times. He hit more home runs than any other player that year.
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VOICE TWO:
In nineteen twenty, the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth's contract to the famous New York Yankees baseball team. That year, Babe Ruth hit fifty-four home runs. This was more home runs than any other American League team hit that season. The next year, he hit fifty-nine home runs. Babe Ruth's baseball skill and friendly nature made him famous across the country and around the world.
Many people came to the Yankee games just because they wanted to see Babe Ruth play. He helped the team earn a great deal of money. The Yankees built a new baseball stadium. Even today, Yankee stadium is known as "the house that Ruth built."
VOICE ONE:
Baseball fans loved Babe Ruth because he was what some people called "larger than life. " Sports writer Paul Gallico wrote that Babe Ruth played ball in the same intense way that he lived his life. Gallico said that whenever Ruth hit a ball out of the baseball park the fans would become so excited that they were ready to break the seats. It was impossible to watch Ruth swing his bat without experiencing a strong emotion. In fact, in nineteen twenty, a man reportedly died of excitement while watching Babe Ruth hit a home run.
The name of Babe Ruth appeared so often in the newspapers that sports writers thought up new names for him. They called him "The Sultan of Swat." "The King of Clout." "The Babe. " They called him "Bambino." Sometimes they shortened that name to "Bam."
VOICE TWO:
Babe Ruth led the New York Yankees to seven championships, including four World Series titles. He hit more home runs than any other baseball player. In nineteen twenty-seven, he hit sixty home runs. During his lifetime, he hit a total of seven hundred fourteen home runs. Before he became a power hitter, he had been among the best pitchers of his time. All these skills made Babe Ruth the greatest player baseball has ever had.
In nineteen thirty, Ruth earned eighty thousand dollars. This was more money than the president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, earned that year. Reporters asked Ruth why he should be paid more than President Hoover. Ruth reportedly said: "Why not? I had a better year than he did."
Ruth also earned money by permitting his name to be used on many products. A candy bar was named after him. "Baby Ruth" candy bars still are popular today.
