12 Facts About Babe Ruth

It turns out I didn’t know everything about him.

Creative Commons: Dennis S. Hurd

Out of all the baseball players in the history of the game, Babe Ruth is perhaps the most famous. He gets my vote as the greatest baseball player of all time because he was not only one of the greatest hitters the game has seen, but also a tremendous pitcher. Shohei Ohtani may eventually eclipse Ruth, but for now Ruth still gets my vote.

I’ve read a lot about Ruth over the years, but it turns out there were some things I didn’t know about him. In this piece I’m not going to delve heavily into stats or a lot of what is commonly known about Ruth. And here we go.

1: Ruth spent much of his youth in St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys which was an orphanage and reformatory.

Ruth wasn’t an orphan but was in need of reforming as he generally was running amuck as a youth.

2: Babe’s real name was George Herman Ruth.

That name doesn’t scream “great athlete.”

3: While at St. Mary’s, Babe received an education and learned to be a shirtmaker, as well as learning carpentry skills.