Babe Ruth

George Herman Ruth Jr February 6 1895 August 16 1948 best known as Babe Ruth and nicknamed the Bambino and the Sultan of Swat was an American Major League baseball player from 19141935 Ruth originally broke into the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox as a starting pitcher but after he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919 he converted to a fulltime right fielder and subsequently became one of the leagues most prolific hitters Ruth was a mainstay in the Yankees lineup that won seven pennants and four World Series titles during his tenure with the team After a short stint with the Boston Braves in 1935 Ruth retired In 1936 Ruth became one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame Ruth has since become regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture He has been named the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings and his home run hitting prowess and charismatic personality made him a larger than life figure in the Roaring Twenties Off the field he was famous for his charity but also was noted for his often reckless lifestyle Ruth is credited with changing baseball itself The popularity of the game exploded in the 1920s largely due to his influence Ruth ushered in the liveball era as his big swing led to escalating home run totals that not only excited fans but helped baseball evolve from a lowscoring speeddominated game to a highscoring power game In 1998 The Sporting News ranked Ruth number one on the list of Baseballs 100 Greatest Players In 1999 baseball fans named Ruth to the Major League Baseball AllCentury Team In 1969 he was named baseballs Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball In 1993 the Associated Press reported that Muhammad Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athletes out of over 800 dead or alive athletes in America The study found that over 97 of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth According to ESPN he was the first true American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended baseball In a 1999 ESPN poll he was ranked as the thirdgreatest US athlete of the century behind Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali Ruth was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season 1927 setting the season record which stood until broken by Roger Maris in 1961 Ruths lifetime total of 714 home runs at his retirement in 1935 was a record until first surpassed by Hank Aaron in 1974 Unlike many power hitters Ruth also hit for average his 342 lifetime batting is tenth highest in baseball history and in one season 1923 he hit 393 a Yankee record His 690 career slugging percentage and 1164 career onbase plus slugging OPS remain the Major League records Ruth dominated the era in which he played He led the league in home runs during a season twelve times slugging percentage and OPS thirteen times each runs scored eight times and runs batted in RBIs six times Each of those totals represents a modern record as well as the alltime record except for RBIs Description above from the Wikipedia article Babe Ruth licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia