BABE AS A BABE

A Different Look

We have these perceptions in our mind that do not always tell the truth. One such perception is that of the happy go lucky, big belly of a man, Babe Ruth. All the stories of Babe adventures and outgoing lovable personality, sometimes forget he was an an amazingly athletic man and originally built like an athlete. Here he is in 1914, at the age of 19, fresh out of an orphanage playing for the Boston Red Sox. Not an ounce of fat, fast on his feet and capable of playing almost any position on the ball field. The following quote from Harry Hooper, a former teammate says it well.

I still can’t believe what I saw. This nineteen year-old kid, crude, poorly educated, only lightly brushed by the social veneer we call civilization, gradually transformed into the idol of American youth and the symbol of baseball the world over − a man loved by more people and with an intensity of feeling that perhaps has never been equaled before or since. I saw a man transformed from a human into something pretty close to a god. You probably remember him with that big belly he got later on, but that wasn’t there in 1914. George Herman Ruth was six foot two and weighed 198 pounds, all of it muscle. He had a slim waist, huge biceps, no self- discipline, and not much education − not so different from a lot of other nineteen-year-old would be ball players. Except for two things, he could eat more than anyone else, and he could hit a baseball further.” (The Glory of Their Times)

The good living added pounds over the years, but they didn’t distract from his athleticism. In 1933 , at the age of 38 and his the next to last year of his Yankee career, Babe made a spectacular leaping catch in right field to save a victory for the American League All Stars.